By Andrew Liszewski
The Sony press conference just wrapped, and the one thing that really got the camera flashes popping was the official announcement for the VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC. Since it’s Sony, they of course had to come up with a different name than ‘netbook’, but between you and me, that’s what you’re getting. However, it is one of the smallest and sleekest looking ‘lifestyle’ PCs I’ve ever played with.
As Sony claims, it’s about the length of a business envelope and weighs just 1.4 pounds. And after carrying around a backpack with a MacBook inside for about 2 days now, that’s music to my ears. It’s also got integrated wireless WAN, LAN and Bluetooth, as well as GPS that doesn’t require an internet connection. (Yay!)
The high-resolution ultra-wide LCD display is great for viewing websites with minimal horizontal scrolling or resizing, and the model I played with seemed to have no trouble running Windows Vista. I’m still cautious about netbooks after my misadventures with the Asus EEE, but Sony sure puts forth a strong argument for an ultra compact laptop with this one. The VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC should be available for pre-order at the Sony Store tomorrow (North America only I believe) and at select retailers next month for about $900.
