By any other standard, Sony's light and lean Vaio X notebook is costly, but it's relatively inexpensive as far as Sony computers go.
The Vaio X, which Sony describes as the "world's lightest notebook," will cost $1,300 when it goes on sale next month. For that price, you get a 1.5-pound computer with an 11-inch carbon-fiber frame, measuring a half-inch thick.
On price alone, Sony's Vaio X has the edge on Apple's MacBook Air and Dell's Adamo, which both cost $1,499 for the low-end models. However, what's saved on spending is lost in computing power and screen size. The 11-inch Vaio X runs on a 2.0 GHz Intel Atom Z550 -- the same kind of processor found in netbooks -- and has 2 GB of DDR2 RAM and a 64 GB solid state drive. By comparison, both competitors have Core 2 Duo processors and 2 GB of DDR3 RAM, and the Adamo has twice the SSD capacity.
It's not all bad, though. Sony boasts that the Vaio X's battery lasts 17 hours on a charge, and built-in 3G suggests that this notebook is emphasizing portability above all other criteria. I'm also happy to see a multi-touch trackpad, which these days is looking like the mark of any finely-constructed computer. Nonetheless, the Atom processor, paired with Intel's GMA 500 graphics chipset, might be a dealbreaker for those who want to watch high-definition video or do any sort of gaming.
Between the Vaio X, Dell's new Latitude Z and HP's Envy, there's been some significant movement in the premium laptop space. Sony's new entrant may cater to the niche that wants a compact notebook with high-quality parts, but my money's still on the computer that packs a performance punch as well.
