Sony launches world's lightest 8-inch netbook

The Sony Vaio P Series
The Sony Vaio P Series

Sony decided that CES 2009 was the perfect venue to unveil the latest in its Vaio notebook line, and has announced the P Series of netbooks.

Weighing in at just 1.4 pounds, this is a little beauty that fits right in with the other slew of netbooks hanging around on the market, except it looks a lot nicer than most and packs some impressive specs.

Available in a variety of colours, it has and LED-backlit LCD with 1,600 x 768 resolution on and 8-inch screen.

Vista eh?

It even manages to run Windows Vista (whether that's a plus to some people is unknown) as well as a whole host of connectivity options in the shape of Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and 3G WWAN. It also has a GPS chip to show you the way to your favourite restaurant or whatever you fancy when lost on the move.

The battery life is a pretty good four hours under normal working conditions, but should you fancy splashing out then there's an optional 8 hour high capacity cell battery for good measure.

There's an instant on mode, a webcam and it even uses the now fabled Xross Media Bar (fabled because spelling it is a nightmare) when started up swiftly.

Get ready to start falling in love with netbooks again (or at least take a look at Sony's latest effort) in February, though prices are tipped to begin at the £500 mark.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief


Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.