Skinny Sony Vaio S Series joins new notebook line-up
Imaginative naming from the Vaio team
Sony has unveiled its latest Vaio notebook, the Vaio S Series, for slim, stylish and long-lasting computing on the go.
The notebook isn't quite MacBook Air thin, but at 24mm it's only 7mm thicker than Apple's skinny laptop and weighs in at 1.75kg - that's like a bag and three-quarters of sugar, in old metrics.
Battery farm
One handy feature is the smart battery concept; as well as an internal lithium polymer battery which gives you seven hours computing (in 'stamina' mode, which is presumably the lowest-performance setting), there's an optional second battery which can be charged separately from the laptop for an additional 7 hours of life.
The Vaio S Series is quite a looker with its smart, understated design. The 13-inch LCD display comes with a low-reflection coating and 1366x768 resolution, while the S Series can switch between the integrated GPU and AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series card depending on what you're up to.
Sadly it doesn't glow like its stable mate, the Vaio C Series, but the S Series does have a backlit keyboard and ambient light sensor for saving battery and your poor, tired eyes.
When it comes to specs, we're looking at an Intel Core i5-2410M, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB drive and 3G WWAN, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 for connectivity. There's also an HD webcam built in and two USB 2.0 drives on board.
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Shipping with Windows 7 Professional, the Vaio S Series UK release date is set for the end of March 2011, with UK pricing to be announced.
Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.