The Sony Vaio W is Sony’s first official netbook. While the Vaio P was ultraportable, it was also a sub-notebook, or what Sony deems a “lifestyle” PC. The launch of this tiny laptop was met with some skepticism, but it sure is nice to see that Sony is actually offering a Vaio for $499. The W is definitely one of the better looking netbooks out there, but will Sony be able to catch up to Acer, Dell, and other manufacturers who have already gained strong leads in this product category? It’s hard to tell.
Let’s look at the specifications of the Vaio W vs. Dell Inspiron Mini, Acer Aspire One, Samsung Netbook, and the HP Mini:
The Sony does relatively well against its competition in terms of specifications; prices are based from Best Buy as of late July, 2009. The Vaio W has the fastest processor, best screen, fastest system bus, 802.11n, and has bluetooth (only the Samsung has this as well). The price of the Vaio W is also the highest. We feel that the Vaio W will be a strong seller for Sony and will probably fare well if it can obtain widespread availability before the start of the school season here in the USA. Alot of people are gearing up for high school and college so its important that Sony has to available ASAP. If not, then Holiday sales will be excellent but who knows what could be announced by then from other companies. It’s a shame that the Vaio W attract potential consumers from the Vaio P, who may prefer the larger screen and lower price. I’ve also read reports that typing on the Vaio W is much better than the Vaio P.
Here are some more pictures of the Vaio W courtesy of AV Watch:
Vaio P and Vaio W.
Keyboard is obviously the Japanese model, and does not reflect the North American/European/etc product.
