VAIO 'Ultrabooks'

Presumably Sony are working on some 'Ultrabooks', just like every other manufacturer. What would you like to see in the first VAIO Ultrabook? I'd be happy to see a slightly cheaper less expensive variation of the Z2. Bear in mind that Intel want to see all machines ideally retailing for under $1000, so we can't expect the same specification of the Z or SA models, but surely Sony can produce some decent thin & light streamlined machines for under a grand?

If Sony go for the 1366x768 panels to keep costs down, it will be dead in the water as far as I'm concerned.

What would you realistically like to see?

 

I wouldn't expect anything soon - Sony has a history of not following trends, or creating their own ones! Remember when netbooks first came out, they created the P, and only later on jumped on the bandwagon with the M and W, though they also created the X as well as a luxury netbook, which turned out to be a bit of a flop...

If Ultrabooks are defined by being thin'n'light ultraportables with high specs, then this is the area that Sony has led since the old TR, where they stuff as much functionality as possible in as small a machine as possible, but for a ridiculously high price. The TZ, TX, TT and Z could all be considered Ultrabooks, as well as the G, the Y and to a lesser extent, the YA/YB (dunno what the new term for the 11.6" ultra-netbook market is!).

I'd expect the Z to carry on as the flagship model and sold in competition to Ultrabooks at a higher than $1000 but differentiating by the better specs.

 

Z2 is better than any ultrabook

Only thing that comes remotely close, IMO, to the Z2 is the MBA, and that's due to it's Thunderbolt port...

 

Yes, I agree the Z2 is better than the Ultrabook spec, but the Ultrabooks are based on the lower voltage CPU's which is more than adequate for most users needs. In theory it should give better battery life at the very least.

Perhaps any potential Ultrabook from Sony will be a successor to the TT or X series?

 

I'm not so sure about this, but then again the term "Ultrabook" is just some marketing executive's hogwash!

I think the new class of machine is meant to have more processing power than the CULV range that the 13.3 Y is part of, but just in a thin'n'light chassis, just like the Z, but costing under $1000, unlike the Z. I can see a fair few 11.6 ultraportables coming out using AMD Fusion, like the YB, so I would hazard a guess that the "Ultrabook" is a 13.3ish thin'n'light with a beefier processor in it, with the enhanced graphical capabilities of the new CPUs with onboard GPU dies as their significant selling point. Where the price saving appears to push it under 1000 as Intel suggests, I don't know! I am imagining a thinned down SA type machine to be what they want, stripping out the optical drive and flattening it down. I guess after midget 10-inchers were all the hype in 2007-9, skinny laptops are the new fad for 2011 in this tablet-centric tech world we seem to live in!

Of course, it's still marketing twaddle at the end of the day so I am sure the salesfolk will spin it whatever way they can to lure people in!!

 

^
Would it not over-heat? The SA is quite thin already...

 

I wanted a tablet, then I realized that quaaludes aren't made anymore.

 

Yeah, and from all accounts the SA/SB runs quite hot already... Well it wouldn't be the first that time that a "revolutionary" new design has been done already, so I guess Sony would need to re-marketspeak one of their models that already fits into the category and re-release it as an Ultrabook. Like I said earlier, it's all marketing talk...

 

Maybe in capsule, or liquid, form?

 

I'm open minded.

 

I doubt they'd be as good as we remembered them, anyway.

 

SA/SB/SC run hot because of silly ignorant hinge design blocking most of the primary, and only, heat output vent.