Lean, mean machines
Sony Malaysia has announced a few new additions to its Vaio line of notebooks, most notably the Duo 13, Pro 11 and Pro 13 Ultrabooks.
First off, the Duo 13 Ultrabook is a convertible tablet design, with a unique hinge mechanism that allows it to slide the screen over the keyboard into its tablet configuration.
While this SurfSlider design (as Sony calls it) has previously appeared on the Duo 11, this 13in model improves on the hinge design by being thinner and easier to slide open.
In fact, the design is no thinner than most pure tablet designs.
While it has a finger-friendly capacitive touchscreen, the Duo 13 also comes with a digitiser stylus for more precise control when drawing or writing.
In terms of specifications, the Duo 13 runs on Windows 8 64-bit, the 4th generation Intel Core i5-4200U processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD (solid-state drive), 13.3in Full HD (1,920 x 1,080-pixels) Triluminos display with capacitive touch, and a lithium-ion battery that is said to last up to 11 hours.
The Duo 13 also has a dual-camera configuration, with a Full HD (1080p) webcam facing the user and an 8-megapixel camera facing backwards.
Plus, the camera can be utilised to scan documents with oCR (optical character recognition) and even keystone correction to straighten out images or documents scanned at an angle.
Other options
For those who want an even lighter Vaio models, there’s the Pro 11 and Pro 13, which, at 870g and 1,060g respectively, which are thinner and lighter than most Ultrabooks out there.
The size and weight reduction is thanks to extensive use of uni-directional carbon fibre material on the bottom and top of the Pro 11 and Pro 13.
According to Sony, the carbon fibre material used in the Pro 11 and Pro 13 is 25% stronger and 50% lighter than aluminium.
The Pro 11 and 13 models also come with built-in nFC (near-field communication) for easier connection with smartphones.
The Pro 11 comes with Windows 8 64-bit, Intel Core i5-4200U processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 11.6in display and a 720p webcam.
The Pro 13 in comes in two configurations — either with a Core i5-4200U with a 128GB SSD, or a more powerful Core i74500U with a 256GB SSD.
Common features for both Pro 13 models are 4GB RAM. 13.3in display and 720P webcam.
The Duo 13in has a recommended retail price of RM4,999, while the Pro 11 will go for RM3,599.
The Pro 13 cost RM3,799 for the Core i5 model and RM 4,999 for the Core i7 version.
++++ www.sony.com