News Sony Vaio Update : VAIO Announces Its Own Smartphone After Sony Sell-Off

After VAIO was sold off by Sony to an investment fund, the new independent company has since released a pair of new laptops and a tablet. It seems like VAIO has more up its sleeve, as it has now ventured into the smartphone space, with a new mid-range handset called the VAIO Phone. 

First spotted at the B-mobile website, the device runs on near-stock Android 5.0 Lollipop, with very minimal customizations, and has a 5-inch IPS 720p HD screen. It is powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, with 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB internal storage expandable up to 64 GB via microSD.

The handset also includes a 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-megapixel shooter on the front, along with a 2500 mAh non-removable battery. Lastly, it is reportedly 4G LTE capable, and supports micro-SIM cards. Obviously, due to the Sony sell-off, the device sports only the VAIO logo, but nothing else related to its former owner.

The VAIO Phone will be exclusively available in Japan, and only in black, and can be purchased via Japan Communications for 51,000 yen (roughly $420). It is not yet known if VAIO has plans to release their first smartphone in other countries.

Posted by Unknown Friday, March 13, 2015

Sony's Vaio Duo 11 Hybrid With Windows 8: In Pictures

Summary: Sony's newest hybrid is a tablet when flat and a laptop when propped up on a crutch. ZDNet went hands-on to get a quick look at the chameleonic Windows 8-based device.

 

Sony's Windows 8-based Vaio Duo 11 is the Japanese manufacturer's best shot to date at providing tablet functionality in an interesting form factor, but I'm still not convinced.

Sony introduced the Vaio Duo 11 at the end of August, with a planned release date of the end of October in some territories.

Unlike its last ill-fated tablets, the Android-based Sony P and S devices, the Vaio Duo 11 bridges the gap between laptop and tablet.

In fact, unlike many of its competitors in the hybrid/transformer market, the Duo 11 is not actually detachable from the keyboard.

 

The Vaio Duo 11 hybrid is somewhere between an ultrabook and a normal laptop in weight, as it comes in at 1.3kg with the battery in. 

Pricing will depend on configuration but should start from around £1,000 ($1,600).

 

Instead of having a detachable screen, the Vaio Duo 11 uses a reverse hinge. This means that when the laptop 'lid' is closed, the screen is facing upwards and the device can be used as a standalone tablet. Officially it's known as a 'SurfSlider' design, but I can't imagine anyone outside of Sony using that phrase.

The 11.6-inch (1920x1080-pixel) screen faces upwards, but as it's Corning Gorilla Glass, it should resist gentle bumps and scratches.

The device includes a Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor, depending on the buyer's choice.

Similarly, it can be configured to ship with either 4Gb or 8GB of RAM, and with the Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro operating system.

Measuring just under 18mm thick, the Duo 11 is more comparable to a laptop or ultrabook than to a tablet. Unlike many other tablet-only devices, the Vaio Duo 11 comes with some full-size connectivity, including two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, and a VGA out. Additionally, it has dual 2-megapixel web cameras, with one on the front and one on the rear.

 

Some people will be pleased to hear that the keyboard on the Vaio Duo 11 comes equipped with a track point controller, allowing for fine-grained cursor control.

The keyboard also has a dedicated Windows button that returns you to the Windows 8 Start screen.

The Vaio Duo 11 comes with a Sony stylus, which has buttons along the side to mimic right-clicking on a mouse.

In addition, it can be used for handwriting input. There are a number of Sony-specific apps to put it to best use, such as 'Active Clip' for quick photo or picture editing.

Posted by Unknown Thursday, October 25, 2012

Hands On With The Sony Vaio Duo 11 At IFA

Earlier today Sony introduced the Vaio Duo 11, a laptop/tablet hybrid with Windows 8 that's made to give you the best of simply all worlds.

When collapsed the Vaio Duo 11 seems just like any regular 11" Windows 8 tablet but it actually has a lot more. Sony's picked a very high quality 1920x1080-panel with excellent viewing angles (so probably IPS) for the display. The result is an extremely crisp image with deep contrast and good brightness. 

In contrary to what was believed to be the case (due to the leaked documents), Sony has decided to use a very good Wacom pressure sensitive digitizer for the stylus. I've tried one of the apps to take notes that came with it and it worked remarkably well. Since you could just rest your hand on the display as you would with a real paper notebook writing feels incredibly natural. The digitizer reacts almost instantly and the pressure sensitivity makes it look incredibly real. The stylus has two buttons, one of which is used to switch between input modes. 

I've also tried OneNote 2010 on the hybrid and it worked pretty well. With all the new improvements for touch in Office 2013, the next version of OneNote should work perfectly without any issues. While we're talking software, the whole system seemed to be relatively bloatware-free. 

When using it in the extended mode with keyboard things change pretty drastically. Having had the chance to properly play with Windows 8 I sort of expect that if you have a touch screen available you will probably just use it. The keyboard on this laptop only really functions as a pure text input device, similar to using an external keyboard for the iPad. Because of the switching mechanism the keyboard had to be placed as low as possible on the base, removing any possible room for a touch pad. To counter the complete lack of a mouse Sony included an optical track-point in the center of the keyboard, but since it doesn't react very well I suspect not many people will be using it. 

The keys on the keyboard itself are on the small side, but they type quite comfortably. If you're used to a chiclet keyboard you won't have a hard time with this one. As it should be in this day and age the keyboard has a backlight that switches itself on when needed (using an ambient light sensor). 

The switching mechanism itself seems to be quite sturdy and the whole product felt quite solid in any situation. On the inside the device is powered by a regular Intel Core i5, making you able to run all non-Modern software you want/need. Because of the impressive specifications, sturdy body and hybrid mechanism the weight of the device is quite a bit above what you're used to for a tablet, but holding it with one hand should still be possible without getting uncomfortable too soon. On the connectivity side you have a bunch of USB3 ports, HDMI and good old VGA for those company projectors that only have VGA. 

My overall opinion of this product is quite positive. It'll probably cost quite a bit of money, but for that price you get one of the most versatile and high-quality products you'll be able to get with Windows 8 (other than Microsoft's own Surface device). In fact, while I wasn't a fan of Windows 8 before these Windows 8-optimized products made me realize that it really isn't all that bad, especially not on a tablet. 

Keep your eyes on our front page for the next few days as we'll be posting more hands-on experiences and pictures straight from IFA, including Samsung's new ATIV hybrid tablets and Sony's 20" tablet prototype.

Posted by Unknown Sunday, September 02, 2012