Sony debuts world's lightest laptop

Sony and Microsoft ,one of the company’s three Windows 7-powered announcements was its Vaio X, an 11.1-inch ultraportable laptop that’s “thinner than a No. 2 pencil” and lasts up to 14 hours.

Finally offering the kind of device that isn’t quite a netbook (10.1″ Vaio W) or a “Lifestyle PC” (Vaio P), the Vaio X seems to be the perfect kind of computing device for the airplane. It’s half an inch thin, which is second only to the as-yet-unreleased Dell Adamo XPS.

[Image Gallery: Sony Vaio X laptop]

Regular readers will know that we first mentioned the X series in September, when Sony gave the world a peek at IFA Berlin 2009.

It’s got a scratch-resistant LCD display, 64GB solid-state hard drive, 2GB of DDR2 RAM and built-in 3G connectivity (Verizon only) and GPS that doesn’t require an Internet connection to work. The standard battery offers just 3.5 hours of juice, but the extended version — which was designed in a way that it serves as a wedge-like stand for the device — increases that to 14 hours.

The case is made of carbon fiber and the keyboard, aluminum.

Ports are few on a device like this: it’s got an SD card slot and a Memory Stick Pro media slot in the front; on the right side, Ethernet and VGA out; on the left, the power port, 2 USB 2.0 ports and a headphone jack.

Sony would only say that the 1.5-lb. Vaio X has a 2.0 GHz Intel processor, not specifying which model. It comes preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium and comes in either a champagne-esque gold or black.