Not to be outdone by Nokia, Sony gave journalists a glimpse of their newest mini-notebook at IFA Berlin today: the Sony Vaio X Series. Fujio Nishida, head of Sony Europe, showed off the 11.1-inch black carbon fiber machine at its press conference. This ultraportable weighs only only 1.5 pounds (about a pound less than most netbooks) and measures less than half an inch thick. Plus, Sony promises built-in 3G wireless and an "all day and into the night" battery. Seems like Sony is trying to move in on the Booklet 3G's party. John Biggs at CrunchGear has some photos and additional details. Currently it's running on an Intel Atom chip with Windows 7. Engadget's Thomas Ricker reports that Atom isn't definitively going to be the processor and was only included in the display models so Sony could show them off. So far people are impressed with what they see. Engadget is gushing that the X Series is "so thin that it's dangerous" and "making us rethink the entire definition of thin as the word is applied to ultra-portable laptops." CrunchGear's John Biggs says it "looks amazingly cute and functional." Now I wish I was in Berlin. It's hard not to compare the VAIO X visually to the Vaio TT, but the X Series is decidedly netbook-like (I do notice they don't appear to be using that word, though) whereas the TT was all about cramming a whole laptop into an 11-inch chassis, optical drive and all. It's actually an update to the earlier X505 model Sony introduced in 2003. The Vaio X series has not been officially announced for the U.S., and so far we haven't seen a hint of a release date or price. But given the revealed specs and size, I'm looking forward to seeing this new Vaio face-off with the Nokia Booklet 3G. Photo Credit: CrunchGear
