With Fujitsu officially announcing its UMPC Lifebook, mobility is watchword of the day. Sony's new Vaio, however, takes the other route to lightweight-land: thin, rather than small. Named the SZ4, it's certainly a sexy-looking thing, being an inch thick, with a chassis and carbon fiber finish that Reg Hardware says must be seen in person to be appreciated.
It's got a 13.3" display, so expect a similar footprint to a MacBook, a little larger than Sony's TX series. With a Centrino Duo chipset, it offers a 120GB hard drive, 2GHz Core 2 Duo T2900, and, in the Nvidia GeForce Go 7400, an upgrade on the bog-standard Intel i945 GPU setup. On the other hand, it lacks 802.11n. On the other other hand, it's bundled with a HSDPA 3G ExpressCard modem and a £30; data plan deal, so you don't need 802.11n.
Reg knocks the skinny thing, however, for its appalling battery life:* only one hour and five minutes*, and the general inherent lack of features you'll get in an ultrathin notepad.
Review [Reg]
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