Sony is going squarely after battery life in the new Vaio TZ notebook, and they claim to have hit a full working day's worth at 8 hours. At the heart of this is the 1.2Ghz Celeron M 443 prcoessor, but more interestingly there is an option to swap out the optical drive with a 32GB solid state flash drive, which means you can run off the low power drive and only spin up the HD when you need it.
To further conserve battery life, the optical drive, ethernet port (gigabit), modem and FireWire port all power down when not in use.
Oddly, Sony have included a throwback to an older age with an external antenna for the 802.11b/g WiFI. It slides out from a compartment in the screen bezel and plugs in by the other ports on the side. Great for improving wireless range, also great for losing.
You also get an ExpressCard slot, two USB ports, SD, Memory Stick, FeliCa, fingerprint scanner and a built in webcam. And as Engadget point out, that keyboard looks suspiciously like the one on a MacBook.
Prices start at ¥164,800 ($1365).
Product details (PC Watch(translated) via Engadget]
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