Sony's Tap 20 convertible tablet

Subject: Mobile | April 16, 2013 - 03:24 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: tap 20, sony vaio, hybrid, convertible tablet

Sony has joined the convertible tablet market with the new Tap 20 and Legit Reviews had a chance to work with one. They come in a wide variety of prices and internals, from $850-$1250, all using a 1600x900 IPS display but with CPUs ranging from Core i5's with 4GB of DDR3 to i7's with 8GB DDR3. Every model comes with a hard drive for local storage and you can expect almost 3 hours of battery life; since the battery is in the tablet portion you do not get longer life from docking it to the keyboard. There were a few strange omissions on the tablet as well as some attractive features which you can read about in the full review.

You can also reread Ryan's review here.

"The Sony VAIO Tap 20 is a very interesting Hybrid PC that runs Windows 8 with 10 finger touch capabilities. The internal battery is rated to last 2 hours 45 minutes, which actually isn't bad for a device like this. Having the ability to unplug the PC and move it around the home is actually rather nice and really makes the PC experience group friendly. The Sony VAIO Tap 20 can be used in tablet mode with it lying on the table and you can play touch games on it versus a friend or share photos and videos with a group..."

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Source: Legit Reviews

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Sony Launches VAIO Duo 11 Convertible Tablet Ultrabook Running Windows 8

Subject: General Tech, Mobile | October 13, 2012 - 02:55 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: windows 8, tablet, sony vaio, sony, Ivy Bridge, Intel, convertible tablet

Not content to let the other OEMs have all the Windows 8 tablet fun, Sony has announced a new 11” convertible ultrabook – the VAIO Duo 11 – that uses a sliding hinge to transform from a notebook into a tablet.

The Vaio Duo 11 weighs in a 2.86 pounds and measures 12.6 inches x 7.8 inches. It features an 11.6” IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and 10 point multitouch. Also, it has stereo speakers, a 2.4 megapixel webcam, full (backlit) qwerty keyboard, and pressure sensitive digitizer. Interestingly, the Duo 11 does not have a trackpad. Instead, it has a small touch sensitive trackball that resembles the pointing sticks on IBM/Lenovo PCs but on the Vaio Duo 11 the nub does not move. In that respect, it is more like the trackpad on some Blackberry Phones, but smaller. There are two mouse buttons below the spacebar, however. Other specifications include a magnesium alloy chassis.

Sony is calling the hinge the “Surf Slider” and the display slides forward to lay the display flat over the keyboard for tablet mode. As Ars Technica points out, when the computer is in notebook mode, there is a ribbon cable to the display that is exposed which is less than ideal.

Ports around the sides of the device include a VGA video output, card reader, and headphone jack on the left, and two USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI output, and a power button on the right. Reportedly, there is also an Ethernet jack.

Fortunately, Sony did not have to compromise as much on the internal specifications to achieve the 11” form factor. The Vaio Duo 11 includes an Intel Core i3 (Ivy Bridge) processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and a 128 GB solid state drive.

Image credit: CNet. See their full review here.

The convertible ultrabook will come pre-loaded with Windows 8. It will also include Wi-Fi that can establish ad-hoc wireless connections with other devices by tapping the NFC radios together.

Sony’s Vaio Duo 11 will go on sale October 26, 2012. Prices will start at $1,099.99, with more expensive models adding more storage or a faster processor. It is a bit pricey, but this PC is positioned as an ultraportable convertible tablet, and in that respect it is priced competitively with the competition.

You can find the full press release on Sony's website.

Source: Sony

Podcast #152 - ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Motherboard, EVGA GTX460 2Win, NVIDIA Synergy and more!

Subject: General Tech | April 28, 2011 - 12:22 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: synergy, sony vaio, podcast, nvidia, gtx 460, asus, asrock, amd

PC Perspective Podcast #152 - 4/28/2011

This week we talk about the ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Motherboard, EVGA GTX460 2Win, NVIDIA Synergy, AMD quarterly earnings, Viewer questions and more!

You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.

The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!

iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file

Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malventano

This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!

Program length: 1:09:40

Program Schedule:

0:00:45 Introduction
1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
http://pcper.com/podcast
http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
0:01:50 We have a new site!
1. Call for writers!
0:04:14 Sony Vaio Y Series Review: Proving Fusion's Potential
0:06:46 ASUS Eee PC 1215N Review: Atom and Ion, Back Together Again
0:08:11 AMD Fusion Speculation for Ontario/Zacate
0:11:52 ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional LGA 1155 Motherboard Review
0:16:29 This Podcast is brought to you by MSI Computer, and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
0:17:20 EVGA GeForce GTX 460 2WIN 2GB dual-GPU Graphics Card Review
0:24:01 Just Delivered: Thermaltake Headphones
0:25:54 Next gen SSD controllers pushing for TLC flash
0:31:45 The year is looking bright for AMD
1. AMD's been having a very busy start to the year
2. 1Q Results generally positive, showed some good growth, and no loss
0:40:03 OCZ Technology Announces Vertex 3 Max IOPS Solid State Drives
0:43:07 NVIDIA Synergy will offer discrete and integrated GPU support on Sandy Bridge
0:48:40 Email from Bavarian Barbarian
0:53:30 Email from Josh
0:56:33 Email from Arkanic
0:59:15 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
1. Ryan: 16 cores and 24GB of memory OR Quiet computers (next to me this whole time!)
2. Jeremy: Better Privacy Firefox has been killing LSOs (SupaCookies!) for over a year ... HackerTyper is amusing too but overloaded
3. Josh: 2TB for $109
4. Allyn: 2TB 5400 RPM (or cool 7200 RPM) / iPhone GPS tracking cache thing...
http://pcper.com/podcast
http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
1:08:20 Closing

Source:

Sony Vaio Y Series Review: Proving Fusion's Potential

Author: Matt Smith

Date: April 22, 2011

Subject: Mobile

Manufacturer: Sony

Tagged: sony vaio, sony, netbook, laptop, fusion

Introduction and Design

Tech journalists are finicky beasts. A few years ago we were washing netbooks in praise, declaring that they promised a new era of accessibility and portability for the PC. But now the tables have turned – tablets have usurped the throne of “cool new thing” and tech news is all too eager to declare the netbook little more than a passing trend, soon to be booted out of the market by glorious touchscreen slates.

The truth, however, is not as extreme has the headlines suggest. Netbooks are another boring reality that won’t be going anywhere soon, despite declarations of death and injury. But I can understand why they’ve lost the limelight. The improvements made to netbooks over the last three years have been incremental at best. While battery life has gradually grown, performance has barely moved. Intel, lacking competition from AMD, has had little reason to improve its Atom processors.

Now AMD has finally brought an Atom competitor to the market in the form of its Fusion APUs. We already reviewed one laptop powered by Fusion, the Toshiba Satellite C655. That laptop, however, was equipped with AMD’s single-core E-240. It provided performance roughly on par with a dual-core Atom system we tested in 2010, but ultimately fell a bit shot of our expectations.

PC Perspective