News

Desktop Vaios lack touchscreen; what about new netbooks?

IFA, Berlin: On the day Sony announced a netbook "which isn't a netbook", further details about Sony’s plans for Windows 7-based touchscreen Vaio PCs have emerged. And it seems the Japanese electronics giant has suffered a set-back. But the question of "when will touchscreen tech be standard?" may bother some who are looking at netbooks, not PCs.

It's not at all clear why Sony doesn't regard its Vaio X9 - the brand-new, ultra-light weight ultra-portable - as a netbook, because (as everybody has immediately commented!) it is a netbook. Even if it doesn't have the promised touch-screen technology.

The spec says "netbook." Weight 1.5 lb – as light as they get. Screen size: 11.1 inches diagonal. Chip is Intel Atom. Features include WiFi and 3G HSPA for Internet access. Keyboard: sub-size (not for fat fingers). Expansion: SD card socket (and, of course, Sony's own Memory Stick "standard"). So why isn't the latest Vaio X9 a netbook?

The simple answer, maybe, comes from the operating system: the new Windows 7. As we have pointed out several times, Microsoft is being completely idiotic about its licensing policy, because it has a special "cheap" version of Windows 7, and you can't have that on a netbook. Or, maybe it has something to do with touchscreens?

Mike Abary, Senior VP of Sony’s information technology products division, said back in July that touchscreen Vaio PCs would be introduced at the launch of Windows 7. The new OS is scheduled for release on 22 October.

However, a Sony spokesman at IFA in Berlin today told us that the firm now doesn’t plan to launch its first touchscreen Vaio PCs until "early in 2010."

No reason for the setback was given, but the spokesman added that Sony is only currently planning to launch touchscreen editions of its VGC-LV all-in-one Vaio range. That obviously doesn't include portables. Or "netbooks" or ultraportables or smartbooks, whatever you want to call them.

The Japanese electronics giant produces several other ranges of all-in-one Vaio PCs, such as the VGC-JS. Sony doesn’t have any plans to make touchscreen Vaio laptops, either, the spokesman said.

Sony’s first Windows 7-based touchscreen VGC-LV range of Vaio all-in-one PCs will start at around £2000 ($3264/€2294).

But the X9 spec is still not certain. According to Dan Grabham, who appears to have got a closer look at the Berlin prototype than anybody else, there's a real chance some other lower-power processor (Via, we bet) will be at least an option when the thing ships. And (Grabham added) this thing is thin: "It's thinner even than the MacBook Air at the Mac's thickest point - 14mm."

The case, everybody who was at the Berlin IFA show agrees, is carbon fibre. This is a computer, not a racing yacht, and so the cost will be a tad higher than a titanium box, maybe, but that won't push the price tag up too high.

The one thing we can only guess at, is the battery life. Pictures from Berlin all show the sample machine securely wired to the display desk with uncuttable wire, so nobody could take it for a stroll. And even if it had really poor battery life, that would assume at least three hours working on it, without a charger plugged in! – nobody would be given that much time to play.

But Sony claims "a working day" charge. That normally means about four hours of full-time usage, at least.

The missing ingredient, touch-screen technology, looks to be a no-no.

That may be why this isn't a netbook, in short. If it had a touch-screen, it would be silly to run anything other than the Tablet extensions to Windows. Then again, if this can't run Tablet Windows, why not just ship with the half-price cut-down Windows?

The mystery will last at least until it actually ships – and nobody knows when that will be. So, could this be a machine which will actually have a touch-screen on shipping, but won't ship until 1Q2010?

Includes material copyright RegHardware®