Sony subnotebook expected at CES (not a netbook)

Sony is rumoured to be launching a Vaio Pocket PC at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and there has been some support for this idea on the Sony Style website.

The specification is for a system with a 1.33GHz Intel processor and an 8 inch screen running Windows Vista. If so, Gizmodo and other sites are probably wrong to call it a "netbook". It's more likely to be a subnotebook, and I expect it to appear at a subnotebook-type price of £/$999 or more.

The 1.33GHz clock speed suggests an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, rather than the 1.6GHz Atom you'd expect in a netbook. Core 2 Duos with this rating have been available both in Low Voltage (L7200) and Ultra Low Voltage (U7700) versions, and neither is cheap compared to a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270.

It's not so easy to explain the 1600 x 768 pixel screen, but Sony has produced letter-box subnotebooks before. The Sony Vaio PCG-C1 subnotebook aka PictureBook, which I reviewed in May 1999, had a 1024 x 480 screen with almost the same aspect ratio.

Kevin (Kilmo) Kang from Korea has the best set of pics of the new Sony P-series machines at CNet Asia.

But it does seem strangely hard for many people to understand that a subnotebook PC is just a smaller version of a notebook PC, which was originally defined by the A4(ish) size of the Compaq LTE and IBM ThinkPad 700 PCs. Machines that are larger than notebook PCs (such as the MacBook Air, whatever the Wall Street Journal says) are not subnotebooks, though I guess you could call them supernotebooks if you really wanted.

As a matter of fact, almost all netbooks are also subnotebooks, just as they are also laptops and they are also portable PCs. What mainly distinguishes netbooks from notebooks is that netbooks do not use full-spec processors etc. They are intended -- at least by implication -- for use with online applications, and not for more intensive tasks such as video and audio processing. Sony, of course, focuses on video and audio: that's where the Vaio name comes from.

Large PC manufacturers often have several ranges of notebook PC to cover different markets, including: subnotebooks, value notebooks, ultraportables, "thin and light," desktop replacements, entertainment and gaming notebooks. Value notebooks, such as Dell's Vostro range, start at similar prices to netbooks.