Sony T13 Ultrabook unveiled

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Posted on 2 May 2012 at 10:12, by Tom Morgan

Sony first announced its plans to release an Ultrabook at CES all the way back in January, but the company was tight-lipped with things like specification or availability. That finally changed today when it announced the T13, the first VAIO Ultrabook.

Built from aluminium and magnesium alloys, the T13 looks every bit as stylish as we've come to expect from the VAIO range. The Chiclet keyboard, 13in LED screen and svelte 18mm thickness will certainly turn heads. While thicker than some Ultrabooks, it means that you get full-size Ethernet and HDMI ports, so you don't need to carry adaptors with you. It's good to see that there's a single USB3 port for fast external storage.

A starting weight of just 1.6kg indicates it could be just the thing for frequent travelers, but the specification sheet suggests it isn't going to rival some of the more expensive Ultrabooks currently on the market.

The VAIO SVT1311M1E, the only model announced so far, will use a Sandy Bridge processor (a Core i3-2367m running at 1.4GHz) rather than a newer Ivy Bridge chip, as well as a 320GB mechanical hard disk paired with a smaller 32GB SSD for caching. The 1,366x768 screen resolution is fairly basic too, with competing laptops from Asus and Samsung offering more pixels.

However, Sony has yet to announce pricing, so it could be aimed at the mass market rather than the £1,000+ sector currently occupied by most of the competition. The company also confirmed an 11in version (the VAIO T11), but couldn't confirm specification, pricing or availability.

If you like the idea of an ultra-portable VAIO laptop, but don't have the cash for the ultra-expensive Z-series, you'll have to wait until June to get your hands on a T13.