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Sony has officially joined the Ultrabook party with the launch of its new Vaio T series of ultrathin notebooks.
As part of its larger Sony Vaio Expo Tour, the consumer electronics giant unveiled Monday its new 13.3-inch Vaio T13 and 11.6-inch Vaio T11 Ultrabook, running on Intel’s third-generation Ivy Bridge processors. The 13.3-inch model measures 0.7 inches thick and weighs about 3.5 pounds.
The smaller Vaio T11, which today is only available in Europe, touts the same thickness but weighs in at a slightly lighter 3.1 pounds.
While the T Series' super-sleek form factor poises it to be more portable and travel-friendly than its Vaio counterparts, Sony said it’s not technically the first of its PC lineups to meet the industry-standard list of Ultrabook specifications.
[Related: Lenovo Broadens Ultrabook Line With New U310, U410 'Book Of Do']
"Thin and light is nothing new to Sony -- we built the T Series Ultrabook from many of the same features as our amazingly thin and powerful ultra-premium VAIO Z Series, which has long exceeded Ultrabook specifications," said Mike Abary, senior vice president of Networked Technology and Services Division of Sony Electronics.
The company’s 13-inch Vaio Z laptop, in fact, weighs slightly less than the new Vaio T13, even though it doesn’t bear the official Ultrabook name. The T13, however, delivers on a number of other Ultrabook-specific characteristics apart from its dimensions, including extended battery life, fast boot-up times and instant-on capabilities.
Specifically, Sony said the Vaio T13, which has 4 GB of RAM, can reach up to seven and a half hours of battery life with a traditional hard drive and up to nine hours with a solid state drive. Users can put the device into a "deep sleep mode" that allows it to be used for up to 90 days within burning out a charge.
Intel Smart Response technology and Sony’s homegrown "Rapid Wake + Eco" functionality, which automatically saves data when the PC is put to sleep and then enables it to wake up in two seconds or less, are also included with the new T Series of Ultrabooks.
