Sony Refreshes Vaio NetbookSony Refreshes Vaio Netbook

Sony on Monday refreshed its Vaio P Series netbook, adding a mini-touchpad and left- and right-click mouse buttons on the display bezel of the pricey mini-laptop.

The latest version also has an Intel Atom Z560 processor, which is a bit faster than the Z530 in the older model. Also added to the new system is the ability to switch from landscape to portrait mode by physically turning the computer.

Sony unveiled the P Series in January 2009 at the Consumer Electronics Shows in Las Vegas. The netbook is about the size of a business envelope and is roughly as thick as a mobile phone. The system has an eight-inch widescreen, weighs 1.4 pounds, and gets about 3.5 hours of battery life.

With a starting price of $800, the P Series is considerably more expensive than the average netbook, which typically has a 10-inch display and costs less than $500. However, the P Series comes with 2 GB of memory, compared to 1 GB for most netbooks, and includes Windows 7 Home Premium, instead of the more typical Windows 7 Starter.

The P Series only comes with a solid-state drive, with the option of 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB of storage. The undersized keyboard is too small for typing large documents, but is sufficient for editing documents, organizing photos, watching online video, Web browsing, and e-mail. The keyboard includes a pointing stick in the center for navigation.

The netbook's display offers a resolution of 1600 x 768 pixels and an LED backlight for crisper images. The system includes a Web button that launches a browser without having to wait for a full boot through the operating system.

In addition, there's a button for increasing or decreasing screen resolution, and an ambience sensor that dims or increases the brightness of the LCD, depending on external lighting conditions. The new version also comes in three additional colors, electric orange, neon green, and icy white.

Sony is taking pre-orders for the new P Series, which is expected to ship soon.

With the P Series, Sony is targeting people willing to pay more for netbook that's smaller and lighter than many competitors and runs a better version of Windows 7. The Sony system also comes with built-in support for 3G wireless broadband, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.

However, the consumer market is changing with the introduction of Apple's iPad, which starts at $500. The slate computer, along with competing systems planned by Hewlett-Packard and others, is expected to cut into the sales of netbooks, which were the fastest growing category of the PC market last year.

In addition, the improving economy is also expected to cut into sales of the inexpensive mini-laptops, as people opt to spend a bit more for beefier systems, analysts say.