VAIO’s 2-Pound 12.5-Inch Laptop Weds Miniature Dimensions & Vast Connectivity
by Anton Shilov on July 12, 2019 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- Intel
- Laptops
- VAIO
- Core 9th Gen
- TruePerformance
- Whiskey Lake
VAIO has introduced its new SX12 notebook that brings together miniature dimensions, low weight, decent specs, full-pitch keyboard, a long battery life, and vast connectivity options that include a variety of physical ports and an optional 4G/LTE modem. Unlike most 12-inch laptops, the VAIO SX12 does not use a low-power processor, but packs a fully-fledged quad-core Core i7 CPU with VAIO’s True Performance technology.
The VAIO SX12 comes in a chassis made of carbon fiber and plastic in a bid to make its weight no heavier than 897 grams as well as dimensions not significantly bigger than those of 11-inch notebooks. The mobile PC is slightly smaller than an A4 piece of paper and is around 15.7 ~ 18 mm thick. The laptop is equipped with a 12.5-inch Full-HD display with very thin bezels as well as a backlit keyboard featuring a 19-mm pitch and fluorine-containing UV curing coating.
VAIO’s SX12 laptop is based on Intel’s 8th Gen quad-core Core U-series processor with UHD Graphics 620 code-named Whiskey Lake (up to Core i7-8565U) which uses the company’s TruePerformance technology that combines an advanced cooling system as well as increased CPU power limits in order to enable the CPU to work at higher frequencies for a longer time. The processor can be accompanied by 16 GB of LPDDR3 DRAM as well as a PCIe SSD. For precise specs, check the table below.
Connectivity is one of the key selling features of the VAIO SX12 because unlike some other 12-inch class laptops, this one comes with all the necessary physical ports possible, including GbE, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C (can be used for data, display, and charging) port, one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A connector, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, an SD card reader, two display outputs (HDMI, D-Sub), a 3.5-mm audio jack, and a proprietary power port. On the wireless side of things, the laptop is equipped with a 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.1 controller as well as an optional 4G/LTE modem. In addition, it has a webcam, a fingerprint reader, stereo speakers, and a microphone.
VAIO does not disclose capacity of the battery it uses for the SX12, but says that it can last for 13 ~ 14.5 hours depending on usage, a claim that has yet to be tested in real life. Meanwhile, the laptop comes with a proprietary 200-gram charger that uses the aforementioned proprietary connector, and also has a USB port to charge the laptop and a mobile phone at the same time.
The VAIO SX12 laptops will be available in five colors, including black, silver, brown, pink, and ‘all black’ for custom special edition models.
VAIO will start selling its SX12 notebooks in Japan this week starting at $1,100. For corporate customers VAIO will offer a very similar Pro PJ laptop with appropriate functionality. It is unclear whether the new mobile PCs will be available in other countries, but VAIO sells its products in the U.S. and chances are that the SX12 will be sold outside of Japan are fairly high.
VAIO SX12 (VJS1211) General Specifications | ||||||
Black | Silver | Brown | Pink | |||
Display | 12.5" anti-glare panel with 1920×1080 resolution | |||||
SoC | Core i7-8565U 4C/8T 1.8 - 4.6 GHz TruePerformance UHD 620 |
Core i5-8265U 4C/8T 1.6 - 3.9 GHz TruePerformance UHD 620 |
Core i3-8145U 2C/4T 2.1 - 3.9 GHz - UHD 620 |
Celeron 4205U 2C/2T 1.8 GHz - UHD 610 |
||
RAM | 8/16 GB LPDDR3 | 8/16 GB LPDDR3 | 4/8 GB LPDDR3 | 4/8 GB LPDDR3 | ||
Storage | 256 GB, 512 GB or 1 TB NVMe | 256 GB SATA 256 GB PCIe |
128 GB SATA | |||
Wireless | 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 4.1 Optional 4G/LTE modem |
|||||
I/O ports | GbE 1 × USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C 1 × USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A 2 × USB 3.0 Type-A HDMI D-Sub SD Card reader (UHS-I) |
GbE 1×USB 3.0 Type-C 3×USB 3.0 Type-A HDMI D-Sub SD Card reader (UHS-I) |
||||
Camera | 720p webcam | |||||
Audio | Integrated speakers 1 × TRRS 3.5-mm jack for headset |
|||||
Dimensions | 287.8 × 203.3 × 15.7 ~ 18 mm | |||||
Weight | 888 ~ 897 grams | |||||
Battery | 13 ~ 14.5 Hours | |||||
OS | Windows 10 Pro | Windows 10 Home | ||||
Fingerprint | Yes | No | ||||
Finish | Black | Silver | Brown | Pink | ||
Availability | July 2019 |
Related Reading:
- VAIO S Laptops Updated With 8th Gen Core CPUs & TruePerformance to Prolong Turbo Time
- VAIO to Start Selling Laptops in the U.S. This Spring
- Apple Stops Selling 12-Inch MacBook Laptops
- Fujitsu Announces 13.3" Lifebook U937/P and UH75/B1: 7th Gen Core i5, 8hr Battery, Under 1.77 lbs
- Dynabook Shows Off New G-Series Laptops: Under 2 Pound Ultrabook With 19 Hour Battery Life
Source: VAIO (via Liliputing)
26 Comments
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s.yu - Saturday, July 13, 2019 - link
Read: They did everything in their power to stall a return until the warranty expired.Disgusting people, literally disgusting people, and questionable design and build quality.
mdrejhon - Sunday, July 14, 2019 - link
For me, that could be a dealbreaker. I liked how good Apple was with their laptop warranties (relatively speaking) even when it was mainly used with Windows 10 due to work. I’ll wait until a company has established 2 years of very good warranty-handling before trusting the brand to be my main laptop.s.yu - Sunday, July 21, 2019 - link
I usually don't rely on warranties. I buy my devices whatever way cheap I could buy them in, but this one time I had a valid warranty (the device was ~40% off in the Microsoft Store and it's the discount that mattered, it just happened to be an official route of distribution) they made sure it was not put to use.yetanotherhuman - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
I love it. I want one.nikon133 - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Personally, I'd rather see HDMI-VGA dongle included. I cannot remember the last time I had to use VGA - even projectors I run across these days will have hdmi, and more and more of our customers opt for large TV with hdmi and wireless connectivity.With that said, I am reasonably good with not losing adapters and dongles, and this one would be safely stashed in laptop bag and wouldn't see much of the daylight, if at all. Not that anything is wrong with having extra port - but I feel it hurts laptop's aesthetics a bit.
That aside, looks like darling little machine. How's VAIO's build quality and reliability in post-Sony era?
yetanotherhuman - Tuesday, July 16, 2019 - link
I disagree, I love having the VGA out, gives me the fuzzies, even if I never use it. Dongles, ugh.