Who of you still know the high-end brand “Vaio” of Sony?
5 years after their last presentation of new notebooks it
seemed as if Sony had Vaio die in silence and focus solely
on entertainment devices. But now they’re back! And how!

2 new notebooks (of which one is a convertible) enter the market.

There’s the full-flavor notebook SX14. A 14-inch notebook that comes with modern hardware. If you desire, this notebook even sports a 4K display in it’s small case. Alongside you can also choose betwen two 8th Gen Intel processors (Coffee Lake), namely the i5-8265U and the i7-8565U processors. RAM-wise you can configure up to 16GB which should suffice for the notebook’s preferred usage scenario, namely office works and light graphics works. Due to the lack of a dedicated GPU, gaming is only possible using older titles as the modern titles are impacting too strong on the iGPU of the two processors.

Connection-wise you have all necessary connectors at hand to connect a wide variation of external devices to the SX14. Even a VGA port is available which makes it pre-destinated to be used as office machine. The presence of a HDMI port also allows it to act as a media presentation device if you need to show videos for instance. One 1GbE port allows for fast cable-bound network speed while the integrated WLAN-ac in a 2×2 array allows up to 866Mbit/s. Enough for this machine to be a good all-day companion at work. 2 USB3.0 ports and one USB3.1 port with Sleep-charge option, as well as one USB-C port with Displayport1.2 capability allow a good connectivity. The SD card reader allows fast fransfer of media from cameras for example. About the storage, you can select from 256GB to 1024GB internal m.2 SSD which allows transfer speeds up to 3.1GB/s which is quite fast. The backlit keyboard also allows typing in a dark environment.

Sony Vaio SX14 – 14-inch notebook

The SX14 is now available at Sony USA and comes in 4 different colors for your convenience.

On to the convertible:

Sony Vaio A12 – 12-inch Convertible

The A12 notebook/tablet (Convertible) is of course smaller and more portable than the SX14. If you’re looking for a fully-equipped tablet computer that also can act as a notebook, then this one’s for you. The base unit that holds the keyboard, peripheral connectors and an additional battery also extends the run time where Sony says that the tablet will last for about 6 to 8 hours while docked to the base unit the runtime extends to an amazing 15 hours.

The base unit also has a supporting flap that extends when the Convertible is used in either Notebook mode or detached screen mode. That allows ergonomy while working in a office style.

The tablet also comes with a 4G/LTE modle allowing it to access the internet via mobile network. This is a big advantage as most tablets are used on travel. So it’s obvious that the A12 is designed likewise to combine the advantages of a tablet and a computer into one handy device.

The connectivity is also remarkable: It has nearly all the connectors as it’s big brother, the SX14. However the placement is slightly changed due to the case design. But that’s nothing we see as a critical point here. You will be able to have all your external peripherals connected to the convertible without problems just as if it was a normal computer.

Okay now on to the pricing. The SX14 will start at 1788 US$ and end at 2299US$ for the fully-equipped red model.

The A12 will start at 2199 US$ and so far there’s no configuration option available. You can however buy additional battery packs, a more-powerful power brick as well as protection cases made from real leather.

All in all a quite expensive comeback of Vaio but hey… if the devices are good then the price is rectified.