Google’s Chromebooks haven’t exactly made a splash, but apparently not everyone has been scared off. Sony seems to think there’s gold in them thar laptops, and they’re making their own. For now it’s known as the VCC111 (probably shorthand for “Vaio Chromebook Computer, series one, 11-inch display”), according to documents and pictures from FCC testing.
The understated look continues with these Vaio Chromebooks, even as far as what appears to be a matte black unbranded shell. A white version is also shown in the test setup photos. But the most interesting thing is the processor, which is listed simply as T25, and may in fact be Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chip by that name. An ARM laptop? Hey, if Microsoft can do it, why not Google and Sony?
At 1.2GHz, with 2GB of RAM and a few of the other usual fixings, it isn’t a stunner spec-wise, but that’s kind of the point. It’s a tastefully-designed netbook designed to boot fast and get on the internet. It isn’t an ultrabook or work laptop or what have you. So it should fulfill that purpose admirably, and sell well below $500 to boot.
Release date is unclear, but they filed a confidentiality request for 180 days after August 15, 2011, so this unit has been around for a while — but they probably weren’t planning a release until at least 2012, judging by their request to keep the external photos secret for half a year.
Perhaps they’re waiting for Google I/O? Seems a bit of a long wait to release something that was more or less ready late last year. Hopefully we’ll see an official announcement soon and get our hands on the device for some real-world testing.
[via Laptop Reviews]