At last, here's the new MacBook Mini, complete with LED-backlit screen, optional 32GB Solid Storage Drive 8-hour battery life and Core 2 Duo processor in a slim 2.68-pound 0.88-inch glorious black design. It looks like at the end it wasn't announced last Tuesday, like the rumorlosersmongers predicted.
Oh, and it comes from Sony. With Windows Vista. And unfortunately, is Japan only.
It's the new Sony VAIO Type T 10th Anniversary which comes with everything that you wish in a modern sub-notebook: 1,366 x 768 11.1-inch panoramic screen, 1GB memory, 80GB hard drive and DVD dual layer recording. The HD and the DVD-R can be changed for a 32GB flash SSD and a 160GB hard drive respectively. In two words: I WANT. More specs and the price after the jump.
You won't get all that for the $1990 of the base model, though, which actually comes with a Celeron M 443 processor. More so-so news: like yesteryear MacBooks, if you decide to go the Core 2 Duo route the 10th Anniversary model won't come with Santa Rosa. However, with that battery life I don't think I would care much about it. Even less if I can plug the optional big battery, that will make it reach a 18-hour battery life according to Sony.
It uses a Intel 945GMS Express chipset, so no dedicated GPU or RAM. It comes with 2 USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire, ExpressCard/34 slot and SD/MMC/Memory Stick PRO/Duo, along with camera, 802.11a/b/g with a built-in extendable antenna in the display and external antenna connector on its side, fingerprint sensor and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.
Press release (japanese) [Sony via Impress PC Watch]