Sony VAIO YB AMD Fusion Laptop: Preview

The Sony VAIO YB series of 11.6-inch laptops was launched in India late last month, retailing for Rs. 26,990. At that time, it was unclear if the budget ultraportable laptop ran on AMD Fusion chips. But at the AMD Fusion APU launch couple of days ago, we managed to get our hands on the 11-inch VAIO YB -- running on an AMD Fusion E-350 dual-core processor.

The new Sony VAIO YB laptops first came on the block at last month's CES 2011 event. The thin-n-light laptop is a bit larger than the 10-inch Toshiba NB550D AMD Fusion netbook we spoke about yesterday. Let's take a look at the new Sony VAIO YB in the following images.

Like any other previous Sony VAIO laptop (VAIO E, VAIO M), the VAIO YB continues to have a polished matte screen lid with a smooth, elegant finish -- characteristic of a VAIO laptop. Pink isn't the only color on sale, don't worry -- Sony has a few SKUs with different screen lid colors to choose from.

Prop the screen open to reveal a nice two-toned color scheme on the Sony VAIO YB laptop; screen plus the keyboard deck, palmrest and touchpad bathed here in a metallic silver color. The chiclet-sized keyboard keys are back. The laptop weighs about 1.6-kg and is very well built.

The 11-inch Sony VAIO YB AMD Fusion-enabled laptop has a keyboard with chiclet-sized keys very similar to the 11-inch MacBook Air. The VAIO YB's keyboard is very good to type on, much like on the 11-inch MacBook Air -- fast typing with no flex at all.

The AMD Fusion-powered Sony VAIO YB 11-inch laptop comes with a decent-sized touchpad (as seen above) for its form factor. It has a textured pattern for better feedback and it works pretty well. The two separate mouse button work without any problems as well.

The webcam on the Sony VAIO YB laptop.

The Sony VAIO YB 11-inch AMD Fusion-powered thin laptop has audio jacks, two USB ports, kensington lock and Ethernet options on its right edge.

On the left side you have VGA, HDMI, heat vents and another USB port, on the Sony VAIO YB thin and light laptop.

The new Sony VAIO YB thin and light laptop comes with AMD Fusion APU -- the E-series "Zacate" E-350 1.6-GHz dual-core processor. Along with that you get 2GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive -- Windows 7 Starter edition OS as well.

Of course, there's also the graphics processor of the AMD Fusion APU running on the Sony VAIO YB laptop -- in this case the AMD Radeon HD 6310 with DirectX 11 and full-HD 1080p video support. More juice than the AMD Radeon HD 6250 on the Toshiba NB550D netbook.

With AMD Fusion APU-powered products like Sony VAIO YB and Toshiba NB550D, thin and light laptops and netbooks will never be the same.

Also Read:
AMD Fusion C, E-series chips launched in India
CES 2011: Sony Vaio YB, S ultraportable laptops take on MacBook Air
Dell Looking into AMD's Fusion Chips
CES 2011: HP Pavilion dm1 features AMD Fusion chips