Suddenly the MacBook Air doesn't seem so expensive anymore. . .

As rumored, Sony announced its new ultraportable this week. The old VAIO TZ series was a slick ultraportable, and the new VAIO TT series looks even better, though I'll wait for some full reviews for confirmation. In the meantime, the list of available options-- carbon fiber chassis that weighs 2.9 pounds, 11.1-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, integrated Blu-ray burner and HDMI-out, dual 128GB SSDs, wireless WAN--makes for one great press release.

The only catch: if you want it with all the good stuff, it will really cost you. You can pre-order the top-of-the-line VAIO VGN-TT190UBX for a cool $4,344.99 (or a little more than a dozen Asus Eee PC 900 netbooks). That gets you these specs:

• Carbon fiber case
• 11.1-inch widescreen LCD
• 1.4GHz Intel Core2 Duo SU9400 processor
• 4GB DDR3 memory
• Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics
• 256GB (128x2) SSD
• Blu-ray burner

You can blame the SSDs and Blu-ray for the sky-high price tag. A 128GB SSD currently retails for about $400 to $500, and Sony's cheapest Blu-ray burner, the BWU-300S for desktops, will be available in October for $400. And to be fair, Sony does offer a configuration starting at around $2,000 with a slightly slower processor, 2GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, and a DVD burner.

But it's hard to settle for those specs when you know what could be packed in this tiny laptop. Maybe Sony ought to bring Qualia back for this impressive, but pricey ultraportable.