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Thin-and-light Vaio SX14 laptop gets U.S. release, $1,299 starting price tag

Sony's former PC brand continues to live through an independent Japanese firm, which adds a new notebook that weighs just 2.32 pounds and is equipped with a 14-inch Ultra HD display.
Written by Sean Portnoy, Contributor
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Vaio SX14

It's already been five years since Sony pulled the plug on its Vaio line of PCs, selling the brand to a private equity firm that initially concentrated on the Japanese market. It returned to the U.S. market late in 2015 via a convertible notebook sold via the Microsoft Store, and has kept a low-key presence here since, mostly selling online.

With the new SX14, Vaio hopes to regain some of the cache it once had among computer buyers by continuing the brand's tradition for sleek and svelte laptops. The new notebook weighs just 2.32 pounds and is a mere 0.59 inches thick, thanks to a carbon fiber chassis available in four color choices (black, red, silver, and brown). The change to carbon fiber from the Vaio S13's magnesium alloy chassis allows the SX14 to squeeze a 14-inch screen into the same form factor as the 13-inch laptop.

For the $1,299 base configuration (currently sold out on the Vaio site) or the $1,499 model, that screen offers full HD (1,920x1,080) resolution, but you'll need to step up to the $1,899 or $2,199 edition in order to get Ultra HD 4K instead. Only the cheapest configuration comes with an Intel Core i5-8265U processor, whereas the others upgrade to the Core i7-8565U CPU. If it becomes available again, the base model also comes with 8 gigs of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive, while other versions can have 16GB of memory and up to 1TB of storage.

One notable other SX14 feature is its VAIO TruePerformance technology, which Vaio claims can provide a performance boost of 15 percent for the Core i5 or 25 percent for the Core i7 beyond Intel's own Turbo Boost Technology 2.0. Vaio claims over 7.5 hours of battery life for the SX14, though conceivably it would be less if you required heavy use of the VAIO TruePerformance feature.

As already mentioned, the base SX14 is currently sold out, but all remaining configurations are available to order from the Vaio site, including a $2,299 red edition with maxed out specs. 

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