Vaio Pro and Fit are first Vaio laptops since being sold off by Sony
Vaio is now a separate company to Sony, but its first two laptops are familiar for more than their name.
The first new Vaio laptops since the brand split off from Sony have been revealed in Japan. The Vaio Pro and Vaio Fit are the first products from the new company, but more than just the name will be familiar.
Sony sold its struggling laptop division to private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners in March this year. The new company keeps the familiar Vaio name but is totally separate from Sony, which took drastic cost-cutting action in the face of eye-watering losses. In its most recent financial results, the Japanese company reported an annual loss of over a billion dollars.
Vaio stands for "Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer," acronym fans, although it originally stood for "Video Audio Integrated Operation".
The new Vaio Fit is a hybrid detaching from laptop to tablet. Inside is an Intel Core i7 4500U processor with up to 8GB of DDR3L SDRAM and an Intel HD Graphics 4400 chip.
The carbon fiber Vaio Pro 13 boasts a fourth-generation Intel Haswell chip beneath an 11.6 or 13.3in HD 1080p touchscreen.
Despite being an autonomous company, it seems Vaio is keeping more than just the familiar name: these first two laptops from the new firm are extremely similar to the Sony Vaio Pro and Vaio Fit laptops announced by Vaio's former owners last year.
The new computers were unveiled in Tokyo today. Vaio has no plans as yet to sell devices outside of Japan.