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Sony's Vaio W Netbook now made of recycled CDs, soda bottles

Making a play for the "green" market, one of Sony's new additions is an updated version of the Vaio W Netbook. This time around the upscale 10-inch system is being touted as made from recycled CDs and soda bottles.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
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Sony

Update:The new Sony Vaio W has been nominated for the Best of CES awards in the Computers and Hardware category.

Watch this: Sony Vaio W

LAS VEGAS--Making a move on the growing "green" market, one of Sony's new additions is an updated version of the Vaio W Netbook. This time around the upscale 10-inch system is being touted as made from a, "reprocessed plastic chassis comprised of approximately 23 percent recycled CDs. It also comes in a stylish reusable carrying-case made from recycled PET bottles."

We liked the first version of the Vaio W Netbook we saw in 2009, and this new version is largely similar. It's a 10-inch Netbook, but is one of the only 10-inch models with a hi-res 1,366x768 display. A 250GB hard drive also helps it move into the premium Netbook category.

Like most new 2010 Netbooks, the CPU inside will be the Intel Atom N450 which offers excellent battery life, but only marginally better performance than last year's models.

Sony Vaio W (photos)

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To emphasize the green aspects of its construction, this model's chassis is cast in a color called "sugar white," with a translucent green interior.

Making a product "green," literally or figuratively, may be a marketing play, but from my days covering the beverage industry, I can tell you that PET plastic, or Polyethylene terephthalate, is indeed a big problem, even though a sizable percentage of soda bottles are turned in or collected for recycling. (Corner me in the hall sometime, and I'll explain why the permeability of PET plastic is the reason plastic soda bottles don't generally come in sizes smaller than 16 ounces.)

The new Sony Vaio W is available for pre-order from January 6, and starts at $480.