Vaio returning to the U.S. this fall with powerful and expensive PCs and Tablets
On Wednesday, the Vaio Corporation announced its PCs would come to the United States this fall, revealing a powerful high-end tablet as its launch device. The high-end device will be sold through Microsoft stores in the U.S. from October. The company has now become a free standing company after Sony sold the Vaio brand to a private group in early 2014.
Vaio Chief Executive Yoshimi Ota told the Wall Street Journal that the the independent Vaio had decided to with a premium offering so that it does not end up in the same situation as the loss-leading Sony Vaio brand did, reports TechSpot. The company is focusing on creating high-quality, high-value offerings and is staying away from cheap, unprofitable devices by moving away from Sony’s old focus on market share.
To start with, Vaio will be introducing a “monster tablet” known as Vaio Z Canvas, its first new device for the U.S. market. The company did not release details about specs, but the tablet hybrid version sold in Japan has an Intel Core i7-4770HQ processor as well as a detachable keyboard.
The Z Canvas tablet comes with a 12.3-inch display with 2560 X 1704 resolution. It also comes with 8GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage. It has Iris Pro 5200 graphics and the usual SD card slot, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and front-and rear-facing cameras. The current Japanese model is loaded with Windows 8.1; it’s not clear if that will change to Windows 10 for the U.S. launch.
Vaio said the Z Canvas will be targeted at people in working in creative content industries as well as other users. It plans to compete the device against model like the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet, which has a far cheaper starting price of $799 at Microsoft stores. The company has a deal with Microsoft that lets it sell its devices at US Microsoft stores from October.
Sales in Brazil will be done in partnership with manufacturer Positivo Informatica, which will make the PCs themselves, Vaio said, adding that details will be released in September.
The Z Canvas will be available from $2,199, while the giant 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage will be available for $3,300. Please note that the hardware specifications and prices mentioned in this article are based on the versions of the tablet that are currently sold in Japan. There may be some changes for the U.S. market before release.
Pre-orders start from mid-September for delivery from October 5. The Z Canvas will be available for sale on Vaio’s own site as well as the Microsoft Store’s site and retail locations.
