Sony is refreshing its lightweight Vaio Type-G laptop and has begun offering a solid-state flash drive as an option, making the Type G the first notebook from Sony to be available with an SSD. Flash drives offer faster data read and write times, greater shock resistance and lower power consumption, but at a higher cost. Customers will see the price of a Type G jump by ¥65,000 ($545) when they choose a 32GB flash drive over a 40GB hard disk drive, said Shoko Yanagisawa, a Sony spokeswoman in Tokyo. Replacing the hard disk drive with a flash drive will lighten the machine by 39 grams.
A machine based on an Intel Celeron M 443 (1.20GHz) processor with the flash drive will cost ¥229,800. The computers will be available exclusively through Sony"s build-to-order sales channel in Japan (Sony currently has no plans to offer them in other countries). The computer isn"t Sony"s first with a flash drive. That distinction goes to the Vaio UX90, a handheld ultra portable that was launched last July with a 16GB flash drive.