While other PC makers showed off multiple Windows 8 products at a press event in New York City today, Sony was fairly low key. They showed just two products, both of which won't be out until sometime later this fall, after the Windows 8 launch on Friday.
However, Sony went with "Quality over quantity". Instead of flooding the market with lots of different Windows 8 designs, it has just two at the moment, and we got to play briefly with both.
We saw a bunch of notebook-tablet hybrids today, but Sony's Vaio Duo 11 may be the one that impressed us the most on first glance. Many of the hybrids have revolving screens or screens that twist and turn. The Vaio Duo 11 simply slides up the screen to reveal the full keyboard underneath. It's simple, its elegant, and we love it.
The Vaio Tap 20 is technically a 20 inch all in one PC. In reality, its actually a massive tablet in disguise. Sony says you can unplug the Tap 20 and lay the screen down flat and it will run for about three hours on its own. Nice.
What's even nicer is that Sony has decided to not just release this unusual Windows 8 hybrid, but will also offer a number of Windows 8 apps made especially for the Tap 20 in the Windows Store. These apps will be viable just to people who own the Tap 20 and will include art software, games and more design with two people touching the screen in mind. We got a demo of one app that allowed two people to draw, each using one side of the Tap 20 screen.
It's very slick, and its something that no other PC is doing. We can't wait to get a better hands-on with the Tap 20 and the Duo 11 when they are released by Sony's Viao division later this year.
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