Sony launches three new Haswell-powered ultrabooks, including the Vaio Duo 13 laptop-tablet

Sony has unveiled three new ultrabooks within its Vaio range, each of which can be converted into tablets: the Vaio Duo 13 and Vaio Pro 13 and 11. The new devices are powered by Intel’s new fourth generation processor — Haswell — and run Windows 8.

Pricing is still to be confirmed, but all three will launch from the middle of June, starting with ‘selected countries’.

Like others in its hybrid laptop-tablet product family, the Vaio Duo 13 sports a touchscreen interface and feature a slide-out keyboard for dual tablet or laptop performance.

The tablet-come-laptop uses “innovative standby technology” which means it is always connected to the Internet, when there’s a connection, so it can retrieve email while asleep and Sony claims it can wake within one second. Sony also says the lasts for up to 18 hours, which we presume is on active standby.

The device features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera that runs on Sony’s Exmor RS for PC technology. The company says its software lets the built-in camera serve as a scanner. Plus, the Vaio Duo 13 has a full-HD screen that taps Sony’s Bravia and Triluminos technologies, while its ClearAudio+ tech powers the sound.

The new Vaio Pro models are being pitched as ‘the world’s lightest touch-capable Ultrabook’; the Pro 11 weighs just 0.870 kg while the Pro 13 tips the scales at 1.060 kg.

Much of the same technology is present in the Pros as in the Duo 13 — Bravia, Triluminos and ClearAudio+ — while Sony says the ultrabooks have wider keys to help type, a redesigned palm rest and its NFC-powered One-touch listening system that streams audio from portable media devices.