CES 2012: Sony Vaio Hybrid and Slate, Two Astonishing Concepts

CES is also an opportunity to discover refreshing new concepts. On the Sony stand, the Vaio division has given us a little foretaste of the future with an all-in-one and a touchscreen notebook, the Hybrid and the Slate.

The Vaio Hybrid concept combines an 8-inch touchscreen and wireless keyboard. Not really a touchscreen tablet, Sony prefers to see it as an all-in-one computer.
It comes with a panel with as wide viewing angles as possible (no details have been given on the technology used) and the back of the Hybrid houses a camera sensor and backlit touch-sensitive buttons.

Nothing very astonishing then, except, that is, a design that's little, well, strange. Look at the wide sides around the screen or the rather unusual silver coloured shell! Indeed, this is where the Hybrid scores its little surprise...

Because yes, as you can see above, the back of the screen is what serves to keep the machine upright. The material used for this part of the screen is a supple alloy that is rather like textile. 

Flexible and extendible, the shell can stretch and become a stand in itself! The use of luminescent diodes and the general shape of the object are what give it the little science-fiction feel.

The Concept Vaio Slate is less out there and is a prototype of a large touchscreen notebook with a slide-away physical keyboard. This is a product you can already find on the market in the Asus catalogue with the EeePad Slider SL101. 

The Sony version boasts a remarkably slim line, guaranteed to impress. 

The Vaio Slate comes with a stylus, which slides into the base of the physical keyboard. Sony has even gone as far as thinking up various colours for its machine, always striking a flashy note. 

The Slate is apparently likely to come onto the market as a finished product, following a few rearrangements on launch of Windows 8.

The Hybrid is however only a prototype, serving above all as a model from which to develop other future final Sony products. 

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