This 899g premium laptop packs something that no competitor has ever offered — Japanese-built Vaio notebook can take a SIM and an eSIM simultaneously, promises near 30 hours usage

VAIO SX12
(Image credit: VAIO)

Built in Japan, the Vaio SX12 laptop is a lightweight powerhouse driven by a choice of 13th generation Intel Core processors.

But that's not all - it sports a 12.5-inch Full HD (1920x1080) screen and weighs (from) 899g, so it’s light and portable, and comes with a 53Whr battery which promises 10.5 hours of use when playing videos, and up to 29.5 hours when just idling.

It is available in a choice of colors, including urban bronze, fine white, rose gold, fine black, fine red, and bright silver - and if those aren’t stylish enough for you, there’s also an all-black edition which lives up to its name by having a body that’s entirely black – including the logo on the top, the keys, and even the Windows wallpaper. That model also offers higher performance than the regular version.

nanoSIM and eSIM

Vaio SX12 is powered by (up to) an Intel Core i7-1360P processor, with up to 32GB LPDDR4X RAM (onboard, so can’t be expanded), and up to 2TB 4th generation high speed SSD. The all-black edition ups the specs and comes with a more powerful  i7-1370P processor (exclusive to that version).

Vaio's recently refreshed laptop sports a full HD camera and a selection of ports, including 2x USB 3.0, HDMI, USB Type C, and USB 3.1. There's even a VGA port - an incongruous addition you'll often find on Japanese laptops. 

It supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1, and for professionals who travel a lot, it has a trick you won't find elsewhere. It comes with a nanSIM slot for wireless WAN, but you can also choose to have nanoSIM AND an eSIM. With the latter you’ll need to have an eSIM contract with a service provider in advance.

Vaio SX12 retails from 217,800 yen in Japan ($1400), but Vaio only sells the larger SX14 in the US, so you’ll have to try Amazon or eBay if you want to buy one. Alternatively, you can contact Vaio directly with regards to shipping it overseas.

More from TechRadar Pro

Wayne Williams
Editor

Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for TechRadar Pro. He has been writing about computers, technology, and the web for 30 years. In that time he wrote for most of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and published a number of them too.

Read more
Dynabook R9
"Then, like a jigsaw puzzle, the final piece fell into place": the extraordinary struggles and challenges that shaped the world's lightest laptop ever built, laid bare in an essay
Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 6
Lenovo just launched the lightest AMD Ryzen AI laptop ever; ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 tops scale at just over 2 lbs
Dynabook Portégé Z40L-N
Dynabook's newest laptop has a 4-year warranty, a swappable battery, a weight of under 1 kg, and even a LAN port
A woman holding up an Asus laptop in a field of wheat
Asus unveils the 'World's lightest Copilot+ PC' at CES 2025
HP ZBook Ultra G1a
Could this be the world's most powerful compact mobile workstation? HP thinks so
ThinkPad X9 14
Kudos to Lenovo for shipping its new flagship ThinkPad X9 laptops with 100% recycled (and replaceable) cobalt cell batteries
Latest in Pro
Finger Presses Orange Button Domain Name Registration on Black Keyboard Background. Closeup View
I visited the world’s first registered .com domain – and you won’t believe what it’s offering today
Racks of servers inside a data center.
Modernizing data centers: an efficient path forward
Dr. Peter Zhou, President of Huawei Data Storage Product Line
Why AI commonization is so important for business intelligent transformation and what Huawei’s data storage has to offer
Wix automation
The world's leading website builder aims to save businesses time with new tool
Data Breach
Thousands of healthcare records exposed online, including private patient information
China
Juniper patches security flaws which could have let hackers take over your router
Latest in News
A super close up image of the Google Gemini app in the Play Store
It's official: Google Assistant will be retired for phones this year, with Gemini taking over
Quordle on a smartphone held in a hand
Quordle hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #1147)
NYT Strands homescreen on a mobile phone screen, on a light blue background
NYT Strands hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #378)
NYT Connections homescreen on a phone, on a purple background
NYT Connections hints and answers for Sunday, March 16 (game #644)
Three iPhone 16 handsets on show
Apple could launch an iPhone 17 Ultra this year – but we've heard these rumors before
Super Mario Odyssey
ChatGPT is the ultimate gaming tool - here's 4 ways you can use AI to help with your next playthrough