Oh hotness incarnate, the VAIO TZ lives. Sure we peeped those catalog shots more than two weeks ago, but there's nothing like seeing the 11.1-inch ultra-portable in the fo' realz. The specs are in line with what we already knew with one tiny surprise: the system can apparently (judging by janky machine translation) be configured to run both a 2.5-inch 160GB disk and a 1.8-inch 32GB SSD simultaneously -- store the Vista OS and your critical apps and data on the lickity quick flash drive with everything else bunged into the traditional spinner. Nice. The TZ also features a newly designed keyboard carried over from earlier Sony's and similar to the one found on the Apple MacBook. The Vaio TZ starts shipping in Japan May 26th which means the rest of the world should get theirs shortly thereafter. One more pic after the break.

[Via Impress, thanks William M.]

Sony just coughed up their new Vista-enabled VAIO lineup for Japan. The biggest news here is that the latest T, F, F TV, G, S, and type U ultra-portable all come pre-loaded with Vista starting January 30th. Otherwise, we're just looking at minor spec jumps and color changes. On the color tip, the 11.1-inch Vaio T (pictured) now hits in your choice of Bordeaux, green or rose; the Vaio U can now be ordered in blue when opting for the 32GB SSD model; and the 12.1-inch Vaio G sports a new premium brown carbon fiber chassis in addition to black. Models touting a bump in specs include the 13.3-inch Vaio S which now features a 2.33GHz T7600 Core 2 Duo processor; the 17-inch Vaio A now maxed out with the T7200 Core 2 Duo proc; the 15.4-inch Vaio F series sportin' a 1.66GHz T2300 Core Duo and nVidia GeForce Go 7600; and the 15.4-inch Vaio F TV now with a terrestrial tuner built standard into all models with the top-ender packing a T7400 Core 2 Duo processor, 200GB of disk, and webcam. All hit Japan starting January 30th. Pics of the other models after the break.