CES: Vizio Thin + Light Notebooks Hands-On

Earlier this week, Vizio announced the introduction of an entirely new category in its product lineup -- Windows-based notebooks and desktops. With an established reputation in the home entertainment product space, Vizio's entry in the personal computer market came as a surprise, but with stylish, unibody designs at what is expected to be aggressively competitive price points, the company could emerge as a key player in the space.

Though much is still unknown about the company's new range, including pricing, spec and release information, IGN was invited to see prototype versions of the new range of desktops and notebooks today at CES.

The notebook lineup consists of three primary products -- two 'thin + light' ultrabooks and a fullsized standard notebook. The Thin + Light products include a 14-inch and 15.6-inch model, while the standard notebook comes in a 15.6-inch variation. The entire range features aluminum casing with stylization and accents not-so-subtly lifted from Apple's industrial designs, but it's difficult to begrudge them from taking inspiration from what is clearly a winning formula. The company has definitely put its own unique spin on the designs, however, making the casing a darker, gun-metal gray and adding chrome accents.

Vizio cautioned us that many aspects of the prototypes on display were likely to change prior to launch, which we've now learned will arrive sometime in May or thereafter.

For instance, the keyboards on the notebooks were incredibly l0w-profile -- in fact, they were completely flush with the surrounding casing with very little clearance below them. Obviously, this creates issues with tactile recognition between keys, and the company is aware of that. To alleviate the problem, the company is experimenting with alterations to the keyboard, including increasing the distance between the keys, adding indentation and other adjustments.

The prototypes were more or less tethered to the display tables, but I was able to get a general sense of weight. While not quite in the featherweight class of Apple's MacBook Air series, they were definitely lighter than most other laptops of a similar screensize.

Vizio is not discussing price points or even offering specifics about the chipsets being used, due specifically to the fact that they have not been officially announced by their respective manufacturers. While the CPU maker is unknown, its fairly certain to be Intel-based, while the GPUs are going to be furnished by NVIDIA.

Whatever the company is putting under the hood is plenty speedy though. Navigating Windows was seamless with none of the usual momentary lag when opening applications and perusing menus.

Both of the Thin + Light products will come standard with solid state drives, whereas the fullsized 15.6-inch notebook will come with either a standard HDD or SSD drive. In either configuration the fullsized notebook will come with a secondary solid stage drive, which will cache most of the OS data, making load times faster.

Finally, the entire range will come standard with USB 3.0 drives and fullsize HDMI video output. If wireless connectivity is preferred, each system will have proprietary media sharing software installed that uses DLNA protocols to seamless output video to compatible Vizio displays.

If Apple has proven anything, it's that sleek design goes a long way with consumers, and if Vizio can provide a low-cost, high-performance alternative, they could very well become a major force in the market. Lets just hope the company can deliver on the promise established with its demonstrations made this week at CES.

For more from CES, check out IGN.com/CES.