Japanese electronics giant Sony has unveiled its new VAIO Z Series ultra-mobile notebook, which aims at alluring the mobile office workers away from Apple’s popular MacBook Air.

The 13.3-inch VAIO Z Series measures just 16.65mm in thickness and weighs less than 1.2kg. The ultra-mobile notebook comes equipped with an Intel Core i7 processor clocked at 2.7GHz, display resolution of 1600x900 pixels,
8GB of memory and hard drive storage of up to 256GB.

The list of other specifications includes backlit keyboard, quick boot, optional 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, HDMI, a USB 2.0 port, and a USB 3.0 port.

It also has an optional sheet battery that promises up to 14 hours of battery life plus a quick charge feature. The VAIO Z is not the first series to get sheet battery, as we have already seen it in the Sony Vaio S Series.

Like Apple, Sony has also included proprietary data transfer technology based on Intel's Light Peak interconnect in its Vaio Z Series. Apple was the first gadget maker to adopt Intel's Light Peak technology with its new MacBook Pro notebooks that it released in February.

Sony’s Vaio Z is available to preorder in the UK, with a price tag starting at $1,835. The optional dock costs another $510.