Vaio X has a standard DC barrel pot, ive powered it on anything from junk-heap printer wall-warts to 20-cent car-adaptors to lab bench-supplies without hassles.
other things it has over the air are half the weight owing to carbon fiber vs aluminum and a smaller battery owing to an Atom CPU (a feature - can tell which code is slow), and a full array of hardware ports and slots, a matte-screen with almost 0 reflected light readable in direct sun, a fan that is off most of the time, and GPS/3G. gma500 is main problem, but Alan Cox's driver is getting OK enough to use
The Vaio X has been discontinued. The nearest equivalent to the MBA 13" I'm contemplating is the Vaio Z, at a cost of nearly $1000 more.
Apple products have always been derided as "under-speced and over-priced", yet customers keep voting with their wallets to the contrary. Knowing first-hand how those Vaios tend to blow their superior specs in the oddest ways, I'll take the Air.
other things it has over the air are half the weight owing to carbon fiber vs aluminum and a smaller battery owing to an Atom CPU (a feature - can tell which code is slow), and a full array of hardware ports and slots, a matte-screen with almost 0 reflected light readable in direct sun, a fan that is off most of the time, and GPS/3G. gma500 is main problem, but Alan Cox's driver is getting OK enough to use