SlashGear

Sony Japan have announced that they are working on WiMAX enabled versions of their VAIO Z ultraportable and VAIO P netbook.  Expected to land in Japan before the end of this month, the notebooks will take advantage of Intel and UQ Communications plans to blanket the country with WiMAX access.

Other specifications for the notebooks are expected to stay the same, which means Japan’s broad range of processor options for the VAIO P and higher-power Intel chips for the larger VAIO Z.  Both models are currently available with integrated 3G connectivity; it’s unclear whether that will remain or be supplanted by their WiMAX abilities.

Toshiba, Panasonic and Onkyo have all signed up to use Intel’s WiMAX/Wi-Fi Link 5150, an embedded WiFi/WiMAX module; Sony’s selected chipset is unnamed.  No word on pricing, nor whether we’ll see US versions of the WiMAX VAIOs.

[via Akihabara]