The VAIO line, at least in its current heart-stopping sticker price incarnation, is the Windows world equivalent of the Macbook and all the same criticisms apply, save that no one is surprised or disappointed when a Sony executive dies and isn't found missing from his tomb three days later.
I still don't understand why the labor involved in Apple's design, or the VAIO's, warrants so much premium. Or more rightly put, why we transfix that labor onto figures like Jobs, who I suspect hadn't scorched his lungs with flux fumes in a long time, but then again, I never made it through Atlas Shrugged, either.
I suspect there's a strong element of class/subjective distinction with Apple's product design, too. Looking for a desktop case a few days ago, I couldn't find any one with a place for both feed and exhaust fans that wasn't an abhorrent combination of LEDs and colored and clear plastics and all really expensive. Then I remembered I had a knock-off dremel tool and sandpaper. On the other hand, many of the Windows-oriented "nettops" are very compact and unobtrusive and very affordable, but equally minimal in design, so I just don't know.