Watch out Sony, it looks like your Vaio X505's title for thinnest / lightest laptop ever is about to be challenged by some new Intel-sponsored Ziba designs intended to push the envelope of portability. The 0.7-inch thick 2.2-pound Metro features an external e-ink display, and might actually stand a chance at redefining slim computing -- if it's ever built, anyway. Enjoy the eye candy, it's going to be a while before you get any closer to a laptop of this caliber than some pictures on the internets.

The marketing shots of Intel's 0.7-inch thin Metro laptop prototype caused quite a stir, so we'd imagine the real, physical, meatspace shots of an actual working prototype would be even more intriguing. AeroXperience got their hands on a prototype machine at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference recently, making sure to shoot the open laptop and e-ink display on the back with 1080p video. Unfortunately, the representative walking the reporter through the laptop confirms that this is purely a concept device, and is really only aimed at encouraging OEMs to develop similar models. We knew this already, but it sounds particularly harsh coming from the horse's mouth. Especially when we know that most new OEM laptop designs are few and far between, beyond the obvious clockwork-like updates when new CPUs hit the block. Surely if Intel and co. can do super thin, then so can everyone else.

Intel Metro Notebook

We hate covering design concepts because they usually never turn into real products you can actually buy. But this new laptop, created by Intel and Ziba Design, is just way too awesome not to show you. The Intel Metro Notebook ($TBA) is a super skinny mobile computing machine that is being called the world's thinnest laptop. Less than 0.7 inches thick (just a hair thicker than the Motorola RAZR) and weighing only 2.25 pounds, the Metro notebook sports a beautiful champagne-colored magnesium exterior and offers always-on web connectivity thanks to embedded Wi-Fi, WiMax and cellular network chips.