At first glance, the new Sony Vaio W Eco looks almost exactly like the Sony Vaio W 10 inch mini-laptops the company has been selling since mid-2009. But the Eco series which Sony introduced in early January is different from earlier models in one major way: The case is partially made from recycled materials. In fact, 20% of the plastic case is made from recycled compact discs.

Sony also ships the Sony Vaio W Eco Series netbook with a carrying case made of recycled PET bottles. On the inside, Sony has replaced the Atom N270 CPU with a new, more energy efficient Intel Atom N450 processor. The netbook has a 10.1 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive and ships with Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The folks at CNET managed to get their hands on one of the new Eco series netbooks and report that the new model looks and feels a lot like the original Vaio W. And in most ways, that’ s a good thing. it has a sturdy chassis and a crisp, high resolution display. CNET doesn’t love the keyboard, saying it feels cramped. Having used the original Vaio W keyboard briefly, I have to agree on that front.

The Sony Vaio W Eco Series is available for pre-order from Amazon for $479.99.