Sony unveils its new line of VAIO laptops: SSD, HDMI, Blu-ray, more

Published January 7, 2008

Move over MacBook Pro, there's a new sheriff in town. Fresh out of the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony's VAIO VGN-AR790U Premium 17" monstrosity packs a 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 "Penryn" processor coupled with a 1920x1200 widescreen XBRITE-HiColor LCD, 4GB of RAM, two 200GB hard drives, GeForce Go 8600M GT 512MB video card, and Blu-ray optical drive. Thanks to its HDMI output, it can also double as your media center, easily hooking up to any HDMI-equipped HDTV. It's available for pre-orders now at SonyStyle.com for $3,299.99 with free shipping. (It's scheduled to ship on January 29.) But that's not all Sony unleashed at CES.

Looking for something a little more portable? Made of carbon fiber, the new Sony VAIO TZ298N/XC Premium combines a 250GB hard drive with a 64GB Solid State Disk drive for a total weight of 2.7 pounds (that's less than a pound heavier than Asus' Eee PC). At $3,699.99, this 11.1" notebook is designed for low power consumption with its battery-saving Intel Core 2 Duo U7700 1.33GHz processor under its hood. It aso has a built-in Wireless Wide Area Network radio (WWAN), so you have the option of connecting to Sprint's Mobile Broadband EVDO service whenever a hot-spot isn't available. It's scheduled to ship March 4.

With its eyes set on Apple's MacBook, there's the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ791N/X. This notebook is the middle man of the pack with an Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz dual-core processor, 13.3" 1280x800 XBRITE LCD with LED backlight, 4GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, and a dual-layer optical drive. Like its siblings, it also comes with 802.11a/b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth, and a flash card reader, but goes for $2,699.99. It's scheduled to ship January 29.

And finally there's the Sony VAIO VGN-FZ485U/B. This system packs an Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1GHz dual-core processor maxed out with 4GB of RAM. It also features a 15.4" 1280x800 XBRITE-HiColor LCD and 300GB hard drive. Sitting above the LCD is a 1.3-megapixel camera. Like the VGN-AR790U, this model also packs an HDMI output (with an option to upgrade to a Blu-ray drive), but comes in slightly less at $2,199.99. It's scheduled to ship February 12.

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