Never one fall behind its competitors (well, except maybe on the
portable audio front), Sony's stepped it up and given Core 2 Duo options to a total of eight different laptop configurations: one in the 15.4-inch Vaio
FE series, three in the 17-inch
AR series, and four in the ultraportable 13.3-inch
SZ series. The VGN-FE770G is currently the cheapest way to get your Merom-on through Sony, though you're still getting a decent feature set for your $1,350: a 1.83GHz T5600 CPU, 1GB of 533MHz DDR2 RAM, a 120GB, 5,400RPM HDD, and a dual-layer DVD burner- though just a 1,280 x 800 resolution and integrated graphics that eat up 128MB of that RAM. As for the SZ series, you're starting out with the $1,950 VGN-SZ320P/B (T5600, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, DVD burner, nVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 graphics) and ending up with the $2,550 VGN-SZ370P/C, which jacks the processor up to a 2.0GHz T7200 and the RAM up to 2GB but leaves the rest of the specs untouched. Finally we have the AR's, with the $1,800 VGN-AR230G being your cheapest 17-inch option; here you get that ole T5600, a GeForce Go 7400 card, 1,440 x 900 resolution, 1GB of RAM, 200GB of HDD capacity, and obviously, a DVD burner. If you're looking to go high end, Sony's got you covered there too, as the $3,500 VGN-AR290G (pictured) sports a T7200 with 4MB L2 cache, GeForce Go 7600GT graphics, two gigs of RAM, 200GB of storage, a sweet 1,920 x 1,200 WUXGA resolution, and best of all, that multi-format Blu-ray burner that will make you the envy of all your friends and colleagues. We could bore you with an even longer list of specs for all eight lappies, but instead we'll just link you to their respective product pages and let you peruse at will....
Read- VGN-FE770G
Read- VGN-SZ320P/B
Read- VGN-SZ330P/B
Read- VGN-SZ360P/C
Read- VGN-SZ370P/C
Read- VGN-AR230G
Read- VGN-AR250G
Read- VGN-AR290G
[Via
laptoping]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Magness @ Aug 28th 2006 11:17PM
Now all we need to do is wait for the MBPs w/o Core 2 Duos (due to the recent space of Core 2 Duo announcements) and my life will be complete.
bazald @ Aug 28th 2006 11:31PM
/me sighs
Why do you Apple fanboys have to comment on every CPU-upgraded notebook announcement? I wish Apple would go back to the PPC architecture so you would leave the rest of us alone...
Magness @ Aug 28th 2006 11:52PM
Because if we don't, those DIRTY, STINKIN' AMIGA fanboys will take over....
Deezee @ Aug 29th 2006 12:49AM
I agree about the Apple-fanboy thing. What ever happened to "Intel is part of the evil empire" and "The G5 platform's got legs (Steve Jobs)". Now Intel is the greatest thing ever because Jobs says its ok. Bleh.
Anyways why the hell does Sony name their Laptops such incomprehensible names??! I cant remember which product line is which.
simon @ Aug 29th 2006 1:38AM
DeeZee,
i may be a Sony fanboy but i think that you are right. Hopefully Howie Stringy will see your comment and pay attention.
Simon
Deezee @ Aug 29th 2006 3:17AM
@Simon
I love Sony stuff myself. I love their liquid cooled desktops too.
But their naming system sux!!!!! I couldn't tell which desktop was which by name, and now I cant tell which laptop is which. They didnt even try to incorporate the screen size, or the processor speed, or anything that would make sense into their names. Its like a random combo of numbers letters. They need to rethink that.
AA @ Aug 29th 2006 3:41AM
No updated service manual for FE, AR, SZ yet.
Michael K @ Aug 29th 2006 10:48AM
Has anyone noticed that "Merom" backwards is "More M"? As in "More Mobile" perhaps? Hmmm....
keith waddington @ Aug 29th 2006 11:30PM
why do windoz fanboyz have to comment on every CPU-upgraded notebook announcement? I wish they would realise that no-matter what processor they get it's still WINDOZ.
And I agree that this post is almost as dumb as Mr. Bazald's.
waddo
http://www.waddo.net/
Ferny @ Aug 31st 2006 4:45AM
why can't I find any of these for sale.
I just find reviews of them.
anyway I would like to customize one either an HP or a vaio but damn it put up the options.
muhammad majid @ Aug 31st 2006 1:41PM
let me inform about latest model of sony laptop with consetioned price
sdveirs @ Sep 29th 2006 9:35PM
Ferny, Microcenter has them, and I think Bestbuy. You can use Pricewatcher to find them also.
I just drooled over this laptop tonight at Microcenter. It was so freakin sexy, I just don't have the money right now.
I am a solid Dell fan because that is what I have been forced to, and I am used to any other name brand of computer sucking. Gateway, Compaq, HP, Sony...but I think these guys are getting better. I started looking at HP notebooks because a friend has one and its niiiice.
(AR230G)This laptop has 1080p display and hdmi output, wow. Most probably wont ever use that..but still a hot concept.