Sony's MacBook Pro, the VAIO VGN-N17L

Hey, why does that 15-inch MacBook Pro say Sony on it? Ah, 'cause it's the new VAIO VGN-N17L. Not much is known 'bout this salute to Jonathon Ive, other than the photos were received by Akihabara News from Sony's South Korean office. Hey Steve, we think those kids might be laughing at you. See more incriminating evidence after the break.

Update: While not the exact same model, the 15.4-inch VGN-N130G was spotted at Best Buy (thanks Josh) in a similar shell going 1.6GHz Core Duo with Intel 945GM graphics, 1GB of DDR2 memory, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, 80GB disk, and dual-layer DVD writer for $949. Oh and it's 1.6-inches thick and 6.8-pounds 'cause we know you'll want to compare. Hey, that sounds like the N-series. Well nice to see you from the front after all this time.

[jorge @ Nov 1st 2006 8:39AM]

KILF!!

[Dougal @ Nov 1st 2006 8:41AM]

That's got something you'd never see on a MacBook Pro - a second mouse button!

[Typist @ Nov 1st 2006 8:44AM]

STFU Engadget!

Sony makes good looking laptops; look at their carbon fibre TX series... where its the CarbonMac?

[boolean22 @ Nov 1st 2006 8:47AM]

I think the kids are laughing at the prank they made to their adult babysitter!!

The "web browser" is a wallpaper image (a never expiring joke on computer related biz), since the desktop icons lie on top of the "window" unconspicuously on the left margin.

Son Yi: � Oh! I can't seem to understand this web browser, nothing happens when I click!!

Kids: � HA ha ha ha! He though this Peezee was as dumb as a Mac to use!!

MORAL: the kids are way ahead, folks. Way ahead.

[boolean22 @ Nov 1st 2006 8:47AM]

I think the kids are laughing at the prank they made to their adult babysitter!!

The "web browser" is a wallpaper image (a never expiring joke on computer related biz), since the desktop icons lie on top of the "window" unconspicuously on the left margin.

Son Yi: � Oh! I can't seem to understand this web browser, nothing happens when I click!!

Kids: � HA ha ha ha! He though this Peezee was as dumb as a Mac to use!!

MORAL: the kids are way ahead, folks. Way ahead.

[boolean22 @ Nov 1st 2006 8:49AM]

sorry for double post... Connection halted for a minute.

[Sam @ Nov 1st 2006 8:49AM]

Actually, as many of you already know, Apple steals Vaio engineers left and right. In fact, if you look at the keys on the Vaio FE, which came out before the MacBook, you'll notice they also have a square and flat shape.
Kudos to Sony on its revenge.

[Ali Mikkael Gueltekin @ Nov 1st 2006 8:50AM]

There are many sports cars around, but only one Porsche!

Poor Sony, they could have done better than copying the Powerbooks.

[John Williams @ Nov 1st 2006 8:56AM]

his name is Jonathan Ive as in I've got to learn the name of Apple's head design guy.

[icerabbit @ Nov 1st 2006 8:57AM]

Two mouse buttons ... the only thing Apple notebooks still lack.

[isayisay @ Nov 1st 2006 9:39AM]

You don't need a second mouse button anymore on Macs. Tapping with one finger on the trackpad is a left click. Tapping with two is a right click. You get used to it after a few taps.

[Brian @ Nov 1st 2006 9:01AM]

They have that at Best Buy.

[Jamie Harris @ Nov 1st 2006 9:06AM]

Looks more like a G3 iBook inside than a powerbook

[Josh @ Nov 1st 2006 9:07AM]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8103704&st=vaio+VGN-N17L&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1158317794732
Best Buy already has another model with the same case on their shelves.

[telepheedian @ Nov 1st 2006 9:18AM]

It needs more cheese-grater vents.

[TS @ Nov 1st 2006 9:19AM]

About the Best Buy comments, that is correct. My local BB has had a sony model with that casing for nearly a month now. Get on the ball, Engadget!

[dtrenz @ Nov 1st 2006 9:20AM]

yeah, i saw this at best buy a week ago... are you guys slipping?

[Fred @ Nov 1st 2006 9:23AM]

I say if these laptops don't break and fuck up like the Macs then more power to Sony), because seriously Apple sucks and you all know it.

Sorry I didn't know that, I must have mislaid the latest 'Windows Geeks Weekly' newsletter.

[fastolfe @ Nov 1st 2006 9:24AM]

I'm with #1 - 3!

[Mark @ Nov 1st 2006 9:28AM]

People are still putting ports on the back of laptops? Gosh.

[Jared Rice @ Nov 1st 2006 9:55AM]

1.6 inches and 6.8 pounds... fattie!

[Shaun @ Nov 1st 2006 9:55AM]

I'd prefer if it had no buttons. Seriously, I click by tapping the trackpad instead of the one button there is there already and once you've spent five seconds getting used to two-finger-clicking you don't go back to having to hunt for the right mouse button.

[Mr. B @ Nov 1st 2006 10:09AM]

Slowly buy surely, Vaios are getting alot more attractive.

[Sam @ Nov 1st 2006 10:36AM]

The only reason we hear more about Macs when the break is because it has become accepted that PCs (and WHOA Sony's) don't ever work perfectly so why bother worrying. Apple is like the super smart kid in school that gets heavily disciplined for little mistakes because so much is expected of them.

[PEZ @ Nov 1st 2006 10:41AM]

All laptops stink. And its not a POWERBOOK (Ali Mikkael Gueltekin) its a MacBook. The year is 2006 - welcome.

[shiftdelete @ Nov 1st 2006 10:55AM]

VAIO has been making sleek notebooks well before Apple had a clue about hardware design.

[Sam @ Nov 1st 2006 11:17AM]

thank you!
i love macs and all, but Sony still makes the BEST hardware, and has always had nice designs

[fnb @ Nov 4th 2006 3:31PM]

BZZZT wrong. Sony has not been making laptops before Apple. What, were you born in 1999?


I'll still take a Mac and Mac OS X, thanks-very-much.

[optV @ Nov 1st 2006 11:15AM]

Gotta love the web browser wallpaper. Almost as classic as taking a screenshot of the desktop, setting as the desktop and moving all the icons. There are some great WTF reactions to be had!

[homer @ Nov 1st 2006 11:22AM]

only thing the sony laptops lack is the randomly shutdown syndrome...

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Nov 1st 2006 11:24AM]

What a cheap imitation! First, there are ports on the back, which is so inconvenient. Second, there are ports on each side of the trackpad where one normally puts his hands to move the laptop around, just like on the PowerBooks, but fixed on the Macbooks. Third, there are two trackpad buttons, which is utter ugliness and unnecessary, and something that The Steve would never allow. Fourth, the hinge is way less elegant than on the MacBooks. Fifth, the back of the screen with a tiny SONY logotype above and a big VAIO logotype below is nowhere near as elegant as the clean Apple logo design. Sir Stringer, you have no choice but to bow to His Royal Steveness.

[jpo @ Nov 1st 2006 11:40AM]

Nice hardware design but what's that ugly stuff on the screen? Oh....that's Windoze...

[Rasmus @ Nov 1st 2006 11:51AM]

Too bad it looks like shit. Why can't they pay respect to the details like apple does? That fat border around the creen makes me think of IBM hardware from the 90's. however, it's a step in the right direction for the win-pc hardware market.

[tom (dB) @ Nov 1st 2006 12:01PM]

I wonder if I place my laptop in that interesting position it will increase my productivity?

[Sonny @ Nov 1st 2006 12:37PM]

yeah, we had these in at compusa, old news

[willieboy @ Nov 1st 2006 12:44PM]

I wish I were a Sony!!! At least that one...

[GorgeousGeorge @ Nov 1st 2006 1:41PM]

That thing is a "lap"top? Could've fooled me. For a second there, I thought it was one of those new modular houses everyone's always talking about.

[L. M. Lloyd @ Nov 1st 2006 2:23PM]

People, listen to yourselves. You are actually arguing that Apple did boxy, plain, and completely nondescript before anyone else! Now I could be wrong, but hasn't that been the entire complaint about PC design for 20 years? Oh, wait, but Apple was the first to do "cool" boxy, plain, and completely nondescript!

What a bunch of sheep!

[GorgeousGeorge @ Nov 1st 2006 2:40PM]

I'm sorry, but this needs to be said. Say what you will about the quality and durability of Apple's products (the jury is still out on the MacBook line, as far as I'm concerned). But they have definitely been pioneers in the style/packaging side of the business for decades. Apple has almost cornered the market on "cool" in the home computing industry. It's too bad they don't have the market share to match, but that's now ancient history.

[L. M. Lloyd @ Nov 1st 2006 3:15PM]

All that is required for something to be "cool" is for "cool" people to say it is "cool." That is no measure of quality, design, or anything of any value, just a measure of how popular something is among a particular clique. You can say whatever you want about the history of Apple's industrial design, that doesn't change the fact that their current notebook lineup looks as plain, boxy, and nondescript as a shelf full of generic products!

Doing "cool" things in the past doesn't somehow turn phoned-in generic design into genius, just because "cool" people automatically associate the corporate brand with the word "cool."

Anyone who would defend the rather boring design of the current MacBook as some high point of industrial design, is far too blinded by their Pavlovian response to the Apple brand to be able to make any kind of objective critique of the design. Thus, the sheep comment!

[JT @ Nov 1st 2006 3:42PM]

Inovations is hard I guess people keep copy Apple instead of make new things

[Eric @ Nov 1st 2006 5:50PM]

Sorry, you can try, but you cant beat the Mac...

[Lorenzo @ Nov 1st 2006 5:58PM]

Sony just can't win no matter what they do. When they came out with the first ultra-thin laptops that were the 505 series prompting Crapple, I mean...Apple to follow suit, I don't remember anybody accusing Cupertino of copying Sony.

[engdgt.9.nikster @ Nov 1st 2006 6:49PM]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

Apple-haters please cut down on the drugs a bit and remember this is just a company and if you don't like their products just don't buy them.

The MBP design is getting a bit old but it's still great - in fact, it's timeless. If you have ever looked at the detail on these you will have to admit that it's the product of a deep obsession with design; even the tiniest screw on the MBP is perfect.

Evidence of timeless design: I have a 5 year old laptop
which looks better than any PC laptop out there - sexier, sleeker, thinner, just hot, a titanium PowerBook. It can't just "keep up" with the latest from Asus, Sony, Acer - it beats them hands-down in the looks department.
Same is true for my 5 year old iPod. It looks as cool today as it did back then. That's because it's not following some fashion trend but because it's a design classic.

Blast Apple on their control-freakery or their initial quality, but not on design - that's just dumb.

[Anonymous @ Nov 1st 2006 9:42PM]

"VAIO has been making sleek notebooks well before Apple had a clue about hardware design."

And the original PowerBooks were the birth of modern laptop design.

So your point was?

[MNA @ Nov 2nd 2006 8:11AM]

First of all (I thought everyone would mention this first) the lappie seems to lack a webcam - which perhaps indicates this wont be a premium model(?).
As far as quality goes, I havent noticed any real flaws on the sony's I've encountered so far.
They feel sturdy and well built, from their tiniest models to the grand 17". In terms of quality we would all wish Apple could try to learn something here - but the simple truth is that they don't have to! Quality costs and Apple philosophy is not so much about selling the hardware, it's about selling the lifestyle and making sweet dollares off it.
Even as of today (2006) I have yet to see a apple lappie or stationary, that hasn't got scratches on it or didn't have any broken or missing piece (even the ipod look like a cats scratchpad after sometime w/o protection). The sub level quality is not only attribute to the white plastics, even the powerbooks suffer as they share the same DNA of papa Jobs.. That said I do not hate macs, I only wish for OSX to be unrestricted so that I can use it on my pc.. :)

[peter @ Nov 2nd 2006 11:43AM]

You can copy outer shell, but content is another story. Aple is still and Aple. Macbook Rules!

[ilovesideboob @ Nov 4th 2006 8:49PM]

Engadget needs more sideboob. Nice1 Sony.

[DanRogl @ Nov 6th 2006 10:09AM]

Out of sight, out of mind, Mark :-)

[cindy @ Apr 12th 2009 11:18PM]

Sony laptop is my love, especially the laptop.When the original sony battery is off, I will buy a replacement.Maybe http://discount-laptopbattery.com is a good place.