Sony unveils 15.5-inch VAIO NW with BD-ROM and $880 price tag, we go hands-on
By Ross Miller 
posted Jun 18th 2009 8:11PM
posted Jun 18th 2009 8:11PM
We got a chance to get some hands-on time with the portable, and we gotta say, it's a pretty impressive little number. It's not the most slender 15-incher, but at six pounds, it's lighter than we expected. The chiclet keys -- dubbed "isolated keyboard" by Sony PR -- are comfortable to use, as is the textured trackpad. Body and hinge felt sturdy, with an intentionally rugged and stylistic feel to it, and as one rep was excited to show, the metallic "Vaio" logo on the back makes a great reflection in the sun. From what we saw, Blu-ray playback was smooth, but we did notice horizontal viewing angles weren't the best. We'll reserve judgment when we get some play time with the unit and see how hard we can push the software, but for now we're pretty happy with what we've seen. Starting price isn't too shabby, at $880 equipped with the BD-ROM and $800 without, and it comes in three colors: white, grey, and dark brown. Striking your fancy? Look for it to ship out pretty quickly, as in some time next month.
bag of hurt.
I didn't know Steve Jobs started reading Engadget!
that's a ton of computer for that price tag!
$800 without bray.. take off the sony logo and it's about $600 :).
No, you can't get dedicated graphics, that size HDD and a p-series c2d for 600. That's a solid price.
I don't know why people always say that about every Sony product.
wow this is crazy price for it being a sony and a good price for what's in this lappy O.O
Amazed
That's better than a base 15" Macbook pro for half the price.
@Jon: It's not that hard to best Apple in the computer components per dollar ratio.
This actually seems reasonable, especially considering its a Vaio.
I agree, especially since most of their Laptops with a dedicated graphics card, let alone a Bluray player can get very expensive.
And I really like the HD4570... same as the Studio 15 from Dell. It have x2 power of the 9400m.
Yeah, what the hell? Sony and affordable in a same sentence? Good laptop actually, does the BR drive only play, not write discs?
Right... Instead buying a 13inch unibody macbook pro, i'm gonna buying this VAIO
Kinda great price for Sony laptop and BD-ROM + HDMI, nice!
Yeah... there's got to be a catch.
isnt a crappy economy great!
isn't it!
yea its great that graduates can't find a job.
i have many friends too who just graduated who are having trouble finding jobs, but beside that its not bad seeing all these stores and companies sell stuff way less than you normally would pay if the " economy was doing swell"! its also a little scary being an engineering major and seeing all these companies begin to close up, scary times for an ME major =/
Yeah, a "Pro" Apple product for $1199. What's the world coming to.
i recently just purchased a 15 inch macbook pro before these built in battery ones came out, but you know i still use my dell xps here and there its impossible for me or practically any one to escape from windows unless your some die hard apple fanboy who sits in the rain for a iphone 3g x2
"yea its great that graduates can't find a job."
My guess is most of those graduates voted for hope and change. There's probably a government job for them somewhere.
Sounds like a great bang for the buck, but I'm not digging the style at all. Looks quite girly to be frank. White, grey, and dark brown? Why?
Wasn't aware that anything other than matte black was considered "girly".
Who said anything about matte black? If you want a "Dark Brown" laptop that looks like a woman's handbag be my guest. Why can't laptop makers stop reinventing what they think looks cool nowadays?
Who else hates these "stylish" laptops nowadays?
@ pofc
Oh I know, I can't stand style! Every time I see something stylish it just makes me wanna barf! Ugh! Aesthetically pleasing, yuck!
Come on now, take a look at basically anything HP has released in the past couple of years, it looks like their designers barfed up graphic art on it. You honestly think this thing looks good? I'm all for looking good, but people take it to far nowadays.
it's $800 for god sake. I don't want to look girlie after paying $800 but there are a lot of people who don't mind what it looks like when it's only $800
Why are you all so afraid of looking "girly"? Looking to display rampant masculinity with your gadgets and technology probably isn't your best approach... unless you have nothing else to demonstrate it.
The dark brown one is sexy as hell, actually. An item can be stylish and functional.
Does anyone else think the texture looks like what someone would make a knockoff designer handbag from?
Less fingerprints...
reminds me of a toilet seat for some reason.
Very very impressive, considering the price.... Anyways, does it spot a back-lit keyboard???
i agree with all the previous comments on the price? sounds to good to be true, whats the catch?
"i agree with all the previous comments on the price?"
Um... yes?
So is 1.5 hours the artifically pumped up, almost no backlights and no internet activity battery life?
Price seems pretty good though. I wonder if upgrading the battery will still keep the BD version under a grand.
Meh. i was never really impressed with Sony's style.
u? mean their website? y not ;P
you*
And what about that Sony price?
Why do they keep including a PRO memory card slot?
NO ONE USES YOUR STRANGE LONG FORM FACTOR STORAGE FORMAT. WE ALL HAVE PRO DUOS, IF THAT, AND THOSE ADAPTERS ARE EASY TO LOSE.
I hope they listen this time.
Because they're assholes.
Who uses Memory Sticks at all?
they look after the ones who bought into it I guess, in hopes that these same people will buy into the next gimmick that they come up with.
just keep the MS to Duo adapter inthe MSPro slot all the time.
Wow, that is pretty aggresively priced for a blu-ray notebook, especialy a VAIO. I wanted the FW but this looks like a much much better deal, unless the summer refresh of the FW is good.
Express card to firewire adapter
Non glossy surface, great. If the screen come in matte I'm considering this as my next PC. 880$? Formidablo!
Didn't Sony start the glossy-screen trend?
@Michael
I don't know if Sony started it, but they are the only ones getting "glossy" somewhat right (i.e. put a decent anti-reflective coating on at least some of their "non-matte" screens).
Yea, indeed Sony started the glossy trend. But Apple fanboys want to believe Steve invented it LOL, Apple just copied Sony. Yea that's right Apple DO copies =)
I can't imagine trying to watch a blu-ray movie on that puny looking thing.
(Decent internal specs aside.)
Airplane, train, etc ?
Plug it on your tv with HDMI. A bluray drive for 80$, hey, cant complain! I wish the laptop was black though...
I use laptops as HTPCs (output to large tv) as they are very small and very quiet, maybe this could be someones htpc.
1) It's a 15inch screen, which is totally decent.
2) it has HDMI.
3) ... profit ?
To clarify, by "puny", I mean the color, the texture on the lid, and the soft edges. I realize it is average-sized and has decent specs.
This means blu-ray drives are cheap now. So Sony, when are you going to drop the price of the PS3s?
I am guessing the $880 price doesn't include the big battery or the HD 4570. Well, it might include the 4570.
I bet it has SATA I !!! :P
After buying a recent CS model laptop from Sony I would NEVER buy one of their laptops again !
FANS that make a constant 'grrrrr' noise every time they spin up ... which is every 3s. Countless other people complaining on Sony Forums for months now, with Sony initially ignoring the problem and acting in their usual arrogant way by refusing to release updated firmware to stop the fans coming on constantly. Several people saying they sent their laptop back multiple times only to be returned with the same problem.... etc etc
And the CS range is supposed to be their stylish competitive to Apple's range... The NW is supposed to be their budget line, so god knows what cheap components they have used in these models.
The only lesson Ive learnt is that Sony laptops (CS range for sure) = terrible quality, and support which isnt worth the paper its written on.
Excuse me, but the CS (and NS) lines are by far their most BUDGET lines. The CS line is more specifically targetted at poor students going off to university.
If you want proper Sony quality, get the Z, TZ or AW series
The FW line is kinda in the middle. And I don't know where P fits.
I have to agree with you there, Sandman74. I bought my GF a VAIO laptop about 2 years ago. Two fans have begun to fail and are excessively noisy. Plus the PC now no longer turns on (the flex cable going to the power button is kinda broken). I tried to open it up and repair it myself (like I do with my Thinkpads), but it's a mess in there! Maybe they don't want you poking around inside, but to me it just seems like lazy industrial design. I paid this laptop over 2500$ and it only lasted 2 years! Never again. Last week, I got my GF a netbook for 400$ and it's doing just fine. If it fails after two years, it'll be much cheaper to replace.
@Nicholas Phan >> "the CS (and NS) lines... get the Z, TZ or AW series... the FW line..."
And I thought the numerous versions of Windows were confusing enough!
@ Nicholas Phan,
That CS laptop was £900, which is hardly budget/cheap in the UK...plus it was initially reviewed very well by a lot of sites/magazines (yeah.. thanks for NOT mentioning the crap fans that appear to be a design fault on all the CS models in any reviews)
The budget lines are about £400-500 in the UK, and cheaper still for netbooks. I chose Sony because I *thought* I was getting quality.. In the end I got a stinking turd of a laptop. You really think I would pay them even more money now to buy an FW or a Z range laptop ? Insanity !
For that money (£900) in the UK I could have bought an Apple Macbook, and regret the purchse of the Sony CS model to this very day.
I wont make the same mistake again.
I have had even more budgety NR series for more than 1 year - and it's blissfully quiet.
Damnit, this kicks my FW out of the water, except for the full 1080p display, AND I paid almost $300 more for it 6 months ago. :(.
Maybe I can toss it up on ebay and pick up this lil number. I don't mind the smaller screen, for the extra grunt.
It does seem fairly ugly.
Load it with Windows 7 and you just might have a nice little laptop on your hands.
Why can I see a Centrino sticker...?
http://www.engadget.com/photos/sony-vaio-nw-hands-on-2/2093065/
Why can manufactures not put atleast 1 usb port towards the back of the laptop? Hate having a ubs cord towards the front because it just gets in the way.
If I may dwell on the negative characteristics for a minute... what is the point of a 15.5' display with such a lousy resolution? Any of the possible WXGA resolutions should fit in 13".
Making it DAMN CHEAP !
That's what it's all about.
I mean, $880, this is like 640euros, you wouldn't buy half a notebook from sony with that price in 2008.
Does anyone know if this VAIO also supports switchable graphics ?? Thinkpad T400/T500 use ATi and have switchable graphics, so is it too much to ask for VAIO NW to have the same ....
What the heck is BD-ROM? You simply mean a Blue-ray drive?
Bump the RAM up to 4 GB DDR3, and I'm going for it.
Can't see the SD card slot. Have they dumped it? That would be mega stupid
I really like this new Sony VAIO budget laptop. Reading the specs of NW series, i think it's really one of those cheap notebooks in the market today. I really love it!
http://lap-topnotebooks.com/cheap-notebooks
seems pretty awesome, def blows my g/f's $800 HP she bought a few
months ago out of the water and won't look ridiculously dirty all the time with a
non-glossy body on it which is nice. I bought a NR last year which
was the predecessor to this one, both look very similar. Mine
doesn't have nearly the specs of this thing but i have had zero
problems with it (well, except the DVD-RW drive went out and i lost
my receipt so I can't get a free replacement), def will probably get
another vaio when its time to upgrade down the road... possibly to
this one when its on sale to get rid of it like my NR? haha
That would be an aggressive price since the notebook is now on the Sony site and with those specs it a cool $999. Not the bargain everybody was lead to believe
Eh, I'm getting a refurb ASUS G50vt-X5 for $699 with a much better video card, a bigger screen, and a better processor. It doesn't have Blu-ray, and the hard drive is a little bit smaller, but neither one of those things matters to me.
damn it, i just bought a NS series laptop.... *facepalm*