Get used to seeing Sony's new
low-priced VAIO NW pop up all over the place: not only is Best Buy heavily promoting the $800 configuration as part of its
Next Class campaign, but it's a pretty great value in general -- our $880 tester with Blu-ray basically has every feature you could want in a WIndows machine. We just got it unboxed and toyed around with it a little -- it's not the smallest 15.5-inch machine we've ever seen, but it's not a clunker, either. There's just... more of it to love. Unfortunately, it's harder to love the goofy faux-wood texture that's been baked into the plastic -- it's very much like bad 80s rec room wallpaper. If you do work up the arm strength and fashion courage to lug this thing outside, however, you'll find that quick connectivity is greatly enhanced by
Splashtop, which allows you to quickly boot to a Linux-based shell and run a browser. It's a nice little perk, and it should help NW owners transition into the
Chrome Age quite nicely -- and speaking of which, Chrome is the default preinstalled browser once you boot back into Vista. Other quick notes: the screen has pretty dismal viewing angles and it's crazy glossy, the trackpad is textured (which we love), and we have no idea why Sony can't bother to at least properly align all the stickers on this thing -- it looks a bit of a mess. That's just sort of how it goes at this price point -- if you can get past the minor flaws, though, the VAIO NW certainly has a lot to offer. Quick Slashtop video demo after the break.
posted Jul 27th 2009 5:38PM
That could work as a mirror too.
Got damn comment system.
So that's what happened to that spare part from the Hubble Telescope.
Whoa, that's some serious gloss going on right there. Are they trying to take the mantle from Apple?
i like the macbook keyboard but theres something about it thats just ugly.
You mean the keyboard design that Apple stole from Sony?
Believe it or not.....SONY was actually the inventor of this style keyboard, not APPLE.
Kids, this style keyboard has been around for many years. Long before Sony made laptops. Chiclet keyboards have come and gone in multiple variations for at least 20 years.
Yes, but Sony were the first to use them in a modern notebook, not Apple.
aha thats apple for you
WTF are you talking about? This keyboard is totally different. Note the properly labeled Backspace key, and the presence of a legitimate Delete key and separate Page-Up & Page-Down keys. Apples don't have those.
"basically has every feature you could want in a WIndows machine."
Still does not have a vagina or cleavage... You are a loong ways off my friends...
Youporn, my friend.
No, it does have a (tight) vagina (the SD card slot).
Close your cave..
Sony is breaking some good deals on their notebooks. I think I'll go for this NW.
I just bought a Lenovo S12, and the splashtop on it boots up much faster. Plus, I can access my music, pictures, chat, and Skype all on top of the web... not ragging the laptop as a whole, just the splashtop offering.
really? complaining about stickers? i thought everyone who cares at all about their laptops' style takes those off with some GooGone right after they buy it....
It is a Sony and not a Mac. Engadget had to find something to complain about.
I am not a Apple fanboy, but the one thing that I detest with all my being is the stickers that coat the majority of Windows laptops, notably Vaio's that are extremely hard to remove when the laptop is new because of the industrial strength adhesive they utilize. Also, by the time the corners of these stickers peel off and you can remove the stickers with ease the area under it is pristine and you can see the difference in tone from sun damage or wear and tear.
I wonder if you ever actually bought a laptop and tried removing those stickers. I´ve had several Vaio´s and peeling off them is rather easy nor does it leave anything behind. Weather the colouring is different due to sun I strongly doubt as well caus that would suggest the materials arent UV proof, ie every laptop would discolour over time. (note: i´m talking about those tech specs they are easy to remove ussually they add 1 sticker from Nvidia which is harder to remove)
So.. no this is just crappish bitching with no apparant reasoning behind it just like the article which nothing better to bitch about a few stickers could be found about it. Ie its a pretty fine laptop apparantly for the price.
Wow. More useful than the Vaio P yet much cheaper. Go Sony?
So you're saying "Go machines with less specs for more money!"?
it's a good looking laptop. i like the proportions.
Hey I saw one of these at Best Buy the other day and have to say that the faux wood texture looks a whole hell of a lot nicer than the oily smudges all over the HP, Dell and Toshiba laptops. I'm getting really tired of the glossy finishes that are so "hip"
A coworker bought one and brought it into work last week, and I will say that the viewing angle of the screen is waaaaay beyond "pretty dismal." Its pretty sad that most all the laptops available these days are packed with awesome features, but have horrible screens. What happened? I have a laptop from almost 6 years ago that has better quality screens than you can buy these days. I would rather pay 50-100 dollars more and have a screen that has a viewing angle higher than 5 degrees.
I agree 100% with you on that...it took me over a year to finally settle on a MacBook Pro because of the crappy LCD's and bad viewing angles from just above every other manufacturer, particularly HP. I remember higher quality displays 5-8 years ago, but then again most laptops were $1500-$2000. I guess you get what ya pay for.
Looks a bit crap for a Sony.. Good for something like an Acer or Dell..
I actually want the viewing angle to be bad on a laptop for what I think are obvious reasons.
My wife just picked one of these up. The viewing angle is pretty bad--but, other than that, it's a nice little laptop. Fast and responsive. Keyboard has a nice feel to it. Built-in webcam. Oh, and it looks good.
I just picked this one up (in bronze) to replace my fine Toshiba a305. I LIKE the wood-grain texture! And it matches my G1. Every surface of the a305 is highly glossy and very annoying. The VAIO NW has a nice clean look to it that I really appreciate.
Wow i think i am going to get this laptop. Really like the style.
Someone was totally hounding you on Skype during this recording.
I prefer Macs but I have looked these over several times and they seem like a great deal for the money. Battery life is not too good and the res is low for this size screen. 1680X1050 would be great. I don't mind the faux wood finish. it looks better or worse depending on what color NW you get. I really like the splashtop idea. Quick boot and low battery usage.
Still look bulky and no ddr3! for $800 is a lil too much for such laptop these day. I'm in the market for a new laptop but wouldn't this unless they trim it a lil slimmer, throw in DDR3, atlease 500GB HD, longer battery life and frameless lcd.
All sony laptops are expensive but their lcd style is as old as usual......nothing new! take notes from apple and lenovo ...SONY! make it slim and frameless
i too want a 10k lamborghini
800 dollars is NOT expensive for a nice laptop. It's actually a very good price considering it's build quality and design (despite fake wood looking gross). You won't find any quality good laptops for under 750 anymore. And a thin and light will cost you around 1000.
good design , simple but nice
Picked up this exact model in Silver from Best Buy for $799.99. All in all a pretty good deal. Fast enough, I have had no problems with the screen at all. With these specs and Blu-Ray I thought it was a pretty good deal. I wouldnt recommend it for gamers but the HD video processor is more than enough for everyday tasks. Im looking forward to seeing how it runs Windows 7 when I get the free upgrade in the mail. The faux wood finish is a little odd but I kind of like it, the texturing feels nice when carrying it. I will say that it does FEEL like a cheap laptop (Keyboard is excellent though). All plastic, but it feels rugged enough to survive in my padded laptop backpack. Blu-Ray playback is excellent, and it looks great on a screen this size. Plus you can output 1080p in HDMI (although you have to kill the main display to do 1080p). Battery life is so-so, they claim 5.5 hours but I have seen closer to 2 or 3 hours in most scenarios. Im thinking about picking up an extended battery but that is a big chunk of change (250 bucks!). Overall Im very happy, wanted something with Blu-Ray that wouldnt break the bank. I never wanted to be a Sony fanboy, in my younger days I did everything I could to avoid them. Now I own a PSP, PS3, BRAVIA TV and Home Theater and a Sony digicam. For whatever reason whenever I had a need they offered me the best performance/price combo. I am as shocked as you are.
Awe crap, this looks just like the Sony Vaio Bz business line, which I have. It's halfway decent with a magnesium chasis but a wobbly screen. Now I'll look like I have the value consumer line of Sony consumer notebooks rather than a business class machine.
I have this notebook too - got it from SonyStyle.com for $999.99 with the BluRay and Centrino 2 processor. I really like this notebook - its not terribly heavy to be honest, and the keyboard is excellent, though i would prefer if it were slightly less stiff. For a notebook made entirely of recycled plastic, the build quality is quite decent and I'm not worried about putting this in my padded notebook backpack. I'm only a casual gamer so the graphics solution works fine for me. Screen isn't that bad either. I'm quite happy.
that thing is ugly as hell. Why must they label everything? Touch here to do this, look here! it's a camera, where every webcam ever integrated into a laptop is located! Well you enjoy that, while I enjoy my $800 unibody macbook.
$800 unibody macbook? there is no such thing in store. maybe you mean crappy plastic macbook. well, that's even $999. photo is different than actual look. just go to nearby bestbuy or sony store for look. it's different. I have silver one. it is awesome. of course, I have 15-inch macbook pro as well (unibody purchase october, 2008). it's lovely machine. if you don't use it or actually didn't see on naked eyes, be quiet.
Well I actually got mine used. So I guess if you're hellbent on buying it new in store this is a slightly better deal than the new unibody macbook pros. But even those are $1100 with an education discount with a free ipod touch, and free printer. But I got mine for $850 from some fellow around here. It was purchased in March. It's not hard to find a good deal on unibody macbooks.
That's great, but if you want Blu-Ray a Macbook is useless. I would love a Mac but for the price I wanted to pay and the features I wanted a Mac just did not cut it. Failure to support Blu-Ray and native HDMI at their pricepoint is insane. Great machines though.
here is a big difference when you buy it from Bestbuy or sony store (or online sony store). if you buy it from bestbuy or similar mall, you can't get ATI radeon HD4570 512MB graphic card inside. it makes your laptop way more different. if you buy it from Sony, then you have two choices that fully Blu-Ray player with everything maxout (graphic card, 400GB), and 320GB with still ATI HD 4570 graphic card without Blu-Ray. to me, Blu-Ray is not deal because I mostly download every content from iTunes, or Neflix. so I don't need it. I have used it for two weeks now. I love it.
I concur. Took my wife to a few stores and she loved the Vaio NW, nothing else was close. I ended up ordering the 130J/S model off NewEgg because it offered the best configuration (ATI HD4570 graphics card) without having to get the Blu-Ray (much like you, we have no need for it). The pricetag at NewEgg was $50 more than BestBuy ($849 vs. $799) but 2.5% NewEgg cashback from Bing and a 6.75% state sales tax for BestBuy meant buying the better configuration actually saved us $15.
I am thoroughly impressed with the laptop, especially given the price tag. My wife actually preferred the textured matte body because it didn't show smudges like the glossy bodies on HP, Dell, and others (she felt the same about the touchpad).
Go macs straight to the bin!
These were available at Selfridges UK about 3 weeks ago. Nice laptops.
i can't stand it !! why do they keep on building those glossy screens ?? i hate them !! i can't use these laptops without moving my head from side to side !!
Does it load up any browser?