ArSeries
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Sony's new VAIO AR600 series of 17-inch laptops
Sony has a nice new line of upgraded AR series laptops on offer, with options for Blu-ray and CableCard in the mix. The main differences are pretty straightforward: The $1,700 AR630E sports the Blu-ray drive alone, the $2,400 AR660U does the CableCard thing, and the $3,300 AR690U does both. The laptops run Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 and T7500 processors and Vista Home or Ultimate -- the AR630E gets the short end of the stick in both cases. Other standard features include a 1.3 megapixel webcam, 1440 x 900 or 1920 x 1200 17-inch display, 8400M GT and 8600M GT NVIDIA graphics, dual 160GB SATA HDDs and HDMI out. All three models should be out around the 2nd of October.[Thanks, William M]
Sony launches VAIO C, AR colorful limited edition models for holidays
Well, it's almost Thanksgiving, and if the autumn foliage isn't colorful enough, at least you can pick up a Sony laptop in nice, warm hues. The Japanese giant has just released seven new VAIO "Graphic Splash Edition" lappies, five C and two AR models -- however, this is a limited edition, as only 2,650 will be made (500 AR's, and the rest C's). The seven color options include the pictured "Pink Swirl," "Red/Green Storm," "Blue Streaks," "Angel," (C series) plus "Orbit" and "Green Streaks" (AR series). But these laptops aren't going to win you over solely on their good looks -- they've got plenty under that cool exterior. Just as a refresher, the previously released C Series ($1,150, including the premium for the extra color scheme) is loaded up with a 13.3-inch screen, Core 2 Duo chip, DVD-RW, WiFi (a/b/g), whereas its bigger sister comes in as a 17-incher, with 400GB worth of storage, 2GB of RAM, and with the new colors, costs $2,100. Still, we're torn between spending that extra $150 on a shiny new VAIO, or footing the bill for Thursday's big dinner. Read - AR seriesRead - C series
Sony gives FE, AR, and SZ Vaios the gift of Merom
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-FE770GRead- VGN-SZ320P/BRead- VGN-SZ330P/BRead- VGN-SZ360P/CRead- VGN-SZ370P/CRead- VGN-AR230GRead- VGN-AR250GRead- VGN-AR290G[Via laptoping]
