Sony today announced new notebook computers to make up its summer range.
The Sony Vaio FZ series widescreen notebook is based on the brand-new Intel Centrino platform combined with up to 2GB of RAM, and 200GB of hard disk space. It features an integrated Blu-ray Disc optical drive, HDMI output and an X-black LCD screen.
The FZ series has a 15.4-inch widescreen panel, and is capable of playing and editing Full HD content. It runs on a Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT notebook GPU, which has hardware HD decoding for playback in 1080p Full HD. It also has three USB2 ports and an integrated webcam.
The Sony Vaio N30 series includes the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, a 15.4-inch X-black widescreen and a 120GB hard disk. It runs on Windows Vista, and has SD card and Sony Memory Stick slots.
The Sony Vaio AR40 series crams in an integrated Blu-ray disc optical drive. The top-end model features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7500, 320GB hard drive and software to edit HD video content.
The AR40 series also comes with a 17-inch double lamp X-black LCD widescreen display capable of 1080p Full HD, and an integrated hybrid digital/analogue TV tuner complete with remote control.
Sony Vaio BX40
The Sony Vaio BX40 series is aimed at businesses. It has a dual core Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2300 GPU with 128MB of dedicated video memory. It also has a data security system that uses fingerprint recognition.
The BX40 series features 2GB of RAM, an 120GB hard disk, 15.4-inch widescreen display, 1.3-megapixel Motion Eye webcam, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a re-writable DVD drive. It also has G-Sensor HDD Shock Protection. This detects abrupt motion and automatically parks the drive heads if you happen to drop the notebook.
Sony was only able to give us pricing and availability details on the FZ series. The Sony Vaio VGN-FZ11Z comes in at £1,399; the Sony Vaio VGN-FZ11S at £1,099; while the Sony Vaio VGN-FZ19VN costs £879. The FZ series will go on sale in mid-June.
