Sony's new Vaio NW series detailed
(Credit:
Sony)
Sony's press conference earlier today revealed details of the company's Blu-ray strategy and introduced a new laptop in the Vaio NW series. We talked to Sony about the new system a few weeks ago, and here are some details on this Blu-ray equipped 15.5-inch notebook.
The basic NW180J/S is $880 (for $80 less you can skip the Blu-ray drive, but what's the point?), and includes a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a 400GB 5400rpm hard drive, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and a 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4570 graphics card. The 16:9 display has a native resolution of 1366 x 768, which isn't ideal for Blu-ray, but is typical for widescreen 15-inch screens.
Sony calls the system, "gracefully thin," and at 1.2-inches thick, it's fairly slim for a mainstream laptop. The chassis has a textured, wavy finish, and comes in three colors, walnut brown, birch white, and rattan silver (or, as we'd call them, brown, white, and silver). The Vaio NW is EnergyStar 5.0 compliant, and Sony claims the packaging is made of 98 percent recycled content. We're also pleased to see a power-saving "display off" button, to easily turn off the screen when it's not needed.
The Vaio NW will be available by the end of June.
New York native Dan Ackerman, a former radio DJ turned journalist, has written about technology and music for publications including Spin, Blender, The Hollywood Reporter, and USA Today. He hosts the weekly Digital City podcast and the New York edition of Editors' Office Hours. Dan's new album, Tales Out of Night School, is available now. E-mail Dan. 
As far as recording, that's a different question entirely. If it doesn't explicitly say it can record DVDs, I wouldn't bet on it -- but then, this article doesn't list all the specs, so it's possible.
Regarding burning, it depends, but most Blu-Ray players can burn DVDs, yes (I'm afraid DL-DVD is not as common, though).
Sony style responded to me that $880 is wrong info...
This was the press release from sony
http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_room/consumer/computer_peripheral/notebooks/release/40708.html
asked sonystyle.com, and this was their respponse
Dear Customer,
The tentative starting price was $800 then one week later the price increased up to $849.99 ,prices adjustments can be done during the next month depending on market fluctuation,the price may go down or a little higher .Obviously,this information will be shown at our official web site regardless what other sources may indicate.
At this moment we won't have any other NW series coming out yet,so,the price will be kept as it is at this moment .I definitively regret this inconvenience caused.
Thank you for contacting Sony Style !!!!
Sincerely,
Hugo B
Sony Style Concierge
www.sonystyle.com
Does anyone know if One Click to Disc sony's software is compatible with the former Click to Disc? I have a few projects in the older format and I wonder if I can resurrect them.
- by dpix July 4, 2009 9:50 AM PDT
- The 1st day this NW showed up on the sonystyle site it was $999, I never saw it at $880 even though all over the internet it said it would be $880. A rep told me Sony never gave that price, & then I saw a Sony release with that price. The day before this model showed up on the site I was ready to buy a FW model. I was asking about a different color & the rep told me it would be in the next day. Next day came & what I wanted wasn't available at all, in any color as I had it configured. . I buy a lot of Sony stuff, but I am rethinking by brand preference. Their reps don't seem to know what they are talking about. I have already decided on a Samsung HDTV instead of the Sony I was considering. Guess I will look at other laptops too.
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