Exclusive: New VAIO Hybrid PC and VAIO Chrome Coming This Summer

Sony has always been known for its ingenuity and amazing design in hardware but most of us may have noticed recently that we have not seen anything ground breaking and extraordinary from the company. Engadget recently unearthed some info about about the upcoming Sony tablet supposedly featuring PlayStation certification as a “full blown media and gaming tablet” , however Sony has some more goodies cooking in their kitchen as we speak.

So, there this interesting VAIO Hybrid PC and the reason why it is a hybrid is it consists of two components. Yes, there is an actual notebook that will be pretty thin, featuring Intel’s Light Peak technology which is what we know now as Thunderbolt, that same interface that current MacBooks Pro are sporting.

Just to tease you a little bit with the hardware specs, you will be presented with and Intel Wireless Display, SSD of hard drive flavor, i7 processor, no optical drive, HDMI output with 3D support, expect battery life to run from 8 to 16.5 hours and the thing should weigh around 1.13 kg.

Now the second component/unit that’s what will be unique to this VAIO when connected, it will provide:

• Discrete GPU (AMD Whistler-XT with 1 GB VRAM)
• Blu-ray disc (reader/writer) drive
• HDMI Output
• VGA Output
• RJ45 Ethernet port
• USB
• weighing around 0.68kg

The connector is kind of funky and reminded me of VAIO DVD-RW i.Link plus power connector, only this time it looks like it’s gonna use USB and AC connection.

Overall the notebook looks pleasing to eyes, aesthetically designed in its VAIO fashion, however we are not quite sure about the purpose  of the second component. It again reminds me of a desktop model Sony marketed back in 2007 – VAIO RM series that featured a twin-unit form factor.

The next VAIO we unearthed is the VAIO with Chrome OS.

As Google is prepping its Chrome OS debut, Sony is hard at work to bring you their first VAIO pimped up in Google’s OS of course. Expect to see the following hardware specifications of this new PC:

• Nvidia Tegra 2 (250) platform
• 11.6″ (1366×768) LCD display
• 1 GB of Memory
• 16 GB eMMC (electronic multimedia card)
• Ultra-low power GeForce GPU
• Wireless WAN
• Wide Keyboard (18mm) will be pretty similar to the Google Chrome Cr-48 laptop keyboard
• Dimensions: less than an inch thick at around 19.9 mm; width is at 11.7″ (298 mm) and it is 21.5 cm (8.46″) deep
• It should weigh around 2.2 lb (or 1kg)
• 8 hour battery life

Features like Bluetooth and GPS will be enabled later on, so don’t expect those two right at launch in summer of 2011.

As far as the software department, you will love the Quick booting, Chrome OS auto-update will ensure you are always on top of new features and Sony will throw in some VAIO related software as well.

That is all for now guys, we will bring more info as it becomes available, sorry cannot post any actual pictures and I am not that great at drawings…Stay tuned though!

More Battlefield 3 Gameplay Footage

Last week EA/DICE released more in-game footage from the highly anticipated Battlefield 3, which is shaping up to be the best version of the game ever released. Check out our previous musings on Battlefield 3, which will be for PC, PS3, and XBOX360. I still play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 multiplayer (on PC) quite a bit..

The New VAIO S Emerges in the US…Finally

We saw the European release, wondered where the heck the Japanese VAIO SA/SB announcement was, as in history they used to break the news and create nice flashy web pages teasing the rest of the world – times have definitely changed.

Sony USA came out today and announced its introduction of VAIO S – the not-so-prototype but more of a teaser we saw at CES.  The SonyStyle is taking pre-orders and will let you customize the model by maximizing it and pimping it out with the latest and greatest. We’d say this model will definitely throw some punches against the new Macs and HPs you may see on the market. We customized to the max and ended up with a pretty nice configuration for $2269 with the following:

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Sony Europe Shows Off The Colorful VAIO C

Sony Europe has posted a colorful new video to YouTube showing off the new VAIO C series laptop. The design is truly high-tech, as it “scatters light along edges of the translucent PC lid and other key surfaces to create a dramatic glow effect.” It has many other cool features that you can read about at the VAIO C SonyStyle pre-order website. 

New VAIO Neon C Series May Blind You

Yes, you heard it, Sony decided to go all out and bring some smashing neon colors to  your life, that of course if you bring one of their VAIO CA or CB series home. The exclusive colors will be represented in neon green as well as neon orange with 14 inch and 15.5 inch LED widescreen displays. I guess the VAIO P that came in similar coats did not attract that needed attention, so the bigger size and more neon color would definitely blow your fellow Starbucks coffee junkies away. Sony did not stop at just that, expect to see light radiating around the edges of the laptop, through the VAIO logo, and even around the touchpad emitting a beautiful glow, add to this the lit keyboard and you got a Tron-like visual effects in a dark room.

On the software side, the future users of these models will be greeted with the Sony Imagination Studio™ Suite VAIO® Edition combines five powerful Sony® applications for easily enhancing and sharing your music, photos, and movies. Turn your video shoots into Hollywood-style movies with Vegas™ Movie Studio HD Platinum. Make your own original music tracks or create remixes and mash-ups of your favorite songs with Acid™ Music Studio.  And of course you can burn your videos to DVD or Blu-ray Disc™ media (select models) to share with your family and friends.

Interesting to note, these new models also come pre-installed with Remote Keyboard that some of you are familiar already, however this time it not only controls your PlayStation 3 XMB menu, it will also help navigate menus and options within your connected BRAVIA® television or Blu-ray Disc player (we are pretty sure it applies to 2011 models).

Specifications are not bad either – you will end up with second generation Intel Core i5 processor that delivers even more performance automatically when you need it with a better visual PC experience built-in.

In graphics department – AMD Radeon HD 6630 1GB Hybrid Graphics card (select models) gives a performance boost to your day-to-day processor functions for a faster, more optimized overall computing experience while lowering power consumption.

If you are not a fan of neon colors, Sony will be glad to sell you Lightning White and Bolt Black C Series which have a distinctive, appealing pattern that hints at the sophistication and powerful technology on the inside.

Expected ship dates are in mid March starting at $880.

Sony VAIO SA and SB Series Details Pop up

Sony has not officially introduced the new line up of VAIO notebooks, however we have mentioned before and a chatter on the internets showed up some commotion about the upcoming VAIO SA/SB series. Like with other VAIO models, Sony is sticking with its alphabetic naming scheme (just look at the generations of E series that started with EA and currently at EF modification). So it was pretty much expected to see the S series VAIO evolve into newer updated line. So according to good lads and girls at notebookreview.com some European vendors have been spilling information about the SA/SB series. There is nothing totally groundbreaking, however the specs look pretty good and weight wise it is not bad at all. Looks wise, we think that the concept VAIOs that were introduced at CES very well might be the new SA/SB series.

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Sony VAIO Concept Notebooks at CES

It’s not very often you would see Sony show off its future concept ideas for their VAIO line up, however this time they made an exception and brought 2 models to tease us. In our opinion however those two models seemed more of a pre-production type products rather than concept per say that usually may stay in R&D lab and never see the light on a shelf of a store.

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The New All in One VAIO L Touch HD PC/TV

Today Sony released all new and redesigned VAIO L (it’s about time!). The new Sony VAIO® L Series Touch HD PC/TV features a stunning 24-inch multi-touch screen enabling intuitive touch access to the internet, TV, Blu-ray Disc™ movies and more. An interesting innovation, unique to the L series expands the touch functions to the LCD bezel itself featuring edge Access technology. With the help of this technology a user will be able to access every day short cuts enabling to quickly start up a desired program, flip through the web pages by swiping fingers on the bottom of the LCD bezel, zoom by touching the black glass sections along the edge of the VAIO L, close window, etc.
This new all-in-one will also feature a full HD LED backlight display panel, instant on functionality, an HD webcam, and white will be one of its available colors.
New VAIO L would be a perfect companion for your small bedroom or kitchen and can be used as a television set as well as a DVR. Select VAIO L models will sport a built-in TV tuner and Blu-ray Disc playback as well as recording capabilities. Like previous models, an HDMI out is included if you wish to expand your viewing experience by connecting it to a larger TV. With its HDMI in connection, you can pair it up with PS3 to enjoy gaming.
Unfortunately this first generation VAIO L is not a 3D PC, however expect Sony introduce that feature later in the year.
It is definitely a very stylish PC designed to easily blend with your home decor, the VAIO L Touch PC features a sleek V-shape stand and is wall-mountable for a slick, space-saving computing experience. It also comes with a stylish wireless keyboard and wireless mouse letting you work freely without cords, and optional keyboard skins in eye-catching colors.
It will be available for pre-orders and cost you around $1200. Watch out for hands on experience in our follow up posts.

Affordable Sony VAIO Y series

Another model was unleashed at Sony’s booth on the CES floor is VAIO Y series. As you may remember Sony introduced this model earlier however it had a 13.3″ LCD; this time around VAIO engineers decided to shrink its LCD LED backlit display to 11.6 inches preserving however its high brightness levels and clear, crisp picture quality. Backed by the new AMD® E Series processor and up to 4GB of RAM, this PC is powerful enough for the demands of daily basic computing yet portable enough for the frequent traveler.

An HDMI output will enable you to connect this notebook to a bigger LCD HD and you can pretty much use it to browse websites, check your facebook and tweet from your coach.

It’s a pretty affordable, low end notebook will be a good companion to any student or someone who wants to have a smaller form factor notebook for blogging and looking up information online.

Expect VAIO Y series to ship in February for about $550.

The New VAIO S Series Lives On

Sony introduced another new model in its VAIO family – VAIO S featuring a widescreen LED backlit 13.3 inch display with a durable magnesium casing. It’s another perfect energy efficient notebook that delivers high brightness levels and vibrant colors while helping to provide up to 5 hours of standard battery life, and up to 7.5 hours with a large capacity battery.
A feature that was introduced a couple of years ago has been brought back and incorporated in this VAIO called G-Sensor™ Shock Protection technology helps protect it against the bumps and knocks common to frequent travel or life on-the-go.
If you are into wireless streaming, this VAIO features Intel Wireless Display for your content to be beamed to a compatible HDTV. Also as a standard feature now, an HDMI output is built in if you would like to output movies, photos, etc on your big screen TV.

It should be available soon for about $900 at your nearest SonyStyle or BestBuy stores.