Sony really bumped out a whole lot of laptop today, but we got a chance to handle each and every one, and came away impressed — perhaps not blown away, but Sony certainly doesn’t seem to be planning on letting the likes of Lenovo run away with the PC laptop design crown. None of the laptops felt astounding light, but they did all feel rather solid to handle, as if crafted out of a single element, instead of cobbled together — particularly the magnesium alloy-built BZ. We’ll have to get some more time with the keyboard to get a real read on them, but we like the shape of the keys and the depth of the action. Something that sort of flew under the radar in Sony’s announcement is a new sort of OS X-esque dock at the bottom of the screen, with a row of icons that can be clicked on, or activated by a row of hard buttons above the SR’s keyboard. The worst thing we can say about the whole lineup is how particularly chunky the Z looks in profile, despite its 1-inch thickness, but that’s just because we’ve been spoiled by the likes of Lenovo, Apple and Voodoo, and all those ultralights aren’t packing near what the Z is. Oh, and let it be known: the glowing power button thing is pretty sexy.

Gallery: Sony VAIO hands-on extravaganza

    

From engadget

Leaks, rumors and teasers have told us just about everything we’d ever need to know about Sony’s new VAIO lineup before we ever laid eyes on it, but Sony has finally confirmed its new VAIO Z, FW, SR and BZ laptops. They share a common design language, Centrino 2 processors, configuration options and setup software to remove that icky trial ware, and a whole lot of Blu-ray between them. Of particular note is the VAIO Z, which packs a Blu-ray drive and HDMI into a 1-inch thick, 3.4 pound, 13.1-inch 16:9 form factor, and even discreet NVIDIA 9300M graphics and a full size hard drive bay, with an option for dual SSD in a RAID configuration (which is just rubbing it in, if you ask us). The Z, FW and SR keyboards are all of the isolated, raised key variety, which might remind people of the MacBook keyboard, but is actually a design Sony has been toying with for a while now. The 13.3-inch VAIO SR is Sony’s bid at bringing its ultraportable line “mainstream” with supposedly aggressive price points, multiple color options, and a four pound form factor which leaves room for discreet graphics, but sadly no Blu-ray. The 16.4-inch VAIO FW, on the other hand, has room for it all, with a 16:9 aspect ratio screen well suited to playing back Blu-ray movies. Finally, the VAIO BZ skips over the home theater fanciness and shows a growing commitment from Sony in the business laptop space. There’s a 15.4-inch screen, magnesium alloy case, spill-resistant keyboard, vPRO and all that other fancy security-related business stuff, though no HDMI or Blu-ray to speak of. The BZ and FW start at $1,000, the SR at $1,400, the FW premium at $1,750, and the Z will hit at $1,800, with an SSD option for $2,300. All should be available in the late July / August time frame.

Gallery: Sony’s new VAIO Z, FW, SR and BZ laptops go official

  

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from engadget

Boy Genius has landed a BlackBerry Bold — RIM’s big, splashy push into the brave new world of HSDPA — in production hardware trim, and it looks like the rougher users out there might need a quick lesson in fragile handling if they want to get in on the action when it launches around the world in the next few weeks. The screen is said to be absolutely beautiful (as it should be at 480 x 320), and there’s a much improved browser to take advantage of that extra real estate; unfortunately, the whole package apparently scratches up with ridiculous ease, so it’s anybody’s guess just how long you’ll be able to actually see the screen before it’s awash in damage. Just remember: keys in one pocket, BlackBerry in the other. Interested parties would do themselves a favor by clicking through to the full review — the cat knows his BlackBerrys, and he’s really gone to town this time around.

Lenovo’s heralded “rock solid” design? Check. An ample amount of ports stuffed into a lightweight package? Check. A price tag that’s on the good side of reasonable? Check. Laptop has just awarded Lenovo’s recently announced X200 ultraportable an Editor’s Choice award after determining that what it has is likely what you’ll want. Reviewers deemed the travel-friendly machine an “excellent lightweight notebook for mobile professionals who demand the business essentials,” noting that the omission of an optical drive wasn’t really a deal-breaker for them. The Centrino 2 platform was also praised, and while performance wouldn’t please the avid gamer, it should handle most everyday tasks without breaking a sweat. If you’ve got $1,200 or so burning a hole in your pocket, this might not be a bad way to remove that discomfort.

Leave it to Asus to bust out a nice laptop that we can’t have — yet. The new F8Va, released in Korea only for now, packs an Intel Core Duo T9400 at 2.53GHz, 4GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM, a 320GB SATA spinner, ATI Radeon HD3650 GPU, and a 14-inch WXGA screen at 1440 x 900. To top it off, the F8Va includes a Blu-Ray combo drive, 1.3 megapixel camera, and HDMI out. It’s hitting Korea in July, but if / when it comes to the US, we’re probably looking at a $1299 price based on early reviews. Early test scores came in at 4103 3DMarks, an SM2.0 score of 1349, and a HDR/SM3.0 score of 1819. Drool over the info in the read links if you must.

Read – Asus F8Va Laptop
Read – Asus F8Va Montevina platform laptop review
from engadget