Hasta La Gadget!

Oh, you were worried Sony wasn’t going to release its new VAIO S ultraportable in the US? Okay, so it has taken the company a bit longer to prep the 13.3-inch laptop for its American debut, but it’s here and it looks like it was well worth the wait. While Sony is holding that it will not replace the VAIO Z Series, which has just recently gone out of stock on Sony’s website, there’s no denying that it fills a similar high-end ultraportable spot. Don’t be fooled by its inch-thick profile, it packs a serious amount of horsepower — like the UK version, it will be configurable with Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors, AMD Radeon HD 6630 graphics with 1GB of VRAM (sadly, there’s still a physical toggle for switching), Blu-ray, and a range of SSDs. As you can tell from the image above, the design drops the circular hinge of previous VAIOs, but the 3.8-pound machine is still made of magnesium and aluminum, has a backlit keyboard, while also sporting the option of a unique slice battery that meshes with the overall aesthetic.

However, that $150 extended cell isn’t just any old battery — it’s said to provide a total of 15 hours of battery life when latched onto the bottom of the system and additionally it comes with its own adapter so it can be charged separately from the entire rig. Yep, this one is filled to the brim with the latest and greatest, and even better it doesn’t seem terribly overpriced — the $979 starting model packs a Core i5-2410 processor, those aforementioned AMD graphics, and a 320GB hard drive. It should be available for pre-order later today and we’re hoping to bring you a full review of it soon, but until then we have a few hands-on shots of the laptop back at CES below.

Continue reading Sony VAIO S arrives stateside, brings along an advanced extended battery

Sony VAIO S arrives stateside, brings along an advanced extended battery originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Excuse us for a moment while we ponder Sony’s product naming scheme. The company’s VAIO S thin-and-light laptop range got upgraded specs at CES this January, which also happened to be the place and time that we first laid eyes on a set of “prototype” machines that seemed to target the same market segment. Lo and behold, after making some cameos at European online listings, the newly redesigned Sony 13-inchers are here, only they’re still called… the VAIO S Series. For the trouble of figuring out which is which, you’ll be rewarded with a 3.9-pound mobile computer with a 1366 x 768 screen, a 500GB hard drive, 4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, 802.11n WiFi, optional VAIO “everywair” 3G, a Radeon HD 6470M GPU with up to 1GB of dedicated memory, and what will presumably be a selection of Core i5 CPUs from Intel (at present we’re only seeing the i5-2410M listed). Windows 7 is the inevitable OS on board, though Sony’s enhanced it with a Fast Boot sequence that’s said to halve the usual bootup time. Launch is scheduled for the end of March and you’ll find a full spec sheet and release after the break.

Continue reading Sony VAIO S Series get an updated design, Core i5-2410M CPU and Radeon HD 6470M graphics

Sony VAIO S Series get an updated design, Core i5-2410M CPU and Radeon HD 6470M graphics originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 04:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like Dell isn’t quite sure what to do with Adamo. First, the MacBook Air competitor was bumped from Dell’s marketing roster, then it was reduced from $999 to $899, and now it’s got a price tag of $799. Unfortunately, the price isn’t all Dell is slashing: last October the Adamo was sporting a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo SL9600 processor and 4GB of DDR3-800 memory, now we’re told it’s functioning on a 1.4GHz Core Duo 2 SU9400 and 2GB of DDR3-800 (with no upgrade option that we can find). Everything else is basically the same for the little guy, and Dell’s Adamo page still offers the suggestion, “Prepare to Fall in Love,” but we’re not entirely sure we’re the ones who need convincing.

Dell Adamo now even cheaper, slightly less powerful originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Jan 2011 23:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First it was the Adamo, now it’s the Envy. HP has joined Dell in deeply discounting its aging 13-inch ultrathin, though unlike its Round Rock competitor, it hasn’t bothered to give it any spec bumps. Consequently, even with this interest-building $450 rebate, the Envy 13 loses out to the Adamo 13 in a straight spec fight — a 1.6GHz CPU, 3GB of DDR3 RAM and a 5400RPM hard drive are all either slower or smaller than Dell’s offering — but it does still have a pair of aces up its sleeve to get latecomers to part with their cash. Those include an external SuperMulti DVD rewriter and a discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 GPU with 512MB of dedicated memory. Sure, it’s not much, but then neither is the new price.

HP slashes Envy 13 price to $999 with $450 rebate originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s little mid-range Vaio just got a little more little. The Y series, launched back in January, is shrinking from 13.3 to 11.6 inches with the new VPCYA19FJ/B model, but still offers a perfectly respectable resolution of 1366 x 768. The CPU is an Intel Core i3-380UM processor running at 1.33GHz, storage is provided by a 320GB disk, between 2 and 8GB of memory is available, and connectivity is provided by Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11b/g/n, gigabit Ethernet, and the ever-popular HDMI port. All that will supposedly still net you six hours of battery life when it ships to lucky Japanese shoppers with laps on November 27th at an as of yet undisclosed price.

Continue reading Sony shrinks Vaio Y series to 11.6 inches, threatens to cut you if you call it a netbook

Sony shrinks Vaio Y series to 11.6 inches, threatens to cut you if you call it a netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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