Sony Vaio NW 15.5" Announced

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/18/sony-unveils-15-5-inch-vaio-nw-with-bd-rom-and-880-price-tag-w/

"Sony announced today a new entry into its VAIO series, the NW, complete with a Blu-ray drive and what they're hoping is an aggressive pricing point. It's packing a 15.5-inch WXGA display with XBRITE, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 with 512MB VRAM, a 4x BD-ROM drive, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, webcam, 802.11a/b/g/n, a 400GB HDD, and a Li-ion battery that's at best 5.5 hours in large capacity and at worst 1.5 hours with the standard-sized version. Port-wise, we've got VGA and HDMI output and Memory Stick Pro, ExpressCard, and SD card slots. "

Looks like Sony wasn't far behind in releasing something to directly compete against the new Dell Studio 14z at a more consumer friendly pricing option.

Post your thoughts here...

 

Is this the only new model from Sony? Will there be other models that will be released by Sony in the same time frame? It said that it will be released sometime next month. I am interested in the new model that will replace 16.4" FW. Hopefully a Radeon 4870 video card with the same weight and screen size as 16.4" FW.

 

NW is now listed at Sony Japan website. http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/vaio/products/NW/

 

Looks good, but I wish it had a higher resolution. Multitasking would not be fun at the resolution their offering.

 

I'm hoping for some upgrades as well... P7350? c'monnnnn

 

Be happy Sony didn't put in a cheap T series instead.

 

Hmm any new model that will replace the FW will most likely contain the new cpus and not the old ones. therefore if calpella is supposed to arrive this fall or winter than new laptops (entire replacement for FW, ie new gen) will not arrive before the summer end.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/19/leaked-lenovo-roadmap-shows-calpella-laptops-coming-january-2010/

but a refresh is probably due before the school shopping season.

 

I don't see the point for a new 15 inch economy model...NS line looks better

 

Low-cost entry for Blu-ray playback. Stick it to Steve's "bag of hurt".

 

Hah! Good call

 

The 'N' series have typically been a budget line of Sony laptops, so of course they don't have the higher Intel processors. And Sony I am fairly sure will never put a 4870 in one of their laptops, it will require something very bulky to cool it down and that is not Sony's style.

 

How about the 18.4" AW? It's quite bulky and heavy.

 

It is really quite thin for a notebook of its screen size though, and to put the cooling system for such a GPU would make the laptop bulkier and heavier than what it already is.

 

Yeaaah, that's what it's for - playing movies. It's reminiscent of Lenovo Y550 model - same 16:9 low res display on 15" model.

I wish they'll come up with FW-series design 15" laptop with WSXGA+ resolution.

 

Hi guys - I just got the Sony NW180J and really like it. HOWEVER - it has one major drawback that I am hoping someone can help me get past...

To my surprise this notebook does not have the Synaptics touchpad. Rather, it has one made by Alps. And apparently the Alps touchpad/drivers do not support the ability to create "tap areas" and assign functions.

There seems to be SOME support for this, but it is VERY limited compared to the Synaptics. For instance with my previous Vaio that had the Synaptics device, I was able to tell it that a tap in the top-right corner should act like the browser's back button. I am so used to this that now I don't want to be without it.

Interestingly the Sony CS series DOES have the Synaptics devices, and apparently so does the FW series. But the NW does not.

I found some limited support, like you can set a few actions for the top-left corner. But not a "back button" function nor anything that is really useful.

Likewise this device does not seem to support the ability to continue to scroll as you hold your finger at the end. For instance with my older Vaio I can run my finger to the edge of the touchpad, and when it gets to the end, if I keep my finger down, then it acts like I am still moving in that direction. This is very handy and I can't seem to find it.

At any rate, despite really liking this laptop I think I am going to return it and get the FW series. Its a little bigger than I want as far as portability is concerned, but at least it has this functionality.

At any rate, I hope this is helpful for anyone else considering this laptop. And likewise if anyone knows how I can get this functionality on the NW, please post ASAP. Thanks very much in advance!