New Sony Laptops May 2011Sony has updated their website and are selling new Sony laptops. Some lines are gone and there are new lines. The W Series a 10.1 inch netbook series, the X Series, an 11.1 netbook series and the Z Series, a 13.3 ultra-portable are no longer available on the website.The P Series, an 8 inch net book series is also gone. Every indication is that Sony is moving away from net books. The EA, EB, and EC Series laptops, Sony's mainstream 14, 15.5 and 17.3 inch laptops have not received second generation Intel core i processors yet. They remain essentially the same. The new Sony laptops are in three series. The Y Series is an 11.6 inch ultra-portable laptop. Last years model featured an ultra low voltage Intel core i3 processor. This year, there is an AMD dual-processor E350 fusion chip inside. This is designed to replace net books with something with a little more power. The price is reasonable at $549.99. The F Series is another line that has received new processors. There is another twist to this line. There are two basic sets, a standard (2-D) and a 3-D line. The 3-D line requires glasses, the same ones as 3-D Sony Bravia televisions use. The standard display models come in two lines. The less expensive starts at $799.99 and features Intel second generation core i7 quad core processors and Nvidia graphics. If you trick it out with all the available hardware options other than the $1000+ solid state hard drive the price will go up to about $1750.00. The graphics card is good enough to play almost all games. The more expensive standard display model starts at $1099.99 and tops out at about $2000. For the extra $250 you get a faster processor and a graphics card that will play all the games that are out now. Both machines have bluray burners, 8 GB. of RAM and true high definition displays (1900X1080). Putting everything in perspective, the $799.99 is faster/better in every specification than an $1800 gamer was 2 years ago. The 3-D model starts at $1659.99 and without SSD tops out at about $2400. The hardware appears to be the same, other than the 3-D display and the required glasses, as the $2000 standard model. The final line of new Sony laptops is the S Series. This is the only line that is new on the website from last year. It seems to be a replacement for the Z Series. These are 13.3 inch laptops featuring second generation Intel core i5 and i7 processors and AMD Radeon graphics. There are two premium lines, one which features solid state drives and another with standard spinning disk drives. The other model allows you to select a less capable video card and only has one ssd option. Prices range from $969.99 to about $2500 with no optional software. The lowest priced model is good enough to play almost all games. return from new Sony laptops to buy a laptop |