Sony announces the VAIO CR series

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Sony today introduced a new line of thin, lightweight notebooks with stylish looks and available in five glossy colors. The Sony VAIO CR notebooks are aimed at younger users interested in looks and compactness rather than high-end performance.

Trimmed in silver and available in five interestingly named colors (sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, indigo and black) the new CR notebooks are more at home in a college dorm than a boardroom. Interesting touches include a specialized keyboard font, an LED that pulsates beneath the notebook's trim to indicate what is happening -- booting up, powering down, hibernating -- and glowing and fading accordingly. Each CR notebook comes with its own VAIO branded wallpaper and optional color-coordinated carrying bag and mouse.

Sony VAIO CR sangria color (view large image)

Weighing in at 5.5 pounds with the standard battery, the CR lets you get moving while getting noticed. Loaded with an Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz T7100 processor (Intel Santa Rosa) providing with plenty of power and energy efficiency for most users. The CR comes pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and the Windows Vista Business edition is an optional upgrade.

Equipped with a 14.1-inch widescreen display featuring Sony's XBRITE-ECO LCD technology, a CD/DVD player/burner and built-in speakers the CR model will satisfy most of your entertainment needs. Instant-on mode and A/V controls provide on-demand access to movies, music and photos without needing to boot-up the operating system.

The CR notebooks also come loaded with Sony's LocationFree software so you can watch TV, access your personal video recorder or DVD player, and view that content on your notebook via the Internet and an available base station. A built-in digital camera and microphone let you snap photos or participate in live video chats.

Sony VAIO CR looking pretty in pink (view large image)

Equipped with a Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro, SD card and ExpressCard media slots, the CR allows you to instantly access your digital media files from other devices. The included S-video port makes it convenient to connect the CR to a television set and watch a DVD or play games on the big screen.

Sony VAIO CR notebooks will be available at the end of June starting at about $1,350. Pre-orders begin online today at www.sonystyle.com and at Sony Style stores (black model online only). Select colors will be available at retail and military base exchange outlets nationwide.

 

Sony MacBook?

 

Starting at $1350 for a T7100? Compactness and not-high-end performance?

Seriously, if this doesn't have decent specs...it will be nothing more than another attempt to overcharge based on a brand name. Anyone remember when they tried to rebrand some Pentium M laptops with fancy color options and charged a boatload for it? They thought people would fall for it... I forget the series name for it, but it was seriously overpriced.

 

They look great, but the preorder link doesn't actually take you to the preorder page.

 

Yeah why is this even more expensive than the FZ?
Otherwise, it looks great! There really aren't many stylish laptops in the 14" form factor... most of the nice-looking ones are either 15.4" or 13.3".
Also, I hope this is a little less thick than the C series... it looks a little thinner from the pictures.

 

Sony has a way of confusing the consumer by throwing a whole bunch of you know what against the wall and hoping something sticks it seems. Its hard to differentiate some of their notebooks sometimes the form factor and specs are so close. While this CR notebook looks "fine" it's certainly nothing exciting and certainly a bit overpriced to say the least.

 

"sangria, cosmopolitan, dove, indigo and black"

Someone in Sony's marketing department had too much time on their hands ... or maybe too many drinks at the local bar.

"Yes, I'd like a sangria CR and my wife wants a cosmo." At least they didn't offer a pink one called the Shirley Temple.

Seriously, the CR series is obviously overpriced but doesn't look that bad.

 

What a waste, I hear it comes with an x3100 graphics, why can't they just throw in a dedicated graphics card? Even a 8400gt like the fz would do.

 

More Pictures and Specification Sheets here:
http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_room/consumer/computer_peripheral/notebooks/release/30649.html

The blue one looks awesome.

 

because someone who is even remotely interested in gaming will steer clear from sony notebook. clearly they're going after the same market as the macbook.

 

man, i just wish there was well built stylish laptop that could accomodate gaming, if only the compal ift00 would come to the US, that would make my day

 

I really like the look, but they are overpriced.

My sister says she wants one.

 

It's nice, but I would rather have an HP DV2500t.

 

overpriced attempt at eyecandy. the only thing sony can push these days because they have lacked tehnical innovation for a decade now

 

that is a beautiful looking notebook.. just like its predecessor.. the C series.

 

Sony must be getting inspiration for the names of their colors from a pack of Prismacolors (Markers, colored pencils, pastels? Which ever). Astetically they look awesome in my opinion. But the shape makes the CR look thick and heavy. It looks like a larger notebook than a 14.1". The specs for the price just isn't happening either. If the price a little and the build was atleast as good as the FZs (which is an improvement over previous Sony I had seen). I might consider one.

 

I've seen the pink version at school before..our secretary had it..stylish it was

 

Do you mean the pink C series laptop? The CR series hasn't been released yet.

 

Why does everyone act like Apple invented everything? This laptop doesn't look even remotely close to a Macbook! Fanboys.....

 

Oh? Sony was the first to introduce LED backlit displays
and switchable graphics for instance.

 

wow its likely designed for women ....

 

disappointed by Sony yet again - after years of buying nothing but Sony's, various 505's, a couple Z1's, and FS etc its pretty clear Sony has lost their desire for cutting edge technical designs

The various 505 series were pretty amazing - technical excellence

The Z1 was (and still is IMO) one of the bext overall combinations of form factor and design - not to mention durability

The SZ IMO was a boring and uninspiring design effort which in large part I think wasted some of its technical innovations

The FZ is - to me - still uninspiring - a square box albeit a light one with decent specs - I used one at teh store for a bit and was simply not impressed - the Z1 and 505's feel substantial, strong - well built - I thought the FZ (and the SZ's) feel plasticy and somewhat cheap

Seems they've traded paint jobs for the technical and design innovation they used to be known for

I've dropped my Z1 out of a backpack from 4 feet - dented the corner - yet still works fine two years later - I think if you drop any of the new ones they seem like they'd burst into pieces ....

I was waiting for the CR - the 14.1 widescreen has been too ignored - for many of us 13.3 and 12.1 is simply too small for a primary computer - great for travel or carrying around to scholl etc - but unless your young with good eyes - just not realistic for full time primary use

I've said it in the Asus forum - the form factor that I believe people would flock to buy - is a 14.1 or even 15.4 version of the Sony G1, or the Asus U1 etc - used the thin LED screen - and make the notebook overall as thin as possible.

I had hoped the CR might be the answer - but it seems its mostly an updated FJ with a pretty paint job - offer it with a thin LED screen and a mid range dedicated graphics card and it might be interesting - but why but it when the FZ has much stronger features for same price and is only .25 pound more for a 15.4 vs 14.1 screen??

Just my 02 cents .....

 

I would much rather buy the Sony C series with the nVidia 7400. Here in Taiwan it goes for under $1200 including tax.

 

As long as Sony doesn't supply system recovery and driver discs with the labtop I will never even consider buying one. Who wants a recovery partition? Only a waste of space. And you need to do a clean install anyway with all the bloathware they put on it. With all these things and the low specs (slowest SR proc lol!) they are obviously more concerned with profit than with their customers. I don't think they can dwell on their reputation forever.

 

I know my wife would like one in pink...it looks to perfectly match her pink Sony DSC-T10 digicam. I believe Sony is marketing this one to the women as evidenced by the banner picture of a woman using it on her lap.

It's definitely no technical monster, but fashion does have its price and $1369 isn't too far off the mark for a comparable HP dv2500t. By my configurations a similar HP would be $1329 (Vista Home Prem, 2GB ram, webcam, 802.11n, 160 GB HDD), so I dunno how you all immediately bash this as "overpriced".

The only part I would consider overpriced is that you don't have any "cheaper" configurable options: less HDD, 802.11g, less ram, etc.

 

Do these have LED back lights? Or just a LED indicator on top of the screen? If they do have LED screens then I might even consider the matte black one, otherwise I'll stick if a less fashionable T61.

 

Hehehe, yes actually. Its called the Sony FJ. This is the true replacement to the FJ line; they tried to make the C the replacement, but I assume it cut a chunk out of SZ sales because of the same size screen. I doubt that it will have 'impressive' specs of any sort; integrated graphics, mid-range CPUs (T7300), DVD-RW, a really nice screen, Vista HP, 120GB hard disk, and 1GB memory for $1500. About the same as the FJ, updated for Santa Rosa. One can hope that it has better quality than the FJ it replaces, for that was atrocious (in repair for the third motherboard replacement currently and I've already had one screen replaced ).

 

About the keyboard. I'm pretty sure sony created a laptop with that keyboard before, even before apple did but they are discontinued now. So everybody now thinks they are copying macbooks.

Correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

A little objectivity would help other folks here, posters. First of all, many people get into big trouble and can easily restore their hard disk with a recovery partition. Besides, it only takes up around 5GB, which is nothing on a 200GB drive, a point you fail to make.

Furthermore, just about everyone in the business is resorting to recovery partitions, so again, a little objectivity wouldn't hurt.

Besides, as several posters have pointed out here, these are extremely good-looking computers and that's what Sony is good at.

 

Yes, you're right, Sony debuted this keyboard on the V505.

 

Woww, I guess the new thing is to come out with things in all sorts of different colors now huh?

 

Thin and light?
5.5lbs for a 14.1"? Yes, maybe it is thinner and lighter than a Dell, but it isn't considered thin and light at all.
HP dv2000 is only 5.2lbs and much cheaper.
Plus, I think dv2000 looks better than this.
Most importantly, HP has special coating, which prevents palm rest from wearing out. I hate those shinny palm rests, which make the notebook looks really old.
I helped set up a Dell M1210 at work and the F key, J key, space bar, and the palm rest all became shinny after only a few days of use. Luckily, it is not my own notebook.

 

I read through all of the the PDFs listed on the CR's announcement page and I noticed that the last three version of the CR linked have the T7300. http://news.sel.sony.com/documents/consumer/computer_peripheral/notebooks/VGNCR131ELSpecSheet.pdf <--- for example.

The CR fully up for preorder on www.sonystyle.com. Apparently that one is not.

 

OHHHHHHH. This computer looks so nice!!!!!

SO I need ppl's opinion's....get this or the FZ?????

 

I ´d like to ask you about the existence of GF 8400 GT ( GS ) in notebook Sony CR. I know that X3100 is fixed basically. Thanks

//Edit: sry no - http://www.sonystyle.com/wcsstore/SonyStyleStorefrontAssetStore/pdf/VGNCR190CTO_SpecSheet.pdf