By Claire Reilly
SYDNEY, NSW: Sony tried their hand at “Twitter on steroids” today, with the decidedly high-speed and Gen-Y-friendly launch of their new range of notebooks, digital cameras and network services.
Presenting the new line was Sony Australia’s training manager, Nicholas Villani, who covered the entire range of products in a 400-slide PowerPoint presentation in under 20 minutes. Impressive.
According to Villani, the new line of products was perfect for using whilst “staying at home and hibernating” (hence the mid-year launch date) and included the new Vaio Z Series notebook PC, the Alpha NEX-C3 camera and Sony’s “Video on Demand powered by Qriocity” internet video service.
While the presentation did err on the side of information overload (with Villani at one point flashing through seven slides in one second, albeit to demonstrate the seven-frames-per-second speed of a Sony camera), there was plenty to get excited about.
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The hero product of the range is the Z Series. This 1.6 centimetre-thick notebook features a second-generation Intel Core i7 processor, and a second-generation dual solid state drive that offers fast operating speeds and a booting time of less than 15 seconds.
What makes this notebook unique is the Power Media Dock that comes bundled with the device (and is included in the RRP $3,999 price tag).
The docking station gives the Z Series extra grunt – it attaches to the notebook via a USB-style proprietry optical cable that offers transfer speeds up to twice as fast as USB 3.0. The Power Media Dock contains a dedicated optical drive and graphics card and can be used to split the Z Series display on up to three other screens (through HDMI and VGA connections).
In addition, it features an optional bolt-on battery (RRP $299) that extends the 6.5-hour battery life of the notebook to 13 hours. The bolt-on can be charged independently and, when it is attached, the notebook prioritises power usage to draw power from the external battery before the internal battery.
Sony Vaio product specialist, Brenden Woolley was on hand at the launch to sing the praises of the new device. “Thanks to the Intel Core i7 processor and the dual solid state drive, it has a streamlined boot-up process and it’s very hard to slow it down.”
While Woolley conceded that there were other 13-inch models in Sony’s range, he said the Z Series was definitely the stand out of the range. “It’s our aspirational model.”
The Z Series weighs in at just over 1 kilogram and comes in two models – the regular black and the covetable bronze-gold model. It is due to be released in late July.
The ultra-slim Vaio Z Series notebook.