Sony VAIO AR 17" Screen Notebook Available in Canada for Pre-Order

It looks like Sony is going to be releasing a new notebook soon, the VAIO AR series laptop has shown up on a Canadian website for pre-order.  The VAIO AR190 has a Blu-Ray optical drive, Core Duo processor, 17" widescreen, nVidia Go 7600 card, built-in TV tuner and 200GB of storage.

VAIO AR Series 17" screen notebook (view large image)

Above is a picture of this rather large laptop from Sony.  It's quite obvious that Sony is using this media center geared laptop to further push its Blu-Ray media technology.  Toshiba last week released a Qosmio G35 machine with a HD-DVD optical drive, the competing next generation optical disk format to the Sony backed Blu-Ray technology.

The specs are very impressive on this Sony, with a built-in TV tuner and 200GB of hard drive space it's quite obvious Sony expects users to utilize the AR as a media hub in which you could watch TV and record content to the ample hard drive space available.  The selection of media ports for outputting media is also very good, an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) port for output to HDTV, FireWire, S-Video (out/in) and VGA/Monitor-out, HDMI to DVI-D adapater round out the options.

The nVidia 7600 256MB card is a bit of an unknown as we've not seen this in a notebook before, while this won't be a high-end gaming graphics card it should at least provide ability to play games such as Half Life 2.  We expect to hear more about the VAIO AR and expected release dates at a Sony event on Monday evening in New York City.  In England the VAIO AR has shown up in a catalog as the AR11S and AR11B.  Stay tuned for more, full specs for the VAIO AR190 / AR11S notebook are at the bottom of this article.

VAIO AR11S as found in catalog in the UK (view large image)

VAIO AR feature on Sony Canada website (view large image)

Sony VAIO AR190 / VAIO AR11s Specs:

• Processor: 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo Processor T2500
• OS: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
• Integrated Wireless LAN: Intel PRO/ Wireless 3915ABG
• Bluetooth
• 17.8" WUXGA display (1920x1200) with XBRITE High Color Technology
• Hard Drive: 200GB (100GB x 2) in RAID 0, (5400rpm) Serial ATA
• Memory: 1GB PC2-4200 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (512MB x 2) (maximum 2GB)
• Graphics: NVIDA GeForce Go 7600GT 256MB
• TV Tuner built-in, NTSC capable
• Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Disc/DVD+R Double Layer/DVD RW drive
• Integrated MOTION-EYE Camera with built-in microphone
• Audio: Sony Sound Reality Audio Enhancer sound system
• Ports
• 1 x 4pin i.LINK (IEEE 1394) interface
• 3 x USB 2.0
• 1 x HDMI output
• 1 x VGA output
• 1 x Port Replicator connector
• 1 x S-Video input
• 1 x S-Video output
• 1 x AV input
• 1 x RF Connection input
• 1 x Ethernet port
• 1 x Modem jack
• 1 x S/PDIF output
• PC Card Slots
• One PCMCIA - Type II/Type I card slot with CardBus support
• One ExpressCard / 54 Slot
• Media card reader that supports optional Memory Stick, Memory Stick DUO media with MagicGate functionality and Secure Digital Media
• Pointing Device: Electro-Static touch pad
• Keyboard: QWERTY, 86 keys with 2.5mm stroke and 19.05mm pitch
• Estimated Battery Life: 1.5-2.0 hours
• Weight: 8.4 lbs. with standard battery12 (weight is approximate and may vary)
• Dimensions: 16.4"(W) X 1.32"(H) X 11.8"(D)
• Color: Black
• Supplied Accessories: Lithium-ion Battery (VGPBPS2C), AC Adapter, Power Cord Remote Control/IR Receiver, RF Cable, HDMI Cable, HDMI to DVI-D Adapter, House of Flying Daggers Blu-Ray Disc Movie

The price of this laptop as listed on the Canadian site is $3,999, which converts to about $3,600 U.S.  Ouch!  Looks like that Blu-Ray technology and all those high-end specs really boost the price of this notebook.

Link to Sony Canada Blu-Ray / VAIO AR flash feature