Sony VAIO AR190G Series Portable Computer

The world of HD has gone portable with Sony's VAIO AR190G series of portable computers. These laptops not only let you watch Blu-ray High Definition movies, but their optical drive lets you burn HD video to Blu-ray Discs (BD). Sony is pitching these portables as HD studios-on-the-go, and the standard configuration lives up to that claim--as does the price. The VAIO AR190G series is simply beautiful with their glossy black finish and sharp design. They feature excellent 17-inch widescreen displays with a whopping 1920X1200 resolution and Sony's XBRITE technology to give you a crisp, colorful image with minimal glare. It's perfect for editing HD video before you burn it to BD. And since the AR190G offers end-to-end HD 1080 camcorder support, you'll be able to transfer HD video from your camcorder onto the computer easily, edit it, then burn it to BD. There's even an HDMI port so you can connect the AR190G to your home HD-TV and output video from the laptop to your home theater system. While we're on that subject, the AR190G features a built-in TV tuner and Windows XP Media Center Edition, so you can use it as a DVR (digital video recorder), recording your favorite television shows and then watching them in High-Def on your living room system. And of course, Sony includes the software you need to perform all of these tasks right out of the box. Okay, so enough about what this portable computer is capable of, let's talk about how it runs--Pretty dang swiftly, thanks to its 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor, featuring twin processing cores on a single chip. Sony pairs that central power with a healthy 1GB of 533Mhz memory. These laptops only support a maximum of 2GB of RAM, which may disappoint some high-end video editors, but it still leaves you room to expand the initial amount. Storage space is plentiful, which is a must with an HD-writer. Sony provides two 100GB 5,400rpm hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration, which is a respectable amount of fast storage for housing lots of HD video. We already mentioned the claim-to-fame of the VAIO AR190G, the Blu-ray Disc optical drive. This drive can burn to both the 25GB and the Double Layer 50GB BDs, as well as the rewriteable forms of BDs (called BD-BEs). The burn speed of 1X means it will take you upwards of an hour to burn a 25GB BD. The graphics are equally impressive, shipping with NVIDIA's GeForce Go 7600GT featuring an excellent 256MB of dedicated video memory. This video card will help out with video and graphics editing as well as make this a stalwart gaming machine. Sony includes a nice range of extras that make the VAIO AR190G more than just a box housing an HD optical drive. There's a built-in camera and microphone, so you can use this system for videoconferencing or video chatting via services such as Skype. It's also got built-in Bluetooth so you can connect peripherals without cords. And there's a media card reader that can handle Sony's MemoryStick cards as well as Secure Digital cards for transferring files to the portable computer from your PDA or other device. Internet connectivity isn't a problem thanks to the modem, network interface, and 802.11a/b/g wireless integrated into the portable computer. There are only three USB 2.0 ports, which seems a bit low for a multimedia laptop of this nature, but there's also a Firewire port, an ExpressCard /54 slot, S-video input/output ports, and digital audio output. Battery life lasts under two hours on a full charge, so you may want to invest in a larger or a second battery if you'll be taking the VAIO AR190G on long flights. But even with all the components and features packed into this multimedia monster, the AR190G weighs in at under 8.5 pounds, making it still quite portable. As we alluded, the price is certainly an object with these notebooks. The AR190G systems sell for close to $3,500, a hefty price for any laptop. But that's what it takes to bring an HD burner on the road. If you want to be an early adopter of HD video editing and burning, the Sony VAIO AR190G portable computer lets you do it in style. Pros: Blu-ray optical burner, great set of components, beautiful widescreenCons: Expensive, short battery life
Warranty1-year limited