Sony Gets Colorful with Vaio CR Notebooks

Sony's new Santa Rosa-based Vaio CR notebooks sport 14.1-inch screens and a selection of eye-catching, fashion-friendly colors.

Although they’ve been anticipated for quite some time, Sony has officially taken the wraps off its forthcoming Vaio CR series of notebooks, based on the Santa Rosa platform, sporting 14.1-inch LCD displays, and soon to be available in a series of eye-catching colors designed to appeal to the fashion-forward set—or, at least, not not-quite-totally-geeky set.

“Just like the car you drive, notebooks today are an extension of your personality” said Mike Abary, Sony’s senior VP of VAIO product marketing. “As such, users expect their PC to reflect their creativity and individuality, as well as handle their spreadsheets.”

The new Vaio CRs will be available in five colors—dubbed matte black, indigo, dove, cosmopolitan, and sangra—and sport a uniquely configured keyboard with a unique font, an LED mounted beneath the notebook’s trim to indicate system activity, and a selection of “funky” Vaio wallpapers. Optional coordinated mice and carrying bags will be available for customers who want to complete the look.

In case the look isn’t the only thing a user might care about in a notebook, the systems offer a 1,280 by 800-pixel 14.1-inch LCD display, a 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, a CD/DVD burner, integrated speakers, a 1.3 megapixel Webcam, instant-on and AV controls for accessing media, 3 USB ports, a 4-pin FireWire port, an ExpressCard/34 slot, 100Base-T Ethernet, and 2 GB of RAM standard. The systems ship with Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed.

Pre-orders are open now, and Sony plans to begin selling the Vaio CRs at the end of June at prices starting at $1,350. The black model will only be available online.