Sony Unveils Vaio AX Desktop Replacement

New 17" screen notebook, designed by Sony to be a multimedia machine, comes loaded with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and has a multi-function bay for different components.

Sony is “bringing big screen entertainment” to the “portable platform” as today they announced their new Vaio AX Digital Studio PC desktop replacement notebook line. Priced at $2,000 or so and above, this notebook series is set to be available starting next month.

The Vaio AX notebook offers a number of features which Sony feels will provide that big screen entertainment feel. These include a 17” WXGA+ widescreen display with Sony’s Xbrite LCD technology, a removable TV tuner, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Update Rollup 2, a DVD+R Double Layer/DVD+/-RW Drive, a multi-function bay for swapping out components and a 0.3 megapixel digital camera.

Other features include a built-in fingerprint sensor for security, two USB 2.0 ports, Memory Stick and Secure Digital media slots, an Intel Centrino processor 750, 1 GB of RAM and a 160 GB hard drive.

“Sony knows that entertainment and computing mean different things to different people,” said Mike Abary, vice president of VAIO product marketing for Sony Electronics in the U.S. “The AX notebook provides users the swappable components to create their own dream machines and we provide the fixed hardware and design to back them up no matter what they choose to do.”