Review: Sony VAIO AR190G Laptop

Laptops used to be the redheaded stepchildren of the computer industry, forced to wait for hand-me-down technology that appeared months earlier on their desktop brethren. Oh, how times have changed. The Sony VAIO AR190G, is the first computer we've laid hands on - laptop or desktop PC - to feature an optical drive that can not only read Blu-ray Disc (BD) media, but write and rewrite on it - as opposed to the Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV650, which can read HD-DVD media but not write on it.

Features in a nutshell:

Intel Core Duo T2500 processor (2.0GHz)

1GB of DDR2 SDRAM (maximum capacity 2GB)

200GB 5,400rpm SATA hard drive

Optical drive writes (at 1X) and reads (at 1.6X) Blu-ray discs (BD-R, BD-RE, BD-ROM), and just about any other format you care to throw at it

17-inch wide-screen display, 1,920x1,200 (WUXGA)

Nvidia GeForce Go 7600GT graphics card (with 256MB of VRAM)

Windows XP Media Center 2005

Video connections: TV tuner, HDMI output, S-Video input and output, VGA output, FireWire

Audio connections: S/PDIF, headphone, microphone

Other connections: PC Card, ExpressCard, 3 USB 2.0 ports

Network connections: Bluetooth, Intel PRO/Wireless 802.11a/b/g, Gigabit Ethernet, 56K modem

Price: $3,500

Being marketed as a portable, end-to-end HD studio, the VAIO AR190G offers a pretty compelling set of A/V features to back up the claim: in addition to the BD drive, a 17-inch wide-screen display (WUXGA), an HDMI output, and a FireWire connection, you get a 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor, a midrange Nvidia GeForce Go 7600GT GPU with 256MB of VRAM, a 200GB hard drive and a TV tuner.

At $3,500, the VAIO AR190G is intended primarily for the long-suffering professional video editors and producers whose HD files have been marooned on laptop hard drives or trapped on DVD-ROMs, which are not supported by Blu-ray set-top players. With the VAIO AR190G, you can now import a video directly from an HD camera (via FireWire), edit the content on an excellent 17-inch 1080p display, and burn it to a Blu-ray disc or play it on an HDTV or monitor (via the HDMI connection) - never settling for less-than-HD-quality compression, media, or playback.

Of course, as with most new technologies, you will have to suffer a number of indignities with the VAIO AR190G. Aside from the high price point of the laptop itself, there's the painful price of media: approximately $20 for a 25GB BD-R or $25 for a 25GB BD-RW, both of which burn at a syrupy 1X. (Fortunately, a 50GB BD-R will soon be available for $48 and a 50GB BD-RE for $55 - ouch.) Note that Sony will also sell less expensive VAIO AR models, without the BD drive, starting at $1,749.

After spending a few days with the VAIO AR190G, we have a few preliminary observations:

Another dazzling display from Sony; like the VAIO AX and VAIO A before it, the VAIO AR's 17-inch 1,920x1,200 wide screen is one of the best in its class, along with the Qosmio's and the Fujitsu LifeBook N6000 series'.

None of the HD-ready LCD monitors in our Labs was equipped with an HDMI connection, and the VAIO AR190G lacks a DVI output, so we had to do some jury-rigging (HDMI cable with DVI adapter) to get hooked up.

Elegant design: tasteful, piano black with chrome trim

Complete set of multimedia controls

Only three USB ports, which is lame, though you also get FireWire, S-Video (out and in), S/PDIF, HDMI, and VGA.

Speakers are OK, but don't crank as loud as the Inspiron E1705's set.

Strange that the 8.5-pound VAIO AR has virtually the same keyboard as the 3.5-pound VAIO SZ; it's a great keyboard for a thin-and-light, but Sony couldn't afford to put a few more keys on something as big as the VAIO AR?