Sony Unveils Two New Vaio E-Series Models

Sony has two new models to its Vaio E Series laptop range, namely the VPC-EA1Z1E and the VPC-EC1S1E.

The 14 inch and 17 inch models joins the original 15.5 inch system the company announced in February.

Digital media friendly devices

The Sony Vaio VPC-EA1Z1E is being touted as ideal for digital media collections. It comes with a 14 inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1600 x 900. At the heart of the machine is an Intel Core i3 2.13GHz processor, as well as a healthy 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145 graphics with 512MB of VRAM.

Meanwhile its bigger brother, the Sony Vaio VPC-EC1S1E is being touted as ‘the ultimate HD entertainment machine for all the family’ thanks to its Blu-ray drive. This machines features a 17 inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. This machines also comes equipped with an Intel Core i5 2.26GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics with 1GB of VRAM. There is also space inside the slim chassis for up to two hard disk drives that could offer a maximum of 1TB of storage (maximum 2x 500GB).

Both laptops come equipped with the usual connectivity options such as 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and three side-mounted USB ports which are joined by a fourth high-speed eSATA/USB port that “allows super-fast file transfers to an external drive up to 5x faster than via USB2.0.”

Additional equipment includes a motion eye web camera and HDMI out.

The Vaio VPC-EA1Z1E is available in a number a bright colours such as vivid pink, blue and green, whereas its bigger sibling is only available in the more staid options of black or white.

According to Sony, all of its new E Series models are designed with “everyday ease of use firmly in mind.” To this end, they come with a WEB button, which allows users to start surfing without the need to boot up the PC. Sony said that for even greater convenience, Quick Web Access now offers multiple tabbed browsing and a ‘split’ view “that’s great for browsing two web pages side-by-side.”

There’s also a dedicated ASSIST button that gives users one-touch access to VAIO Care to help them maintain, diagnose and troubleshoot their VAIO machine.

There is no word on pricing yet and Sony UK did not return eWEEK Europe UK’s calls at the time of writing. Availability is dependance upon country, but the VPC-EA1Z1E  will be available from beginning April, whereas the bigger VPC-EC1S1E will be available from the end of March.