Catching my attention with the Sony VAIO F series

Apparently there were three sets of launches yesterday — one for the morning shows, a mid-day “lunch launch” for the media and an evening with the online community. I made like a BLT and sandwiched myself into the noon event.

Great event. Sony launched the new VAIO line, which was shown in CES last year. Although the Z line is their highest tier unit that was showin on a rotating pedestal (main feature is the “speed” vs “stamina” switch turning your VAIO into a Crysis suit), the price point for me was too high at PHP 150,000.00 I’m currently running a VAIO CW prototype (that’s the sexy part — no serial number) which is stock fit for gaming. So the laptop that wow-ed me during the launch was their multimedia VAIO, the F series. The “F” stands for “F*ck you, I have a numerical keypad!” It’s bad ass.

8GB of stock RAM. Just look at it! Just look at it! And a GT330 video card to boot. It is very hard to find a laptop that is stock full of features that allows you to play games. At one point there’s always a compromise. Also, “gaming rigs” sold by most companies come in cheesy packaging. At least this F series is silent about it, preferring the elegant finish of Sony. Also … I cannot reiterate more how it has a numerical keypad!! It’s again, a silent way of saying this monster has a big screen.

I guess Sony’s biggest problem is the import taxation that makes their products more expensive in the Philippines. During the launch, “buying from Hong Kong” was brought up as the price differences are huge. The fact that most of these devices have international warranty also brings about a conundrum. Hm.

On a lighter note, the new Sony netbooks are now more eco-friendly as they don’t come shipped in a box. When you buy one, you get your VAIO in this cute eco-friendly bag.