Sony's Vaio NS1 heads for Europe

Two weeks after it was unveiled in the States, Sony has said the Blu-Ray ready Vaio NS1 will be coming to our shores.

Announced today the 15.4in laptop gets Sony's 1280x800 X-black widescreen LCD with a Motion Eye webcam buried in the lid. Its top spec VGN-NS11Z/S comes with the aforementioned Blu-Ray combo drive for HD movie watching and DVD burning. Across the board the NS1 will also support speedy Draft-N Wireless.

Naturally there are also a few Sony style touches thrown in. "gently rounded edges" match the colour scheme's "soft tones", while, "the surface bears a subtle and delicate texture as pleasing to the touch as the colours are to the eye." Cute. Click through for the full specs and press release.

VAIO NS1-Series

With the VAIO NS1, Sony has brought together superior design values and quality to create a notebook that is well balanced and accessible for casual everyday users. The VAIO NS1 is easy to use, attractive to look at and features technologies that people want and use.

All models are distinguished by an excellent X-black LCD widescreen display which brings pictures and video vividly to life, and there’s a built-in Motion Eye webcam for video chat and blogging. The flagship VGN-NS11Z/S has a Blu-ray Disc™ Combo drive for watching the latest High Definition movies, and the whole range supports the latest, super-fast ‘Draft-N’ wireless networking.

As everyone knows, the screen is a vital part of any notebook, which is why VAIO has put so much effort into developing X-black LCD enhancement technology. The X-black LCD screen used for the VAIO NS1-Series has a generous 15.4-inch diagonal which combines with the 1280 x 800 resolution to deliver plenty of space to view applications and photos, as well as delivering great-looking widescreen movies. Colours are rich and lifelike and the display is bright and sharp, giving the VAIO NS1 instant appeal.

This is a notebook that looks good even when it’s switched off thanks to the understated sophistication of its design. The edges and corners are gently rounded, soft tones are used for each element of the colour scheme, and the surface bears a subtle and delicate texture as pleasing to the touch as the colours are to the eye.

Original VAIO software uses built-in intelligence to make simple work of organising rapidly growing – and potentially chaotic – collections of music and digital photos and video clips. VAIO Music Box uses a powerful ’12 Tone Analysis’ system to categorise music into different genres and moods, then automatically builds playlists that you can select to match the moment.

VAIO Movie Story takes the work and complexity out of managing photos and video by vastly simplifying the task of arranging your pictures, adding effects and judicious editing to show them at their best, then synching the images to music. The result is a quality slideshow to enjoy and share – a long way from the original mass of pictures on the hard disk.

Sony’s trademark quality and attention to detail is evident wherever you look, from the X-black LCD enhanced screen to the clear tone of the integrated speakers and the provision of four USB ports for maximum connectivity. Along with the peace of mind that comes with the global status of the brand, this makes the VAIO NS1 hard to beat in its class.

VGN-NS11Z/S 
- Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5800
- OS: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
- Memory: 4096MB (2x2048MB)*
- HDD: 320GB
- Others: WLAN 802.11a/b/g/Draft n, Motion Eye webcam
- Screen: 15.4” X-black LCD WXGA (1280X800)
- Optical: Blu-ray Disc™ Combo drive
- Graphics: ATI® Mobility Radeon™ HD 3430