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• As the driving force behind Blu-ray technology, it’s no surprise that Sony came first to market in May 2006 with a Blu-ray equipped notebook PC. Despite the more than two years that have since elapsed, Blu-ray is really just beginning to become both affordable and viable for notebook PCs. Sony has recently reworked much of its VAIO notebook line, and introduced the multimedia AR790U/B model in mid-2008 as part of that effort. What the AR790 delivers is a well designed, nicely equipped multimedia notebook at a middling price. Sony’s successor model to this is the VGN-AR870. Configured to match the innards of our review unit, including a Blu-ray burner, this notebook goes for just over $2,900 on the SonyStyle Website (as compared to $3,300 for an identically configured AR790 at Amazon). You could buy a Blu-ray player, use Vista Home Premium instead of Ultimate and go with two 200 GB drives, and save $600 on the purchase price, to come in just under the price for the HP HDX. At 8.4 pounds (9.6 with AC adapter and power cord), the AR790 is a typical multimedia notebook in terms of size, weight and handling. Its 17" WUXGA display supports full 1080p resolution, and its 512 MB 8600M GT graphics adapter handled all of our Blu-ray and broadcast HD material with aplomb. The 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 processor seemed more than adequate for the computing tasks we threw at this machine, as did its 4 GB of DDR2-667 RAM. The chipset is an Intel PM965 Express, with networking support from an Intel 4965 802.11a/g/n adapter for wireless and a Marvell Yukon-based GbE for wired connections. Sony provided an ATI USB TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner along with our notebook, and we used it to good effect in tuning in OTA and unencrypted HDTV channels on the unit. The HDMI output was able to deliver both sound and picture to our digital receiver, but we couldn’t pass any high-definition audio schemes other than Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 to that device (this is typical for most PC Blu-ray playback, in fact). The keyboard layout on this unit features a more or less standard keyboard layout with full-sized keys. But the 2" margin on either side of the keyboard, with media control keys and status LEDs to the left and a power indicator to the right, didn’t leave room for a numeric keypad. For those seeking a good multimedia base station PC, this won’t be a problem. But for those who also want a fully-functional desktop replacement PC, this might be somewhat vexing. Nevertheless, the AR790 (and its nearly identical AR870 successor) makes a good media station, whether in the office or the living room. As we take a tour of this notebook, you’ll find its many ports, connectors and controls on all four of the unit’s edges. The bezel around the display is also home to a built-in 1.1 MPixel Webcam with an activity indicator light to let you know when you’re "on." Sony bundles a miniature Windows Media Center-compatible remote control with the AR790, which works with other multimedia applications besides what Vista offers. The remote control has a standard USB-attached remote sensor device (much like the Microsoft remote does itself). The MS memory card reader works with standard and Duo-sized media, MS Pro and MS Pro-HG Duo formats. MS Micro (M2) media requires an M2 standard or M2 Duo-sized adapter. The SD slot works with standard SD media or mini-SD media in a standard SD adapter. Except for the lack of a numeric keypad, the VGN-AR790 offers sufficient horsepower and capability to do double-duty as a media center and a desktop replacement. As with other multimedia notebooks, it is fairly heavy and also gets warm when running anything more than a moderate load (we measured a temperature of 103 °F/39° C on the underside with an infrared sensor during testing). The placement of USB ports (two front right and one at the rear) is a little odd, especially for right-handed users who may also want to use an external mouse. The built-in speakers are listenable but not on par with those you’ll find in the other units in this round-up. Besides these few minor annoyances, the VGN-790 is a satisfactory multimedia notebook and general-purpose PC.

• Nokia 770 Internet Tablet (128MB, RS-MMC... (8 offers) Online shop Price See more products Once you recover from the shock of learning that a device with the Nokia name doesn't include a built-in phone, there's a lot to like about the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet device. Sure, PDAs and smartphones can show you Web pages, but they'll constrict your view and force you to accept ultra-tiny type. Ultracompact notebooks like the Toshiba Libretto U100 or the Sony VAIO VGN-UX280P can do a better job of running a Web browser, but they cost and weigh much more as well. In its own unique way, the Nokia 770 attempts to define a sweet spot somewhere between the PDA/smartphone world on the one side, and the ultracompact notebook PC world on the other. With dimensions of 5.5" x 3.1" x 0.7" (140mm x 79mm x 18mm) and a weight of only 8.1 oz, or 6.4 oz without the cover (230 g / 185 g), the Nokia 770 is certainly closer to a PDA in size and heft than it is to an ultracompact notebook PC. The display is bigger and more capable than that of any PDA or smartphone we know of, with a 4.1" diagonal width and 800x480 resolution with 16-bit color support. To us, what makes the Nokia 770 even more interesting is that it runs Linux: a specially-tailored Debian-based distribution with a development runtime called Maemo. Among other things, this means that you can hook up a USB-based VoIP device (or Bluetooth receiver) and use Skype or other Linux-compatible software to add telephony to its bag of tricks. It includes a wireless LAN card (802.11 b/g), and comes bundled with the Opera Web browser version 8, email, instant messaging, an audio/video player, games, and lots of other interesting stuff for you to use right out of the box. The Nokia 770 can handle all kinds of audio and video formats too, including AAC, AMR, MP2/3, Real Audio, WAV and WMA on the audio side; and 3GP, AVI, H.263, MPEG-1/4 and Real Video on the video side. It offers a single USB 2.0 port, RS-MMC, a 3.5 mm stereo headphone / audio out port, and a 2 mm power connector for an external AC adapter. Battery life is rated at 3 hours for browsing use, and 7 days on standby. Prices for the Nokia 770 start at just under $300, and typically run between $350 and $400. This makes the device a little pricey, so Santa probably can't hand them out by the dozens. But for somebody who needs mobile Internet access, and who appreciates a slim, powerful collection of Linux apps, this could be just the right Christmas gift!

• Price In a decision probably somewhat related to the short-circuit recall of many of the TZ units, Sony is no longer selling this computer on its Web site. The last price that it sold it for is $2,999, and if you can find one on a third-party retailer’s site, it will likely go for just slightly under that price. As mentioned above, Sony is ready with a new design, the TT, which Tom’s Guide will receive and review shortly. It is a bit of a moot point to discuss the appropriateness of Sony’s pricing on the TZ, but we can summarize by saying simply that it was very over-priced. While this machine beat out even the Lenovo U110 in its overall benchmarking scores, has an enormous hard drive and a solid state drive, built-in broadband EVDO, and impeccable taste, it still shouldn’t cost $1,000 more than any other computer in this round up: it should have been about $2,300 at most. Factor in the slim possibility of an over-heating injury, and this machine is not worth purchasing today. We’ve reviewed it simply so that we can now compare it to the forthcoming TT, and to show you how Sony compared to the rest of the ultraportable market during most of 2008. Price score: 2 Battery Life Sony’s VAIO VGN-TZ298N is a notebook apart from the others included in this roundup. It features both a 250 GB 5,400 RPM SATA hard disk drive and a 60 GB Solid State Drive. Its 10.8 V 5800 mAh (designed and actual capacity) battery lasted for 207 minutes. The notebook’s somewhat lower speed processor likely contributed to this long battery life, but we also suspect that the design of the battery played a role. Battery Life score: 5.00 Performance The VGN-TZ298N also proved to be the best performer in our tests: that solid state disk drive helped it achieve a score of 6661 on the PCMark Vantage “hard disk drive” tests. Additionally, the same drive boosted many of the Sony’s scores on the other PCMark Vantage tests. In the Windows Experience Hard Disk benchmark, however, while the solid state drive provided a slight edge over the other notebooks, the Sony certainly didn’t run away with that benchmark. Performance score: 5.00