Previously known as the Video Audio Integrated Operation notebook, the VAIO has been cleverly rebranded as a Visual Audio Intelligent Organiser, now brought “closer to you” in the form of 3 spanking new series – VAIO Z Series, VAIO SR Series and VAIO FW Series.

An isolated keyboard for smooth typing even with manicured cuticles, pulsing power indicator light to give the laptop ‘life’ and the ability to choose between stamina and speed are indeed awesome features.

Wow. But these features seem a tad familiar, don’t you think?

That’s because Apple already combined all these neat features in one machine a couple of years back. They called it the MacBook.

The sad part is, Apple did it better.

Reinventing the Wheel

What Sony has done with the 3 new ranges of VAIO laptops is to present a myriad of interesting and innovative but useless or used features.

Isolated keys on the keyboard? Ladies have already been liberated from getting their long fingernails stuck between keys after laying their dainty hands on the sunken keyboards of MacBooks when they were released in May 2006.

The pulsing light of the power button is even more embarrassing. Apple put this in the iBook G3 in, read – July 1999. So much for an “iconic design”.

Being able to switch from a power-guzzling NVIDIA GeForce notebook graphics processing unit to a slower Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD when there are no power sockets nearby sounds cool at first.

But when UrbanWire tried to switch from “Stamina” to “Speed” mode on the VAIO Z showpiece, the computer told us to quit all running programs first before it could do the Hybrid Graphics switch.

“We improved the system. Previously you had to reboot the computer,” a staff member told us confidently.

That’s nice, but Apple laptops allow you to toggle between ‘Better Energy Savings’, ‘Better Performance’ and between with just a couple of clicks. You can even change energy settings when you are in the middle of editing a video, and not have to quit iMovie, tell your friend you’re gonna “BRB” on your Mac Messenger or logout of your email on Safari for that matter.

Try harder, Sony.

As the Chinese saying goes, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

While Apple made learning how to fish a lot easier by making multimedia editing a piece of cake with the iLife suite, VAIO spoonfeeds you the fish and even pre-digests it for you with the VAIO Movie Story 1.2 and VAIO MusicBox 2.0.

When you simply put in audio, graphic and video files in “three simple steps” and wait for VAIO Movie Story 1.2 to churn out a clip for you, where is the fun in making a homemade movie?

Granted, the VAIO MusicBox 2.0, with its ability to classify music files into genres based on information in their ID3 tags and using the 12-tone analysis technology to identify tempo, melody and mood is pretty sweet. But any discerning music lover would prefer to organise his music into different playlists for different settings.

Who’re the software producers to tell each user that a certain track is what he’d want to be listening to on a “Rainy Day”, during “Meditation” or when he’s feeling “Energised” anyway? One person might want to listen to Madonna’s “4 Minutes” to perk himself up on a gloomy rainy day, while another might prefer to turn on “Something About Us” by Clay Aiken and grab some shuteye when it’s pouring outside.

All in all, these software programs are wonderfully smart. But they weren’t designed for multimedia rookies. They were designed for sloths.

Saving Grace: VAIO FW

Of course, things aren’t all bad with the new VAIO.

Though the VAIO SR is lightweight at 1.88kg for the 200GB version, it’s also pretty lightweight in functionality, which is rather disappointing.

The VAIO Z, Sony’s flagship model, is rather exciting, packing plenty of power (read Intel Centrino 2 Processor, 320 GB HDD, 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, 5.5 hours battery life and more) into a featherweight 1.48kg, thanks to a 12-layer high density mounting board.

But keep your wallets for now; the VAIO Z will only be out in the 4th quarter of this year.

But Sony has done pretty well to present a tempting pick for the HD entertainment market with the VAIO FW Series.

With a 16.4” LCD screen of 16:9 aspect ratio and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 graphics accelerator, Sony has just downsized your LCD TV into a computer handy enough for you to bring with you on the go at 3kg.

Of course, with good visuals come the need for good audio, and Sony delivers that with the Dolby Sound Room suite, which comes pre-installed in your VAIO FW Series. The punchy yet crystal-clear sound can definitely outblast that of the MacBook’s built-in speakers anytime.

Gamers aren’t left out either, with Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 CPU speeding at 2.53 GHz, Mobile Intel PM45 Express Chipset, 256MB dedicated Video Memory, 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM and a huge 320GB hard disk so gamers can play their most technologically demanding games just about anywhere they like.

Starting at $2,499, this powerful machine is a steal for all tech junkies!