Sony has unveiled its summer line-up of personal
computers for the Japanese market and also launched the first Vaio
model in its TR range.
The PCG-TR1 is based around Intel's recently launched Pentium M
processor running at 900MHz.
The machine can accommodate between 256Mbytes and 1Gbyte of
DDR266 (Double Data Rate 266) memory and it has a 30Gbyte hard disc
drive. There is also a built-in CD-RW/DVD-ROM optical drive, which
supports CD-R writing at 8X and CD-RW writing at 4X speed.
The display is a 10.6in widescreen TFT (thin film transistor)
LCD (liquid crystal display) with WXGA resolution. Just above the
display there is a small video camera. It can be used to snap
pictures or works with Sony's bundled video conferencing software
although it has a relatively low resolution of 370,000 pixels,
which means it can manage around VGA resolution quality.
Sony has also put a capture button to the right of the main
display. It is one of four buttons placed next to the display, the
others are volume up/down and a zoom button.
Three wireless networking standards are supported: IEEE802.11b,
IEEE802.11a and Bluetooth 1.1, in addition to the Fast Ethernet and
ILink/IEEE1394 wired networking standards. Other connectors include
two USB 2.0 ports, a PC Card slot, Memory Stick Pro slot and a
connector enabling the notebook to be used with an external
monitor.
The PCG-TR1 on sale in Japan from 7 June priced around ¥230,000
(£1,221).