Sony unveils first Vaio TR notebook PC

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).