At a launch event is Sydney today, Sony Australia unveiled a new range of VAIO notebook and netbook computers to suit the needs of every consumer.

The first in the new line up is the VAIO Z series, a notebook PC that has been designed with a solid plate of aluminium and carbon fibre.

Paul Colley, technology communications manager at Sony Australia, commented on the latest release and its unique design.

“The palm rest of the VAIO Z series has been created with a single solid plate of aluminium and therefore means the unit is very strong and very stable,” he said.

The body is also very lightweight due to its carbon fibre body, weighing in at just 1.38 kilograms. Other features include a 13.1-inch wide Full HD LCD display with LED backlighting, 1920 x 1080 resolution and Adobe RGB 96 per cent colour gamut coverage.

Colley also highlighted that the new Z series also features Quad Solid State Drive (SSD) technology to enable rapid boot up and up to six times faster access to applications than a typical Hard Disk Drive.

Two performance-class graphics accelerators are also included with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M GPU with CUDA Technology and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD chip.

The very bright E series was also shown off and comes in a range of five different vibrant colours. But the range is not just skin deep, featuring a 15.5-inch Full HD display Dolby Home Theatre for high quality sound, and a HDMI port to connect to a HD TV.

Built on the latest Intel platform, the E series is promised to deliver powerful processing capabilities.

Sony is now also a strong player in the netbook market and is keen to promote its latest W series. According to Colley, the W series is very eco-friendly.

“The W series features a body that is comprised of approximately 20 per cent recycled materials (CDs and DVDs),” he said.

Other features that boost its environmentally friendly reputation is the fact that it only includes a digital copy of the instruction manual and doesn’t come packaged in a box. The W series comes packaged in a reusable carrying case made from recycled PET materials.

The Z series will be available in early February and comes in two models: the VPCZ116GG for RRP $3,399 and VPCZ117GG for RRP $3,999.

The E series will be available late February and has four models: the VPCEB13FG for RRP $1,099, VPCEB1AGG for RRP $1,359, VPCEB16FG for RRP $1,399 and VPCEB17FG for RP $1,699.

The W series VPCW21EAG will be available in early February for RRP $849.