The VAIO CR, just like the Dell Inspiron, is available with a full range of Core 2 Duo processors (from the Intel T7100 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo up to the T7700 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo), up to 4GB of RAM and colorful designs (like “sangria” and “cosmopolitan”). From the range of available colors to the polished metal-like accents the Sony Vaio CR has a design that gets your attention. Besides, the case is very sturdy and the hinge mechanism works well and firmly holds the lid in place. This laptop will most likely serve as a popular media center for it’s buyers.

Even at the 1.8GHz low-end configured processor, the laptop perform well despite the fact that it doesn’t offer a dedicated graphics option. The 14.1″ glossy screen is a WXGA of 1280 x 800 with excellent color and contrast which features fairly bright and even backlighting with eight levels of brightness, excellent horizontal viewing angles and worser vertical angles. Unlike most traditional PC notebook keyboards the Vaio CR keyboard (quite solid with no flex) looks more like a MacBook than a PC. The touchpad is large with a very usable and responsive surface, but it’s buttons have a very shallow feedback with noisy clicks which makes them uncomfortable to use.

As a multimedia notebook, the VAIO CR features dedicated media buttons at the front of the notebook beneath the touchpad buttons. Also, at the top of the keyboard is a dedicated quicklauch button that lets you activate the media player functions without booting Windows (next to mute button, volume down and up, web camera “capture” button, and display backlight on/off). You will enjoy stereo sound via speakers located on the left side and right sides of the keyboard. The bottom left side gets a bit warm, but temperatures remained comfortable enough besides for being a silent laptop. The battery life of the standard 6-cell battery is 2.0-3.5 hours of use depending on how you use the notebook.

Sony VAIO CR Specifications