It was three years ago, on June 25, 2006, that Samsung shook up the home-entertainment category by shipping the industry’s first Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000. The price was $1,000, a princely sum in those days. Today, that’s still a lot of money.
Consider, then, the release this month of a Sony Vaio notebook computer for $880 that plays Blu-ray discs and includes HDMI output for TVs. The specs of the notebook, the Vaio NW, are in line with the competition: Intel Core 2 Duo processor, abundant connectivity options and what looks to be an excellent 15.5-inch wide-screen display.
Some might call the NW a halo product, but if you put the NW in the proper context, it starts to make some sense. Panasonic recently announced the availability of an $800 portable Blu-ray player.
But Sony counters with an interesting proposition: If you were going to spend $800 on a portable Blu-ray player, why not drop an extra $80 and get a computer too? Stephen Williams
