Tonight, Sony VAIO introduced a new flagship series of notebooks to promote its Blu-ray next-generation video format, the VAIO AR, which replaces Sony's AX series in the 17" desktop replacement class. The AR's design was conceived from scratch, with black and silver colors chosen to match other devices in today's digital living room. The laptops in this series are merely 1.32" thin and extremely lightweight (8.4 lbs) for the class, although what they lose in thickness, they make up for in width and depth -- 16.4" x 11.8" -- resulting in a noticeably thick bezel around the screen.

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