On its company blog, Sony has announced a spring (or autumn if you're south of the equator) refresh for of its VAIO line of laptops. While the Z series, S series and E series will all receive CPU upgrades along with various other component updates, the C series changes are limited to updates of the cosmetic variety.
The Z series will now offer built-in LTE mobile broadband and a new Carbon Fiber Silver exterior as options. Under the hood are Intel's latest 2nd generation Core processors ranging from the Intel Core i5 up to the Core i7 with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 3.50 GHz, and RAID 0 solid state drives (SSDs). Prices will start at US$1,949.99 including the Power Media Dock drive.
The S series also get the latest Intel Core processors, with both the 13-inch and 15-inch models offering up to Core i7 CPUs. Hybrid Graphics comes courtesy of either an AMD Radeon HD 6470M with 512MB of VRAM, or an AMD Radeon HD 6630M with 1GM of VRAM. The 15-inch models will also come with a 15.5-inch Full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS display as standard and will start from $979.99 packing a Core i5 processor, while the 13-inch models will start from &799.99. They will be available from early February.
Sony says the move to the latest 2nd generation Intel Core processors will also extend to its E series.
Lastly, both 14- and 15-inch C series models will receive a his and hers facelift. For the ladies - or maybe guys looking to challenge traditional gender stereotypes - Sony has introduced a new Kaleidoscope Pink (to be known as Elegant Flower in some markets) that features an engraved and textured look. For those preferring the look of classic black there's also a new Geometric Black (aka Modern Geometric) that Sony describes as "60's retro meets the Matrix."
Along with from the hardware refresh, Sony's VAIO team has also made a few software changes including a new look Media Gallery 2.0 with new social networking features. The S series will come with the update pre-installed while it will be available as a download for owners of other VAIO series.