Sony has launched a range of consumer notebook PCs with its new Santa Rosa technology.

Santa Rosa is Intel Centrino’s new chipset range. This range is claimed to deliver better performance, longer battery life and broad wireless network interoperability through 802.11n capable wireless technology, plus offer a higher specification of graphics card and windows Vista.

The entry level Sony VAIO N30 comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2GB of memory and Windows Vista. It also features a 15.4-inch widescreen and a hard disk space of 120GB for storing files, movies and downloaded music.

The SD card and Sony Memory Stick slot also gives users the opportunity to transfer pictures and videos when using a digital camera or camcorder.

There are two models in the  AR40-Series which have a Blu-ray Disc optical drive.

The top end model – AR41M has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 320GB hard drive and software for editing personal HD video content. Users They can burn content on to a Dual Layer 50GB Blu-ray disc. In addition the notebook also has a 17-inch LCD widescreen display and an integrated hybrid digital/analogue TV tuner with remote control.

Prices for the notebooks begin at £699 for the N30 range. The AR41M is priced at £1,999. The notebooks will be available later on in the year.