The F series laptop has a 16.4-inch and comes with a i7 processor, a Blu-ray drive, a 640 gig hard drive, and an NVIDIA GeForce graphics card. This is a big, heavy laptop and it only gets about 3 hours of battery life. However, it's an excellent workstation. It literally does everything: games, movies, television, music, graphic design, programming, and more with aplomb. If you're more interested in power at the expense of portability, this is the perfect laptop for you.

The Y series is a solid all-around laptop, and it's geared toward college students. It features a 13.3-inch monitor and a pretty standard i3 processor. Very average. This laptop is kind of like a bare-bones version of the Z series (see below), and it's a good buy if you have your heart set on buying a Sony but you can't afford something in the Z series or F series. However, shop around first -- you can definitely get more bang for your buck in this price range.

At about 17.3 inches and 7.3 pounds, this laptop is a truck. The VAIO EC series laptop gets just over two hours of battery life and is portable only in the loosest definition of the word. However, it does offer a very intriguing combination of size, affordability, and power. If you're interested in a TV-replacement laptop (for a dorm room) or a laptop for watching Blu-ray Discs (for a bedroom or office), the EC series will get the job done -- just don't plan on straying very far from an electrical outlet.

Sony's Z series is the gold standard of the VAIO franchise. This 13.1-inch laptop features a variety of amenities, including Blu-ray, a solid-state hard drive (solid state drives offer faster start-up and loading times and are more resistant to wear and tear), a back-lit keyboard, and a high-grade aluminum exterior. Long story short: the Z series laptop is powerful, portable, reliable, and well built. It's also expensive! This is a luxury laptop, and it is ideal for business travelers and casual users who demand premium quality and serious power.

There's not a whole lot to say about Sony's entry into the netbook category. The 10.1-inch W series laptop features great screen resolution (1366x768) and brightness as well as solid build construction. However, its other specs, including an 8-hour battery life, are pretty average. Unless craftsmanship and display quality are your highest priorities, it might be tough to justify this laptop's above-average price tag.