Sony shows off Casino Royale goodies
Live out your danger-filled, womanising fantasies with this cool selection of Sony gadgets straight from the latest Bond movie
Bond. James Bond. The immortal words that conjure up images of everybody's favourite life-endangering, licence-to-kill-toting, womanising, prophylactic-avoiding, sexist, misogynistic dinosaur of a man. Love him or hate him, you've really got to admire the man.
Sony certainly does. The forthcoming movie features a good selection of Sony gizmos to help Bond through the rigours of the day. When he's not quaffing Martinis or shooting people in the face, Bond is surrounding himself with such Sony delights as the Esprit L1 home cinema system (£2,989), the Bravia KDL-46X2000 Full HD set (£3,495) and the Vaio SZ3XWP ultraportable laptop (£1,799).
And why not? That Esprit L1 looks the absolute nuts. It's a 32-inch Bravia telly with a sliding speaker below it. The screen remains in the 'up' position while you watch a movie, then the speaker section slides upwards to cover the screen when you want to listen to 2.1 virtual surround sound music.
The Bravia X series LCD, also in the movie and reviewed here, is a Full HD 1080p set with interchangeable coloured bezels -- there are black, silver, red, blue and brown, so it should fit in quite comfortably with your home décor. See our round-up of Full HD screens for more information about the joys of Full HD, 1080p and this class-leading screen.
The Vaio SZ3 is a 13.3-inch laptop that packs a Core 2 Duo processor, and disk-drop protection, so you can use it to wallop baddies over the back of the head and your files will be shaken, not stirred. Most importantly the laptop comes with an HSDPA card that lets you get on the Internet at broadband speeds almost anywhere in the UK.
All these gadgets are available to buy right away, but UK dwellers won't get the all-in-one Casino Royale Spy Gear kit, which includes a Sony Vaio VGN-TX007C laptop, a Cyber-shot 7.2-megapixel camera and a phat 007 attaché case -- this is currently only available to those across the Atlantic. In the UK, Sony Style is offering several Casino Royale bundles that combine the SZ3VWP laptop with a DSC-T50 digital camera, the VN-CX1 Internet Phone Mouse and/or an exclusive Mandarina Duck carrying case. Prices start at £1,799. -RR