Sony has done it again – created a super cute, limited edition pink laptop. I know I’ve kvetched about the difficulty finding pink laptops on Sony’s site, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy their good looks.

The Signature collection for spring consists mostly of pretty restrained colors: silver, rain white, carbon fiber and metal mosaic, so the pink really stands out.

Sony calls the color Brilliant Pink; I would describe it as a nice, metallic, soft pink with a pretty white/light pink leaf pattern. But it’s not just looks – it has some nice features as well: built-in camera, assist button, bluetooth technology, and 256MB of dedicated video RAM.

The laptop is available in both a “ready to ship” and customizable version.

Note: in the upgrade options for the customizable version, I have listed the top choices for each option – there are others, less expensive upgrades available too.

Processor: Intel Core i3-330M, 2.13GHz, 3MB cache
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU
LCD Panel: 14-inch backlit LED
RAM: 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM at 1066MHz
Hard Drive: 500GB, 5400rpm SATA
Battery: Standard capacity

Processor: Intel Core i3-330M, 2.13GHz
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU
LCD Panel: 14-inch backlit LED
RAM: 2GB (2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM at 1066MHz
Hard Drive: 320GB, 5400rpm
Battery: Standard capacity

Upgrade Options (Top Choices)
Processor: Intel Core i5-540M, 2.53GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz (+$150)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit (+$50)
RAM: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM at 1066MHz (+$320.00)
Hard Drive: 500GB, 5400rpm (+$20) or 320GB, 7200rpm (+$20)
Battery: Large capacity (+$100)

If you added all these top choices, your laptop would have a price tag of $1,479. If you customize it to be exactly as the ready to ship version, you end up with the exact same price tag: $879. Which makes sense, I just wanted to double check it out of curiosity.

Don’t miss their latest limited edition pink laptop: The VAIO Crocodile P

Sony’s designs rarely disappoint. Their laptops are almost always sleek and stylish, and their new limited edition crocodile pink VAIO CS from their Signature Collection is certainly no exception. With it’s classic pink faux croc exterior (with gold trim) and shiny pink interior, it really stands out, and I can’t help but like its looks. But what’s beneath that chic surface? We’ve taken a look and outlined the essentials below.

Here are the specs for the $749.99 (+$30 for pink) basic configuration:

• Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system
• 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T4200 processor
• 14.1″ display (with built-in webcam)
• 160GB 5400RPM hard drive
• 2GB DDR2 (1BGx2) memory
• WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth
• Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• Standard capacity battery (lasting up to 6 hours)
• CD/DVD playback/burning internal disc drive

The optional upgrades available are:

• Windows Vista Business 64-bit with XP Pro downgrade disc ($50)
• 2.80GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9600 ($250)
• 400GB 5400RPM hard drive ($50)
• 8GB DDR2 (4GBx2) memory ($320)
• Blu-ray Disc playback/burning disc drive ($180)
• Large capacity battery (lasting up to 9 hours) ($100)

If you went with all the top choices for this system, you would end up with a price tag of $1,729.99.

There aren’t a whole lot of extra features. The one that stands out are the glowing lights underneath the laptop, which change intensity and colors depending on what you’re doing on the laptop.

This midsize notebook measures 13.2 x 9.6 x 1.14-1.57″, weighs 5.7 lbs, and according to Sony, they only made 400 in this design, so if you want one, you better act fast.

For current deals on Sony (and other) pink laptops, check out my “Deals, Extras and Offers on Pink Laptops” post.

Also, don’t forget to check out Sony’s Signature Limited Edition pink laptop and their newest VAIO P pink crocodile laptop.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Sony’s laptops – the designs are really slick and they always come with a bunch of extras – but I have to say I find their website quite tricky to navigate (to say the least) if you’re trying to find out what’s available in pink.

I recently spent the better part of an afternoon trying to figure out the easiest way to find and compare Sony’s pink notebook offerings, and this is what I found:

• If you go to their homepage and navigate to the lineup of laptops, the different models are displayed. When you click on each one, a little window pops up with a short list of specs and the available colors. Doing this tells us that only the SR and the CS are available in pink.

• However, if you click on the NS, that little window pops up, telling you that this model is available in Nightfall Blue, Granite Silver and Silk White. BUT, if you click on the “Shop Now” button in that window, and then on the “Buy Now” button in the next, what appears on the list if not a NS notebook in “Sunset Pink”. Hm.

• AND, if you instead of clicking on a specific model in the main window, click the “Help me choose” button and in the following window select Color – Pink, you are given 5 models to choose from. The day I did this, my list included a CR590EBP, the CS290JEP, NS235J/P, a TZ250N/P and a TZ350N/P.

Oddly, this list does not include the SR. It does include the CS and NS mentioned above, as well as 3 models from the outlet. But the only way you find out that they are from the outlet is if you click on one of them, and in the resulting product window look up top, right beneath the tabs of the website, for the page thread (it will say: Home>VAIO® Computers Outlet>Notebooks Outlet>VAIO® TZ Series Notebook PC). I could easily have missed that if I wasn’t looking for it, and what bothers me even more is that nowhere in this window does it state whether the laptop is just on sale or a refurbished model.

• If you instead head straight to the outlet for VAIO notebooks, you will find (at the moment) over 200 laptops in various colors, some on clearance, some refurbished. You can’t search on color here, so you have to scroll through the list. Interestingly, I found two clearance (i.e. NOT refurbished) models in pink here, which did not show up in any other search: a TZ340, and a CR190. However, the TZ350N/P from our list above did show up here in the outlet as well.

I also found several pink refurbished models at the outlet: SR290s, TZ2000, TZ340, CR290, CS110, but since they are not mentioned anywhere else, one has to assume that for refurbished models, you need to go straight to the outlet, which is perfectly reasonable.

• I also tried typing in “pink notebook” in the search window on the main notebook page, and got a list with the following models: SR390, CS290, NS235, CS110 (refurbished), TZ350 (on clearance).

• A search for “pink laptops” in the same window resulted in a list of: SR390, CS290, NS235, CS190, SR190, and SR165 (those last 3 are listed as “no longer available for purchase”).

• My search for “pink computers” brought up (as far as laptops): SR390, CS290, NS235, CS110 (refurbished), TZ350 (on clearance), CS190, SR190, and SR165 (“no longer available for purchase”), so that’s the same as the other two searches combined, but there was also an additional model that showed up here: the C290, which is available and as far as I can tell is neither refurbished or on clearance.

I am not trying to do any Sony-bashing here or suggest that they are being dishonest in any way. I think that it’s an oversight on their part and that their website needs a bit of double checking and tweaking.

What I did want to do was to bring it to your attention so that you don’t end up with a refurbished laptop unintentionally, or give up on your search for a particular pink Sony laptop before you’ve tried all possible ways to find one.

Gone are the days when computers only came in dull gray or black. These days, we can all match our computer to our outfit with the addition of colorful laptops. Pink laptops in particular are quickly gaining popularity among women (and even a few men). It comes as no surprise; who wouldn’t rather be showing off a shiny pink laptop computer at their local cafe rather than the run-of-the-mill black or gray one.

So who sells pink laptops? Many of the large computer companies – Dell, Samsung, Asus, Sony to name a few – now offer them in various shades of pink.

This past spring, Dell added several color options to their sleek, high-performance XPS M1330 and M1530. The addition of color was a good idea; they have proven incredibly popular and everyone from customers to reviewers raves about them. The XPS M1330 received 37 awards in 2007; PC World named it their “Winner of Best Buy” and it got “Winner of the A-List” from PC Authority.

What if you have your eye on a particular laptop and it (gasp) is not offered in pink? (hello, Apple fans!) No worries, there are companies that will customize the color for you. Gen-X-PC for example will match any PMS (Pantone) or Hex color and you get a choice of 4 different finishes – solid, metallic, pearl or color shift. They can also add a custom design if you want your notebook to stand out even more.

Colorware, Inc. takes it a step further and offers customized color on a variety of devices in addition to laptops, such as mice, iPods, iPhones, Blackberries, gaming consoles and even HDTV screens! You can buy your laptop (or iPod, iPhone, etc.) directly from them or send in one you already own for customization.

For the most splurge-worthy design, the Tulip Ego laptop made by the Dutch company Ego Lifestyle gets my vote. With rounded corners and a chrome handle that makes it look more like a purse than a computer, it is absolutely stunning. And the colors! Wow! It comes in a ton of designer fabrics and finishes (which can be changed whenever you want) that make you want to throw caution to the wind and slap down that credit card. Just check out the fuchsia “Goddess” and the pale pink “Zephyr” from their Exotic collection, or “Destiny” from the Design collection. Prices range from $5,000 for the basic leather design, to over $300,000 for the diamond-encrusted edition…

Whether you decide to buy one of these new stylish pink laptops or customize the one you already own, you can be sure that your notebook will make you stand out from the crowd.

Will choosing a pink laptop force you to skimp on performance? Not at all. The computer companies are well aware that their customers are looking for top performance as well as good looks and have configured their notebooks accordingly. These days it’s easy to find lightweight, high-performing fabulous pink laptops.

Dell, for example, has a great selection. In fact, most of Dell’s laptops are offered in pink (as well as many other colors); the Inspiron 1420 and 1525, the Studio 15 and 17, and the XPS M1330 and M1350 are all available in “Flamingo Pink”. All get great reviews from the pros and are equally stylish. If lightness and portability is most important to you, the XPS M1330 is the lightest at 4.7 lbs. If cost is your main concern, check out the Inspiron 1525: it is the most affordable, starting at $499, and weighing in at 6 lbs. The Inspiron 1420, the Studio 15 and the XPS M1330 were all given an “Editors Choice” rating from PC Magazine. The M1330 was described as “both refreshing and really quite amazing once you factor in both design and performance”. They add, “Dell slips all the latest technology trends into a very sleek crimson unit while keeping its performance ahead of the competition”. With a 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor and 2GB worth of RAM, it’s fast and reliable, even when working in such memory-hogging programs as Photoshop

Another good choice is Sony, who offer a variety of their VAIO laptops in various shades of pink; the TZ Series in Luxurious Rosé Pink, the CR Series in Glossy Cosmopolitan Pink, the NR Series in Textured Cherry Blossom Pink, the SR Series in Glossy or Sunset Pink and the VGN-C290 CTO Series in Blush Pink. The Sony notebooks tend to be a tad pricier than some of the others, but they are chic, high performing and very light (the TZ series weighs 2.65 lbs with the battery).

An economical (and super light) choice is the ASUS EeePC (which comes in pink, blue, green, black, and white and can be found for less than $300). PC Magazine calls this 2-lb ultraportable notebook “a tremendous bargain for people with general-purpose computing needs who don’t plan on running any sophisticated software… and it loads everything you need for performing basic office and multimedia tasks.”

There is no shortage of pink laptops to choose from, and I predict that we are going to see many more colors and designs on the market in the coming years. With customization being a huge trend in all areas of life right now, I think we will soon be limited only by our own imagination when it comes to the look of our electronic gadgets.