NEC seems to be willing to stick it out to the competition as they have just released their new set Turion 64 X2 laptop goodies, which will be part of their LaVie line of laptops. To go right down to the nitty-gritty of these machines, they are equipped with 15.4-inch 1,280 x 800 displays, ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 integrated graphics, and dual-layer DVD burning across the board.

Of course there's also the usual Firewire, four USB 2.0 ports, a PC card slot, multi-card reader, gigabit Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g WiFi in NEC's latest producrs. They will come in two choices, if you have some dough to spare, you could get the LaVie L line which will cost you ¥210,000 or roughly $1,819 USD. It will have 100GB HDD, 768MB of RAM (2GB max) and WMCE '05, powered by an AirTV external TV tuner.

Too expensive? Then maybe you oughta consider the entry level LaVie G type L option, a build-type order affair that will cost you ¥125,000 or $1,082. These babies will be available in Japan starting August 11, no word on availability and sale date elsewhere.

If you think these features sounds good and the price tag ain't that high, then prepare for the downside of these contraptions. If you're the type who travels with your laptop, you might get a little disappointed with the Lavie laptops because their battery life willl only cover you for roughly 2 hours -- and for an almost 7-pound laptop, that might be quite a turnoff for you. But then again, you will be the best judge of that.