Unique design is something which Sony Vaio prides itself on and the laptop maker has certainly kept up part of its mission with the launch of the Sony Vaio C Series in London.

As ever, Pocket-lint was at hand with trusty camera and SD card ready to fill, while we had a little play with multicoloured hardware range. We couldn't quite make our minds up whether the garish pink and orange finishes made them look cheap or attractive but there was a definite Tron-like appeal to the green version of the 14-inch widescreen machine.

What was absolutely a stretch was the idea of the light-emitting reflecting edges of the Vaio symbol and the extremes of the chassis. They rely on the ambient light but the trouble is that any ambient light needed to make the effect work seems to be enough to mask the trick from registering with your eyes.

Either way, the laptops themselves are built nicely enough with plenty of the features you'd be after in the shape of an HD web camera powered by the company’s "Exmor" sensor technology, HDMI out and four USB ports including one which is USB 3.0.

Other additions include backlighting on the full-pitch isolation keyboard, a multi-touch trackpad, and a Web button that will get you up and surfing the internet “in seconds” via a Linux-based mini OS. There’s also an Assist button that launches Vaio Care software, troubleshooting problems and keeping your Vaio in top condition.

Inside and you’ll get an Intel Core i5 processor, AMD Radeon HD 6470M, and a 320GB HDD space and 4GB RAM with Windows 7 Home Premium powering all.

Available as an option when you order the Vaio C Series online, hybrid graphics switch automatically between performance and battery-saving modes to suit the task in hand. Other choices when you order online from Sony include CPU and storage enhancements to power up your Vaio.

The new 14-inch Vaio C Series of notebook PCs by Sony will be available for 3 weeks exclusively at John Lewis, Sony Centres and www.sony.co.uk from the week commencing 21 March 2011, and from other additional retailers after this exclusivity period.