The most telling thing Bond does with a laptop in Casino Royale is write his resignation on it. The Sony VAIO TX 007 Edition is the machine Sony put out to mark the film, an 11-inch subnotebook from a time when thin and light was a luxury rather than a baseline. Anyone searching for the Sony VAIO TX 007 Edition today is looking for a collector’s piece, and we would treat it as exactly that.
In the film
Daniel Craig’s Bond uses a Sony Vaio on the yacht in Venice to write his resignation. We should be careful here: the notes we hold suggest the laptop on screen may have been a different Vaio, an SX model, and that the 007 Edition TX was a separate tie-in release issued in November 2006, when the film opened. It is the Sony laptop of the film in spirit, which is how we describe it.
The details of the Vaio TX
Small by design. The TX has an 11.1-inch widescreen display with a native resolution of 1366 x 768, and it weighs about 1.3kg. For its year, that is a very portable machine.
A carbon fibre case. The TX range is described as having a silver carbon fibre case, which keeps the weight down without the machine feeling flimsy.
Battery and ports. The standard battery is listed at 7800mAh, good for up to 7.5 hours on a charge, and an extended battery could double that. It carries two USB 2.0 ports, a VGA output and a DVD-RW drive.
The 007 package. The Edition was sold with a privacy filter for the screen, which suits a laptop that is used for sending a resignation.
Owning it now
A laptop of 2006 will not run a modern working day. Its single-core processors and 2GB ceiling on memory make it a desk ornament or a period-correct writing machine, and nothing more. As a collectible it is more interesting: the 007 Edition belongs with other film tie-in electronics, and a boxed, complete example is the one to look for.
Sony no longer sells it, so the route is second-hand, and our button runs an eBay search for the VGN-TX 007 Edition. Look for the privacy filter and the original box, and check the battery and screen carefully. Our gadgets and electronics pages cover pieces that are easier to buy, and the Casino Royale page lists the rest of the film.
Specifications
| Model | Sony VAIO VGN-TX series, 007 Edition |
|---|---|
| Display | 11.1-inch widescreen, 1366 x 768 |
| Processor | Pentium M or Core Solo, depending on configuration |
| Memory | Up to 2GB |
| Weight | About 1.3kg |
| Battery | 7800mAh standard, extended battery optional |
| Extras | Privacy filter with the 007 Edition |
Questions
Is this the laptop Bond uses in Casino Royale?
Not certainly. Bond uses a Sony Vaio in the film, but our notes suggest the laptop on screen may have been an SX model, and the 007 Edition TX was a separate release.
Can you still buy the Sony VAIO TX 007 Edition?
Not new, as far as we can tell. It dates from 2006, and the Vaio TX was superseded by the VGN-TZ in 2007, so any example will be second-hand.
Is it practical today?
For collecting, yes. For daily work, no: the hardware is far behind current machines.
