As always the Vaio shows off Sony’s flair for design, with a keyboard that is big and comfortable to use but neat and uncluttered to look at. The hardware specification is fairly conventional though – a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of Ram and a 100GB hard disk.

It’s not a top performer, but it does produce a solid and consistent set of results in our benchmark tests, and should be adequate for most home or business users who need to work on the move.

However, like most of its rivals, it uses a low-cost integrated graphics processor, which means it’s little use for 3D graphics or games.

One feature worth mentioning is the 13.3in screen. The lightest laptops all have 12in screens, which some people might find a little too small for tasks such as word processing or spreadsheet work.

On the other hand, the 14in screens used by HP and Packard Bell mean that those laptops tend to be quite a bit bigger and heavier.

The Vaio’s 13.3in screen is a good compromise – easy on the eye when running business software, but small enough to slip easily into a briefcase or backpack.

The screen quality is pretty good too – bright, colourful and well suited to watching DVDs when travelling. Unfortunately the Vaio wouldn’t run our DVD playback tests, so we were unable to get an accurate score for its battery life here.

However,lasted for well over four hours when running business software.

Our only small qualm is that the Vaio is a little pricey compared to rival laptops with a similar specification. Shoppers on a tight budget might prefer a less expensive option such as the Mesh Pegasus or Fujitsu’s Amilo.

See also Fujitsu-Siemens
HP Compaq
Mesh Pegasus
Packard Bell
Samsung NP
Evesham Lightbook
Graphs and table of features can be read via our pdf downloads above.