Since the introduction of the first VAIO P last year, Sony has insisted that the VAIO P is not a netbook. No sir. It’s a “Lifestyle PC.” What’s a “Lifestyle PC,” you ask? I’m not sure but somehow the Sony VAIO P seems to fit perfectly. For starters, netbooks generally cost under $500, feature 10- to 12-inch screens with relatively low resolutions, and function similarly to standard laptops. The newest VAIO P, on the other hand, starts at $900, features a small screen with a huge resolution, and functions somewhere in between a UMPC and a standard laptop. It doesn’t really function similarly to a phone aside from the built-in accelerometer and the fact that it’s small.

Design

The VAIO P’s unique form factor is, by far, its greatest asset. At 9.7 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches, the VAIO P is small enough to fit in a woman’s purse or in a man’s long coat pocket. And at 1.4 pounds, it weighs half as much as a netbook, yet has a full-size keyboard that’s fit for touch typists. If you’re familiar with the original P series, you’ll notice that the biggest design difference is the color. While the original P had a classy metal keyboard and deck with tasteful lid colors such as Garnet Red or Onyx Black, the new P has a plastic keyboard and deck that matches its lid and comes in loud neon shades like lime green or hot pink. Conservative white and black colors are available, too.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Most low-priced, full-size notebooks currently on the market feature poorly built keyboards that show significant flex/bounce when typing pressure is applied. Thankfully, most netbooks have remarkably firm keyboards due to the fact that the chassis is so small there isn’t much empty space inside the notebook for the keyboard to flex or bounce. The keyboard on the VAIO P is less cramped than what we’ve seen on the 7-inch and 8.9-inch netbooks, but the Sony keyboard is still very compact. Most netbook keyboards are quite frustrating to use because the small footprint and tiny keys require you to use a “hunt and peck” style of typing rather than traditional touch typing methods. This means that passwords get mangled, emails look like gibberish, and playing games that require keyboard commands becomes quite aggravating.

The touchpad is, well, completely absent on the VAIO P. Rather than a typical touchpad the VAIO P uses a touchpoint or trackpoint pointing stick similar to what you find on many business-grade notebooks. The trackpoint is quite sensitive and easy to use, and even though I usually prefer to use touchpads I found the trackpoint to be very enjoyable. The left and right touchpoint buttons are located in the correct position beneath the space bar and have a shallow feedback and produce a light “click” when pressed.

Display

Note to self: Be careful what you wish for. I’ve personally been cursing the 1024×600 netbook screens since the very beginning, so to see that Sony somehow managed to cram 1600×768 pixels into an 8-inch LED backlit screen is truly a sight to behold. Unfortunately, trying to actually behold text on websites is another story. Unless the screen is about six inches from your face, forget about reading most of the web without zooming. Thankfully, Sony’s not only included zoom-in and zoom-out function keys, but a handy quick-resolution toggle button that kicks the 1600×900 display down to a much more legible 1280×600 in a matter of seconds. However, you run into that godforsaken 600 lines of vertical resolution that plagues cheap netbooks. It cuts off information windows and makes web page scrolling an almost non-stop activity. In the end, I found myself using the VAIO P most often at the full 1600×768 resolution with a liberal amount of zooming.

Ports

Port selection was something of a surprise with this Sony, since some netbooks that are slightly larger have fewer ports than what the VAIO P offers. You get two USB ports, two memory card readers, a headphone jack, and a dedicated expansion port used to connect a dongle that provides Ethernet/LAN and VGA out. The dongle connects to the AC power adapter so you can either keep it with the power adapter or carry it separately. There isn’t much to complain about here, although there might have been enough space in the chassis design to support an additional USB port or Firewire.

Performance

Regardless of how cool the Sony VAIO P looks there are many potential buyers who only care about one thing: performance. This is one area where the VAIO P might be a tough sell for some. In order to keep temperatures and power consumption as low as possible in this little notebook, Sony decided to use a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor rather than the 1.6GHz Atom processor used in larger netbooks. While this helps keep the VAIO P from overheating and promotes better battery life, the bottom line is the VAIO P has a pretty weak processor.

Like most Atom-based netbooks, the VAIO P has enough processor performance for basic tasks like web browsing or working in Microsoft Office, but don’t expect to use this as a multimedia entertainment notebook. Since Sony includes Windows Vista with the VAIO P we also decided to test the new Windows 7 beta during our benchmark tests. Thankfully, Windows 7 seems to improve the overall performance of the VAIO P and makes this mobile computer a much more useful laptop. Windows Vista is okay, but Windows 7 makes the VAIO P much, much better.

Design

Measuring 1.3 inches thick and weighing 3.8 pounds, the black VAIO Y is made for travel. It’s also made to last. Sony decked out the top and bottom of the chassis in magnesium, giving the notebook a nice rigidity; twisting the machine in our hands with the lid closed resulted in zero flex. The competing ASUS UL30A has a light silver brushed aluminum lid, but the deck is plastic. The HP Pavilion dm3 has aluminum on both the lid and deck, which gives it more of a consumer feel. Some may feel the VAIO Y looks too much the part of a business machine, but we like its fit and finish. Other elegant details on the VAIO Y include a textured grid pattern on the deck, which has a nice feel. Like other Sony notebooks, this one sports circular hinges; the right side houses the power button, and the left has the power jack. Above the keyboard is a speaker strip and two buttons: VAIO and Assist. The VAIO button launches VAIO Media Gallery software, while the Assist button pulls up VAIO Care for quick access to support and troubleshooting options.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The VAIO Y has a comfortable Chiclet-style keyboard that is easy to type on for long periods of time. Compared to the Vaio Z the spacing is a bit different, putting dedicated Page Up/Down and Home/End keys on the right side of the keyboard, instead of including them as secondary functions over the direction keys. This caused some shrinking of the right shift button and left control button as well as slightly tighter spacing. The keyboard also lacks one of the luxurious backlit keys seen on the VAIO Z, but that was expected given the much lower starting price. Keyboard support is excellent with no noticeable keyboard flex under strong typing pressure. Key responsiveness is great as well as very quiet key actions that don’t emit much noise when fully pressed.

The touchpad on the VAIO Y is a Synaptics model that is very responsive and has no discernible lag. The touchpad includes some multitouch features, including two-finger scroll which the Z actually skipped in favor of the chiral-scrolling motion. Refresh rates were excellent, preventing any “trails” from the cursor drawing fast circles on the screen. The touchpad settings out of the box were near perfect, with no tweaks needed during the review. I also found the touchpad buttons to be easy to trigger with the edge of your thumb and had shallow feedback when fully pressed. Overall the touchpad was very good and one of the nicer models seen on a thin and light notebook.

Ports and Webcam

There are few surprises when it comes to the port selection on the VAIO Y. Like most ULV notebooks, this one lacks a DVD drive, so looks elsewhere if that’s and important feature to you. The left side houses the power jack, VGA port, HDMI, one USB 2.0, a FireWire port, and headphone and microphone jacks. The Ethernet ports, two more USB 2.0 ports, and an ExpressCard/34 slot line the right side. Up front you’ll find separate Memory Stick and SD Card slots.

Display

The Sony VAIO Y comes standard with a 13.3-inch WXGA panel with no upgrade options for higher resolutions. Compared to other CULV-based notebooks the screen rates above average with good color and contrast. I have to admit that this screen was a step down from the one seen on the VAIO Z, which had a higher color saturation and deeper black levels (at nearly triple the cost!). For users looking to enjoy a movie on the road, enjoy a YouTube clip during class or type a term paper during a study session the screen is perfect. Backlight levels were good for bright indoor viewing conditions, with the surface measuring 196nit at full brightness. Viewing angles were good, although colors did seem to have a narrow sweet spot of roughly 10-15 degrees before colors started to shift or invert vertically. Horizontal viewing angles were much better, spanning over 60 degrees from the side.

Battery

Much like the ThinkPad Edge 13″, the VAIO Y doesn’t live up to the lofty claims by Sony in terms of battery life; it’s not even close. Sony claims that you can get up to 8 hours of life from a single standard battery. We got just over 3. Of course, our test represents expected life while you’re actually working, but even if we would’ve left the machine idle for long stretches, we can’t imagine that 3 hours ever stretching to 8. It may get 4 or 5 hours if you play your cards right, but 8 seems overly optimistic. Overall, 3 hours of life while working isn’t bad for a standard cell in a CULV machine, but Sony’s claims make it more difficult accept the 3 hours. We honestly expected to get somewhere close to 8 hours, and as you can see, we were let down in a big way.

Performance

Like many other ultraportables in this price range, the VAIO Y features Intel’s 1.3-GHz Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor. This dual-core CPU, along with 4GB of RAM combined to offer snappy performance. The system scored 2,906 in PCMark Vantage; that showing is above the ultraportable category average (2,739), much better than the ASUS UL30A (2,442), and slightly higher than the HP Pavilion dm3 (2,874). The VAIO Y also beats the Intel version of the Toshiba Satellite T135 (2,701). Anecdotally, the VAIO Y proved to be a good performer; we noticed only a bit of lag when we tried to zoom in on our Manhattan office while we had Pandora streaming in the background, and most applications opened quickly.

Design and Durability
While the Portege R600 sported a silver aluminum body that felt somewhat flimsy, the R700 trades flash for a sturdier-feeling black magnesium cover. The chrome hinges are plastic, as are the darker gray touchpad buttons. The overall look is somewhat subdued but handsome. Those looking for more flair should opt for the Best Buy-exclusive model, which has a dark blue lid. Weighing 3.2 pounds, the Portege R700 is one of the lightest laptops you’ll find with both a roomy 13-inch display and a built-in optical drive. The pricier 13-inch Sony VAIO Z weighs an even 3 pounds, but the R700 is still easy to take anywhere, measuring a compact 12.4 x 9 x 0.6–1 inches. The R700′s durability extends beyond its magnesium finish. Toshiba used a honeycomb rib structure for the base and palm rest for extra resilience. You also get hard drive protection and a spill-resistant keyboard.

Keyboard
The keyboard uses flat, widely spaced island-style keys. While perfectly usable, the keys are noticeably more rectangular than most, as if they were shortened to save space. Typing is also a little on the clacky side, but not so much as to be a dealbreaker. We do appreciate the large dedicated Page-up, page-down, Home, and End keys along the right side–they’re usually relegated to alternate function keys on most laptops. Our biggest complaint is that the keyboard is not backlit. We’ve seen that feature on other Toshiba laptops in this price range, and it’s always an appreciated extra.

Display and Audio
The R700′s LED-backlit 13.3-inch display (1366 x 768 pixels) is fairly bright and looks less washed out than the 12-inch panel on the R600 series. When we watched a 720p episode of Glee on Fox.com, colors really popped, and we could easily make out wrinkles in Mr. Schuster’s forehead. We noticed just a little bit of visual noise, and viewing angles were narrow. When we streamed Phoenix on Pandora, the twin speakers above the keyboard were loud enough to fill a small room. Still, we wouldn’t go past 75 percent volume; The Killers’ “When You Were Young” sounded harsh when we really cranked it.

Port
The inclusion of a combo eSATA/USB port, HDMI and an SD card slot gives the Portege R700 a big advantage over the MacBook in terms of ports and connections. Even though in some countries the system has an Intel Wireless Display transmitter, it’s a shame the R700 does not come bundled with the Netgear adapter required to wirelessly beam video to your television. The first round of Wireless Display laptops from earlier in 2010 all included the adapter.

Performance
The R700 is in a different league than its predecessor when it comes to performance. That’s because this ultraportable packs a 2.4-GHz Core i5 processor, compared to a relatively wimpy 1.4-GHz Core 2 Duo CPU on the R600 we reviewed in April 2009. The R700 scored a whopping 6,657 in PCMark Vantage, nearly triple the R600. That showing is also more than double the ultraportable notebook average, and it beats the HP EliteBook 2540p (6,002), Fujitsu LifeBook S760 (5,890), and Lenovo ThinkPad X201s (6,106). The only ultraportables we’ve tested recently that surpass the R700 are the ThinkPad X201 (7,050), which has a slightly faster 2.53-GHz Core i5 CPU, and the blazing but much pricier Sony VAIO Z (9,936), which sports dual SSDs and Nvidia graphics.

Design
The first thing anyone notices about the Adamo XPS is its profile. It measures 13.39 inches wide by 10.78 inches long. With the lid closed, it measures 0.41 inches at the thickest part of the chassis (the back) and slopes down to 0.38 inches at the front. Compare that with the original Adamo, which measured 0.65 inches thin all around. The Adamo XPS weighs 3.2 pounds with the standard 4-cell battery. Despite the light weight (no doubt partly attributable to its aluminum chassis) the Adamo XPS felt solid in my hands.

There is a colorless, capacitive touch strip at the front edge of the Adamo XPS’s lid. Simply run your finger across the strip, and the lid opens with an almost inaudible click. It’s this kind of unexpected touch (no pun intended) that I think will distinguish the Adamo XPS from others in the luxury ultraportable category.

Keyboard & Touchpad
When fully opened, the keyboard sits at about a 20-degree angle. It’s an unusual setup, but one that provides a better raised typing experience than the average flat laptop keyboard (although some readers have told us they dislike angled keyboards). We also liked the solid-feeling metal keys and the reasonably large touch pad. The right Shift key is smaller than the left one, but not horribly so, but the row of Function keys is both small and set flush to the keyboard tray surface, making them hard to hit. Still, the overall typing experience is good, and we quickly adapted to the layout and its flat, widely spaced keys. Measuring 3 x 1.7 inches, the touchpad on the Adamo XPS is decently sized, and offered little resistance while sliding our finger across. Multitouch gestures are enabled, and we found it easy to pinch to zoom in on photos and documents. Two discrete mouse buttons below were a touch soft, but were otherwise fine.

Ports and Webcam
adamo-webcamAt the base of the notebook by the battery are two USB ports, one on each side, and a DisplayPort on the left. On the right is a headphone and mic port. Helping make up for this paucity of ports is a dongle that comes with the unit, and allows users to connect Ethernet and DVI. An optional VGA and HDMI dongle costs extra. The 2-megapixel webcam offered fairly good visuals while chatting with a friend over Skype, but he noted that the image froze every now and then; however, this was most likely due to our Internet connection.

Display & Audio
The 13.4-inch wide-screen LED display offers a 1,366×768-pixel native resolution, which is standard for an upscale 13-inch system. Screen images were bight and clear, although the overly glossy screen coating picked up plenty of glare. The stereo speakers, mounted on the bottom surface (which would be raised off the ground when the laptop lid is open) are tinny and underpowered; we suggest headphones for almost all audio use.

Performance

The 1.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9400 and 4GB of RAM powered the Adamo XPS to a PCMark Vantage score of 3964, 1200 points above the ultraportable average. The only other system with similar specs—the Samsung X360, which had the same processor and a 128GB SSD—scored 3,184. Still, the Sony Vaio Z, which costs $100 more, but has a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor and two SSDs, scored two and a half times higher: 9936. The Adamo XPS’ Samsung 128GB SSD (PB22 JS3) was quite zippy, booting the 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium operating system in just 33 seconds. The drive duplicated a 4.97GB folder of multimedia files in 1 minute and 54 seconds, a rate of 44.6 MBps. While that’s more than twice the ultraportable average (21.6 MBps), it pales in comparison to the Vaio Z’s transfer rate of 127 MBps (which has twin SSDs). Transcoding a 114MB MPEG-4 to AVI using Oxelon Media Encoder took 1 minute and 46 seconds, 12 seconds faster than the ultraportable average, but about a minute longer than the Vaio Z.

Predictably, graphics scores from the integrated Intel GMA4500MHD GPU were pretty low. The Adamo XPS scored just 701 on 3DMark06, about 150 points below the category average, and other recent 13-inch systems, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 (908), and the Sony Vaio Y (906). The Sony Vaio Z’s integrated graphics also proved far superior, notching 1,900 on the same test.

When playing World of Warcraft at 1024 x 768 and with graphics set to default, we eked out just 23 frames per second. Still, the machine was powerful enough to make for a smooth experience when flying around New York City in Google Earth.

Design
Unlike the U30Jc or the UL50, the lid of the N61Jv is glossy with a subtle wavy pinstripe pattern, much like the K42F. This looks cool, but it doesn’t do a great job of hiding fingerprint smudges. Inside, however, ASUS has made several interesting design changes. The palm rest is rubberized, making it very comfortable to the touch.

Above the chiclet-style keyboard is the most striking feature: a silver speaker bar perforated by tiny holes. At the right side is a circular chrome power button encircled by a backlit ring; on the other side are buttons to control multimedia playback and to launch the ExpressGate Instant-On environment. At either end of the silver bar are two translucent strips that light up blue when the notebook is on. All in all, it has a very retro-chic look, like something Braun might have designed in the 80s.

Weighing 6 pounds even, the N61J is a bit heavier than most notebooks in its class, most of which have smaller 15.6-inch screens. The Samsung R580, for example, weighs 5.6 pounds. However, the N61Jv, at 15.4 x 10.6 x 1.1—1.5 inches, cuts a thinner profile to the R580’s 16.2 x 10.7 x 1.3—1.6 inches.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The palm rest has a sort of “rubbery” textured plastic found on some mice and keyboards, along with the Alienware M17x and ASUS G73J. The technical description is a “soft touch rubberized painted plastic” surface for the palm rest; whatever it’s called, we like it, and we wish the top cover used the same material. The keyboard is of the chiclet variety and has a good feel and key action. We only have one minor complaint with the keyboard, and that’s the use of a half-size “0″ key for the number keypad. Above are two different keyboards, on the left is the ASUS N61J and on the right is the Acer Aspire 5740G; Acer gets the number keypad right. If a company is going to go to the trouble of fitting a 10-key into a notebook, they need to use the standard layout. Yes it’s a minor quibble, but it’s our only real complaint with the keyboard. We do feel there are better keyboards out there, but that’s largely a matter of personal taste—I’m partial to the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 approach, with raised and contoured keys that feel more like a desktop keyboard. If on the other hand you prefer chiclet keyboards, the N61J won’t disappoint.

Display and Audio
The 16-inch LED-backlit display on the N61Jv was plenty bright, and we liked the crisp colors. While its resolution of 1366 x 768 was adequate for a notebook at this price, its glossy surface kicked back reflections and angles were somewhat limited. Image quality was fair. While watching a 720p episode of Fringe on Fox.com, we could easily make out the wrinkles in the characters’ faces, though a DVD of Heroes looked somewhat grainy.

Despite the fact that the N61Jv has Altec Lansing Speakers and SRS Premium Sound, we were somewhat disappointed overall. There was very nice definition when listening to Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away,” but bass was sadly lacking on this entertainment system. During the chorus, the higher notes drowned out the lower tones, making it sound a little harsh. Tweaking the settings using the SRS control panel did little to help. On the plus side, the volume was fairly loud when streaming Weezer’s “Beverly Hills” on Slacker.

Ports
ASUS provides a single eSATA port and two USB 2.0 ports. The big extra is that ASUS has added an NEC USB 3.0 controller for one more USB port on the left side

Performance
The 2.26-GHz Intel Core i5-430M processor and 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 8GB) powered the N61Jv to an excellent score of 5,841 in PCMark Vantage, which measures overall performance. That’s about 900 points higher than the desktop replacement average, about 40 points higher than the Samsung 15.6-inch R580, which has the same processor, and practically equal to the similarly sized Acer Aspire 5740G. The 17-inch Samsung R780 ($799) has the same processor, but scored about 100 points higher.

Not only is the N61J’s hard drive a relatively spacious 500GB, but it also zips along at 7,200 rpm, enabling it to blow past a number of notebooks in its category. We were able to duplicate a 4.97GB folder of multimedia in 2 minutes and 31 seconds, a rate of 33.7 MBps. That’s 45 seconds faster than the R580 (26.2 MBps), and more than 10 MBps faster than the Sony VAIO E (21.7 MBps). Boot time, too, was a fast 57 seconds.

Design
For two grand your ultraportable had better look luxurious, and Sony delivers. The silver VAIO Z (also available in Premium Carbon Fiber for $50) is decked out in aluminum and magnesium, which gives the system a premium feel. We especially like the brushed metal deck and the circular hinges (complete with the green glowing power button on the right). The black bezel serves as a nice accent, and we appreciate that surface is matte instead of glossy.

Weighing an even 3 pounds—about 3.2 ounces heavier than most netbooks—and measuring 12.4 x 8.3 x 1.3 inches, the VAIO Z is remarkably light given its features. In fact, we barely felt it in our backpack on the way home from the office. Other design elements include four buttons above the keyboard: Assist (which launches VAIO Care software), a shortcut button, a button for launching the VAIO Media Gallery, and an eject button for the optical drive. On the left side you’ll find a switch for the notebook’s graphics system, which you can toggle between Speed, Stamina, and Auto modes.

Keyboard & Touchpad
The Sony Vaio Z has a backlit chiclet* keyboard design that is very nice. The keys are just a hair smaller than usual (Logitech illuminated, Macbook Pro, Vaio SR) but there is ample room in-between keys, and that reduces my typo rate, when compared to a non-chiclet keyboard. I type at average speed (77 words per minutes, or wpm) and on the Vaio Z, the speed is within that range (74 wpm), so I’m very satisfied. The backlight is great in dark settings, but the light sensor is not all that smart. I think that Sony should push that feature to mid-range ($900+ laptops), this is great and once you have tasted it, it’s hard to go back. The touch of the keys is a little soft/”gummy” and I would have preferred something more “crisp”, but it works. Sony could even make the keyboard just a little smaller if they needed extra room on the side (for speakers?).

It is small, but the trackpad surface is decent and feels better to the touch than most pads. The underlying hardware comes from Synaptics, and this means that you have access to many options in the trackpad driver to configure scroll zones and gestures. Having used a Macbook Pro (with Windows 7) for many months now, it’s (very) hard to get back to a smaller trackpad and “primitive” gestures. I miss the two-finger scrolling too…     *

Display & Ports
The 13.3-inch wide-screen LED display has a 1,600×900-pixel native resolution.That’s what we’d expect in an upscale 13-inch laptop; less-expensive 13-inch systems often have 1,280×800-pixel or 1,366×768-pixel displays. The higher resolution makes it good for 720p video, and gives you plenty of desktop real estate. The Vaio Z116 has a standard set of ports and connections for a 13-inch laptop, although for $2,300, we’d expect a Blu-ray drive. Still, it’s impressive the system manages to fit in an optical drive at all; it’s a feature missing from HP’s 13-inch Envy, Dell’s 13-inch Adamo XPS, and even Toshiba’s T-135.

Webcam and microphone
Fast and seamless online communications are vital in today’s highly competitive world. In order to make things easier for the users, the engineers from Sony have equipped the Vaio Z Series notebook with a 0.3 megapixel (640 x 480 pixels) MOTION EYE camera, as well as a microphone. This way, users can take advantage of those IM clients capable of making video calls in order to set up teleconferences and communicate more easily.

Performance
sonyvaiovpcz114gxs_sh1.jpgThanks to the combination of a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5 processor, dual solid state drives, and discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics, the VAIO Z is the fastest 13-inch ultraportable we’ve tested. It notched a very impressive 9,936 in PCMark Vantage, which is more than triple the category average. The only other system that comes close in this category is the Lenovo ThinkPad X201, which has a 2.53-GHz Intel Core i5 processor but a slower 7,200-rpm hard drive. (We’re in the process of finalizing our review for that system.)

Just as important, the VAIO Z feels fast. This system opened Adobe Reader 9 in under 2 seconds, and most other programs in one second. In fact, we never felt like we were waiting for Windows to catch up with what we were trying to accomplish, which is quite the feat. The VAIO Z booted into Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) faster than most notebooks, taking 50 seconds (versus 61 for other ultraportables). We also noticed that this machine was quicker when installing software than most other notebooks.

So how about those twin solid state drives, one 64GB and the other 128 GB? They’re blazing. When we conducted the LAPTOP Transfer Test, which measures how fast a 4.97GB folder is copied from one folder on the notebook’s hard drive, the VAIO Z blew away the field. Its data rate of 127 MBps is nearly six times faster than the average ultraportable.

Design
We loved the EliteBook’s sturdy design when we reviewed the 14.1-inch 6930p, but it’s especially apropos in the 2530p, whose 12.1-inch screen makes it ideal for road warriors. The 2530p, too, has a DuraCase lid, made of brushed anodized aluminum and magnesium alloy. The 3.8-pound 2530p feels a bit heavier than other ultraportables, owing mostly to its rugged build. For example, the Sony VAIO Z Series weighs only 3.3 pounds and features a larger 13.1-inch display. Nevertheless, the 2530p is plenty light for travel and is easy to hold in one hand.

On the inside, the palm rest and thin strip surrounding the touch-sensitive keys are a matching gray, but the keyboard is black. Because the keyboard extends to the edges of the 11.1-inch-wide deck, the keys were comfortable to type on, despite the notebook’s otherwise small size. As with the 6930p, the keyboard and touch buttons are quiet, and the rubbery touchpad has a good amount of resistance, but the touch buttons are narrow; HP also includes a pointing stick with its own corresponding set of mouse buttons. The stick was responsive and has a good rubbery texture.

Above the keyboard are touch-sensitive controls for Wi-Fi, volume, mute, HP Info Center, HP Presentation Options, and one to disable and enable the touchpad. The controls were responsive to taps, although the volume controls required a bit more pressure. In addition to discreet increase and decrease buttons is a convenient strip along which you can slide your finger to adjust the volume.

Screen and Audio
The 2530p comes equipped with a 12.1″ anti-glare widescreen with a typical WXGA resolution.  At 1280 x 800 pixels, this display is capable of displaying fine details without making things too small to work comfortably while on the move.  Of course, the resolution might be limiting if you plan to use this notebook as a mobile video and photo editing platform … but most people interested in a 12-inch notebook aren’t editing high-resolution photos on the road.

When viewing the screen from straight ahead, colors are rich and the contrast is excellent. Full-screen movies are look quite good with deep blacks and good viewing angles.  Horizontal viewing angles are particularly impressive so you won’t have trouble showing a presentation to multiple people sitting at a desk. The vertical viewing angle from above starts to wash out at extreme angles and colors begin to invert from below … but the overwhelming majority of users will never view the screen from high above or far below.

Features and Webcam
The 2530p has two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, a VGA port, Ethernet and modem jacks, mic and headphone ports, docking and battery connectors, and a Kensington lock slot. It also has an ExpressCard/54 slot and an SD Card reader. Ideally, we would have liked to see at least one more USB port.

The 2-megapixel webcam captured sharp, well-lit still photos. Our VGA video showed delays, even when we captured video, which doesn’t involve a (potentially slow) Internet connection. When we made a Skype call, our friend noticed some latency around our mouth but, predictably, said the picture became more fluid as she shrunk the window.

Performance
Performance on little laptops, like the EliteBook 2530p, is not about how fast it goes, but rather can it do the job and how long the battery lasts. Our EliteBook 2530p came with the Intel SL9400 low voltage processor, with a clock speed of 1.86GHz, and 6MB of cache. For graphics, HP uses the Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics chip. I don’t expect really high scores, but I do expect that it will be able to complete the tests.

Despite the above statement I still wanted to get an idea of the speed of the machine. As you can see from the numbers the speed is very low. The two tests I used are 3DMark 06 and PCMark 05. In 3DMark the EliteBook 2530p got 875 and in PCMark it did not get an overall score, but you can see the individual scores are low, but okay. These numbers are disappointing, but not surprising, hopefully it does better in the next test. The next test is a battery test and I used MobileMark 2007 for this. MobileMark does a good job testing battery life under working conditions because it runs programs like Office and Photoshop, all while keeping track of the running time. For the first battery test I used the MobileMark 2007 default power settings and I got 5 hours and 27 minutes. One thing I need to give HP credit for is their fantastic system restore disks. Rather than providing one disk that restores the system to factory settings, they provide two disks. The first one will do a clean install of the OS. The second disk has the drivers and applications, but you get to chose which drivers and apps it installs. This is a fantastic system that I hope finds its way into HP’s consumer products.

• Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 GHz)
• Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
• 14.1″ WXGA display (1280 x 800)
• Built-in 1.3 megapixel camera: MOTION EYE
• Intuitive Operation: Touch Sensor
• Touch and Feel: Glowing Luminous LED

Pet the Sony VAIO VGN-CS16G and see it glow! That’s the CS series’ selling point – aside from wowing you with graphics and functionality. So if you have the dough, declare your war against recession and stamp your name on this laptop.

The CS series is sleek, and it’s capable of providing above-average performance whether for gaming, watching a flick, busting your eardrums with rock music, or just doing boring office work. It’s hard to diss a Sony VAIO.

Same old beast
The obvious upside to a VAIO is, of course, its looks. But the VGN-CS16G has more to offer than dashing good looks. For starters, it has a 2.26GHz Intel Core Duo processor, a 250GB hard drive, two gigs of RAM and a 14.1-inch widescreen display powered by an NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GPU.

In simple speak, everything mentioned above translates to more brute power than a fashion-centric user could ever hope to utilize. It’s even good enough for HD videos and games, although don’t expect it to keep up with the gaming Joneses for more than a year or two, tops.

Light it up
What’s new with this latest VAIO incarnation, however, may trump all the techie mumbo jumbo we just spilled. Sony says it wants users to “experience the fun factor” with the VGN-CS16G. What did they mean? Well, the laptop has luminous LEDs underneath, which light up when you stroke the Sony logo behind the screen and when you’re playing music.

The LEDs emit different colors for different purposes. For music in particular, the color depends on how “cheerful” the track is. A novelty? Maybe. Psychedelic? You bet. Whatever the reason, we say it’s time to stand out from the crowd.

I quickly fell for the golden, brushed-aluminum body and the matching widely spaced keys. (Not feeling flashy enough for the limited-edition gold version, like the one we received? The X Series also comes in black.) Measuring 10.95 by 7.29 by 0.55 inches and weighing 1.6 pounds, the X Series out-smalls the MacBook Air and gives the upcoming Dell Adamo XPS a run for its money.

The X Series boasts an 11.1-inch screen that measures merely 0.125 inch thick. The laptop comes with two interchangeable batteries: a standard (3.5-hour) battery and a larger, heavier, battery-and-stand combo that supposedly lasts for up to 14 hours, according to Sony spokespeople. They were wrong. It lasts just a few minutes under 15 hours — that’s easily the longest running laptop we’ve tested to date.

Design
It’s hard to overstate just how light and tiny Sony’s new Wunderkind truly is. It measures half an inch thick, and weighs 1.5 pounds. This is a notebook you can flip around like a magazine, lift from the corner with a thumb and two fingers, and probably send into the stratosphere with a dozen or so balloons. If the MacBook Air can cut a cake, the Vaio X can probably perform minor surgery.

Don’t take that to mean that the Vaio X feels insubstantial. Sony has called upon the wonder of carbon fiber to give the notebook stiffness and rigidity totally out of proportion to its weight. We were able to wring a bit of flex out of it by intentionally grabbing two corners and giving it a twist, but the small size of the machine and impossibly light weight means that it never really encounters this sort of stress during every day handling. We only batted an eye when adjusting the screen with one hand from the side, which made us wish it had a little more reinforcement. Fond as Sony is of glossy paintjobs, our carbon-fiber review unit came decked out in stealthy matte black from head to toe – an arrangement we much prefer. Although it doesn’t offer the durable rubbery feel of say, a ThinkPad, it shakes off fingerprints and other marring all the same.

Keyboard
The thing that I like most design wise (apart from the fact I could successfully balance it on its corner in the palm of my hand like they do in adverts. Not that I tried of course because that would just be irresponsible is the well spaced keyboard. My big issue with laptops is that they’re a devil to type on, but this one genuinely does accommodate fat fingers and overly eager typers! And Sony seems to love putting that tiny right Shift key on all its ultraportable keyboards. Multitouch comes turned on by default, which makes a hard-to-use trackpad almost impossible to use since moving your finger often results in some flavor of zooming, scrolling, or whatever else they’ve baked into it. I turned off all that stuff within a few minutes – even vertical scrolling. After that, it worked well enough to not have to carry a Bluetooth mouse. I have rather large hands but even normal or small hands will seem big when typing or using the trackpad. You do get used to things after a while, though.

Ports
When you’re designing a notebook as thin as some of the connectors that will plug into it, you have to get a little creative. Sony engineers rose to the occasion. The VGA connector on the right, for instance, matches the height of the notebook almost identically, and therefore isn’t even shielded in from all sides: The bottom edge has been left bare and sits flush with the bottom of the notebook. Along the same lines, the right-hand Ethernet port literally snaps open like a jaw to accommodate the standard connector, which would be too fat to fit without this python-like adaptation. Sony also provides two USB ports, a headphone jack, and a power jack on the left-hand side. We really wish Sony had managed to move one of the USB jacks to the right; both to accommodate for right-handed travel mice, and to prevent the overlapping problems you might encounter when connecting oversized accessories like thumb drives or mini camcorders. Up front, you’ll find both an SD card reader and a slot for Sony’s Memory Stick Duo cards.

Display and Audio
sony_vaio_x_sh3.jpgAs befitting a netbook that costs $1,500, the VAIO X’s 11.1-inch screen has a higher-than-usual resolution of 1366 x 768; we’ve only seen this standard on the Gigabyte Touchnote T1028X. This is becoming a more common option, however, such as on theHP Mini 110. While this resolution tends to make icons too small on 10-inch netbooks, we didn’t mind it as much on an 11-inch screen. When watching content streamed over the Web or played off the VAIO X’s hard drive, we were impressed with the crispness and wide viewing angles of the display; we could turn it nearly 90 degrees to either side without seeing image reversal or egregious reflections. Being as thin as it is, we’re not surprised at the lack of audio quality in the VAIO X. Songs were thin and tinny; the bass line in Aerosmith’s “Dream On” streamed over Pandora was nonexistent, and the speakers could barely fill a small office with sound.

Performance

The Vaio X is a beautiful piece of machinery. Downright gorgeous, in fact. But can it perform any better than a $400 netbook? Yes and no. On one hand, the 2.0GHz processor seems to give it that little extra bit of spring in its step. It handles Windows 7 just fine, minus the flashy Aero bits (they come turned off by default). It snaps open browser windows in a split second, breezes through photos, and boots to the Windows desktop in 55 seconds. Not bad.

Sony X Series ReviewBut the same walls that bind your $400 netbook still apply to the Vaio X. It will handle YouTube, but has trouble scaling even standard-def content to fill its 1366 x 768 pixels in full screen mode. Hulu bumps it against the same wall. (Incidentally, shifting resolution to 1024 x 768 for the sake of testing fixes the problem, explaining why many lesser netbooks pull this trick just fine.) And don’t even try any gaming. The Vaio X suffers from the same handicaps as a netbook, but it’s worth noting that experientially, it doesn’t feel like a netbook. By virtue of running Windows 7 and offering a bright WXGA screen, we’re dealing with a whole different level of refinement from the dime-a-dozen XP machines with half as many pixels to drive. When you play within the boundaries, it doesn’t announce them to you.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Vaio X’s performance cropped up when we fired up music on the built-in speakers. The single down-firing speaker – which hides behind a grille no bigger than half a keyboard key – emits barely a whisper. With the built-in battery, which sits flush to the bottom, Sony’s three-hour battery life estimate proved closer to two hours for us. However, Sony includes an extended-life battery with every unit. Although significantly bulkier, it delivered a clean 10 hours at full brightness – not all that far from Sony’s 12-hour claim.

Design Dimensions and Weight
One of the reason people switch to laptops from desktops is mobility. You can’t carry desktops with you when you work outdoors but yes notebooks are designed to coup with this problem. Sony Vaio VGN-NW20EF/S comes with robust silver chassis with a modest weight of 2.7kg. If your nature of job requires traveling, you can rely on Sony Vaio as it would never let you down when it comes to performance and reliability. With slim dimensions of H29 x W370 x D249mm, and a robust brushed aluminium casing, Sony Vaio could very well be a reliable travel companion.

Processor Performance and Graphics
The Sony Vaio VGN-NW20EF/S has an Intel Pentium T4300 processor, and has dual Core technology one of the best on the market now!. It has 3GB DDR2 RAM and 2.16GHz Dual Core T4300, this allows you to run multiple applications with less stress on the laptop for a smoother experience. Also enjoy superb quality videos and pictures on the 15.6 inches X-Black Wide screen LCD display for vibrant colours and sharp image resolution.There is also Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M which allows movie watching and playing 3D games without any problems.

Display Screen and Battery Life
Enjoy high-quality videos and pictures on the 15.6-inches X-Black Widescreen LCD display which reproduces vibrant colours and sharp image resolution. Sony comes with an energy saving illumination technology which doesn’t let the screen dry access battery juice. Despite having a high quality screen, a fully charged Sony Vaio VGN can provide 4 hours of battery life which is justified if you realise the overall specifications of this machine.
A 15.6-inches screen is suitable for ordinary picture size but you can also connect an external plasma or large screen monitor to Sony Vaio VGN through VGA port. Viewing angles are impressive, as you can easily view couple of web pages side-by-side and enjoy videos in their real formats without any irritating side bars.

Keyboard and Touchpad
Typing on Sony Vaio VGN-NW20EF/S is very easy and comfortable. The Keyboard on the Sony Vaio VGN-NW20EF/S is well designed for ease of use and comfort with large keys. palm rest and a touch pad which is very highly responsive.

Camera and Connectivity
For video conferencing, you can use the webcam fixed on the front screen panel. Getting online is also possible with the built-in Wi-Fi technology which connects you to any Wi-Fi enabled network so that you enjoy a smooth uninterrupted internet service. For data sharing through wire, there are 3 USB ports and an Ethernet port for networking.
Hard Disk and Optical Drive
The storage capacity is excellent, you have a massive 320GB of hard drive space which give you plenty of room for storing movies, music, pictures document and all your applications. It has a DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM DVD to play all your favourite cd’s DVD’s. You can also Burn your important data files on blank CDs and DVDs using the optical drive.

Verdict. Verdict
Sony Vaio VGN-NW20EF/S is a sleek and practical laptop offering some high quality specs and decent battery life which is always demanded. If you are hunting for a performance laptop from a leading brand with an affordable price tag then go for Sony Vaio VGN-NW20EF/S without any doubts.