From iconic machines like the IBM PC to the silliness of Sony’s £1,190 netbook, we’ve scoured the darkest corners and blown dust off some of the oldest, oddest and rarest kit we can find – starting with a true icon of the industry.

IBM PC

Introduced on August 12 1981, IBM’s Personal Computer was the first machine to popularise the now-ubiquitous term – and one of these antiques sits at the back of the PC Pro Lab.

Processing grunt was provided by the single-core, 4.77MHz Intel 8088, and floppy disks and cassettes are both supported. There’s a mighty 256KB of RAM, with 64KB of that soldered onto the motherboard. The IBM PC didn’t come cheap, either: a barebones model without any drives cost $1,565 and the top-end model came with bells, whistles and a monitor for $20,000.

The motherboard includes five eight-bit Industry Standard Architecture slots, with three of ours occupied: there’s a floppy disk drive controller card a SixPakPlus memory expansion board packed with 64KB chips, and a multidisplay adapter that’s actually two slabs of PCB stuck together. In the middle of the machine is an IBM 5 ¼in Diskette Drive.

Only one question remains, though, once we’ve blown the dust off this venerable old machine – can it run Crysis?

Apple Macintosh Plus

The Macintosh Plus might be a disturbing shade of yellow but that’s hardly surprising – it first saw the light of day in 1986. Released for £2,599, it was produced until October 1990 – the longest production run of any Macintosh – and was supported by Mac OS up to 1996.

It broke ground in other ways, too. As the first Macintosh to include a SCSI port it paved the way for external devices such as hard disks, tape drives, printers and CD-ROM drives, and this was also the first Macintosh to use SIMMs for its memory – with a massive 1MB of the stuff included as standard across four 256KB sticks.

Our particular model bears the familiar Cupertino, California label on its rear, but the sticker also reveals that this machine was “Assembled in Ireland” – a far cry from today, where most technology seems to be produced in Asia.

Apple Macintosh Colour Classic

Fast forward a few years – and look under a different test-bench – and you’ll find another piece of Apple history. It’s the first compact Macintosh computer to come with a colour display, and we wouldn’t have the iMac – the world’s finest all-in-one PC – without the Colour Classic paving the way.

Originally priced at $1,400 in February 1993, it ran on Mac OS 7.6.1 – the first version of the OS to drop the “System” from its name so the more distinctive moniker could be trademarked and the OS licensed to third-party Macintosh manufacturers.

This ancient all-in-one was more upgradeable than most of today’s models, too. The Processor Direct Slot was used with the Apple IIe Card, and ran software designed for the older Apple II. This backwards compatibility was supposed to entice the education market to upgrade from Apple II machines to fully-fledged Macintoshes, but other upgrades were also available, from CPU accelerators to Ethernet and video cards.

This versatility means the Colour Classic enjoys a cult following today: users have modded the machine with Power Mac parts so its screen runs at 640 x 480 rather than 560 x 384, and others have fitted motherboards from more powerful models.

Casio Cassiopeia E-115

Technical editor Darien Graham-Smith found the Casio Cassiopeia E-115 hiding at the back of his cupboard, but it first arrived back in October 2000 when PDAs, rather than smartphones, were big news.

So, what did you get for £422? There’s the sturdy exterior, which we described as “dull-grey silver” and “resting on its laurels”, alongside a cradle that “feels cheap and doesn’t engage with the Cassiopeia as solidly as we’d like” in its full review.

It wasn’t all bad news, with a 240 x 320 LCD screen that was better than its rivals, and a 131MHz StrongARM processor that was “fast enough to ensure instantaneous contact searches and speedy application switching”, according to us. It also had 16MB of ROM and 32MB of RAM memory – “about as much as you currently need”, at least back then.

Oh, and the software? Microsoft Windows CE 3.0 PocketPC Edition. Our model is old and, presumably, scarred by Darien’s cupboard, so it wouldn’t turn on – although that’s probably for the best, given that we concluded that the Casio simply couldn’t “match the standard” set by Compaq’s iPAQ.

Apple iMac G4

The G4 marked the first major redesign of the iMac, but the forlorn model found in the PC Pro Lab has clearly seen better days. It’s missing its monitor bezel, the distinctive round base is looking grubby, and it wouldn’t turn on – although that chrome, cantilevered arm is as smooth as it was when the G4 was eased from its box in 2002.

We described the G4 as “smooth and elegant design that puts other computer makes to shame”. Even now it stands out in a sea of modern all-in-ones that all look a little too familiar.

Our review also highlighted Apple’s concentration on “excellent design and ease of use”, but that has downsides – a specification we described as “Paleolithic”. It’s the first time we’ve seen computers compared to dinosaurs, but the SDRAM was slow and the GeForce 2 MX graphics chip was a generation behind the curve. It might look nice – as Apple devices are wont to do – but PCs ran our Photoshop 7 benchmark almost twice as quickly.

Dell Latitude

The oldest laptop we managed to find demonstrates the changing of technology. This Dell Latitude isn’t quite as backward as we first thought. It’s either a C540 or C640 – we’re not sure which, as it’s been hidden on a high shelf for far too long – and it’s a mix of old problems and forgotten boons.

It’s running a Pentium 4 chip with Windows XP, but the most striking thing about this machine is its design – or lack of it. Plain plastic is the order of the day, and the lid features the familiar Dell logo, along with the kind of build quality that we’d slate if this machine were reviewed today.

The base doesn’t cover itself in glory, either, with stickers, flaps, screws, feet and even some exposed fans. It’s also obvious where laptops have fallen backwards as companies rush to build slim, snazzy Ultrabooks: we rarely see keyboards with the kind of comfort, responsiveness and travel as this Latitude offers, and the 4:3 screen has a native resolution of 1,600 x 1,200 – a huge amount of desktop real estate compared to the 1,366 x 768 and 1,600 x 900 screens that now seem to be the norm.

Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT, 7600 GS and AMD Radeon HD 2600 XT

We’ve a big plastic tub full of graphics cards in the Labs and, while most of them are recent, a trio of PCBs lurking amid the anti-static bags and DVI to D-SUB adapters come from decidedly older stock. Two Nvidia cards, the GeForce 7300 GT and 7600 GS, are joined by AMD’s Radeon HD 2600 XT.

They were launched in 2006 and 2007, and they handily illustrate the impressive speed at which technology is pushed forward. The first 28nm GPU has just arrived but, back then, Nvidia and AMD were using 90nm and 65nm processes – and the 390 million transistors in the AMD card pales when compared to the 4.3 billion in AMD’s latest.

The bandwidth statistics are telling, too: the Radeon card churns through 35.2GB/sec in its 512MB incarnation, with the 7300 GT and 7600 GS offering 10.67GB/sec and 12.8GB/sec respectively. The latest high-end card, the Radeon HD 7970, chews through 264GB/sec – and even modest boards, such as Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 550 Ti, handle 98.5GB/sec.

Oh, and our benchmarks? The 7600 GS played Call of Duty 2 at 18fps when run at 1,280 x 1,024. Bless.

Sony VAIO P-series

Sony senior vice president Mike Abary famously said his company would never join the “race to the bottom” when netbooks hit the big time, and he wasn’t joking – Sony’s VAIO P-series cost £1,190 inc VAT for the top-end model.

That money paid for radical design, with a base occupied entirely by the keyboard,  that’s still so small and fiddly that you have to peck at the keys, prod at the trackpoint and squint at the 8in 1,600 x 900 screen. The Z-series Atom was decidedly Z-list, too, thanks to performance that couldn’t match £350 rivals.

***We’ve now published our comprehensive review of Sony’s VAIO Z Series, so click here for the full lowdown *** Sony’s VAIO Z Series is one of the finest ultraportables to ever travel the Earth, but now, several years after its 2009 debut, Sony has ripped up the rulebook and started afresh. At a launch event in London, we caught our first up-close look at the all-new Z Series.

The hardware

After several generations of subtle tinkering – not least the addition of super-fast quad-SSD arrays in the most recent models – the new Z marks a quantum shift. Sony has pared the chassis down to an impossibly slim 16.65mm, and it now tips the scales at a barely-there 1.18kg. While it looks unhealthily slender, fear not: the carbon-fibre construction feels stiffer and stronger than you’d expect.

If you’re wondering quite how Sony managed to shave off those grams, the answer’s simple: the optical drive and dedicated AMD graphics chipset have been shifted into the external 685g Power Media Dock (pictured right).

Part docking station, part outboard graphics powerhouse, it uses Intel’s Light Peak technology to provide a high-speed link to the AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics chipset inside. Just don’t call it ThunderBolt: as Sony’s utilised a tweaked USB 3 port to connect to the dock, it isn’t actually compatible with the products we’ll soon see for Apple’s port, and Sony told us not to expect any handy USB-to-ThunderBolt adaptors either.

Still, it’s a nice idea: in addition to the optical drive and graphics chipset, there are also VGA and HDMI 1.4 video outputs (which allows for up to three external displays at any one time), Gigabit Ethernet, twin USB 2 ports and a single USB 3 port.

While we couldn’t help but shed a tear at the loss of in-built discrete graphics, the VAIO Z promises, gram-for-gram, to remain the fastest ultraportable out there. Even the slowest model includes a 2.3Ghz Core i5-2410M processor, and it’s possible to upgrade to the dual-core 2.7Ghz Core i7-2620M. Battery life remains a critical question mark, but Sony claim up to seven hours from the internal lithium polymer battery; a figure doubled by the optional battery slice (seen clipped to the underside in the picture below).

The essentials

Drastic changes aside, the redesign hasn’t forgotten the essentials. The thin chassis means that the backlit Scrabble-tile keys have less travel than on previous models, but the spacious layout and crisp feel make for comfortable typing. The decision to integrate the buttons into the touchpad’s surface immediately set off alarm bells, but we didn’t notice any issues in our time with it. We’ll reserve final judgement until we get a full review unit.

Above the keyboard,  the VAIO Z’s 13.1in display is as great as ever. The matte finish minimises eye-straining glare, and with even the lower-specced VAIO Z boasting a generous 1,600 x 900 resolution, and a 1080p panel available as an optional upgrade,there are plenty enough pixels for proper multitasking. Viewing angles were also far better than those of the S Series.

Two USB ports (one USB 2, one USB 3) nestle alongside HDMI 1.4, Gigabit Ethernet and a single audio in/out minijack. With dual-band 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 and optional 3G covering the airwaves, the VAIO Z ticks pretty much every box going. And, even if you’re concerned about the Power Media Dock using up that solitary USB 3 connector (see the close-up to the right), the dock adds three USB ports of its own.

The price

In a word: expensive. In several: very, very expensive. Head over to Sony’s configure-to-order page and its possible to make even Platinum credit cards wilt under the load of a fully-laden VAIO Z .

Without a Power Media Dock, the base model clocks in at £1,454 inc VAT. That includes a Core i5-2410M, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD and a 1,600 x 900 screen.

Some of the upgrades are surprisingly affordable: a 1080p screen costs a reasonable £40; the battery slice, £60; a 3G modem, £100; a backlit keyboard, £15. Others, however, quickly push past the £2,000 mark. The basic Power Media Dock with DVD writer costs £400, while the Blu-ray writer-equipped version costs £525. Expanding the 128GB SSD to 256GB costs £410; pushing up to 512GB a stratospheric £1,130.

Throw caution to the wind, and a VAIO Z with all the trimmings costs a mere £3,634 inc VAT.

If you’re having trouble deciding whether to buy a car, a luxury holiday or a laptop with that four grand burning a hole in your pocket, the new VAIO Z’s likely to make your decision even harder. With the pre-production models at today’s event returning home for the finishing touches, Sony expects to have review units with us by the end of July. Until then, best get saving.

After our exclusive reviews of Sony’s brand-new CA Series notebook and L Series touchscreen all-in-one, Sony’s launch event in London’s Century Club promised to be tinged with an overwhelming sense of deja-vu.

Our eyes soon lit up, however, as Sony unveiled its newly redesigned S Series. As the more affordable, albeit slightly less attractive, sibling to Sony’s mighty Z Series, the S Series was always one of our favourite business ultraportables. Now after a deft nip and tuck in Sony’s design department, the S has emerged transformed: slimmer, sexier, and appealing as much to lap-of-luxury consumers as upwardly mobile business users. In short, the S is ready to provide a Windows-powered alternative to Apple’s high-end MacBooks.

A rigorous weight-loss program sees the S Series now rise a mere 24mm off the desk, while tumbling the S Series in our hands was enough to believe the claimed weight of only 1.75kg — this is one notebook that’s light enough to carry around all-day long.

A new reinforced central hinge helps keep the notebook’s clean, crisp lines, and the exhaust vent nestles underneath, blowing hot air to the laptop’s rear.

And despite that lean, lithe figure, the S feels remarkably solid — both the millimetre-thick lid and angular hinge proved surprisingly resistant to our hands tugging it to and fro.

The new design carries over the excellent scrabble-tile keyboard we’re used to, and the wide channels between each key and light, crisp key action make for lovely typing. It’s now backlit, too.

The touchpad also feels great; the lightly textured feel and wide clicky buttons adding to the S Series’ luxurious high-end feel.

It comes as little surprise to find Intel’s new Sandy Bridge generation of processors taking centre stage on the specifications. Intel’s 2.3GHz Core i5-2410M is the CPU of choice — although Sony’s configure-to-order service will serve up some more affordable options — and with Turbo Boost 2.0 taking clockspeeds right up to 2.9GHz, the 64-bit copy of Windows 7 Professional felt positively silky-smooth. There was no word on whether Intel’s vPro platform would make a showing in final retail units, however.

Another first for the range is the addition of graphics switching, courtesy of Sony’s  Dynamic Hybrid Graphic System. It’s not just a fancy new name for Nvidia’s Optimus, however, as Sony has partnered Intel’s on-chip HD Graphics 2000 with AMD’s Radeon HD 6470M. And as the S Series is graced with a manual graphics switch, swapping from discrete to integrated graphics requires nothing more than the flick of a finger.

Sony claims that the new graphics switching technology allows the S Series to last up to seven hours in Stamina mode (with Intel HD graphics engaged), but an optional battery slice is capable of pushing the notebook’s stamina well over the ten-hour mark.

Connectivity receives a relatively minor update — a single USB 3 port added to the two USB 2 ports — while dual-band 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 are complemented by the optional VAIO “everywair” 3G WWAN card. There are few other surprises: the Sony’s right-hand edge squeezing in those USB ports alongside D-SUB, HDMI and SD and Memory Stick card readers.

With a nod to the S Series’ new dual-personality, Sony is also planning to add Blu-ray as an optional extra sometime in the near future. Our contact couldn’t confirm whether the HDMI output was 1.4 compliant, however, so those hoping to hook the S Series up to their 3DTV will have to hold tight.

The S Series will be shipping in March with a starting price of around £999 inc VAT for the basic 3G-free model. Keep an eye on PC Pro’s website for an imminent review.

If you’ve already read our review of the new P Series you’ll know we remain unconvinced that the sacrifices you need to make in return for its tiny size are worth it. However, we’re also reasonable people who are willing to admit that some people will adore the P Series – even the old one.

The chief project manager, Kazuya Suzuki (pictured right), the force behind the project, is one such man. He explained that the VAIO brand was already associated with small PCs, and the idea behind the original VAIO P Series was to take it one step further.

“With the first VAIO P, before we even started, we wanted to find out what kind of device we could consider. Everybody is already using a mobile phone, but to bring both mobile phone and PC into a small type of PC, we thought what is necessary? A mobile phone is missing the keyboard experience, and a high-resolution LCD for a rich-information display.”

Which led me to ask the obvious question: was Sony seriously thinking the P Series could replace the phone? “No, we weren’t thinking of replacing mobile phones,” Mr Suzuki explained patiently. “It’s more to accompany mobile phones. The key idea is to deliver an experience that a mobile phone alone can’t give you. A bigger display, a full keyboard.”

The keyboard is the key. Sony wanted to create a PC that was as small as possible while keeping as big a keyboard as possible. In fact, almost all the design decisions for the original P Series stemmed from the keyboard: how could Sony make a full PC in a machine that size?

Many people – including PC Pro – criticised Sony for making the resolution of the display so high, so it was interesting to hear the justification. “We started with 768 pixels,” said Suzuki, though an interpreter, “we wanted to make that the minimum height. So the horizontal resolution is dictated by the size of the screen.”

What’s new in the second generation P Series is the addition of sensors: the touchpad, the accelerometer, the GPS chip and the digital compass. What I found fascinating is how practical the approach was: no multi-million pound simulations here, just a man with a vision of a feature that could be used in practice.

According to Mr Suzuki, the idea of the touchpad came from watching how people use the P Series in practice. They’d hold the unit halfway along the base, with their thumbs resting on either side of the screen. Wouldn’t it make sense, he thought, if he could add a trackpoint and mouse buttons where their thumbs rested? So he did: he made a working unit by patching together a sensor and buttons – you can see an early prototype’s left- and right-click mouse buttons below.

He then took this working prototype to his colleagues, made them use it, realise he was a genius and Sony signed off on the idea. The end result can now be seen in our review. Another idea – that of a rotating screen, so people can read web pages or even eBooks vertically – was signed off with rather more ease.

Why not add a touchscreen, I asked? “With this resolution and with this OS, actually using your fingers the accuracy isn’t quite the right match. If you were to use touch on it then you’d need to use a different OS than Windows 7, with new applications.

“It’s true that there’s a cost influence on it too. A lot of technology of the future is squeezed into this device already, and if you want to add a new feature like a touchscreen then it could become thicker. Plus, in a clamshell type laptop, it’s not so ergonomic – if you touch it then it falls over.”

Next time maybe, I suggested. They laughed. “We’ll look into it.”

The design

So that’s the core new features explained. But, having seen the bright orange P Series we reviewed, you may well be wondering exactly why Sony chose such a bold design for the new P Series.

“We wanted to appeal further to a younger audience,” explained Akari Hoshi (pictured above right). “Looking into the market there’s a very similar [laptop] design such as the glossy and the metallic finish, and the four corners are [always] a rounded shape. This design identity is very commoditised in the current PC market.”

Sony’s designers didn’t believe everyone was satisfied with such a concept, so set about rewriting the rules for the P Series. “We wanted to make a soft, easy and nice impression, so the designer picked up a towel as a design reference. It’s really soft-feeling and rough-looking [so] is very interesting.”

Ms Hoshi (who, incidentally, was utterly charming) explained this led to a “wrap” design, following the folds of a towel. “This wrapping design is really nice and fresh, and looking down both the sides there are no protrusions – nothing sticking out. It’s a very simple design. For the colour and material, matte and solid was the key concept.”

This goes against the current fashion of glossy and metallic. “The benefit for users is we can avoid the fingerprints on the LCD-side cabinet. And also the colours – we picked five colours. We chose very vitalising colours, and we think this colourisation is not eccentric but an accent for your fashion, for your life.”

According to Ms Hoshi, the colours may be new and bold for laptops but aren’t new in themselves. “You can see these colours in your kitchen, in your stationery, in fashion.”

They picked orange rather than red because they saw it as energising. “Green is for the more sporty and more young men. Pink is more pop, especially for young women, and black is for men and standard for business.”

The internals

While everyone’s going to notice the difference in the outward design, to true nerds what’s even more interesting is what Sony’s done to the P Series inside. The photo above gives some idea: the left-hand machine is the old P Series, with a larger motherboard and a little less space for the battery. On the right, you can see the motherboard’s been squeezed down and the SSD almost integrated onto it.

All this has allowed Sony to squeeze in a little more capacity: the old P Series used a 2,100mAh battery, the new one 2,500mAh. On its own that would only give a 19% boost, but as our tests show the new P Series actually survived for 5hrs 17mins compared to 3hrs 11mins. (You may see Sony claiming a battery life of over nine hours, but that’s with the high-capacity battery that doesn’t come as standard.)

So where’s the rest of the time come from? The biggest boost is due to Intel’s Pine Trail platform, which we’ve seen improve battery life of recent netbooks across the board. And, because the £799 model we tested used Parallel ATA rather than Serial ATA, Sony can dump the SATA bridge circuitry. Allegedly, that saves 25 minutes. Another nine minutes comes from more efficient software, with a further nine minutes due to new circuitry for the power and Ethernet connections.

Upstream design

Sony claims that this sort of innovation is still just the start. It’s reorganised the structure of its VAIO division and moved it wholesale to Nagano, which is around three hours’ drive away from Tokyo: only the designers have stayed in Japan’s capital.

By having all the engineers in one place, it’s instigated what it calls “upstream design”. Previously a product would go through a series of stages where one team – say the electric, mechanism and process technology engineers – would put together a prototype, and then it would be sent back to the marketing team for approval before going to a new team of engineers focused on the actual production process.

At that point, they may discover the machine isn’t reliable enough – and the whole process would go back to square one. Together with Sony’s new two-division strategy, it’s hoping the approach will mean more products going to market and more quickly. Time will tell.

Samsung’s trio of new laptops may not be quite as slim as Sony’s latest crowd-pleaser, but they still have some pretty enticing vital statistics: the 15in X520, for instance, is 24mm thick and weighs 2.09kg. And even though that’s more than three times as heavy as the Sony, it still feels incredibly light for a 15in notebook. The X120 is even more lightweight at 1.36kg.

These machines may not be able to lay claim to the title of “world’s lightest laptop”, then, but they’re still light enough to barely feel noticeable in the average backpack.

Such size results in inevitable compromise. The X120’s screen – itself mere millimetres thick – felt flimsy when we tugged and teased it, and prodding the back of the panel caused noticeable distortion across the 1,366 x 768 display. The X520’s screen, meanwhile, was even more flexible – chiefly because of its larger size – and the desktop distorted just as much.

Thankfully, build quality wasn’t as suspect elsewhere. The base of the machine may be thin but it felt rock-solid, and the wristrest hardly depressed when pressured, either. It may need a decent padded bag, but we’d have few qualms about carrying one of Samsung’s X-Series machines on our daily commute.

The larger dimensions, at least when compared to Sony’s X-Series, also allow for a better keyboard. While we felt the Sony VAIO X-Series offered hardly any travel and would prove uncomfortable, Samsung’s offering seemed more responsive and with more than enough travel for long typing sessions. Our only complaint was that the keyboard action felt a little clicky and clinical, but it’s a minor issue.

Inside, all three of Samsung’s X-Series laptops have broadly similar specifications. The Intel low-voltage CPU is currently shrouded in mystery – we’ve been told it’s dual core and is Intel’s most powerful low-voltage part yet – but, aside from that, there’s plenty else to like.

Up to four gigabytes of RAM, half a terabyte of hard disk space and draft-n wireless should ensure Windows Vista and Windows 7 run smoothly.

The final feather in Samsung’s cap is the supposedly superb battery life. Samsung has told us that the 5,900mAh battery will last for nine hours under light use, with this figure dropping to around six hours when performing more intensive tasks. Sony’s representative, on the other hand, confirmed that the VAIO X-Series’ battery lasts for only five hours.

If that wasn’t enough, Samsung also has Sony beaten on price: the three X-Series laptops will cost around €700, with the VAIO machines costing at least €1,500.

Of course, the Sony’s higher price does pay for one of the finest feats of notebook engineering that we’ve ever seen – but we may find that, for all of its slimline design, the Samsung machines are more versatile and practical machines for everyday use. Suffice to say, we’ll be giving both machines our full attention when they arrive in the PC Pro Labs.

Let’s get the facts out of the way first. This is the world’s lightest ever laptop, weighing less even than the Sony VAIO P-Series – and that weighed in at 640g.

Hold the X-Series in your hands and it feels breathtakingly light. Once you pick it up, you don’t want to put it down.

It’s also thin: just 14mm at its thickest point. Position the screen side-on and you can barely see it. In fact, Sony has had to fit retractable feet simply to give enough room for the Ethernet port.

The screen itself is an LED affair and measures 11.1in diagonally across. We expected there to be a sacrifice in terms of image quality, but under the hall lights it appeared bright and sharp.

Inevitably the keyboard doesn’t have much give. There’s barely more than a millimetre in travel, which makes it feel like you’re typing on rock.

Despite this, we found it easy to hammer out a few sentences in quick time – the only problem being the German keyboard on our test sample.

It’s early days for the X-Series, so we’ve no confirmation on pricing or specification. At this point, Sony wouldn’t even confirm which processor family would be inside.

Nevertheless, as a feat of engineering – and as a halo-effect product to sit at the top of the VAIO range – the X-Series already looks like it’s going to be a classic.

UPDATE Further to this hands-on, I had the opportunity to speak to a VAIO “specialist” within Sony and can confirm that the X-Series will come with either a 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive inside, but the processor has yet to be confirmed.

The screen will be 1,366 x 768. As can be seen from the photos above, it’s incredibly slim, which is the reason why Sony reinforced the carbon fibre usually used for such lids with extra layers of plastic (the rest of chassis is made from carbon fibre alone). This adds rigidity without adding too much weight, and Sony claims the X-Series’ lid can withstand 150kg of pressure .

The price, I’ve been assured, won’t be more than 2,000 euros. Sony hopes to produce a model at around the 1,500 euro mark.

It also looks like the X-Series will go on sale at the end of October to tie in with the launch of Windows 7 – and Sony has confirmed that the OS of choice will be Windows 7 Professional.

Perhaps most impressive of all, the Sony spokesperson I spoke to – who’s been using a sample of the VAIO X-Series for the past two months – claims that he gets around five hours of use from the slim, six-cell battery that is likely to come as standard.

Sony will also be selling an incredible 18-cell battery to slot onto the underside of the X-Series, and it aims to get between 18 and 20 hours of life from this.

Note: click here to read our full review of the Sony VAIO Mini W Series netbook

Its big selling point is undoubtedly the screen, with 1,366 x 768 pixels on show. It’s bright, and on first inspection it also looks sharp. Although at 10.1in it feels cramped compared to a full-size laptop, we’d be happy to work with this screen all day.

Sony has also made plenty of effort to give this netbook an element of luxury. It’s available in “berry pink, sugar white and cocoa brown”, and the model we had to hand was the sugar white version (white to everyone else in the world).

It won’t take your breath away with its style, but there’s no doubt the bold VAIO logo on the lid gives this netbook some immediate kudos. The chassis itself is plastic, but Sony gives it an element of styling with a mottled finish.

It’s also chosen, a little predictably, to go for the Scrabble-style keyboard – the same one, in fact, as the Sony P Series. I have mixed feelings about this. Hunt-and-peck typists will be able to hit keys without worrying about accidentally bumping the wrong one, but touch typists will find their pace restricted.

Compared to the keyboard on a top-quality netbook like the Samsung N110, it’s only average in terms of using it. Style-wise, though, it undoubtedly looks good.

And there’s no doubting that Sony packs the Mini W Series with all the technological goodies you might expect. There’s draft-n wireless (a hardware switch is conveniently located at the front), Bluetooth and Intel’s faster N280 processor.

Accompanied by 1GB of RAM, this 1.66GHz single-core chip will bring enough speed to cope with undemanding tasks: web browsing, word processing and even streaming iPlayer content worked reasonably well.

Don’t expect beautiful, smooth video though: with Intel’s GMA 950 graphics chip in place, there’s no great aid in place for video playback and we found it stuttered. Digital camera enthusiasts will appreciate the presence of an SD card slot (note, though, this doesn’t appear to support SDHC cards) as well as Sony’s traditional Memory Stick Duo slot.

Battery life isn’t great as standard. Sony is initially bundling the Mini W Series with a three-cell battery, and it officially quotes a life of around three hours. An extended battery will be made available “soon”, but there’s no price for this yet.

And price could yet prove to be the Mini W Series’ biggest stumbling point. We’ve been told that it will sell for around £399 inc VAT from Sony outlets, and probably less elsewhere, which puts it squarely against the very best netbooks on the market.

That competition is tough. The Mini W Series big selling factor is undoubtedly that screen, and the Sony VAIO brand name, but we’ll have to put it through our barrage of performance, battery and quality tests before giving our definitive verdict.

Nevertheless, this is a fine first stab at a netbook by Sony, and a promising sign of things to come.

Those with photographic fathers are spoilt for choice: there are superb choices available no matter what you’re looking for, whether it’s a compact, DLSR or video camera.

Take the Canon Digital Ixus 95 IS, for instance. It may cost £172, but for that money you’re getting Labs-winning quality that is, according to photography expert David Fearon, “the best compact camera for under £200″ and includes unbeatable picture quality alongside a broad range of features. If you’ve got the cash, then you evidently can’t go wrong with the Canon.

If your budget is a bit tighter, though, the A List alternative is almost as good. The Nikon Coolpix S220 was a runner-up in the same Labs test, winning praise for its flawless outdoor quality and  impressive detail. It’s also only £122 so, if you’re looking for a bargain camera that doesn’t skimp on quality, this is worth investigating.

If you’ve got more cash to splash, though, a DLSR could be the perfect gift for the serious snapper. Our favourite is the Nikon D90, which packs in fantastic image quality, a huge range of features and a stunning lens; it’s so good that it makes the £730 asking price feel like a bargain.

If you’d like to buy your favourite parent a DLSR on a budget, though, the Olympus E-420 is a capable camera that costs relatively little – £260, to be exact. It’s got excellent image quality and an impressive range of features but, if you’re buying on a budget, won’t break the bank.

Should your father be into the moving rather than static image, our favourite pair of digital video cameras will delight your dad. The HDC-SD100 is Panasonic’s first CMOS camera and the results are superb, with exemplary image quality and a wide range of features costing just £443, and the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 is a pocket-sized package that crams high-quality video capture into a 311g package.

Satnav systems are sure to be popular choices for Father’s Day, so it pays to get the best one – and you can’t get better than the PC Pro recommended TomTom Go 730 or the new 740, which includes updated maps and features. This £199 GPS includes European maps and the IQ Routes system, which calculates routes from traffic speed rather than speed limits. It’s the best navigator around and, if your father is is a frequent traveller, indispensable.

Those buying on a budget, meanwhile, should try the TomTom One, which costs only £87 but offers clear, straightforward guidance at a knock-down price – ideal if your father doesn’t need the myriad extra features included with more expensive models.

Netbooks have proved hugely popular over the last 18 months, so one of these mini-laptops could be the perfect gift this Sunday. If you’re looking to splash out, Samsung models are the ones to pick: the smaller NC10 is the ideal mixture of value for money and fantastic build quality, while the NC20 is more expensive but closer to a real laptop thanks to its 12in screen and superb keyboard.

Musical parents are sure to be pleased with a new mp3 player, but make sure your gift is on-song rather than off-key. Our favourite is the £147 Cowon S9, which offers a sharp, vivid OLED screen and fantastic sound quality, turning a dull commute into a multimedia extravaganza. And, if your dad is an Apple fan, the iPod Nano is your best bet: a gorgeous and intelligent product that, at £123 for 16GB, won’t break the bank.

Audiophiles may also want some top-quality headphones to go with their new kit. If that’s the case, then your dad’ll be pleased with anything from Sennheiser, who normally provide fantastic aural experiences. If we had to pick one pair, though, we’d go for the IE8s: at £157, they cost more than the average mp3 player, but they provide the ultimate in sound quality – it doesn’t get any better than these.

And, finally, those who are a little more flush with cash may want to buy something a little more extravagant. Take a look at the Dell XPS One 24, which is one of the most stylish all-in-one PCs on the market today, or the stunning Sony VAIO VGN-Z31VN/X, which is simply the best ultraportable around, even if it does cost £1,781. And, if you’ve got a dad into gaming, the Chillblast Fusion Spitfire is our favourite pixel-pushing monster – and it’ll set you back £1,029.

No matter what technology your dad’s into, then, there’s sure to be something he’ll love: whether it’s a digital camera, satnav system, netbook or mp3 player, these products are the best in their respective classes – so, if you haven’t already, get buying while you still have time to spare.

]]> http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/06/18/the-pc-pro-fathers-day-gift-guide/feed/ 2 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/06/16/first-look-the-370g-nettop-pc/ http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/06/16/first-look-the-370g-nettop-pc/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:37:38 +0000 Mike Jennings http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=5875

Almost a year ago I blogged about a tiny PC, the Space Cube, which had landed in the PC Pro Labs and got quite a bit of attention – but, while that machine was undeniably impressive, its usefulness was limited to those who happened to own space shuttles and were familiar with its obscure version of Red Hat.

The latest miniscule computer to turn up, though, is far more practical for those who don’t engage in interstellar travel. The Anders Fit-PC2 may only be 27mm tall and weigh just 370g, but it’s a fully-fledged nettop with an Intel Atom processor lurking inside its tiny frame.

Specifically, it’s the Atom Z530, which we’ve previously seen in the stylish Sony VAIO P-series. While Sony’s product faltered by partnering a low-power CPU with Vista, though, the Fit PC sticks with Windows XP, and feels far snappier for it, capably handling Office applications and web surfing during the brief time we’ve had it in the Labs.

The rest of the specification includes 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard disk, so it looks as if this little machine will be a genuinely usable PC inside one of the smallest cases we’ve ever seen. There’s even some upgrade potential for those who like tinkering: a small slot on the side of the machine can be removed, and the hard disk replaced. And, since it’s a standard 2.5in notebook disk inside, an SSD will fit.

In terms of pricing, we were expecting that the Fit-PC2’s unique form factor would drive its price up, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised: manufacturer Anders is selling this model for £340 exc. VAT, and expect prices to further come down as more resellers in the UK stock the product and begin to compete on price.

Other specifications are available, too: cheaper models are sold without an OS, a hard disk or WLAN, for instance, and a mid-range version comes with Ubuntu rather than XP.

What do you think of the Fit-PC2? Could you see yourself fitting this tiny PC into your life or would you rather spend your cash on a fully-fledged nettop that, while bigger, has a broader range of features?

Let us know about your verdict in the comments below. As for ours, take a look at our full review by clicking here.

]]> http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/06/16/first-look-the-370g-nettop-pc/feed/ 7 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/06/01/first-look-four-new-packard-bell-laptops/ http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/06/01/first-look-four-new-packard-bell-laptops/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:45:03 +0000 Mike Jennings http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=5680 While Packard Bell is making plenty of fuss about its AMD-powered netbooks, the firm’s new line-up of full-size laptops has plenty of potential, too.

The most exciting of the new models is the EasyNote TR series, which takes a leaf out of Apple and Sony’s books by concentrating on design just as much as hardware. And it’s not just any old in-house designers who are putting together these latest laptops, either – Packard Bell has enlisted the help of Italian design house Pininfarina to make sure that the TR can match up to the best in the business.

A glance at the chassis reveals that the experiment has paid off: the TR is stylish without being garish and includes several neat touches. While the lid is finished in a glossy black that’ll surely become a fingerprint magnet, the interior boasts a good-looking matte coating that brings to mind the far more expensive, and revered, Sony VAIO AW-series.

Sound design

The speakers, meanwhile, seem to be totally original: while they still sit above the keyboard, they sweep upwards when the laptop is open, meeting the edge-to-edge screen in a seamless curve – it’s a good look, and we were pleased to note that the curved speaker didn’t protrude from the laptop when the lid was closed, although this did make the back end of the machine feel a bit bulkier than your average 15.4in notebook.

We’re also assured that the Dolby technology inside the curved speakers will make the TR sound as good as Toshiba and HP’s premium machines, which come with harmon/kardon and Altec Lansing speakers respectively and are routinely best-in-class for audio quality.

The keyboard has flat rather than traditional bevelled keys and, in the short time we had to try them out, the individual keys felt comfortable with a reasonably positive typing action – although, like the new range of netbooks, the base of the keyboard still felt a little spongy.

The trackpad was better: wide, responsive and with two good buttons, it includes the multi-touch functions that are also incorporated into the new series of netbooks: move two fingers towards and away from each other to zoom in and out, for instance, and rotate a finger from a right-hand corner to the centre of the trackpad to scroll a document up and down. The same motion from the left hand side rotates a document or picture, and swishing two fingers horizontally across the pad skips to the next picture in a series.

Inside, the Packard Bell is a little less exciting: Core 2 Duo processors, Nvidia GeForce GT graphics chips and decent-sized hard disks and allocations of RAM are the order of the day – so it sounds as if the new TR series will be a stylish and comfortable notebook without really innovating on a hardware level.

T is the magic number

As well as the new TR series, Packard Bell also introduced a few more notebooks. While the EasyNote NJ, TJ and LJ-series machines don’t benefit from the Pininfarina design that made the TR look so special, they’re reasonable-looking machines that also have multi-touch trackpads, decent keyboards and what felt like solid build quality – although, during our brief time with the machines, the screens did appear to be a touch too reflective and a mite too pale for our liking.

Inside, again, little has changed – with Core 2 Duo processors, Nvidia graphics chips and all the requisite bells and whistles, we can expect these notebooks to be good performers without excelling themselves in our comprehensive benchmark suite.

Packard Bell isn’t resting on its laurels, either, after its buyout by Acer earlier this year. We’ve been assured than an 18in version of the TR-series will be released in time for Christmas, and that the majority of the new machines will be available in several colours and configurations, ranging from 14 to 17in screens and white, black, blue and red exteriors.

These new notebooks could make a return to form for a revered old brand, then – one that’s been around since 1926 but, recently, has been delivering merely average notebooks that don’t stir the soul in the way that those from Sony, Apple or Dell manage.

It’s looking up for Packard Bell, then, and we’ll deliver our definitive verdict as soon as we get our hands on any of these new notebooks in the PC Pro Labs.