Product Reviews

If you're a mobile worker, this month's issue will have brought some new and exciting notebooks to your attention. First comes Acer's new Centrino notebook, with its powerful yet battery friendly processor. If that's not your bag, we've looked at Hi-Grade's funky new wide-screen model. Thanks to the style of its screen you can work more efficiently and get more from DVD movies too. But if that isn't floating your boat, how about something more traditional? A straightforward, powerful and good-looking notebook - something to show off when you're working on the train. I checked out Sony's latest notebook to see if it fits the bill.

The V505AP is well suited to anybody looking for a powerful yet portable machine, squeezing a 2GHz processor into a machine the size of 277x244x37mm, with a weight of just 2kg.

Better still, the Sony's processor is the 'proper' mobile version of the Pentium 4. This enables users to take advantage of Intel's power-saving SpeedStep technology. When the notebook isn't plugged into the mains, SpeedStep reduces the processor's clock speed from 2GHz to 1.2GHz, consuming less power and therefore extending battery life. What's more, Sony has made its own enhancements to Windows XP's power-saving abilities with a utility called PowerPanel.

PowerPanel offers a number of power-saving functions, such as reducing the brightness of the screen, and turning off specific components in the machine. Known as 'profiles', these power-saving options can be manually activated or set to automatically kick in. Despite all this, the Acer TravelMate 800, with its new 'Centrino' combination of processor and motherboard, manages to outshine the Sony in both battery life and performance. The Sony's battery lasted for 1 hour and 37 minutes under intensive testing, compared with the Acer's battery life of 1 hour and 51 minutes. The Sony scored 775 in our 2D speed tests, while the Acer managed a more impressive 1,026. The Sony was also outpaced in 3D, scoring 1,518 in

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3DMark 2001. Its Mobility Radeon graphics are outdated, and no longer cut the mustard.

Sony matches the Acer's built-in 802.11b wireless networking, though. When you're not using the feature, Sony has provided a switch at the front so you can turn it off - good stuff, as this can extend the battery life. To help you monitor these things, a light appears alongside indicators for power and battery status, which flash in unison when power is running low.

If you need to hook up the Sony to an old-fashioned wired network, there's a conventional network port, plus a telephone line connector for a modem too.

If you need to connect a high-speed device such as a video camera or an external CD-R/W, you'll be glad to know the machine has an i.Link socket. This is Sony's name for FireWire. It's a good addition, but sadly the Sony has only two USB 2 sockets. Finally, there's a socket that accepts Sony Memory Sticks. This is useful if you have a Sony digital camera or digital audio player - just insert the storage device into the notebook for lightning-quick data transfer.

The Sony's keyboard looks fantastic, with two-tone grey keys, but it flexes more than I'd like. It has a number of handy shortcut keys, though. These include a 'hibernate' key, a volume control and a key to manually adjust screen brightness, with a total of nine levels available. One fly in the ointment is the Shift key. Not only is it too small, but it's located right next to the arrow keys, so I often shifted the cursor upwards by accident when trying to use it.

The screen was a mixed bag. It has a diagonal size of 12.1in - comparatively small, but it'll work happily at a resolution of 1,024x768. It was evenly lit and clear when on the high brightness setting, and acceptable at lower levels. Sadly, if you don't look at it straight-on, the image has too much contrast.

Situated above the keyboard, the notebook's built-in speakers produce a pleasing sound. Push them too hard, though, and the sound can become thin and distorted.

A 'combo' DVD-ROM and CD-R/W drive is integrated into the side. Trouble is, Sony hasn't included any burning software, so you're limited to the basic burning abilities of Windows XP.

Once I got past its good looks, the Sony proved a bit of a disappointment. Its size and portability are real plus points, but the screen wasn't perfect and the keyboard could have been better. Even if these faults were remedied, we'd struggle to recommend the Sony. The Acer TravelMate 800 is an all-round better buy for those with about £1,500 to spend.