Product Reviews

The Vaio isn't usually seen as a corporate notebook, but Sony's latest offering could prove a serious rival to the offerings from the established notebook vendors. At first glance, this aim isn't too obvious. The trademark lilac magnesium alloy body surface verges on pink, and the Jog Dial seems more like a gimmick than a productivity tool. It's soon clear, however, that the Z600RE has as much to offer the professional as it does the leisure user.

The first sign of the Vaio's intent is the RJ-45 port, which links to Intel's 10/100 82559 Ethernet adaptor. If you're planning to connect to the Internet at home, you can take advantage of the supplied V.90 PC Card modem. The second sign is Smart Connect, a program that allows a series of Vaios to form a peer-to-peer network using IEEE-1395 cables, and it also supports TCP/IP. The third sign is that Sony offers Windows 2000 for an extra £100.

All serious notebooks need serious firepower, and the Z600RE supplies this thanks to a 500MHz mobile Pentium III processor and 128Mb of RAM. Add to this a 12Gb hard disk, and you've got a setup that outshines many desktop machines. The Vaio's theoretical power was confirmed in practice by its performance in our benchmarks, and its score of 1.36 is among the best we've seen in a subnotebook - only the 650MHz HP OmniBook 900B (reviewed issue 66, p157) has scored better.

Video memory is less generously specified, with 2.5Mb to play with. As usual, Sony opts for the NeoMagic MagicMedia graphics chipset, which is more than adequate for 2D use, and can even stretch to the occasional 3D game. The screen itself measures only 12.1in diagonally, but Sony has wisely chosen a 1,024 « 768 panel, and despite the small pixels it's well lit and easy to read. Due to a small vertical viewing angle, you don't have much choice on how to position the screen, but the horizontal viewing angle is around 120 degrees, so three people can easily gather around the machine.

Sony has also got most elements

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of the keyboard right, with a firm action and generally well-sized keys, and the only problem is its tiny Shift key on the right-hand side. The touchpad is a fine example of its type; it's very responsive, but not over-sensitive. The third input device is Sony's proprietary Jog Dial. This defaults to a basic scrolling function in most applications, but is easily customised to quickly launch your favourite programs.

Something else you'll only find on a Sony notebook - and currently only the Z600RE - is a Memory Stick slot. This means that if you own any Sony device that uses a Memory Stick, you can easily transfer files to the Vaio. Along with the PC Card slot and IEEE-1394 port, there's one USB and one 4Mbits/sec infrared port built into the machine, but you'll have to carry round the bundled port replicator if you need a VGA out, not to mention serial and parallel ports.

There's no space for a CD-ROM or floppy drive in the Vaio itself, but Sony includes an external 16-speed PC Card CD-ROM and a USB floppy drive. If this sounds like too much clutter, you should consider the Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook S-4510 (reviewed issue 67, p154), which weighs only 1.9kg but includes a CD-ROM in the unit itself. Stripped bare of these accessories, the Vaio is a streamlined computer, with only one obviously breakable area: the spring-loaded catches that keep the battery in place. Unless these are frequently used, this shouldn't be a problem, and is outweighed by the magnesium alloy lid protecting the screen.

So to the final crucial area of any notebook's performance: battery life. We weren't expecting any miracles, but you should get around 90 minutes with careful usage. In the rundown test - which forces the PC to continually write to the hard disk, with no power management switched on - the Vaio only lasted for 44 minutes.

At £1,959, the Z600RE seems expensive, but its price holds up well when compared with other subnotebooks; many of these charge extra for the port replicator and CD-ROM drive, and few offer an XGA screen and 12Gb hard disk. It can't quite topple the A-Listed Acer TravelMate 342T (reviewed issue 65, p157), which almost matches the Vaio spec for spec but costs £500 less.

Where Sony can't match the corporate OEMs is in the warranty stakes, as it only offers a one-year, on-site warranty as standard, compared to the three-year, next-business-day, on-site warranty provided with the Dell Latitude LS H400ST (reviewed issue 67, p156). Despite this, the PCG-Z600RE shows that Sony has the skills to become equally big in the corporate market.