Sony Vaio PCG-F290

The PCG-F290 is the big boy of the recently released Vaio F200 range, beating the other models on processor speed, standard RAM allocation and screen size, not to mention the inclusion of a DVD drive as standard. It also costs the most, with a current list price of £2,559, making it considerably more expensive than Pentium II/400-based competitors such as Gateway's Solo 9300XL (reviewed issue 60, p157) or Toshiba's Satellite 4100XCDT (reviewed issue 60, p155), although dealer discounting will narrow the gap.

Coloured a pleasing graphite and purple-grey like all the Vaios, the F290 oozes class and looks reassuringly expensive. At 48mm high, it's 8mm thicker than its sibling, the F270 (reviewed issue 60, p156), but only weighs 100g more at 3.45kg. This is a reasonable weight for a machine combining a large screen with an all-in-one design and, although not ideal, it is portable. As with the other F200 notebooks, there's a degree of modularity on offer in the form of a special bay at the right side of the case. This comes with the floppy drive fitted but offers the option of a second battery pack if you want to boost running time.

Otherwise, everything stays put, with neither the DVD-ROM drive nor the hard disk intended for user removal or replacement. This hands-off approach extends to the memory sockets, which are under the keyboard and can only be accessed once various screws and a section of case have been removed. Still, unlike the 64Mb F270, the F290 comes with 128Mb of RAM as standard, so this shouldn't be a major concern.

Like other Vaios, the F290 is kitted out with an integral iLink port, which is Sony's name for IEEE1394 or FireWire. This is used to import digital video clips for editing from a suitably equipped digital video camera. Impressively, both still and motion video capture and editing software is pre-installed. However, unless you have a specific need for these capabilities, they won't sell the machine any more than its ability to connect up to a Sony MiniDisc deck and act as an editor for recording your own discs, but it's handy to have the functionality.

Sony doesn't bundle Microsoft Office or any other mainstream business apps, but the Vaio package includes a PC Card modem by Com1, which offers a combination of V.90 data modem with fax, plus GSM and ISDN compatibility (with the appropriate optional adaptors of course) and even 10BaseT Ethernet, which may be slow but is still 10Mbits/sec faster than the network connection you'd get without it.

One thing that really sets the Vaio apart is its keyboard. The pad has been given the whole width of the case, and the relative size of the keys is closer to that of a desktop keyboard. The effect on typing is pleasant and, combined with a firm, clean action, provides a quick path to desktop typing speeds and accuracy. There are even tilt feet under the case to make things more comfortable when working on a flat surface.

The F290 also benefits from a big 15in TFT screen, which is both bright and large enough to be effortlessly readable at a resolution of 1,024 x 768. The screen is driven by a 2.5Mb NeoMagic MagicMedia 256AV, which also handles audio processing but doesn't provide hardware MPEG-2 decompression for the DVD-ROM drive.

Once again Sony has used a modestly sized lithium ion battery pack. Although there's full ACPI support from the BIOS, which allows detailed control of power usage and savings, the F290, like the F270, has a disappointing battery life. Typically, you're looking at under two and a half hours, which really is too low for a machine in this price bracket.