Sony Vaio PCG-F290

When compared to other Pentium II/400 notebooks, the Vaio's performance, although fast enough for trouble-free business computing, doesn't emerge with flying colours. The A-Listed Gateway Solo 9300 XL stays comfortably ahead, and the Toshiba Satellite 4100XCDT is also slightly faster. Obviously there's more to a notebook than straight performance but, despite the Vaio's evident strong points in build quality and ergonomics, the fact remains that it's relatively expensive and not at the forefront either in terms of battery life or performance.

Author: Dominic Bucknall