Sony VAIO PCG-R600HEP

Sharp's Muramasa PC-UM10 redefined the term ultra portable in a single sweep. It has gorgeous styling, solid build quality and makes up for its modest performance with sleek dimensions and feather-light weight of 1.3kg. So now it's Sony's turn to compete with the update to the former A-Listed PCG-Z600NE (see Labs, issue 73, p106) - the PCG-R600HEP.

It has to be said from the outset that the Sharp has the edge in terms of absolute minimalism. It's noticeably slimmer for a start, peaking at 20mm, whereas the VAIO edges over 30mm at its thickest where the battery pack clips on. The VAIO is also heavier, coming in at 1.7kg compared to the Sharp's remarkable 1.3kg, and it lacks any signature trick along the lines of the Sharp's clever self-raising keyboard.

None of this immediately disqualifies the VAIO from the running, however. It still exudes 'buy-me' signals the minute you pick it up and feel the winning combination of lightness and fine build quality. The machine is properly armoured, with magnesium alloy used extensively, including for the underside of the case and the palmrest, and I could see no weaknesses in the design.

Even the VAIO's keyboard survived scrutiny, which is a good achievement for an ultra portable. It's reasonably spacious and sports a decently sized spacebar, Enter and backspace keys. The price you pay for this is fairly typical: the Home, End, PgUp and PgDn keys have been reduced to secondary functions of the cursor keys.

The touchpad also works well, and between the two buttons is a scrolling device, which by default drives Sony's Jog Dial utility. This ought to be a plus, with its programmable shortcuts and application scrolling functions, but I found it got in the way and, worse, didn't always work in basic scrolling mode.

When you look up from your typing, you're faced with a 12.1in XGA TFT screen. The usual comments apply: 12.1in is a little tight for 1,024 x 768, but it's legible so long as your eyesight is okay. The screen is well illuminated, but has restrictive vertical viewing angles that produce either a light or dark patch at the edges.

Sony has opted for Intel's 815EM motherboard chipset, which also provides the graphics and can use up to 11Mb of system memory. This essentially conservative take on the graphics subsystem is perhaps best suited to an ultra portable where 3D graphics aren't required.

The VAIO isn't underpowered in other respects, although given its fairly high price you might be forgiven for wondering about the choice of processor. This proved to be the old-style 850MHz Pentium III SpeedStep rather than the new Pentium III-M. The latter is somewhat more expensive, granted, but it's a lot faster and offers improved power conservation and a larger secondary cache.

The memory situation is realistic, with 128Mb hard-wired onto the motherboard, and a single SODIMM socket available for an extra 128Mb. We advise you use it from the outset, especially with the supplied Windows XP operating system. With 256Mb of memory in tow, you're well set up for the notebook's life span, and the same can be said of the 20Gb hard disk, which should be more than adequate for the majority of users.

What might be more problematic is the absence of other drives and the lack of external modules as part of the standard package. Of course, these are available as an option, in the form of an attractive, durable and compact docking base, weighing 1.1kg. This has both an integral floppy and a DVD/CD-RW combo drive and also adds the serial and parallel ports absent from the notebook itself.