Sony VAIO VGN-TZ31MN in Laptops
Verdict
This impressive ultraportable fills a narrow but handy niche in between the MacBook Air and Lenovo X300.
Review Date: 3 Mar 2008
Price when reviewed: £1,276 (£1,467 inc VAT)
Overall Rating


The TZ31 can also beat Apple's sub-four-hour battery life twice over, with an hour to spare (a highly impressive 8hrs 10mins), and is equally portable and stylish - all this for just over £100 more.
However, it's more difficult to justify the VAIO over Lenovo's X300. Its advantages are the lower price, larger hard disk and greater battery life: the X300 offers around six hours to the VAIO's eight.
And its £1,700 price puts it in another bracket entirely. But the X300 serves equally well as a desktop replacement as it does a mobile device, something which the TZ31 is far too small and lacking in power to do.
Nevertheless, the VAIO TZ31 occupies a happy medium between the bare minimalism of the Apple and the usability of the Lenovo, while easily winning on battery life and value for money - as long as you also have a desktop to use for more intensive tasks.
Author: Matthew Sparkes
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