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Sony VAIO VGN-Z31VN/X review

in Laptops

Verdict

An ultraportable without compromise: plenty of power, great battery life and superb design.

Review Date: 21 May 2009

Reviewed By: Mike Jennings

Price when reviewed: £1,781 (£2,048 inc VAT)

Overall Rating
5 stars out of 6

Features & Design
5 stars out of 6

Value for Money
6 stars out of 6

Performance
4 stars out of 6

PCPRO Recommended

Details
Part Code VAIO VGN-Z31VN/X
Review Date 21 May 2009
Price ex VAT £1,781
Price inc VAT £2,048
Overall rating 5 stars out of 6
Features & Design 5 stars out of 6
Value for Money 6 stars out of 6
Performance 4 stars out of 6
Warranty
Warranty 1 yr return to base
Physical specifications
Dimensions 314 x 213 x 33mm (WDH)
Weight 1.470kg
Travelling weight 1.8kg
Processor and memory
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo P9600
Motherboard chipset Intel GM45 Express
RAM capacity 4.00GB
Memory type DDR3
SODIMM sockets free 0
SODIMM sockets total 2
Screen and video
Screen size 13.1in
Resolution screen horizontal 1,600
Resolution screen vertical 900
Resolution 1600 x 900
Graphics chipset Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS/Intel GMA X4500 HD
Graphics card RAM 256MB
VGA (D-SUB) outputs 1
HDMI outputs 1
S-Video outputs 0
DVI-I outputs 0
DVI-D outputs 0
DisplayPort outputs 0
Drives
Capacity 320GB
Hard disk usable capacity 297GB
Spindle speed 5,400RPM
Internal disk interface SATA/150
Hard disk Toshiba MK3252GSX
Optical disc technology DVD writer
Optical drive Matshita UJ862AS
Battery capacity 5,400mAh
Replacement battery price inc VAT £0
Networking
Wired adapter speed 1,000Mbits/sec
802.11a support yes
802.11b support yes
802.11g support yes
802.11 draft-n support yes
Integrated 3G adapter yes
Other Features
Wireless hardware on/off switch yes
Wireless key-combination switch no
Modem yes
ExpressCard34 slots 0
ExpressCard54 slots 0
PC Card slots 0
USB ports (downstream) 2
FireWire ports 1
PS/2 mouse port no
9-pin serial ports 0
Parallel ports 0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports 0
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports 0
3.5mm audio jacks 2
SD card reader yes
Memory Stick reader yes
MMC (multimedia card) reader no
Smart Media reader no
Compact Flash reader no
xD-card reader no
Pointing device type Touchpad
Audio chipset Realtek HD Audio
Speaker location Above keyboard
Hardware volume control? no
Integrated microphone? yes
Integrated webcam? yes
TPM yes
Fingerprint reader yes
Smartcard reader no
Operating system and software
Operating system Windows Vista Business
OS family Windows Vista
Recovery method Recovery partition
Battery and performance tests
Battery life, light use 550
Battery life, heavy use 120
Overall application benchmark score 1.45
Office application benchmark score 1.61
2D graphics application benchmark score 1.47
Encoding application benchmark score 1.20
Multitasking application benchmark score 1.52
3D performance (crysis) low settings 6fps
3D performance setting Medium
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