Sony VAIO PCG-Z1SP

When it comes to business notebooks, most sensible manufacturers opt for a subdued grey or black design. Not Sony - it embraces silver like it's going out of fashion. Most companies seem quite happy if their notebooks tip the scales at nearly 3kg. This VAIO weighs just 2.1kg - and that includes a 14.1in TFT and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive.

Sony even adds its own special design touch. From the notebook's front up to the keyboard, the Z1SP looks like a conventional notebook, but then the silvery magnesium alloy casing dips down. On the left, this reveals two USB 2 ports, plus a four-pin FireWire port and 3.5mm jacks for a microphone and headphones. On the right, you'll find a backlit power button and cooling vents.

The design works too, with almost everyone in the PC Pro office falling in love with it. My only criticism is that it isn't as slim as it first seems - the 39mm thickness at the back is quite a contrast to 24mm at the front.

It's certainly well built, though, with the chassis providing excellent protection to the screen. However, there is a little flex on the palmrests, potentially leaving the 60GB hard disk open to damage. It's also worth noting that only Sony can upgrade the hard disk due to the sealed chassis. Fortunately, the supplied combo drive provides an easy way to archive chunks of data.

I have mixed feelings about the keyboard. It has a nice feel, if quite a shallow key pitch, and most of the keys are well sized and sensibly placed. However, the Shift keys are a bit small for my liking, and because Sony hasn't separated out the cursor keys it's forced into function doubling, so the End key is only accessible by pressing Fn and the right cursor key together.

I can't criticise the screen, though - it's an amazing inclusion considering this machine's weight. Bright backlighting is matched by good contrast to provide an easy-to-read image, and with 1,400 x 1,050 pixels available it also boasts a good resolution. Providing you have reasonable eyesight, everything remains readable and you get plenty of Desktop space.

Admittedly, Dell goes two steps further with the Inspiron 8500 (see p55). Not only does it have an amazing 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, it also offers better viewing angles and faster response times. But the main beneficiaries of quick response times are gamers, and they shouldn't consider this VAIO anyway. The supplied ATi Mobility Radeon 7500 chipset has now been usurped by the Mobility Radeon 9000, and Sony compromises by only including the 16MB version. This led to the VAIO's rather poor score of 1,436 in 3DMark2001 SE (at the default 1,024 x 768 settings).

If you want a notebook for watching DVDs on, though, the Z1SP won't disappoint. The screen was more than quick enough and the speakers were surprisingly loud and clear - just note the absence of an S-Video port.

By this point, you may be wondering whether this supposedly business notebook was for businesses at all, but there are some signs of serious intent. For a start, Sony supplies Windows XP Professional rather than XP Home, while a power-on password adds an extra security layer.

As this is a Centrino (see issue 103, p59) notebook, it also provides WLAN, and you can rest assured that it will work in all those hotspots Intel has verified. Sony provides integrated Bluetooth as well, and it's possible to run these two wireless standards on their own or together. It's good to see a switch above the keyboard for easily switching on wireless, and there are two other buttons above the keyboard that can be pre-programmed for one of five functions: muting, standby, hibernate, switching between the TFT and an external display, and maximising brightness.