Sony VAIO PCG-V505AP

Just when I thought I understood the strange world of notebook marketing jargon, along comes another phrase. Not content with descriptions like thin-and-light or ultra portable, Sony celebrates the PCG-V505AP by dusting down the term 'ultramobile'.

In the V505AP's case, the ultramobile tag means it weighs 2kg, is about as thick as a normal notebook (35mm), but has the same width and depth as an ultra portable (277 x 242mm). The end result has an uncanny resemblance to one of Sony's ultra portables being welded on to a docking station.

The extra height over a standard ultra portable is mainly due to two inclusions: Intel's 2GHz Pentium 4-M processor and the integrated combo DVD and CD-RW drive. Anyone who uses an ultra portable on a day-to-day basis will know of the occasions when they need to install a program only to realise the external CD-ROM is elsewhere, and the drive also provides an easy way to back up data to CD-R. And if you're on the plane or train and want a break from work, it means you can watch a DVD movie - the V505AP copes well with this task, although fast-moving action flicks aren't its forte.

Sony's choice of a Pentium 4-M processor is also interesting. With the advent of Centrino technology, and in particular the Pentium-M (see issue 103, p59), it's difficult to see a long-term future for the mobile Pentium 4 chip. Although it boasts high clock speeds, notebooks like the Dell Latitude D600 (see p68) show that a 1.6GHz Pentium-M is actually faster in real-world use - compare the D600's score of 1.47 in our benchmarks with the 2GHz VAIO's 1.02.

There are two main areas where the higher clock speed will still make a difference, though. First, video compression - the VAIO converted our AVI file into MPEG-2 in nine minutes, compared with the Dell's ten minutes, 20 seconds. If this is a key area for you, you'll be pleased to see Adobe Premiere 6 LE and Sony's DVgate suite of software for capturing video bundled with the VAIO.

Another area where megahertz matters is 3D performance, but Sony doesn't take advantage of this. The graphics are limited to ATi's basic Mobility Radeon chipset, which is why the PCG-V505AP only managed 1,518 in 3DMark2001 SE (1,024 x 768, 32-bit colour).

One feature the VAIO shares with Centrino notebooks is integrated WLAN - LAN-Express 802.11b offering is Sony's choice. Naturally, a V.90 modem and conventional 10/100 Ethernet connection are both built into the VAIO too.

This amount of integrated connectivity means there's little reason to fill the single PC Card slot, and there's also a four-pin FireWire socket to accompany the two USB ports, although note that these are USB 1.1 rather than USB 2. This being a VAIO, it should be no surprise to also see a Memory Stick port. However, there are no legacy ports available, so if you've got a parallel printer or a PDA that you like to synchronise using infrared you'll have to buy new peripherals or change the way you work.

It also means you won't be able to use a PS/2 keyboard or mouse with the VAIO. This is a shame, as the keyboard's slightly cramped layout can be frustrating at times - although the Enter and Backspace keys are both nice and large, the cursor keys aren't separated out. This leads to small Shift keys and function doubling (so End, for instance, doesn't have its own button). There are no handy shortcut keys on this notebook either, while the touchpad lacks the equivalent of a scroll wheel - only minor omissions, but these are both useful tools.