Product Reviews

We knew the SR19 would be challenging for a place on our A List the moment we set eyes on it. This laptop may have a price of around £800 exc VAT, but the quality of its design and the number of genuinely useful extras it packs in make it appear like a much more expensive machine.

Click here for our video review of the SR-Series

Its chief benefit, though, is portability. This 1.9kg laptop lasted for over six hours in our battery tests, putting it right into the top echelons of laptop portability. So could it live it up to our initial expectations?

Classy design
It's no longer unusual for a laptop this cheap to look great, but the SR19 has a little bit extra. For a start, there's the ultra-slim screen - this not only looks rather nice but also helps keep the VAIO down to 34mm thick.

The pulsating power button is a nice touch too. This glows a neonesque green when the VAIO is on, and drops to a pulsing amber colour when in standby. Unlike the new VAIO Z-Series, there's no carbon-fibre chassis, but the much more standard plastic chassis still looks the part.

Extra touches
A number of extra touches help to make this laptop feel a bit special too. Although the main chassis is made from plastic, Sony has applied a layer of magnesium alloy to the lid to make it feel cold to the touch - and add extra protection of course.

But the most notable "extra" is the Mode button that sits above the keyboard. Press this and, by default, it will skip between three different modes: business, entertainment and setup.

Upon pressing, the most obvious change is to the desktop background, but more usefully the five hardware shortcut buttons take a different function too. They're entirely configurable (as are the modes) so you could make them launch applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, Firefox and PowerPoint in business mode, then Photoshop Elements, Media Player, Media Center and a couple of games in entertainment mode.

The mention of Photoshop Elements isn't idle speculation either. Sony bundles the latest version of Adobe's excellent photo-editing software, which costs £60 on its own, and doesn't stop there: we were surprised to see a full version of Adobe Acrobat Standard bundled too. This lets you create PDFs yourself, and costs a princely £200 when sold on its own.

Splendid isolation
Sony's new preferred choice of keyboard is also present. Sony calls it an "isolated" keyboard, we call it Scrabble style; and although some people might be put off by switching to a different type of design we found it easy to type on even for longer periods. Indeed, it's arguably better for touch typists as you're less likely to accidentally click a neighbouring button in your rush.

Another fringe benefit is that it's easier to clean - we hate to think what's sitting in between the keys of our standard keyboards - and that those with longer fingernails will have more room for

ADVERTISEMENT

manoeuvre.

Overall, while we still prefer the more tactile feedback you get from a ThinkPad keyboard, we're in favour of Sony's isolated keyboard design.

We've no complaints about the SR19's touchpad either. It's generously sized, responsive, and there's built-in scrolling too - slide your finger from top to bottom on the right-hand side of the touchpad, for instance, and you'll scroll down the active document.

Screen test
It's almost impossible to find anything to criticise about the VAIO's screen. It's exceptionally bright, it's crisp and colours are realistic. Though some might be disappointed by a resolution of 1,280 x 800, as opposed to 1,440 x 900 or even 1,600 x 900 in other 13in laptops, we found it extremely usable in everyday use.

Despite this, we assume that most people will hook the VAIO up to an external monitor at the desk - there's a VGA output on the left-hand side of the machine, but for DVI you'll have to buy Sony's docking station (the VGP-PRSR1).

This overcomes a couple of the SR19's other potential weaknesses too: the built-in network port is only 10/100 as opposed to Gigabit on the docking station, and it boosts the USB port count from two to five. Other ports on the laptop itself include mini-FireWire and ExpressCard/34.

Performance
A common theme among ultraportable laptops is a lack of cutting-edge power; they're fine for everyday tasks but struggle when it comes to intensive apps like video editing. But this VAIO uses one of Intel's latest processors, the 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400.

It's part of Intel's much-heralded Centrino 2 technology, and importantly it's based on 45nm fab technology. This gives the twin benefits of a frequency boost and, together with a more power-friendly chipset, improved battery life.

We've absolutely no complaints in terms of speed. It raced through our benchmarks, scoring 1.13 - one of the fastest scores we've ever seen from a laptop. It's coupled with 3GB of RAM, too, so memory shortages won't be an issue.

If you want to play modern games, though, you'll struggle. The Intel GMA X4500MHD graphics chip inside this VAIO isn't designed for such things, although it will cope with older titles. If you want a little more gaming potential, consider the SR19VN with its ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 graphics.

The rest of the specifications are decent but not spectacular. There's a dual-layer DVD writer (integrated, not external), but no Blu-ray player. The 160GB hard disk is fine, but if you want larger you should again upgrade to the SR19VN - that buys you a 200GB disk.

Embedded 3G is also out of the scope of this particular laptop, with Sony currently offering this just as part of its Z-Series and TZ-Series. Instead, you must "make do" with 802.11bg and draft-n. There's also no infrared, though you do get Bluetooth and an SD card slot to accompany the expected Memory Stick.

VAIO Professional
Sony UK has just established its VAIO Professional branding. In practice, this means improved warranties on VAIOs that fall into this range, which include the SR-Series. Instead of the standard 1yr collect-and-return warranty, you get two years' cover. You can also upgrade separately to on-site cover.

The hardware itself also offers a lot to businesses small and large. The fingerprint reader is the most obvious sign, and this worked smoothly in our tests. There's also a Trusted Platform Module inside, offering advanced encryption possibilities.

Conclusion
It adds up to a very strong laptop and currently occupies a niche all of its own: it costs less than £1,000 but offers superb portability, buckets of power, board-level styling and all the security features most businesses need.