Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: sony, toshiba, 12-inch | Themes: Business Notebooks, Laptops and Notebooks, Business
- 1. 12" Power Notebooks
- 2. HP Compaq 2510p: Design, Weight, Quality
- 3. HP Compaq 2510p: Hardware, Software, Usability
- 4. HP Compaq 2510p: Features, Heat, Noise
- 5. Samsung P200-Pro: Design, Weight, Quality
- 6. Samsung P200-Pro: Hardware, Software, Usability
- 7. Samsung P200-Pro: Features, Heat, Noise
- 8. Sony VAIO VGN-G21XP: Design, Weight, Quality
- 9. Sony VAIO VGN-G21XP: Hardware, Software, Usability
- 10. Sony VAIO VGN-G21XP: Features, Heat, Noise
- 11. Toshiba Portégé R500: Design, Weight, Quality
- 12. Toshiba Portégé R500: Hardware, Software, Usability
- 13. Toshiba Portégé R500: Features, Noise, Heat
- 14. Benchmark Testing
- 15. Application Testing, Battery Testing, Noise Level
- 16. Conclusion: Underdog, Sprinter, Endurance Racer and Flyweight
- 17. Spec Sheet
- 18. More on this topic
8. Sony VAIO VGN-G21XP: Design, Weight, Quality
Design
The design of the Sony VAIO is attractive; the notebook does not look boring, even though everything except the fingerprint sensor, the power button and the small chrome stripe above the track pad is anthracite gray. The sides are slightly tilted out and form a line that also integrates the cover of the optical drive.
The front edge of the housing is of the same style. The VAIO G21 can easily be identified as a Sony notebook, that’s for sure.
At the front edge of the housing you will find a few status lights; everything else is kept simple. On the left side, underneath the display, is a sliding switch for WLAN and the fingerprint reader. To the right is the On button, an eject key for the optical drive and another function key.
Weight
The VAIO G21XP is the second lightest system in this test, right behind the Toshiba Portégé R500: including battery, it weighs 1148 g (2.53 pounds). Taking the power supply into account the total weight adds up to 1364 g (3.0 pounds), but due to the long lasting battery charge you will hardly ever need to carry the power supply anyway.
Quality
As expected from Sony, the build quality is high, but like Toshiba with its Portégé, Sony had to accept some compromises to achieve low weight. The housing makes cracking noises when pressing on it from underneath. It’s also not as firm as larger models, or the Samsung P200-Pro, but the P200-Pro is an exception here because it is the heaviest in this field.
As seen before in other Sony models, the battery seems to be a bit loose and rattles — this should not be the case in a system that’s listed at almost 2,000 Euros. When pressing on the right side of the hand rest, the arrow keys get tilted down with the frame; on the left side this occurs with the Fn and Windows keys.
The thin display cover lid seems to be very soft and can be tilted quite a ways. Although this does not result in pressure marks, it creates a pattern on the display, so you should treat the lid with care and make sure the VAIO is well padded when traveling with it.
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Why only these four?
The Acer Travelmate 6293 (or older 6292 model) competes well with these models. The review would have been much more useful if you had included the Acer.
What about x300, x61, d430 etc.... the review is grate, just pour choice of Notebook's if you ask me.
Nice article, especialy useful in times when mini-notebooks, or netbooks come to be more and more popular. I am owner of HP 2510p almost 6 months and I love this notebook. It was extremly cheap for me - just 450USD from ebay. Small, well featured, ultra-light /1.6kg/ and 6-7h on 6-cell battery. Btw I think that overlaping battery is quite useful - just try it - as IT admin I use it every day - one can hold this notebook easily in one hand while doing many common service work, and type with other hand. I got my HP with Windows XP Pro, so its much faster than with Vista. I installed tripple boot on it, XP Pro, Ubuntu and Mac OSX 10.5.4 - just used external USB WiFi for Mac OSX, all other HW is working in all OSs.
I never understand while to bother with popular trends like Asus Eee - no DVD, limited HDD options, extremly LOW battery time /I expected much better performances with Atom and SSDs/, small size-display like from Gullivers fairy-tale. Thers only one good point - price. And its fun that if you want all these features on new EEE-like notebooks, you have to pay 500-700USD. So why not to pay more and have all fetures together like in HP 2510p or Toshiba R500. Or try ebay like me, and its even cheaper than new EEEs with Atom.
But maybe I am wrong and EEE targets different audience.
I cant believe you have done a review user "power" and "12.1" in the same sentence and failed to include uber powerful Asus U6V. My god this thing would blow your choices out of the water for under $1700 anywhere in north america!
HP recently introduced the 2530p with substantially faster ULV processors (up to the SL9400, 1.86GHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB) and with 2 DIMM slots for up to 8GB of 800MHz DDR SDRAM. It weighs a little more with a starting weight of 3.16lbs, but with some additonal durability features built-in, it meets the Mil-Std-810F standards for vibration, dust, humidity, altitude and high temperature. The spec's can be found at this URL:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products [...] 01_na.HTML
The 2510p will be going away shortly so the 2530p is the one to look at if one is considering HP.
HP also introduced the 2230s with a 12.1" screeen, and although it weighs a little more than the 2530p, it boasts a regular mobile processor such as an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 cache). This is a new form factor for HP as this model did not replace any existing models, but rather it is a new addition to HP's notebook lineup.
Marcus
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