Sony Vaio TX-47GP

• $3,699 (inclusive of 5% GST)
• Available from authorised Sony dealers

The so-small Sony Vaio TX-47GP has a strong heart.

It is an Intel Core Solo U1400 processor running at 1.20GHz. Base memory is 1GB (maximum installable is 1.5GB), together with 80GB of hard disk storage.

The notebook is very slim (2.1cm at the thinnest point) and light (only 1.25kg, and that with an internal DVD burner). According to Sony, the TX-47GP is 9 per cent lighter and 16 per cent slimmer than other VAIO TX models.

The 11.1-inch LCD, with its wide resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels, grabs the attention with its bright and clear presentations.

Though thin and latch-less, the shell material of the LCD is made from multi-carbon fibre, similar to those used in race cars. So it is durable.

For the sake of compactness, the notebook sacrifices some ports. There are only two USB 2.0 ports, as opposed to three or more on larger notebooks.

There's no S-Video out either. However, you still get the VGA-out port, and slots including those for a headphone, Ethernet jacks, and a PC Card. Plus, of course,a Memory Stick slot. A fingerprint sensor locks out unauthorised users.

While the MobileMark 2005 benchmarks could not complete on the review notebook because of the program's limitations, essential tasks like word processing, web-surfing as well as multimedia entertainment zipped along fine.

If I require better performance, such as for high definition video-encoding, I would still look at a higher-spec Core 2 Duo machine though.

With only integrated graphics, 3D gaming performance on the TX-47GP is poor. It scored 300 points on 3DMark2005.

The thing you would be doing more of on this notebook would be listening to CDs and watching DVDs.

Thanks to an instant AV (audio-visual) feature, you can directly boot the notebook to access your entertainment disc content, in a matter of seconds.

The row of playback control buttons on the top of the keyboard is neat, as are the volume control and mute buttons situated next to the wireless hardware switch.

The crowning glory: long, long battery life. Using BatteryEater Pro benchmarks in Classic mode, which measures the minimum battery life of a notebook, by getting it to perform the most resource-intensive tasks, the notebook battery lasted 3.5 hours. Most other notebooks falter before two hours are up.

In my own casual use - doing wireless web-surfing and office tasks - the battery life was good for an amazing seven to eight hours.

The package is completed with a comprehensive suite of software including Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements, WinDVD and SonicStage. - By Mike Lee, a freelance IT writer.