Sony Vaio TT

Stylish 11.1-inch ultraportable laptop with integrated 3G
Probably the best ultraportable (a pile of) money can buy!!

Sony's T series has always represented the ultimate in ultraportable computing. The latest incarnation, dubbed the TT, epitomises everything the series stands for: it's attractive, has great connectivity and is highly portable. It doesn't come cheap, though. SonyStyle.co.uk is selling the entry-level machine for a cool £1,399, while the top of the range model commands a quite staggering £2,799.

Design
The Vaio TT is very compact in size, sitting somewhere between the largest netbooks and the smallest ultraportables. The chassis measures 279mm by 23mm by199mm and weighs just 1.3kg, making it ideal for lugging to and from business meetings.

Sony has done an exceptional job styling the TT -- it's right up there with the best laptop in any category. The entry-level TT 15V version is available in 'gold fever' or -- for an extra £10 -- red finishes. The mid-range TT 15W and high-end 15X, meanwhile, come in matte black (or Intense Noir as Sony calls it). We're particularly fond of this option since it doesn't attract fingerprint smudges or grease in the same way many rival laptops do, so it stays cleaner for longer.

Open the lid and you'll be greeted by the same Intense Noir colour scheme and an isolated keyboard with keys that are slightly smaller than the norm. However, there is a 2mm gap between each key, so if you're a little off with your aim, you're less likely to hit an adjacent key by mistake. This works well in practice, with high-speed touch typing a definite possibility for those who are capable.

Sony's got the mouse right, too. The trackpad is relatively large and smooth and has dedicated swipe zones at the far right and bottom edges for scrolling vertically and horizontally with a simple gesture. The selector buttons, which are typically very small on laptops of this type, are good too -- they're actually bigger than those you'd find on many desktop-replacement laptops and have a smooth action.

The number of ports on the TT is about right, all things considered. On the left side there two USB ports, a four-pin iLink (aka FireWire) port, an ExpressCard slot, and behind a flap labelled 'HDMI', there are HDMI and Ethernet ports. The flap, which is tethered to the chassis, looks rather unsightly when hanging loose, but at least it keeps dust and debris from two of the laptop's most important ports. On the right lives a D-Sub video output port and DVD rewriter drive, which is a huge bonus for a machine of this size.

Features
There are four off-the-shelf, and three user-configurable versions of the TT. The latter group includes the £1,380 entry-level TT 15V, the £1,888 mid-range 15W and the £2,798 high-end TT 15X. The TT 15V and 15W come with 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs plus 1GB and 2GB of RAM respectively, while the TT 15X ships with a quicker 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo and 4GB of RAM. The performance delta between these systems isn't enormous, but if you're more interested in running demanding applications than prolonging battery life, you can upgrade to the 1.4GHz model for an extra £50, prolonging battery life.

Storage isn't a primary concern on laptops of this type, since the TT is more likely to be a second PC than your main computer. It's therefore no surprise to learn the TT 15V uses a 120GB hard drive -- the TT 15W uses a 160GB model. We personally wouldn't bother buying the larger drive, since that extra 40GB will cost you £110. If you really do need extra storage, there's always the option to upgrade the drive yourself, or buy a USB hard drive or memory card. Likewise, we'd be reluctant to spend an extra £580 on the 128GB solid-state drive. SSDs theoreticaly provide quicker disk access and use less power, but they offer much less storage for your money.

All versions of the TT ship with an 8x dual-layer DVD rewriter drive, so you can watch DVD movies and make backups of up to 8.5GB in size.

Ordinary DVDs look fantastic on the 11-inch display anyway. This has a native resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, so DVDs are scaled up to match this, while 1080p video is scaled down. It is bright, has good colour reproduction, and the glossy X-Black finish isn't so glossy it prevents use outdoors.


One crucial aspect of the TT's specification is its wireless WAN capability. The mid- and high-end models come with integrated 3G modems as standard -- users simply have to insert their own 3G SIM into a dedicated slot beneath the battery to enjoy wireless Internet access wherever they please. This feature can be installed on the entry-level TT15V for an extra £135, but if this isn't your cup of tea, you can always fall back on the 802.11g/n Wi-Fi adaptor, or connect to a Web-connected mobile phone via Bluetooth.

The TT15W and TT15X both come with a fingerprint reader for logging in without entering a password. This is linked to a trusted platform module (TPM), which provides an extra level of security. It can, for instance, encrypt your data in such a way that thieves cannot remove your hard drive and extract important files. The TT15V ships with Windows Vista Home Premium, but for an extra £60, Sony will swap that for Vista Business edition, which the TT15W and TT15V use as standard.

Performance
All versions of the TT offer balanced performance. They're by no means the quickest laptops in the world, but they're fast for their size and offer long battery life. The 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU in our TT15W clocked up 2,259 in the PCMark 2005 benchmark, so it's significantly quicker than your average netbook, which tend to score approximately 1,500. We didn't expect the graphics performance to be up to scratch, and it wasn't -- it achieved just 654 in the 3DMark 2006 benchmark, which is par for the course in any laptop using an integrated Intel solution.

If there's one thing the TT should be renowned for, it's its battery life. It lasted a very commendable 3 hours 51 minutes with its CPU running at full tilt in the Battery Eater classic benchmark. In the more relaxed reader test, it lasted a very impressive 6 hours 2 minutes. That's not exactly Sony's claimed 9 hours away from the mains, but it's highly impressive nonetheless.

Conclusion
If you have the money, you shouldn't hesitate to buy the TT, no matter which version you choose. It looks phenomenal, is comfortable to use and is exceptionally portable. Netbooks offer similar functionality for a fraction of the price, but if you're not affected by the credit crunch and don't mind people laughing at you for blowing so much cash on a second computer, you should definitely join the TT club

Dell XPS M2010

When Dell unveiled the XPS M2010 laptop concept at CES 2006, few expected it to reach the retail market. The 20-inch laptop was more audacious than anything we'd seen previously and the general consensus was that its enormous size made it too much of a freak to be taken seriously. Kudos to Dell, then, for throwing caution to the wind and bringing it to market. But is this a case of boldness before greatness, or has the world's biggest PC manufacturer got more money than sense?
 

Design
The XPS M2010 looks like no laptop before it. With the lid closed it resembles a large briefcase complete with a sturdy, leather-bound handle with silver support struts that extend halfway down the lid and base. The grip of the handle has a circular Dell logo at each end, and there's another glowing Dell logo to be found towards the top of the lid. The laptop's industrial-looking graphite colour is certainly different, but some users may prefer a more conventional black finish.

Unlike smaller XPS laptops, the M2010 uses latches to keep the lid shut when not in use. These are situated on either side of the lid. Unfortunately they feel a tad flimsy and we wouldn't be surprised if they begin to fail after extended use. The base of the laptop is smoother than most, including that of the 12-inch XPS M1210. Aside from a latch for removing the battery, a single air vent and a circular subwoofer port, there's little else to be found.

With the screen open, the XPS looks far more stylish. The 20-inch screen is the most imposing we've seen on any laptop, and the fact that the top of the screen sits close to eye level means you won't have to hunch over the laptop. This is great for your posture -- the XPS M2010 felt extremely comfortable to use during long periods. Impressively, the flexible screen hinge means the screen is height and rake adjustable so you can raise, lower and bring it closer to you for optimum comfort.


The base section of the XPS M2010 is home to its power button, which is positioned to the far right-hand side. To the left of this is a Windows Media Center 'home' button, and to the far left a set of indicator lights that show the laptop's Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, hard disk and power status. The M2010 uses the most unusual optical drive we've seen on any laptop. It's a top-loading model with two transparent glass panels that let you see the CD spinning inside the unit





The keyboard section of the XPS M2010 is completely removable. It can be lifted away from the base section and, being a Bluetooth unit, it can be used from up to 10m away from the laptop. The keyboard has an integrated mouse touchpad and buttons that give you full control of the M2010, and there's also a dedicated numerical keypad featured. To the far right of the keyboard is a set of shortcut keys that give you quick access to common multimedia tasks such as play, pause, rewind, fast forward and volume control.


Features
We'd expect any laptop of this size to have a strong specification, and M2010 doesn't disappoint. It uses a fast Intel Centrino Duo T2600 processor running at 2.16GHz. This isn't as fast as the latest 2.3GHz T2700 model, but its dual-core architecture means it's quick enough to give most desktop PCs a run for their money and it's capable of handling everything from everyday Internet surfing to more strenuous video-editing tasks. The basic model comes with 2GB of DDR3 667MHz RAM, which is an ample amount for just about every type of home or business user.

Its graphics capabilities are solid, too. It uses an ATI Mobility Radeon X1800 graphics card -- ATI's most advanced graphics processor and the fastest we've seen in any laptop. Its presence gives the XPS M2010 the ability to run the latest games, including the likes of Prey and Half-Life 2: Episode 1, at high resolutions with good image quality and consistent frame rates.

The XPS M2010's audio capabilities are admirable. There are four speakers on either side of the lower portion of the screen, and a subwoofer on the underside of the laptop. Unlike most laptops, even those with subwoofers, this setup sounds rather good, but serious audiophiles will want to connect a set of external surround-sound speakers.

There's plenty of space to store files on the XPS M2010. Dell has supplied a pair of 100GB hard drives configured in a RAID 0 array for a total of 200GB of storage. That's enough to hoard over 190 hours of high-definition movie content, or over 51,000 average-sized MP3 audio files.

Accessing multimedia content is a breeze with the M2010 as it uses the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system. It also comes with a customised remote control that lets you control the device from the comfort of your armchair. Commendably, Dell has opted for a remote that has an integrated LCD screen, and this can be used to select songs or tracklists in your music library without going anywhere near the laptop.

Arguably more impressive is the remote's gyroscopic ability -- it lets you move the mouse cursor around the screen simply by waving it at the laptop.

Being an XPS product, the M2010 comes with one a one-year next business day on-site warranty, plus free online and telephone technical support. XPS customers are given a special phone number which expedites their calls to agents ahead of standard customers, so there's potentially less time spent waiting on the phone.

Performance
Unsurprisingly the XPS M2010 offers strong performance in most aspects. Its 2.1GHz processor helped it achieve a solid PC Mark 2005 score of 4,122, which was in line with our expectations.

The XPS M2010 gave us the rather pleasant surprise of operating in a very quiet and composed manner during our test period. It runs extremely quietly during everyday use and its cooling fans only piped up when we subjected it to more strenuous activities, such as video encoding or game playing.

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