Sony VAIO G1

There are lightweight notebooks, and then there are impossibly lightweight notebooks. Weighing in at an astounding 2.1 pounds-seriously, you have to hold it to believe it-the Sony VAIO G1 is the most portable notebook we've ever encountered with a built-in optical drive. You can't get it in the U.S., but gadget-importer Dynamism will sell you one for $2,599. The 12.1-inch display could use more pop, and you'll definitely want to add more RAM, but the G1 is an exceptional featherweight notebook that will please mobile professionals willing to pay a premium.

 

Our first thought when holding the G1 in our hands was that it had to be a nonworking unit; no full-functioning laptop could be so light. Sony was able to achieve this sprightliness by using a carbon-fiber body, which is lighter, stronger, and better at heat dissipation than the aluminum or magnesium alloys used in your typical notebook chassis. (Check out our Sony G1 photo gallery.) Our G1 sported a silver casing, but Dynamism also offers black and special-edition brown models.

 

The razor-thin silver lid houses the G1's 12.1-inch, 1024 x 768-pixel display. The matte finish was fine for productivity chores, but we would have preferred the same glossy XBrite treatment that graces most other Sony notebooks. Movies and Web pages had a dull appearance, and the viewing angles were a little too narrow.

 

Because the battery rests between the display and the keyboard, the layout is only 90 percent as large as a regular notebook. As a result, typing felt a bit cramped, although the full-sized Shift, Enter, and Backspace keys were welcome. The keys themselves provided better feedback than the flatter layout of the Sony VAIO TX series. We don't have any complaints when it comes to the touchpad and touchpad buttons; they're relatively large compared with those on other ultraportables.

 

Overall, the design is pretty spare--in a good way. Above the keyboard on the left-hand side resides the Wireless On/Off switch, as well as a biometric fingerprint reader. The front of the G1 houses the Memory Stick/SD slot, as well as the headphone and microphone jacks. The DVD burner (which you eject with a button above the power button), modem jack, VGA port, and a USB port line the right side, and a PC Card slot, Ethernet jack, and second USB port line the left side.

 

In terms of features, the G1 is a mixed bag. The 80GB hard drive is generous given this notebook's small size, and we like that it's shock-mounted for extra durability. But 512MB of RAM is pretty skimpy considering the $2,599 price tag. If you plan on running Windows Vista at some point, we strongly recommend spending the additional $199 for 1GB of RAM.

 

Although it couldn't run our MobileMark test, the G1 performed similarly to other notebooks we've tested with Intel's Core Solo processor. We had no problems working in Word or surfing the Web, but you don't get the multitasking muscle of a dual-core processor. The system's 3DMark03 score of 689 means you can forget about gaming.

 

The advantage of having an ultra-low voltage CPU on board is long endurance. The included "lightweight battery" is rated for approximately six hours of juice. In our tests, the G1 lasted 2 hours and 29 minutes when playing a DVD, which means you should realistically expect closer to four hours of runtime when performing more mundane tasks. An optional "standard battery" should double that runtime, but it costs a whopping $349. Our suggestion: Save money by shopping on Dynamism.com for configurations that include the standard battery, Windows Vista, and 1GB of RAM.

 

The G1 performed like a champ in our wireless tests. The notebook delivered an impressive throughput of 16.3 Mbps from 15 feet and 15.7 Mbps from 50 feet, courtesy of dual internal Wi-Fi antennas. If you'd rather go the mobile broadband route, just plug a PC Card modem into the machine.

 

Like all notebooks sold through Dynamism, support is top-notch. The G1 includes unlimited toll-free tech phone and e-mail support, as well as a one-year FedEx rescue-service warranty. That's in addition to the standard three-year warranty.

 

As far as ultraportables go, we prefer the slightly heavier 2.8-pound Sony VAIO TXN, which offers built-in mobile broadband and a brighter (albeit smaller) 11-inch display for less cash. But if weight is your number-one priority--and you don't want to sacrifice an optical drive--the Sony VAIO G1 is arguably the best option on the market.