Sony Vaio SZ2M review

Gallery

Verdict:

The Vaio SZ2M offers a larger screen and good battery life in a portable chassis. Only its grainy screen and indistinct keyboard hold it back from the top spot.

Review Date: 27 Jul 2006

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Seth Barton

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Sony's SZ2M stands out from the rest of the group with its 13.3" display, but it still weighs less than 2kg.

FEATURES

Sony's screen has the same resolution as the 12.1" displays in the group, but the Windows desktop looks less cramped. It's bright and capable of producing a clean white and vibrant colours. But there's a grain across the whole screen, which detracts from fine detail.

The stylish chassis is angular and its lid has a strange, sandpaper-like finish. Its 1980s style is reinforced by the square keys on the keyboard. The extra width of the display makes this the most spacious keyboard here, but key presses feel indistinct. The touch pad is accurate, but the buttons have little feedback.

There are only two USB ports, so gadget fans should look elsewhere, and the memory card reader accepts only Sony Memory Stick cards. Inside, there's an 80GB hard disk and DVD writer.

PERFORMANCE

A switch above the keyboard allows you to select between a stamina mode, which uses an integrated Intel graphics chip, and a speed mode that enables an Nvidia GeForce Go 7400. Switching to the Nvidia chipset gives a rise in application performance and a reduction in battery life, but the difference is less than we expected. In Speed mode, it scored 121 overall in our benchmarks, making it third-fastest.

With its Nvidia graphics chip, the SZM2 is the only notebook here capable of running modern games. It ran our Doom 3 test at 11.7fps and should play most modern games with the detail settings reduced. In Stamina mode, the battery lasted for an excellent four hours and 52 minutes, making this notebook ideal for use on the move.

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