Sony VAIO T150P/L (Pentium M 733 1.1 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD)

CNET editors' review

• Reviewed by:
  Asa Somers
• Edited by:
  Justin Jaffe
• Reviewed on: 01/26/2005
• Updated on: 11/06/2009

Editor's note: We have changed the ratings in this review to reflect recent changes in our rating scale. Find out more here.

Until recently, the most portable laptops required too many sacrifices from a user: tiny keyboards with poor layouts, annoying external drives connected by dongle, and heavy external batteries--just to name a few. The lightweight and highly portable Sony VAIO VGN-T150P/L, however, offers a built-in optical drive and a full complement of features, as well as good performance. Along with the Sharp Actius MP30 and the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010D, the VAIO VGN-T150P/L joins the small but growing new breed of ultraportable laptops that pack the punch of much larger systems; at $2,299 (as of January 2005), it's also one of the most expensive.

Measuring a mere 1.2 inches thick, 8 inches deep, and just more than 10.5 inches across, the VAIO VGN-T150P/L is about the size of a brief, tall hardcover book; at an even 3 pounds, it weighs just about as much as an issue of Vogue. It features a characteristically appealing Sony design and an exterior that the company calls "midnight blue"--it looked black to us--and a silver interior. We really like the dedicated, assignable media-control buttons that sit on the rounded screen hinge; we particularly appreciate that they're accessible when the notebook is open or closed.

Keyboard issues--weird layouts and tiny keys--are often the biggest single drawback to using an ultraportable. Even the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010D has some important keys that are just too small. However, we found it easy to type accurately on the VAIO VGN-T150P/L, thanks to (relatively) generously sized and well-placed backspace, enter, and tab keys. The touch pad is big enough, but the mouse buttons are a tad small for our taste.

There's a full complement of connectors on the left and right sides of the VAIO VGN-T150P/L: one FireWire and two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet and modem, and a VGA output. Also onboard is a handy wireless on/off switch for saving your battery while offline, headphone and microphone jacks, and volume and mute buttons. A PC Card slot adds another opportunity for expansion, a Memory Stick slot gives you a way to transfer files from a Sony digital camera; Sony's stubborn refusal to support other flash-memory cards remains an annoyance. The inclusion of Bluetooth is a nice extra.

Though other configurations are available, the VAIO VGN-T150P/L that CNET tested featured a 1.1GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 40GB hard drive--standard components for a system this size and comparable to those of the slightly less expensive LifeBook P7010D. In CNET Labs' tests, the VAIO VGN-T150P/L turned in a solid performance; it'll handle business tasks with aplomb. Even better, the system's 7,200mAh lithium-ion battery lasted an incredible 5 hours, 46 minutes in our tests.

Powered by an Intel graphics chip that borrows 64MB of video RAM from system memory, the VAIO VGN-T150P/L has a 10.6-inch wide-screen display with a 1,280x768 native resolution. Spreadsheet jockeys will love being able to fit extra cells onscreen, but Web surfers will have to squint to see some of the text. DVD playback looked a little jerky.

The VAIO VGN-T150P/L's multiformat DVD burner is all the drive you'll ever need, but we would have loved to see Sony implement a swappable optical drive, as seen in the Fujitsu LifeBook P7010D. Like most laptop speakers, the VAIO VGN-T150P/L's stereo speakers sound tinny; we recommend you bring along your headphones. Sony includes a good package of software that includes Microsoft Works, a trial version of Microsoft Office, and a nice multimedia software bundle, with PictureGear Studio, Click to DVD, and Sony's DVGate Plus video-editing program.

Sony backs the VAIO VGN-T150P/L with an industry-standard, yearlong parts-and-labor warranty, which includes one year of 24/7 toll-free phone support. You can extend your warranty up to a total of five years for a whopping $430 (a single year goes for $125). We recommend adding onsite service, which boosts the warranty package price by $30 to $50, depending on length. Sony also offers accidental damage protection, which jacks up the price even more (four years of it, with onsite service, will cost you a total of $440). The online help consists of a driver-update database, a clunky knowledge base, a few tutorials, and a place to download system documents. The live support chat was very responsive, and we were pleased to see that Sony had preloaded a full user guide on the notebook.

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