Sony Vaio VGN-NS240E/W review

The Vaio NS240E/W ran for a meager 2 hours, 5 minutes on CNET Labs' battery drain test, which puts it at the bottom against similarly configured systems. Our video playback battery drain test is fairly grueling, so you can expect the laptop to run longer by tweaking the power management settings.

Though purchased at retail stores, Sony's basic one-year parts-and-labor warranty applies to the Vaio NS140. Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free phone line and an online knowledge base. Also, driver downloads for this model can be found at Sony's support Web site.

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HP Pavilion dv5-1235dx
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 64MB Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 320GB Fujitsu 5,400rpm.

Dell Studio 17-162b
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 32MB Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 320GB Hitachi 5,400rpm.

Dell Inspiron 15-157B Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 32MB Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 320GB Hitachi 5,400rpm.

Sony Vaio VGN-NS240E/W
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400; 3,072MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 250GB Toshiba 5,400rpm.

Sony Vaio VGN-CS215J/W
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 250GB Hitachi 5,400rpm.

Toshiba Satellite A305-S6916
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650; 320GB Toshiba 5,400rpm.

Gateway MD7818u
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 500GB Western Digital 5,400rpm.