Sony VAIO VGN-SZ15GP
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Review Date: 24th July' 2006

Dressed in a cool silver and black casing and featuring a stylish aluminum palm rest area, the 13.3" widescreen VAIO VGN-SZ15GP is powered by an Intel Core Duo T2300 (1.66GHz) processor coupled with 512MB of DDR2 system memory.

Storage is aplenty courtesy of the 60GB SATA HDD. It also comes with a slim DVD Combo drive. On the 3D graphics side of things, the SZ15GP has Intel's 945GM controller for graphics duties.

The SZ15GP is slim. It comes with a non-slip Charcoal Black surface on the lid that has a clasp-less design. Flip open the SZ15GP and you'll be wowed by the stylish aluminum palm rest and flushed touchpad and mouse buttons. The full-sized keyboard with surprisingly large enough keys is slightly raised to coincide with the palm rest area for a comfortable input experience.

Located below the display is the stylish, light silver grille that runs the length of the SZ15GP and conceals the stereo speakers. The two quick launch buttons are located in the center of this grille along with the power button, WiFi on/off selector and the unique Stamina/Speed selector. This special selector let's you opt between using the full processing power of the CPU (Speed) or a less power intensive mode (Stamina) for longer battery life.

You'll like the SZ15GPs location of status LEDs that are set in such a way that you can view them regardless of whether the unit's lid is open or closed. Adding to the slick and uncluttered design is the fact that all I/O ports are neatly wrapped on the left, right and back of the unit. No slots or connectors are found on the front of the notebook.

The SZ15GP also comes with a MemoryStick Pro/Duo card reader, ExpressCard slot and FireWire (iLink) connectivity. An added bonus is the Motion Eye Camera that's integrated into the notebook lid. With it you can do webcam chatting and even capture some still images.

Another area where this VAIO excels is the battery life, even under the power hungry DVD playback test it managed to last up to 3.5 hours in a single charge. It shouldn't be hard to imagine that the VGN-SZ15GP would, under normal use and in the stamina mode, live up to Sony's claim of a 7 hours battery life.

Overall, the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ15GP is a very good all-round portable business notebook. It has one of the best screens seen to date, high performance power, exclusive looks and a huge VAIO software bundle.