X-bit labs

Sony VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B Notebook: Perfect Mix of Performance and Ergonomics

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 08/06/2007 | 06:08 PM ]

Once again Sony’s design team has come up with a well-balanced combination of style, performance and superb ergonomics. And today we are going to talk about this notebook series in our new review.

Table of contents:

• Package and Accessories
  
• Exterior Design and Ergonomics
  
• Configuration
  
• Test Methods
  
• Performance
  
• Conclusion
  

People who say “size doesn’t matter” know nothing about notebooks. The notebook’s form-factor is the parameter that largely determines the scope of its capabilities and usability. Tiny sub-notebooks can travel long distances together with their owner but their ergonomic properties and performance are sacrificed for the sake of the ultimate mobility. Desknotes can rival desktop PCs in terms of performance but are poor travelers as a rule.

There is a golden mean, however. I’m talking about notebooks the size of an A4 paper sheet, within 2 kilos of mass, with superb ergonomics and high enough performance. Having a screen diagonal of 13-14 inches, they provide a large enough display area while not becoming a burden on long trips.

The Sony VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B represents such a reasonable compromise between optimal size/weight parameters and high performance delivered by the refresh Napa platform with a 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 processor and an Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 discrete graphics core. The notebook is equipped with all the widespread wireless interfaces, thus being doubly mobile. It comes in strikingly different colors, from black (the version we tested) to green, blue and pink, targeting different user audiences.

One color scheme will suit a businessman while another may match the color of your car or even of your blouse. The color is indicated by the last letter of the model name (e.g. B stands for Black).

The VAIO VGN-C2ZR/B will be opposed in today’s tests by the VAIO VGN-FE31HR, a representative of another notebook series from Sony that has a very similar configuration.