The Best Ultralight Laptops
We lab-tested 3-pound laptops to find which one gives you the most machine in an ultralight package. Our top pick? Let's just say there's no Air apparent.
Darren Gladstone, PC World
4) Sony VAIO VGN-TZ295N Laptop -- PC World Rating: 73 (Good)
The Sony VAIO design team must be ticked. Sony keeps producing geek-chic products like the VAIO VGN-TZ295N laptop we tested, and yet Apple gets all the attention with its MacBook Air. Sony deserves some recognition too; sure, Mac fans may be able to slip an Air into a manila envelope, but at least the VGN-TZ295N will let you watch DVDs without an external drive. Roughly the size of a hardcover book and weighing 2.6 pounds (3.2 pounds with an AC adapter), Sony's tight little package comes with an 11.1-inch, 1366-by-768-pixel display that uses LED backlighting technology, giving it one of the sharpest, brightest screens of all the ultraportable laptops we've seen. In our WorldBench 6 tests, the Sony VAIO came in close behind Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 in performance, scoring 58 to the X300's 64. The VGN-TZ295N displayed stellar battery life, too; the notebook held out for nearly 6.5 hours in our lab tests.Sony provides an off switch for the integrated Sprint EvDO Revision A mobile wireless circuitry (see detail at bottom). And as on the MacBook Air, this VAIO's keyboard uses a cut-out design with space between the keys, but the the VAIO's keys are small, making them difficult to type on (see detail at top).This VAIO looks great, and its screen is phenomenal. But for its lofty price, we'd accept no less than perfection, and it falls just short. Check Latest Prices
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