The VPCY218FX comes from the Sony Viao family of sleek, stylish and professional -looking laptops. It offers a strong battery staying power that can serve you all day if performing basic computer chores. The 13.3 incher comes in a glossy LCD screen, complete with LED backlighting. The drawbacks include its weak multimedia portfolio, color wash outs and a pretty ordinally keyboard. The machine will cost you about $750.

The machine is propelled by an intel dual -core U5400 with a speed of 1200 MHz. That is rather ordinally and takes away some precious points from the unit. The machine also comes with a pre -installed 4 GB DDR3 memory that can be beefed to an impressive 8 GB maximum. It provides one 500 GB hard disk drive that spins at a low speed of 5400 rpm. A speed of 7200 rpm could be more like it. The hard disk is assisted by SD /MMC card and SDHC card, but you will not access memory stick and XD -picture card. Its thin GPU uses integrated HD graphics chipset from intel. It operates with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition.

The machine uses a pretty ordinary chiclet -style keyboard that comes in matte black color. The keys are quite simple to press and offer a decent feedback. But their tiny size makes them a bad choice for fast typing. The gray trackpad on the other hand is quite responsive to multitouch gestures and offers passable feedback. Below the touchpad are two indented and responsive buttons that have the disadvantage of being fragile, they will do well to last a year.

Nertwork connection come in the form of ethernet 10/100/1000 mbps and 802.11n/b/g Wi -Fi. It comes ensuite three USB 2.0 ports but lacks the 3.0 ones. It provides video interfaces VGA and HDMI. Also in the bargain is a Firewire and Express card 34. The glossy display offers a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. Angle viewing of videos is a nice experience but straight viewing is prone to brightness and color wash outs. Outdoor and viewing in direct sunshine is also commendable.

The machine povides a solid battery performance that stops the clock after an impressive 6 hours 30 minutes. It measures 12.9 inches by 8.9 inches by 1.3 inches (length, depth, height respectively). It weighs a maximum of 4.3 pounds when fully ensuite. You will also get in -built microphone and webcam in the deal. Being an energy star compliant is a tick in the box.