Sony Vaio Z48GD

The Sony Z48 GD is a cut above all laptops in most aspects, be it the feature set, style, portability, performance, you name it. Some of the hardware used here has never been seen in any other laptop until now. This laptop primarily targets elite power users with its businesslike looks. Apart from style and power, it scores heavily because of its weight - something that’s crucial as far as ultraportables are concerned. Since it weighs merely 1.39 kg, you won’t even feel it in your bag when you travel. Frequent flyers will rejoice, because this laptop provides the comfort of a standard 13-inch laptop, but weighs only as much as a netbook.

Another striking point of this laptop is its entertainment capabilities. Although the onboard Intel 4500 MHD graphics suffice for mainstream applications, the discrete GeForce 9300 M GS GPU adds significant value and more GPU power. The latter can be activated on-the-fly by simply switching from the Stamina mode to the Speed mode with the physical switch on the unit.__STARTQUOTE__The Z48 GD is a cut above. Some of the hardware used here has never been seen in any other laptop until now.__ENDQUOTE__While most games are playable at a full 1600 x 900 resolution with medium settings, watching movies is a completely enthralling experience. While watching full-HD video clips, the audiovisual experience was not only stutter-free, but jaw-dropping. This is all due to the good built-in speakers, the crisp 13.1-inch LED backlit display and its native resolution of 1600 x 900—it’s sheer eye candy! Further, there’s an HDMI port for connecting the laptop to an HDTV. You’ll enjoy watching movies on the laptop but you can also power a larger screen if the need arises.

The combination of an Intel Core 2 Duo P9700 processor (which features a hefty 6 MB L2 cache), 6 GB of DDR3 RAM and a 256 GB solid state drive (SSD) spells sheer performance. The Z48 even trounces the MacBook Pro when it comes to performance.