Sony VAIO FW Series VGN-FW21Z - Core 2 Duo T9400 / 2.53 GHz - Centrino 2 - RAM 4 GB - HDD 500 GB - BD-RE - Mobility Radeon HD 3650 - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft), Bluetooth 2.1 EDR - Vista Home Premium - 16.4" Widescreen TFT 1920 x 1080 ( WXGA++ ) X-black - camera - silver

First off, a correction to the product spec as advertised here: the VGN-FW21Z has a 1920x1080 resolution display.

I bought this laptop after a LOT of deliberation, finally won over by the high resolution of the display which is necessary for my work.

The case is plastic and magnesium alloy which gives an interesting feel. It has sleek curves (apart from the raised speaker/vent area) and looks fantastic after you've removed the numerous feature stickers from it! The screen surround is very simple (flat) and not too wide (8mm sides, 16mm top to accommodate the webcam). It is sprung so that it snaps closed but there is no catch. The mouse panel is large and comfortable to use although the surface flush mouse buttons are easy to lose with your eyes on the screen.

The lid/screen is hinged so that it drops back and down, meaning that there are no ports on the back of the laptop. The power cable sticks out of the left and the media card reader and sound jacks are along the front. The worst aspect of this is that the only 3 USB slots are on the right side, at the front. This is especially annoying if you are a right-handed mouse user. I invested in left-angled (I dislike that term but that's how they're marketed) USB cables. Unfortunately they now clash with each other, and with the Blu-ray disc tray!

The media card readers support MagicGate and SD cards which is enough for most cases and better than my old VAIO.

The keyboard is surpisingly comfortable to use. The keys appear quite widely spaced but the gaps make finding the right key somehow easier, and also help a bit when typing in low-light. Keyboard arrangement (UK) is good, although it is completely flat. I prefer white keyboards for low-light typing and it seems that this model is available with a white keyboard in the US. I haven't seen one in the UK though.

There are just enough (8) media keys to be useful without looking gimmicky. All media software seems to support these so listening to music while you work is completely unobtrusive.

Performance hasn't let me down yet but that's very subjective. As a point of reference, Vista's "Windows Experience Index" is 5.0 with the lowest score being for the primary hard disk (I believe it's a lowly 4200rpm) and it's highest score of 5.9 for Graphics (5.1 for Gaming Graphics).

The screen looks gorgeous with the brightness up (and it really is very bright with it's double lamp) but the colours can look too subdued at low brightness, especially white. The 16:9 aspect ratio is perfect for watching movies and work great if you drag your taskbar to one side instead of being stretched along the bottom.

The pre-installed software covers most things but probably won't be to your taste. There is no Vista install disk, or any recovery disks for that matter. The repair data is stored in a hidden partition and will reinstate all of the pre-loaded software. If there's anything you don't like then you'll have to take it off. Without a Vista disk I have been unable to try a "clean" install.

In-built speakers deliver a listenable volume at full output, but not really a listenable quality. Typically for laptop speakers there is no bass. It only becomes an issue if you wish to plug in desktop speakers as the headphone socket is on the front of the laptop. That is quite convenient when listening on headphones but is more annoying when using external speakers.

The dedicated 512Mb graphics adapter copes with circa 2007 3D games very well (with some features such as shadows turned down/off). I haven't got any really modern games to try on it so I don't know how well it runs Far Cry 2. :-(

The battery lasts a couple of hours if performance is trimmed and the screen brightness is kept low. This is quite a wide laptop though so you probably won't be using it on the train. I don't think you'd get to the end of a Blu-ray movie on battery power.

There is an HDMI output which is crucial for good TV viewing of Blu-ray movies. I have had an issue whereby there is a slight jerk each second. I think this is related to frame-rates and it seems to affect both on-screen and external viewing. Maybe I could fix this with a bit of tweaking.

All in all I am extremely happy with this laptop. It looks stunning, performance is good, it plays games, the screen is amazing. I could have got comparable performance for a much lower price but your choices are severely limited if you want a high resolution screen.

If you can bear to part with the cash and are looking for a laptop that is as stylish as it is powerful, then this could well make you a happy chap. However, be prepared to become obsessed about dusting the case and wiping off finger smears. It looks so good you will care about keeping it that way.