Sony Vaio VPC-SA21GX/BI

Sony VAIO S Series VPC-SA21GX/BI

Sony's Vaio laptops have long been considered the high-end benchmark for Windows laptops, at least in terms of their media-playing excellence, hardware design, and higher-than-average prices. While Vaios have slowly become more affordable over the years, the reputation for stylish, overly expensive products lingers, especially when it comes to ultraportables such as the undeniably impressive but crazily priced Vaio Z. The Vaio S, a redesigned line of 13-inch laptops, has emerged as an inheritor of much of the style of the Vaio Z, but at more reasonable prices. By "reasonable," we mean starting at $899, which certainly falls in a range competitive with Apple. A lot has changed since the chunkier Vaio S laptop we last reviewed. The new 3.5-pound Vaio S is thinner and lighter, certainly more so than the average 4-pound-plus mainstream laptop. It's not as thin and light as a MacBook Air or Samsung Series 9, but it's one of the thinnest laptops that still includes a standard-voltage CPU and an optical drive. Its closest alternative in terms of size and features is the Toshiba Portege R835.