community

Sony Vaio-series are often more attractive for the design and the cheapest model in the series in our test is even a bit more expensive then the rest. The silvergrey and soft rounded VGN-NR21S has a neat patterned surface - the question is how it looks like after a year of dragging in a dirty bag?  The bottom is traditionally dark grey and the display of 15.4 inches is quite all right. Contrast and the blackness is average and the brightness could be better.
The black keyboard is typical of Vaio and is a little too rigidly for our taste.The mouse buttons are nicely distinct and not unnecessarily cumbersome.

With a large hard drive and good basic characteristics of the computer itself with a real Core 2 Duo processor, which despite its low Clock Speed gives a good performance. We find neither Bluetooth or a built-in webcam but includes Windows Vista Home Premium in the price.

Short costing
A unique detail in the test is the graphic card ia Nvidia Gefoce 8400M, which provides quite well-behaved gaming in simpler modern games such as World of Warcraft. Benchmarks in 3d Mark is around four times better than the rest of test laptops and this can justify the slightly higher price tag. As it is a Sony it has a slot for Memorystick, and a firewire port which lacks power supply. It is wireless network capable of draft-n which is unusual in this test.

VGN-NR21S is simply a competent computer and easy to like. The lack of Bluetooth and the high power consumption, together with a slightly higher price tag is the only real drawbacks. Yet a good buy if you are ready to live on macaroni and ketchup an extra week or two.

Souce: IDG