If you’re in the market for a modestly proportioned laptop that you can sling in a bag and carry about, then there’s never been so much choice. Last month saw the arrival of three eminently portable units — MSI’s PR200, Toshiba’s svelte Portégé R500 and the slightly chubby Samsung Q70. This month sees a few more manufacturers enter the fray, but flanked by Dell’s slim XPS M1330 and Asus’ luxurious U3S, Sony’s CR21S/W begins to look a mite portly.

Comparing the Sony to either the Dell or the Asus is more than a little unfair, though. For one, they both cost considerably more than the Sony, and secondly, their daintier proportions aren’t that surprising given that the CR21S/W has to squeeze in almost an inch more display than the more compact 13.3 inchers. It’s still no lightweight, tipping the scales at 2.44kg, but its certainly not so heavy that we’d shackle it permanently to a mains socket.

Don’t be misled by its sensible asking price though, the CR21S/W doesn’t look or feel like a budget laptop. As is the current vogue for laptop manufacturers, the Sony comes in a range of different colours and while the first model we saw was finished in a lustrous ‘Blazing Red’, our final review unit was delivered in ‘Pure White’. It looks fantastic too — the silver VAIO logo adorning the lid is complemented by a shiny chrome surround, both of which add more than a dash of style.

Its safe to say that Sony has taken more than a little inspiration from Apple’s desirable range of MacBooks, and the aesthetic homage is taken one step further by the peculiar keyboard. The keys themselves resemble shrunken Scrabble tiles, but while they certainly make for an interesting look, they’re not the most comfortable to use. There’s nothing mechanically wrong with the keys themselves — far from it, they depress with a light, positive feel and there’s no sponginess to speak of — but their small size makes typing feel more than a little odd. We think it’s something we could get used to, but if you can try before you buy we’d recommend you do so.

Thankfully, the trackpad offers no such quirks and the buttons respond with a muffled click. The media playback buttons along the laptop’s front edge are a nice touch too, and are left exposed so that you can skip tracks even when the laptop is closed.

At this price, its unsurprising that the Sony’s 14.1” display isn’t replete with fancy touches, such as LED backlighting, but the bright, crisp images it produces prove its none the worse for it. Equally, the screen’s native resolution of 1280 x 800 may be no greater than that of smaller 12.1” and 13.3” screened laptops, but the larger screen has the advantage of making everything a touch more legible.

Keeping the CR21S/W’s price down has, however, led to a few compromises. Unlike Samsung’s 13.3” Q70 , the Sony has to make do with Intel’s wimpy GMA X3100 graphics, and that means you can cross gaming off the list of the Sony’s abilities. That said, Samsung’s Q70 paid a price for its dedicated nVidia graphics, with its battery life barely reaching the three-and-a-half hour mark — the CR21S/W’s modest graphics chip helped keep it going 80 minutes longer. And given that the nVidia 8400M used in the Samsung is still under-powered by any gamers standards, we’d much rather swap mediocre gaming ability for over an hour of extra battery life. Likewise, there’s no sign of fancier extras such as HDMI or draft-N networking, but its unlikely they’ll be missed.

Sony’s VGN-CR21 is a well-built, good-looking laptop. Its not particularly cheap given the basic graphics chipset and modest specification, but the bright display goes some way towards making amends and as long as you can bear the fairly chunky 2.5kg weight, it’ll make a fine companion.

Specifications

Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (2GHz), 2Gb RAM, Intel GMA X3100, 160Gb hard disk, 14.1” screen (1280 x 800), Expresscard/34 slot, eSATA port, Memory card reader, 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, Windows Vista Home Premium Part code VGNCR11SW Size 335 x 249 x 43mm Weight 2.44kg Battery Life 4h 50 DVD playback 3h 44m Recharge time 3h 12m Warranty 1 year C&R

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