Sony VAIO TXN17P/B - Laptop

The good: Great battery life; built-in mobile broadband antenna; typically impressive Sony industrial design; LED-backlit display provides bright screen and aids battery life; compact and light; still includes optical drive.

The bad: Slow Core Solo processor; small and slow hard drive; expensive warranty extensions.

The bottom line: Sony adds Windows Vista to its ultraportable VAIO TXN17, which doesn't change much otherwise from its XP-based precursor. With a gorgeous design, excellent battery life, and wireless broadband, it remains one of the best ultraportables on the market for business travelers.

Price range: $1,683.95

After the first wave of laptops specifically designed for Windows Vista, such as the HP Pavilion tx1000 and the Toshiba Portege R400, major PC vendors are releasing updated versions of workhorse systems, nearly identical to previous iterations with the exception of Windows Vista. Sony has added Windows Vista Business Edition to its popular mobile-broadband-enabled ultraportable model, the VAIO TXN17 P/T. For $2,699, you get one of the smallest ultraportable systems that comes with an optical drive on the market, although the Intel Core Solo processor is going to be a step down for anyone used to dual-core computing. Expensive but attractive is the VAIO mantra, and fashion-conscious titans of industry will like this high-end conversation piece, as will anyone who needs Sprint-powered mobile broadband in the smallest possible package.

Measuring 10.8 inches wide, 8 inches deep, and 1.2 inches high, the TXN17 is among the smallest ultraportables we've seen. It's tiny enough to carry around without much hassle, but the small screen and the cramped keyboard will be uncomfortable for extended use. The Sony VAIO TXN17 weighs 2.9 pounds (3.6 pounds with the AC adapter), which is extremely light when you consider the system has a built-in optical drive, something many smaller laptops omit to save on weight and bulk. The Asus S6F features a similar footprint and an optical drive but is noticeably thicker.

The tradeoff with using an ultraportable laptop is the miniaturized keyboard, and the VAIO TXN17 is no exception. The flat-topped keys are an acquired taste, similar to those on a MacBook, and those without nimble fingers will find themselves hitting the backspace key often. The touch pad, by comparison, is plenty ample for every day use, and the media control buttons built into the hinge are accessible, even when the lid is closed.

The 11.1-inch screen has a native resolution of 1,366x768, which translates into small text and images when Web surfing, but not more so than other ultraportable systems. The display is nice and bright, thanks to new LED backlight technology, and displays video and image files nicely.

You'll find fewer ports on the Sony VAIO TXN17 than on larger laptop. The compact size leaves room for two USB 2.0 ports, a four-pin FireWire jack, VGA output, SD card and Memory Stick readers, and headphone and mic jacks. There's also a Type II PC Card slot, but no room for ExpressCards. Like last year's TXN15 model, this system offers a complete set of connectivity features: LAN, modem, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Sprint WWAN. The only caveat is that the laptop's rather large cellular antenna is attached, via rotating hinge, to the side of the system.

With only a 1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400 processor, you're not going to get a lot of horsepower from the TXN17. It does improve on the TXN15's specs by adding a second gigabyte of RAM, which is highly recommended for Vista use. Rounding out the basic, nonconfigurable specs are an 80GB hard drive, running at 4,200rpm, and integrated Intel Mobile Express 945GM graphics--the bare minimum graphics muscle you'll need for Vista.

Taking its single-core processor into account, we were impressed with the VAIO's performance. Compared to the Windows-XP-powered TXN15, the Vista-powered TXN17 scored significantly better in our Microsoft Office productivity test, while matching the earlier system's performance on the iTunes encoding and Photoshop CS2 tests. The Fujitsu LifeBook P1610 shares the same Core Solo U1400 CPU but only half the RAM yet offered similar performance. The extra RAM, which would usually boost a system's scores, is seemingly consumed by Vista's increased overhead.

The Sony VAIO TXN17's biggest plus is its battery life. In our battery-drain test, we got 4 hours and 54 minutes from the system--making this one of the longest-lasting laptops we've seen. When we tested the previous model, the TXN15, last year, we got around 9 hours of battery life from it, but that was with an older, less taxing test. The included battery does stick out slightly from the back of the system, but it's a fair trade-off for the extended running time. Working on tasks less battery intensive than playing a DVD will yield even more uptime, making this a great system for long plane trips or all-day on-the-road use.

Sony backs the VAIO VGN-TXN15P/W with a one-year warranty--the industry standard for consumer laptops, but not the lengthy three years most businesses demand. After the warranty expires, support calls cost $20 per incident. Warranty upgrades are expensive: $200 to extend the warranty to three years and $250 for three years of onsite service. The company's Web site provides a thorough knowledge base, and you have the option of e-mailing Sony technicians for support.

Lenovo ThinkPad X60s - Laptop

The good: Extremely portable design; excellent keyboard; fingerprint reader; integrated WWAN radio; great performance; incredibly long battery life when configured with high-capacity battery.

The bad: More expensive than comparable models; lacks built-in optical drive; lacks built-in support for ExpressCards.

The bottom line: The first ultraportable to accommodate Intel's Core Duo processor, the ThinkPad X60s combines blazing performance and incredible battery life with a full feature set and a compact case. We like it.

Price range: $1,215.00

The latest model in the ThinkPad X series, the ultraportable X60s is almost imperceptibly lighter and thinner than its predecessor, the ThinkPad X41. Though the X60s improves upon the previous generation by adding a few more features, including built-in WWAN connectivity and the latest Intel Core Duo processors, it still lacks the built-in optical drive found in smaller, lighter competitors, such as the Sony VAIO VGN-TX670P and the Fujitsu LifeBook P7120. And yet the ThinkPad X60s is as costly as the Sony and more expensive than the Fujitsu--our loaded test configuration cost $2,299. Still, the ThinkPad's keyboard is larger than those laptops', making it the better choice if comfortable typing is more valuable to you than viewing CDs and DVDs. In general, if you can do without a built-in optical drive, we think the ThinkPad X60s delivers a best-in-class balance of comfort, performance, battery life, and portability.

Measuring 10.5 inches wide, 8.3 inches deep, and 0.8 inch thick at the front (1.1 inches thick at the back), the ThinkPad X60s is nearly identical to its predecessor, the ThinkPad X41. The base X60s configuration weighs a spritely 2.7 pounds, though our test unit, which included an extended battery, weighed 3.5 pounds (the extended battery also adds 1 inch of depth and 0.4 inch of thickness at the back). The laptop's diminutive AC adapter adds 0.7 pound to its total weight. The VAIO VGN-TX670 and the LifeBook P7120 are smaller and lighter and yet manage to incorporate an optical drive, though they also have smaller displays.

The ThinkPad X60s's 12.1-inch display has a 1,024x768 native resolution that provides just enough screen real estate for basic business tasks and Web surfing; the Fujitsu's and Sony's smaller displays have slightly finer resolutions. Though most ultraportables sacrifice key size to fit a smaller case, the X60s's keys are large and very comfortable for extended typing. Our only complaint is that the right-side Alt and Ctrl keys are a bit narrow--annoying if you're accustomed to using shortcuts. As with all ThinkPads, the X60s includes a red TrackPoint pointing stick; beneath the keyboard are three mouse buttons (the center acts as a scroll button) and a fingerprint reader for security. Otherwise, you get just volume controls and a long, blue ThinkVantage button that launches system maintenance, connectivity, and other utilities. Tucked into the lid is a nifty light that illuminates the keyboard in dim environments.

Business travelers will find all the ports they need on the ThinkPad X60s: VGA, four-pin FireWire, and three USB 2.0 ports, as well as headphone and microphone jacks. The laptop also includes slots for Type II PC Cards and Secure Digital cards, though ExpressCards require an adapter (not included). Aside from the aforementioned missing optical drive, the ThinkPad X60s's connections match up well with those of both the VAIO VGN-TX670P and the LifeBook P7120. Our review model included the X6 Ultrabase docking station ($160 if you buy it as an option), which features a DVD/CD-RW drive in addition to a number of other ports and connections.

Like the Sony VAIO VGN-TX670P, the ThinkPad X60s offers the maximum degree of connectivity, with modem, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, and an integrated cellular radio (on select models, including our review unit) that connects to Verizon's EV-DO data network. Though data plans are still expensive and throughput speeds are occasionally slow, this is a great feature for workers who need to stay connected at all costs.

Priced at $2,299, our ThinkPad X60s review unit featured a solid collection of the latest components, including an Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz processor; 512MB of fast 667MHz RAM; a midsize 80GB, 5,400rpm hard drive; and integrated Intel graphics. Based on its performance on CNET Labs' mobile benchmarks, the ThinkPad X series realizes some significant performance gains with its Intel Core Duo processor. Its MobileMark score was 28 percent higher than the Pentium M-based Fujitsu LifeBook P7120's and 32 percent higher than the Sony VAIO VGN-TX670P's; the X60s also bested its predecessor, the 1.5GHz Pentium M-based ThinkPad X41, by 28 percent. Those speed gains are enough to notice with average use and will be particularly useful for multitasking. The X60s's 8-hour, 16-minute battery life is the longest we've ever seen--very impressive, though not quite surprising, given that our review unit's price included an 8-cell high-capacity battery. The battery costs $143 if you buy it as an option, and we think it's worth it.

Like other ThinkPads, the X60s is backed by either a one-year or a three-year warranty, depending on the configuration you buy, and reasonably priced upgrades are available. Lenovo's support Web site includes a handful of troubleshooting topics, as well as the expected driver downloads; the site lacks interactive features such as customer forums or the chance to chat in real time with a technician.