Sony's VAIO A series is the king of cool. Sitting in the middle of the company's range of multimedia laptops, the VAIO VGN-A217M is a visually attractive system that will suit graphics professionals thanks to its two-tone grey magnesium-alloy enclosure and large 17in. widescreen display. Based on Intel's Pentium M processor and both built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the VAIO VGN-A217M includes most features a causal multimedia user requires, but will also help to make a professional statement about yourself and your company. Unfortunately, the system is a little slow, its battery life is below par, and it comes with just 64MB of video RAM as standard. In addition, you'll likely want to spend a little more to a get a higher resolution screen. If value and performance are critical, there are faster and better value systems. Having said that, Sony's X-black display is in a league of its own.

Pros: Stylish and robust; good widescreen display; DVD+R DL recorder
Cons: Middling performance; no legacy ports; expensive


The VAIO VGN-A217M (Best Current Price: £1460) is a stylish system. However, it main attractions are a 17in. widescreen X-black display (15.4in. screen also available) and double-layer DVD+R DL drive. An optional S-Master AV Docking Station further transforms the machine into a true multimedia entertainment system with capabilities normally associated with desktop machines, including a TV tuner, MPEG encoder, digital video noise reducer, audio amplifier and 10-Watt stereo speakers.

Based on Intel's Centrino platform, the VAIO VGN-A217M also incorporates Wi-Fi, to which Sony has added Bluetooth support, along with a matching wireless mouse. It's also the first system we've reviewed that ships as standard with Windows XP Home Edition SP2. Wrapped in a two-tone grey magnesium-alloy enclosure (406x280x45.2mm, 3.9kg), the VAIO VGN-A217M looks every bit the part it so emphatically promises to be.

For instance, the chassis is solid and robust, the screen is well protected (from the back), and the silver touchpad and mouse buttons are subtle but practical. The 87-key keyboard also offers plenty of room and the 19mm keys offer a reassuring response. You also get separate Home, End, PgUp, PgDn and cursor keys, which eliminates time-consuming key combinations. One slight irritation is that the touchpad is slightly off-centre to the left of the keyboard, which gives a slightly off-balance feeling.

VAIO VGN-A217M models with a 15.4in. screen use ATI's ageing Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics chip, while the 17in. model reviewed here uses the company's more powerful Mobility Radeon 9700 GPU. All systems have just 64MB of dedicated video RAM, which won't appeal to gamers or high-end image editors. In fact, adding just 64MB of VRAM as standard is a disappointing cost-cutting measure considering the screen is capable of running at a native resolution of 1440x900 pixels and most customers of this type of system will want to run video- and image-editing applications as well as 3D games.

The VAIO VGN-A217M is also powered by a low-end 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M 725 processor with Centrino technology, 512MB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM (upgradable to just 1GB), an 80GB Hitachi Travelstar hard disk (4200rpm) and a double-layer DVD+R DL recorder. But the real star of the show is the system's 17in. widescreen display, which is capable of displaying ultra-crisp and bright images up to a native resolution of 1440x900 pixels. Although the screen is excellent, there is the option to purchase the system with a more impressive WUXGA screen (1920x1200 pixels), which should appeal more to graphics professionals. If you want a higher resolution screen, you'll have to opt for the more expensive VAIO VGN-A217S (£1485 ex. VAT).

Similar to many other premium VAIO laptops, the screen uses Sony's exceptional X-black TFT technology which offers super-bright and high contrast viewing characteristics that are ideal for graphics work, gaming and watching DVD-Movies. Unlike most other TFT screens, blacks look dark and rich, rather than the washed-out grey we're all used to. The added benefit of a large resolution is that it creates a larger workspace area so you can display two application windows or Web browsers side by side. A high resolution screen also means you have to scroll less.

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