Design
For a incredibly long time, if you wanted a tough notebook, you bought a Panasonic Toughbook. Sure, they cost the earth, weighed about half as much and it looked like you were carrying around a Hummer under your armpit, but they were the gold standard for a tough notebook. That gold standard is still true, but with the introduction of the Vaio G series, it looks like Sony's attacking all of the rest of the Toughbook's places in the robust notebook market, while still retaining one of the core characteristics of the Vaio brand -- that is, notebooks that actually look pretty darned spiffy.
The Vaio VGN-G118GN is an ultraportable notebook in a very small form factor -- just 277mm by 23.5-25.5mm by 215mm and 1.15kg with the battery installed, making it a good pick for business types who travel a lot -- or anyone who doesn't want a whole lot of back strain from lugging around a notebook all day. The Vaio VGN-G118GN also comes with a truly minute power adaptor -- for reference purposes it's about a third the size of the Wiimote, which in notebook terms is practically invisible. The keyboard features laser-etched characters on it; Sony claims this should increase the durability of the notebook, as they're less prone to "wearing out", something that we've seen with plenty of notebooks over the years. We were lacking in review time to sit there for three years rubbing a slightly grubby thumb over the keys to see if Sony's claims were true, so we'll have to take that on faith.
Features
For a system with an enticing design and impressive chassis, we were surprised to discover that the components underneath the Vaio VGN-G118GN's body are best described as average. Your $3,699 investment only scores you a 1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1500 processor and 1GB of memory. That'll run the supplied Windows Vista Business Edition well enough, but not in a spectacular fashion, and for those thinking of adding some grunt, you're also stymied by the Vaio VGN-G118GN's top level of 1.5GB of onboard memory, thanks to a soldered 512MB memory module and a single memory slot to play with. Graphics are provided by the onboard Intel Media Accelerator 950, which will snatch up to 224MB of memory from the memory pool. The display is a 12.1-inch 1024x768 TFT in 4:3 aspect ratio. Networking is handled via a 10/100 Ethernet port, inbuilt 802.11a/b/g and Bluetooth wireless and oddly enough in this day and age, a 56Kbps modem. That's presumably there for the high-flying business type who finds themselves inexplicably stranded in Swan Reach without broadband.
In practical terms, the VGN-G118GN is a notebook for number crunching, not games playing or video editing per se, although Roxio Easy Media Creator is oddly bundled with the Vaio VGN-G118GN. Impressively for a notebook this light and thin, Sony manages to cram in a Supermulti DVD burner on the side, putting it ahead of similar thin and light notebooks such as the Toshiba Portege R400. Security concerns are covered by a biometric fingerprint sensor and TPM module, while physical damage concerns are covered by inbuilt HDD shock protection, something that's becoming very standard across high and even middle-range business notebooks.
Performance
Sony makes a big claim with the Vaio G in terms of its battery life; up to 11.5 hours is the proposed figure, and that's with the battery supplied in the box, not a supplemental model. At the time of writing, however, none of our standard battery benchmarks will operate under Windows Vista of any flavour, so critically assessing battery life in a repeatable fashion is impossible. Certainly, our ad-hoc testing suggests that Sony's not telling too many porkies, as we comfortably got through a working day with the Vaio VGN-G118GN on a relatively light workload, and it would at least make sense of the inclusion of the ultra-low voltage U1500 processor. From a practical work viewpoint, you've got to put up with the classic problem of ultraportables -- the keyboard's not very big, so fast touch typists will struggle for a while.
As with the battery benchmarks, few of our test suite of applications are currently fully Vista-compatible, although we were able to drag a PC Mark CPU score of 2012 and memory score of 2054 out of the Vaio VGN-G118GN, and a 3DMark score of 155. None of those figures are that surprising; the Vaio VGN-G118GN simply isn't a high-end productivity workhorse given the limited processor, graphics and memory options on board. Having said that, it's also targeting a very specific niche; business users who want a stylish portable machine with plenty of battery life.
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Gelzi
04/04/2008, 10:01 PM
rating
9/10
I really love mine!
Go Gelzi!
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Bobg
29/02/2008, 09:48 PM
rating
9/10
Actually works well if you dont want to run anything beyond email and business apps. Get the ram upgrade, it helps a lot.
Pros: Light and excellent battery life and great keyboard
Cons: slow. Poor sony software upgrades
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hideo
07/08/2007, 10:48 PM
rating
10/10
i bought mine the other day (obviously im japanese)..but apparantly if you dont use a japanese operating system (so japanese vista)..it can apparantly act 'more strangerly'..as this computer was only meant to be for japan sales only... however..i have 2 GB ram..and took off any unwanted specs so i took of felica..and finger printer etc...and the speed is just fine..and works very well..but i guess most people only used 1 GB ram apose to 2.
Pros: you can customise this computer ..right to the core lol
..light..feels like plastic !
..tough..
..secure..knowing that your work isnt going to be lost that easily
Cons: not good for gaming..unless you have 2Gb ram..at least
..bit pricy (unless you customize the computer)
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peter2007
19/07/2007, 10:58 PM
rating
5/10
Bought it in Dec 2006. The nb was seemed. Love the battery life.
I finally pass it onto someone else.
The spped is just too slow especially with visat & office 2007. Like a 386 PC.
I tested the G series and other TX series. both under vista. The G series is obviously slower when opens up allication. So becareful when you are looking for lightweight nb. Both these model with same processor and same amt of ram.
It comes with so many unusable sw. when I format the disk and start with a fresh vista, speed improved by at least 40% but you can't get all drivers for sony as easy as for other nb. Sony give no support at all.
Pros: -battery life
-weight
-the recovery manager
-small AC adaptor. good for travel
Cons: -sony website support sux.
-very slow, slow, slow
-insufficient usb port
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Bob G.
16/06/2007, 04:19 PM
rating
8/10
I like mine. The key seems to be to turn off the fancy graphics rubbish in vista. Am trying to find a good readyboost solution, as that may help to fix the 1GB RAM proble. Annoying that Sony charge for the full 1GB if you want to go to 1.5GB rather than giving a credit for the 512 that will get thrown away.
Pros: Battery life really is very good. You can do a full day of work without power. Wireless auto-switching between networks is smoot and seamless, much better than IBMs alternative. The touchpad functionality is kinda cool too.
Cons: Machine is slow. Keyboard takes a while to get used to, but once you do it works well.
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peter b
14/06/2007, 10:43 AM
rating
3/10
I was seriously considering this notebook. I was tired of carrying around my current one. I had the chance to use one for a day.
Pros: Looks good fits in a womens handbag long battery life light.
Cons: So slow. Its essentially unusable for me. this had Vista business and office as the only apps loaded. switching users took forever. loading apps took forever. If you want a fashion accessory its fine but if you want any work done look elsewhere.
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daft
27/04/2007, 03:30 PM
rating
9/10
Seems that the user comments come from people who don't actually have this notebook. It's light and stylish. I love mine!
Pros: Great accessories... the leather protector is very nice. Great keyboard and screen. Exceptional battery life. Inbuilt sony software actually works
Shock! Useful button for external monitors/projectors. Useful SD/Magicgate slots for readyboost.
Cons: The processor is fine but I feel it needs 2G ram. It's slow with all of Vista's graphics features (but fine when some of them are turned off). No inbuilt microphone. Microphone/headphone ports are in an annoying location on the front. Location of the horizontal usb port makes it difficult to fit Telstra NextG USB modem and have power on. Battery feels loose. Sony web update slow.
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sukhijatt
19/04/2007, 03:38 AM
rating
2/10
Other than the Sony brand name nothing much useful. Looks very good and sleep like the TX and UX models, but sony needs to keep up with Dell and now tha HP has come up with 12.1" tablet sweeping the market.
Dell M1210 you can have 4gb memory with this price, plus better support.
Pros: tough outer structure.
Cons: 1.Price
2.Slow Processor: you cannot ask for duo core 2.33 in that
3.HDD: there is no 7200rpm hd that sony provides
4.Memory: sony only provides 533Mhz Ram where as 667 should be the standard now. Even with this much price you are not allowed to add the pricu components to it.
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Love it
19/03/2007, 10:34 AM
rating
10/10
$3,699 seems very reasonable for a unit that is so unique! No other laptop our there compares in battery life, weight and toughness. Pretty amazing
Pros: Battery life
Weight
Tough carbon fibre
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G118
16/03/2007, 09:13 AM
rating
10/10
Something that hs sufficient screen size and great portability
Pros: Light and long bettery life
Cons: quite pricey
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