Although it’s relatively chunky, the VGN-AR49G still looks sleek when closed, mainly because of the glossy piano-black lid and mirrored edges. These conceal many of the ports such as the Gigabit Ethernet and modem sockets, S-Video in and out, VGA, mini-FireWire and HDMI. Cleverly, the PC Card blanking plate has a mirrored edge, while the ExpressCard/54 slot below it is black, making them less obtrusive.

It’s good to see a full-sized RF aerial input at the rear, but oddly there are only three USB ports. Also, open the lid and you’re greeted by a far less stylish screen and keyboard, with acres of unused matte-black space. Given the space, it’s strange Sony decided not to include a numeric keypad, while locating the keyboard so far back means the front edges cut into your wrists as you type. The only consolation is that the touch pad is at the front, so you never brush it with your palm while typing.

The 17in LCD isn’t as reflective as others, and is exceptionally bright and sharp. It has the same resolution as the Dell – 1920 x 1200 – in order to display Blu-ray movies at their native resolution.

This is possible thanks to a Matshita Blu-ray drive, but it’s this that pushes the AR49G’s price so high and we’d question whether a 17in screen is large enough to reap the benefits of 1080p video.

Also, there are far cheaper options if you want a Blu-ray player, including Sony’s own PlayStation 3. Plus, the battery doesn’t last long enough to watch an entire movie, so that’s no advantage, either.

Two 160GB Seagate hard disks provide copious amounts of storage, although our test unit’s disks weren’t configured in a RAID. But again, the cheaper Dells match this capacity with two 160GB disks. The one-year collect-and-return warranty is also measly by comparison although it is international.

Finally, the Inspiron 1720 equals the AR49G’s core components: a Core 2 Duo T7500, 2GB of RAM and a GeForce 8600M GT. So, although the VAIO is a decent performer, you can have the same for some $2500 less. Overall, it means the Sony is poor value here.