The Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21M is built around the Santa Rosa platform, using the mobile version of Intel’s 965 chipset. A Core 2 Duo T7250 running at 2 GHz on an 800MHz FSB supplies sufficient processing power. Thanks to Speedstep technology, the CPU’s two cores can run as low as 1.2 GHz when idle.

We noticed a few quirks, however. For one thing, Speedstep rarely seemed to be able to really drop the CPU frequency quite that low when the laptop was attached to the wall socket, instead hovering at 1.6 GHz. Conversely, when the VAIO was running off of its battery, the CPU never ran faster than 1.2 GHz, even under a full load such as Prime95. While this is still easily sufficient for office work, it does seem strange that Sony would hamstring the FZ21M.

Happily, Sony made some smart design choices elsewhere that can compensate for this lack of processing power in some ways. For example, the VAIO comes with 2 GB of RAM – a sensible decision, as anything less is really not enough to run Vista smoothly, in our opinion. Also, instead of using an integrated graphics chip, Sony opted for a dedicated Nvidia Geforce 8400 GT graphics chip with 256 MB of video RAM. For one thing, this allows the FZ21M to play a few games, as long as they aren’t to graphically intense, as borne out in then 3DMark 2006 score of 2492. For another, the Nvidia chip also offers HD video decoding functionality (PureHD), unburdening the processor immensely. Indeed, paired with WinDVD BD, which ships with this laptop, CPU load never exceeded 20% when playing back a Blu-ray title. Playback was also smooth, regardless of whether the VAIO was operating from battery power or hooked up to the wall socket. If you’d like a reference point for the performance of the GeForce 8400 GT, feel free to check out our VGA charts.

Connectivity is also good. The right side of the unit houses the microphone and headphone connectors, two USB 2.0 ports and the Blu-ray drive. On the back we find the network and modem jacks. Again, Sony made a questionable decision, as the NIC is only a 10/100 Mbit chip. 1000 Mbit is becoming the norm today, even in laptops. The left side features the HDMI, VGA, S-Video and Firewire ports as well as a third USB 2.0 connector and an Express card 34 slot. The front is comparatively bare, featuring only the card reader (Memory Stick™ Std / Duo, Memory Stick™ PRO Std / Duo) as well as the sliding switch to turn on the wireless devices. These include WiFi (a/b/g/draft n) as well as Bluetooth (2.0 + EDR).

As we said, the variety of connectivity options is very good. Still, we would have liked to see more USB ports, since three is a little on the low side. Attach a mouse, a thumb drive and one other device, and you’re already out of ports. Also, all of the connectors are on the sides. While this makes them easily accessible, it also clutters your workspace. Putting an extra one or two USB ports on the back would have been a good decision, in our opinion.

The VAIO VGN-FZ21M does not ship with any other equipment. Indeed, there isn’t even a recovery CD. Instead, Sony offers it’s own system restoration utility, which resides in a hidden partition on the hard drive that takes up about 25 GB. Thus, completely reformatting the drive would be a bad move. Luckily, Sony also provides a utility for creating system restore CDs.

Since Sony is basically the inventor of the Blu-ray disc, it has a vested interest in the format’s success. To offer some incentive to the buyer, the company is including a voucher for a free Blu-ray disc of Spider Man III. All you have to do is register your laptop online with Sony.