Let’s start by getting the price of this state-of-the-art laptop out of way, because S$3,999 is certainly not everyone’s idea of how much a good laptop should cost.

No, not even with the full works – a Core i7 chip, 8GB RAM, a 256GB solid state drive – encased in an incredibly thin and light frame weighing just 1.165kg, plus a separate desktop dock that contains a Blu-ray drive and a handy AMD 6650M graphics card.

Considering how laptops are costing less by the day, I’m not sure how many of the new Vaio Z – which costs twice as much as many albeit lower-powered rivals – will get sold here in Singapore.

But what makes this Sony machine so impressive is that it might just herald a new generation of devices. While the previous Vaio Z was a well-built, fast machine for the business user, the new incarnation is a whole new class of device altogether, in that it is both a PC on the go and on the desk. …

Shopping for a professional thin and light laptop in Singapore? There are a few deals worth checking out at the IT Show bazaar happening now at Suntec City.

Most interesting are a number of new models sporting Intel’s new energy-efficient and faster Sandybridge technology unveiled in the past couple of months. Also worth checking out are slightly older Core i5 and Core i7 models that are now going at attractive prices to make way for the newer designs. …

What would a bunch of geeks want to see during Christmas? World peace, we’d say. No, add to that, justice for all, happiness in unlimited supply.

But more realistically, we’d just like a great tech gadget or two in a dreamy, money-no-object world where we can have any gizmo in the world. So, all we want for Christmas is… …

Are we in the worst recession since the 1930s? Doesn’t seem like it when you see the long lines of people waiting to sign up for a StarHub line or those snapping up LCD TVs like there was no tomorrow at the IT Show.

When I turned up at around noon, the Suntec area was was already a nightmare to drive around. Was going to give up after being stuck in my car, when I finally managed to enter Marina Square from the back (near Ritz Carlton), and guess what, there were dozens of empty carpark lots. Amazing how the security folks just happily block off all the carparks in the area and list them as “full”.

Anyway, I walked around and found some bargains – not downright dirt cheap, but somewhat tempting, especially if you are in the market for some of these gadgets. …