Sony VAIO Z 2011 review

We see a great number of laptops come and undergo the seasons, but a uncommon couple of have constructed up anything of a following. Make no mistake: the Sony VAIO Z, a skinny ultraportable brimming with cutting-edge technologies and effective innards, is the fact that sort of gem. So when it disappeared from Sony's on the internet retailer earlier this year, much more than some techies took note. Right after all, the Z is a part of a smaller fraternity of notebooks that combine an impossibly lightweight design and style with overall performance worthy of a bigger method. Folks who missed out around the last-gen Z wondered when they'd following get the opportunity to purchase, whilst some lucky people available with 1000's to burn began itching for one thing thinner, one thing lighter, anything... far better.

Nicely, it is right here. The 2011 VAIO Z is, certainly, thinner, lighter, and much more potent. It also may not be the Z you had been expecting. Whereas the final generation combined it all, cramming in an optical drive and switchable graphics, this year's model leaves a great deal of that with the door -- or, no less than, in an external dock that ships with all the laptop. This time close to, the Z has no optical drive, and packs just an integrated Intel graphics card on board. (Do not be concerned, it does squeeze in a lot of other goodies, which includes standard-voltage Sandy Bridge processors and expanded solid-state storage.) If you would like that Blu-ray burner or the stock AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics card, you are going to must plug in to the Energy Media Dock, an external peripheral that employs Intel's Light Peak technological innovation.

That is fairly the gamble Sony is taking -- soon after all, the organization is basically betting that you simply will not should do something as well intensive though you happen to be around the go. Around the 1 hand, this inventive style is confident to intrigue the Z's normal early adopter fanbase. But will it satisfy people who constantly liked the Z due to its no-compromise layout? And after that there is the concern of that $1,969 beginning cost, a probably stumbling block for men and women attempting to choose among this and an equally thin, much less high priced ultraportable. What is a well-heeled geek to complete? Let's locate out.

The final time we reviewed the VAIO Z, we did not possess a complete great deal to say concerning the style -- immediately after all, the business did not muck about considerably using the Z that came in advance of that. This time close to, the Z got a facelift and also a touch of liposuction -- a makeover that is left it half a pound lighter and also a complete great deal flatter. As we talked about, Sony gutted the Z to ensure that it no longer homes an optical drive or dual graphics cards. As a consequence of that, it had been capable to knock the weight down to an absurdly light two.57 pounds (1.2kg) and whittle the thickness from a single inch (25.4mm) to just six tenths of an inch (15.24mm). And when we say 0.six inches, we imply at its thinnest and thickest point. That is proper, this can be a pancake-flat laptop the complete way as a result of -- a departure from the deceptive wedge form you will see on scads of other laptops. The outcome is 1 unbelievably light notebook -- the lightest 13-incher using a normal voltage processor, to become precise. It feels even much less dense than some netbooks we've tested, and it tends to make Lenovo's three.7-pound (1.7kg) ThinkPad X1, for a single, appear unwieldy by comparison. And yes, for all those of you who have been pondering, it is also lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air, which weighs in at two.96 pounds (1.3kg).