2021 Vaio Z

I had the Vaio Z ten years ago when it had a dedicated graphics chip, a 13" screen and an ultralight weight. I loved it for many years until the fan gave out. Although it still worked at light tasks I gave it away. Paid $2500 for it. Now the Z seems to be coming back and although it does not have a dedicated graphics chip the new Intel Iris Xe Graphics make it an interesting pre-order offering with 18 hour predicted battery life in the i5 CPU version, which I would prefer. I am waiting for some professional reviews of this version and although I will use it mainly for video editing I hope it can do some moderate gaming like Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion. The i7 version is available now but I would never spend more than $2500 on a laptop since I am retired and it is more of a hobby.
https://us.vaio.com/collections/vaio-z

 

8-10 years back the price premium was justified because the technology was unique. Not anymore. Still I think they manage to get top performance relative to the weight. But most of the competition now moves to 16:10 screens, bigger batteries, maybe 2 SSD slots.
Here is a nice review:



But for this price and size I would go for the Asus Flow X13. It reminds me the old VAIO Z with the dedicated docking solution.

Personally now i am used to bigger screens and since I always used to carrying a portable numeric keyboard with my Vaio, now I have everything in a 15inch laptop (LG Gram)

 

From a value perspective, there's probably better choices on the market in my opinion.

 

That's one pricey machine, but quite VAIO-like with all the special design features. I wish a base model was available with 32GB of memory; it looks like the only way to get that is in $4,179 model. That's a lot of cash.

Charles

 

Not sure if this is the same, but in 2007, I had a SONY VAIO SZ (If I really correctly) that had one of the best screens I've ever seen and super quality and a thing and light package. It was double the price of other laptops at the time but was well worth it.

 

Hi there,
My Vaio Z from 2012 is dead, but the Power Media Dock (VGP-PRZ20) is still alive. Is there a way I can use it with another laptop? I've tried connecting it to my Lenovo via a USB-C to USB 3 cable, but no luck.
I'd hate this Blu-ray burner to go to waste.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

They have a $500 off sale on all models/versions now until July 4th. The cheapest i5 version with 500gb HD is now $1889, down from $2389.
The Dell XPS13, the LG Gram and the Asus are under my consideration also.

 

So I bought one on an impulse buy, an i7 512gb version while they still had the $500 off 4th of July sale. Supposed to get it around July 12th. I'll try to keep you guys updated.
@Spartan I still have my 3 year old Aero 15 and it works like new after cleaning and oiling the fans. Great machine! Now it will have a little brother.

 

Arrived today. So far no flaws or malfunctions. Waiting for the dongle to come later today to download software and run it thru the paces. Very impressed with as little as an 8 second boot up time. As far as laptop carbon fiber frame "creaking" is concerned I have not heard it in my unit.

 

Managed to have time to download and set up a 2009 Elder Scrolls 4; Oblivion game, averaging 80 to 90 frames per second. It recognizes and lists the Iris Xe chip, however the HDR setting gives me a black screen so I keep it on Bloom with maximum antialiazing at 8x. Very pleased with the look and frame rates of the game. Resolution is set to 2560x1440.
The Sony Vegas video editing software is another matter. Too many complaints on Amazon about it so I may have to look for something different.
EDIT: Just installed Sony Vegas 14 and it works fine so far.
Mass Effect 3 game looks and runs great at 1600x900 resolution with smooth 60FPS. I would never have guessed an integrated gpu could work so well with gaming.

 

Video editing with Sony Movie Studio Platinum 14.0 is quick and reliable. For experiments sake I installed Star Wars Battlefront II just to see if it would work. It ran very well from 60 to 100 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution and looked great.