My opinion of Sony Vaio VPCZ11 after using everyday for 6 months

Reasons I bought this notebook:

good screen (1600x900)
6GB RAM
TPM security
2 SSD in RAID config
Thin and light
Could buy in the local Sony store the same day
Win 7 pro came with WinXP downgrade

Primary use:

Day trading stocks with a Samsung monitor attached via HDMI.

My thoughts:

Stored laptop in Vaio bag that came free with notebook. Bag fell off table onto a tiled floor from a height of 1M. Landed on rear corner.
Damage: case bent and battery not fitting flush. I consider the damage excessive for the drop and a non-metal body would of absorbed the shock better. Luckily the laptop came with one years insurance. Have not sent for repair yet.
Never used the WindowsXP downgrade as it's only 32bit. Why not package the 64bit version of XP for a notebook with 6GB RAM, Sony?

Notebook performance:

I generally take data at a very modest rate through Wi-Fi or a 3G USB dongle.
The data is processed by my Java Trading software. I also have an app that processes maths intensive calculations based on the same data.

Main running processes with RAM footprint and typical CPU usage:

Java app 1 = 1GB ram / 20% CPU
Java app 2 = 300MB ram / 10% CPU
maths app = 200MB ram / 15% CPU
Firefox v3.6.x = 200MB ram / 5% CPU

CPU usage average: 50 - 80%
Total physical RAM in use: 50%

This pretty much is all the system can cope with.
The Core i5-540M seems to get thermally limited very easily.
My fan is loud and does not stop during regular trading hours.

Would I buy a Vaio laptop again?

No. They have told me repair will take up to 6 weeks. This is in Bangkok for a simple casing swap with the part shipping from the Singapore center.

What I don't like about this laptop:

Can't change the SSD without hacking the BIOS.

Hacking BIOS easy with tools on net - Forget about any TPM peace of mind!

Sony disabled screen rotation in their Nvidia Drivers.

Damaged very easily.

Cannot use all of the CPU because of thermal design problems.

]Sony bloatware is excessive and it's not easy to understand what packages do what.

I bought a notebook that is sold with a Pro version of the windows O/S and is then marketed like a business machine with TPM encryption. But! it comes installed with masses of Sony media tools that would drive me nuts had I not removed them.

Sony repair takes too long. Should the premium product come with premium support? Sony think not buy Lenovo and HP think yes... So I know who'll get my business next time.


Thanks Sony!

 

wow.. I do not share a single of those points with you.

 

I'm surprised that you seem to base most of your opinions around the damage you caused when you dropped the laptop.

 

It's glaring damage... if my laptop's screen popped out a bit, I'd notice it everyday.

 

I totally disagree, especially on the performance. i5 and i7 are close in performance, I have the i7 and this thing is fast. Even when doing heavy video editing, multi-tasking and Blu-ray I can't seem to push it to its limit.

Also why blame it for something YOU did.
Drop any laptop, be it metal or plastic at some odd angle and the chances are high there will be serious damages.

Also even on stamina it's fast enough and the fan is VERY quiet. In performance it comes on depending on the settings you chose.

I spend a lot of money on this and would and will do it all over again.
Let someone turn you upside down on your head and drop you from 1 meter to see if won't cause any damages.
I think you have unrealistic expectations.

 

Only thing that makes sense in your review is the repair time, 6 weeks seems like a long time- but they could just be saying that to save their asses. But, that does seem like a long time. If you have fan issues that would be an issue too, but a rare one. You can tell this thing cools very, very well, and my fan is not noticeable.

Metal casing has its downfalls, but it has many upsides as well. You chose the metal casing you are now blaming for being unable to take the impact, the impact you caused (hurts, but true).

SSDs you should have known about prior to purchase if you had done your homework.

 

You don't need to hack the bios to swap ssd's. Not sure where you are getting that info from.

 

The thermal capabilities of the VPC-Z are EXCELLENT. And here's me who thought the VGN-Z did a good job expelling heat from the insides. The VGN-Z and their T9k CPU variants had thermal limitations. There are NO such issues on the VPC-Z that I'm aware of myself (I guess Turbo-Boost is a 'limitation' but that's been designed that way, and it reaches top speeds and stays there unlike the VGN-Z and their T series processors).

The one thing I can give Sony engineers complements for is their horrendously complicated, yet EXCELLENT engineering / design of their heat dissipation unit. Fan's bigger, heat-pipes are coiled in a rather clever / strategic manner etc etc. You don't expect that on other brands.

And besides, the Z (VGN and VPC) is a high-end machine. I understand accidents can happen, but high-end machines DO demand higher-than-average care...

 

I agree with JVRR...the only real issue here is the time required to fix the unit.

Regarding the damage from the fall, it doesn't seem out of line with what I've seen on other systems. A couple of months ago, I dropped a Dell Latitude from a distance of about 1 meter onto a tile floor at a hotel: bent the case, cracked the battery and it took some work to get it to boot. Big deal.

At some level, I would even argue that you bought the wrong computer for your intended application; and that you would have been much better off with a high-end desktop or even a workstation.

Like you, I do some trading (swing trading, actually) and do lots of numerical analysis when building my trading models. I have a Z, but only use it for travel and as my backup system...I use an i7-based Dell desktop for most of my work.

 

Get a Toughbook 19 next time, the ones at my job can take a 1M drop no problems, of course it will cost you over 5,000 USD and weigh 50 pounds.

If you can afford it get another notebook and send your Z in for repairs, be a notebook hoard like me (^_^).

 

I can't see how to change the fan settings, not that I'd want to, for the risk of overheating.

 

I'm under the impression that should my SSD fail; I cannot simply drop in a Ocz Vertex -restore from DVD backup -and then re-activate windows.

Are you saying I could?
And can anyone confirm this please.... It would be nice to know this is correct.

 

Has anyone not seen the promo flash clip on the Sony site where the Z series is getting dropped from a height of 2M onto a hard surface, repeatably, without damage.

I'm sure this will annoy all the Sony fan-boys....

Take it from me: This is not the "strong notebook" that Sony's marketing depicts.

In fact; From my experience, its a laptop that sustained damage very easily.

Also:
The notebook was in the carry bag!

(for those that would reply "It's not marketed as a shock-proof laptop"; I'd refer you to the clip on the Sony website where the laptop is getting dropped onto the hard surface.)

 

re: FAN

With the CPU usage fluctuating between 10% to 40%, my fan on turbo.

I'll mention it to Sony when I take it in for repair.

 

I think you have unrealistic expectations.

 

The Z is full of high end state of the art technology in the most lightweight package you can find on the market nowadays. People talking about dropping it and it doesn't stand that make me sick. Why in hell would you expect ANY laptop to stand drops to the hard ground?

If I dropped my beloved Z, I would be mourning for days and I would kick myself in the for that.

YouTube - My LAPTOP fell out a WIndow!!!

 

Agreed. I treat all my laptops with care but my Z gets even more love because it cost so much and is so thin and light. I don't even like to think about dropping it but, like you, I would hate myself if I did.

 

I think its not reasonable to expect it to work, if it falls off a table, though I have had a lot of friends who have dropped their macbook pros like crazy - the aluminium housing, because its one solid unibody shell protects it very well. A friend dropped his MBP13 from 1,5 meters on bathroom floor(solid bricks, very very hard surface) only a cosmetic fling.. screen, everything else was fine. it fell on the left side at 15 degrees angel...

But Macs are usually much more solid and durable computers. but then again, a MBP 13 also weigh MUCH more than a comparable Vaio Z. But if I had to choose between lightweight and slimness vs durability and weight, I would get durability.


small footprint and good battery are the only things I think that really matters to be ultraportable.

 

Macs durable? Not. I know that from repeated personal experience. That's just the Apple propaganda messing with you.

As for whether a Z will work being dropped from table height. I've done so twice. Both times without a case. Once on to carpet. No harm done at all. Once onto tile. There's a little scuff. It still works fine. That's why I call my Z11, my daily beater Z.

If you want real durability in a laptop. Get a Lenovo Thinkpad. A real one and not one of their new fashion Thinkpads. The ones with a magnesium frame. My X60 has been in dust storms that has sand blasted away the rubber coating, in jungles with dripping humidity and on the bottom of a backback dogpile on a bus full of backpackers. It did so repeatedly for 3 years all over the world. Still works fine. A Mac wouldn't have survived any of that. Lenovo doesn't advertise it for some reason, but Thinkpads are Mil Spec.

 

Hi! Being a Z12 owner and sharing none of these points with you makes me want to adress them:

Have you ever tried to use the 64bit version of XP? Its a hellhole. For the background story, Digitally Signed Drivers for hardware did not require to have both 32bit and 64bit versions of the driver for microsoft validation until Windows Vista, therefore there are little to no x86_64 drivers available for windows XP. So trust me, Sony was right on this one.

That seems extensive to you? I mean I take care of my laptop, like really take care, so that's never happened to me but I can't think of that many laptops that can easilly take the kind of fall you speak of.... "case bent and battery not fitting flush" that's barely any damage you should thank the lord (and actually sony).

I'm looking at your CPU usage, and I really don't understand your setup here. The Z is one of the most powerfull 13" laptops out there, keyword being 13", portable, ultraportable some may say. Where is that usage in your use of the Z? If I were you, I'd have setup a modest corei3 (400$) on the side to drive two monitors and the maths calculus app you run, with Gigabit Ethernet to the Z.

In the reasons why you bought this notebook, two things strike me as strange:

1) Could buy in the local Sony store the same day - with all due respect, that is idiotic. You don't make a 2500$ purchase, or a computer purchase for that matter on such little thinking...
2) Reading your description, it seems like you would not have felt the difference had this been an m17x. Why do you need that form factor again?

It's easy to forget that this is a LAPTOP, and a greatly portable one at that. You can't expect it to run (thermally, and in terms of power) like a PC... For example in your case a quad core proc would have made a huge difference. It seems to me that you forget that the fans may be running, but I get 7 hrs of battery while coding on my Z. I look at my 13" screen and it has the same number of pixels as my 50" samsung plasma. It weighs as much as my friend's eeepc and runs crysis. Uhhhh...hello?

Can't change the SSD without hacking the BIOS.//You picky idiot...^^

Hacking BIOS easy with tools on net - Forget about any TPM peace of mind! //Don't understandd that one, my TPM works perfectly.

Sony disabled screen rotation in their Nvidia Drivers.//Small, but given, sure

Damaged very easily.// no.Sorry but that's just plain wrong. Taking everything into account, it's a rather durable laptop.

Cannot use all of the CPU because of thermal design problems.///Errr. Wrong again. The computer has a great thermal design, you just don't understand that you just can't put the same kind of power on a 13" ultraportable than on a 30" iMac.

]Sony bloatware is excessive and it's not easy to understand what packages do what.

I bought a notebook that is sold with a Pro version of the windows O/S and is then marketed like a business machine with TPM encryption. But! it comes installed with masses of Sony media tools that would drive me nuts had I not removed them. //That may be the case, but it's sold as a High-End buisness machine: for execs and VIPs. I installed a few Z's at my firm for some high level execs, trust me they NEEEEED their Blu-Ray on the plane. Just because you don't need it doesn't mean it's bloatware.

Sony repair takes too long. Should the premium product come with premium support? Sony think not buy Lenovo and HP think yes... So I know who'll get my business next time.//I really xcan't speak about this, never used tech support in my life, for anything.
[/QUOTE]

All in all, not only are you extremely picky, but sometimes flat out erroneous...

Cheers.

 

... That's just the Lenovo propaganda messing with you (^_^). They would advertise it if they were.

I think the IBM/Lenovo machines need to do more to protect the connectors/ports/outlets plus be a tiny bit more durable before classified Mil Spec. From personal experience Thinkpads are equal to "Business-Rugged" Panasonic Toughbooks, not the "Fully-Rugged" Mil Spec Toughbooks. I went with Thinkpad bacause it was much cheaper then the Japanese counterpart, a poor mans Toughbook, if you will. I do miss the better build quality of the Pansonics though.

@ _geo_
Can I ask how much will it cost to repair?

 

Really? You need to tell that to the the media then. They have it all wrong.

ThinkPads pass mil spec test for rugged computing
ThinkPads Get Tough, Meet Mil-Spec Standards | Notebooks.com
Eight Lenovo ThinkPads hit military rugged standards - SlashGear

 

WOW! You are right, they are semi-rugged. I did not realize there were diff levels of Mil Spec.

When I think of Mil Spec level notebooks I think of the fully-rugged ones we used in the military with covers over every port/connector and construction much more rugged than the Thinkpads.

Then again, I can give an organization enough $$$ to say my product is Mil Spec (^_^).

 

"Right" would be to not make choices for the customer, no?
But anyhow, the reason why they didn't is more likely that Microsoft stopped selling XP 64 long before they stopped selling XP 32. It's kind of hard to bundle XP 64 if you can't buy licenses for XP 64.

Another thing is that Sony bundles required 32-bit programs with the 64-bit Windows 7 and Vista systems. Yeah, they work in Wow64 emulation, but it means you can't switch the system over to a pure 64-bit system (like Windows Server 2008 R2) even if you want to.
I think it would behove Sony to recompile their own apps as 64-bit.

 

100% agree to killer626 here.

Word. Thats why we love our Z. I would have been never gone with the Z if it was a mainstream 13" like the acer or the r700 with cheap 768 screens. Neither I had if it was equipped w/o SSD. The Z just MAKES the difference in the ultraportable class.
I give a s*** on every MBP 13" which is low res and ultraglossy, doesnt even feature a Expresscard slot and comes without WWAN, core-i family cpu or blu-ray drive.

 

the 1080p screen on a 1.4KG 13" laptop is what its all about! THAT is why you should buy the Z in the first place! it's freakin awesome!

If the screen is a "problem" then you clearly bought the wrong product to begin with.

 

@TheBugMan: I just pay 10% of the repair cost as the laptop came with one yrs insurance, but it may be a few months before I send it for repair to know the amount.

 

Wow! I been having some problems with unwelcome shutdowns.

My thermal woes are getting worse and I can't even run a Windows Defender full scan without the thermal limit being imposed.

Result is that when the core hits 105/106 DEG c, computer shuts down, without warning. GPU running about 91c stable.

I guess that I may need to re-seat my cooling system to the CPU.

I can't really wait on Sony's 6 weeks service window for something I can do myself....

Anyone here know if it can be done without breaking warranty seals within the chassis?

Hopefully I can resolve any thermal problems from here and have a better opinion about Sony notebooks!

 

btw: I'm in Thailand which is a tropical country.

 

What warranty seals? I've opened up my Z a time or two and have yet to see even one.

Have you tried the simplest thing? It could just be that your Z has sucked up a bunch of stuff and that's blocking the cooling system. Use a vacuum and suck out all the vents. My Thinkpad fan gets louder over time to try to keep the laptop cool. This is because it struggles against the accumulated crap. I clean it out with a vacuum and it's quiet again.

 

travfar, I trust you have good eyesight, so I therefore deduce that there's nothing stopping me having mucho fun later with some CPU grease.

vacuum? We don't have one of those in our house. Although a spot of cleaning - one way or another - does sound like a good idea to me.

 

@_geo_

just wondering, but what is your Windows 7 "power plan" set to? have you tried running it on a custom made "Power Saver" plan yet?

Make sure you have all bloatware/ software you don't/ won't ever use (you may not realize it, but that stuff will slow things down even if it doesn't really show up in resource managers)

I know there is essentially zero difference between the thermal paste Sony used, and what you will be putting in there (and the likely hood that the cooling system broke contact is very low. But if it did that means something really broke in a major way and won't be fixable by you).


If all else fails, it is time to do a fresh install (yes, they really do wonders for every aspect of a computer, especially a laptop) just don't forget to install all the needed drivers. (you can even take out both SSD's and swap in a cheap HDD to test and see if things really will run colder. that way you run zero risk of damaging your current install of Windows 7)



But you really you have to send in your machine for repair. Try asking them for a replacement unit until your unit is either repaired or replaced (I know several companies do this, even with Tablet PC's such as the HP 2740p) just tell them you can't be without your main machine for any amount of time; ask to talk to their higher ups if the first people you call refuse. Just be nice, polite, and above all be patient with whoever is on the phone with you!!!

Good Luck!!!

 

If you don't like the fan running all the time, do what I do: ditch that hdmi cable and connect it through vga. That allows the computer to be in stamina instead of speed mode, which turns off the gpu and allows the whole thing to run cooler and quieter.

 

VAIO control center>Power Management>Power options>Thermal control strategy.

 

OP discovers sony does NOT sell business laptops with decent warranty. Yeah, sony is like any other consumer brand.

 

I dropped the notebook nearly six months ago. I've been having heat problems for about one month. In the last two days; I stated to reach thermal limit and for the first time, it's shut down on me.

I think it;s very possible that the drop moved the cooler very slightly.

Although I opened the case today, I could not see how to free a blue wire from the audio/usb pcb? Also could not remove the DVD-RW.... I guess I should have released the tray before power-off to access the last screw?

I'll have to take it to Sony for repair to the case, and when I get it back, I'll see if thermal performance has improved.

...They already told me that they cannot give me something to use instead.

@blue13x, @Agent 9, I'm running Windows as lean as I can -although not as lean as I could with XP-sp3 and nLite.

Actually; VAIO control center seemed to crash on me!

...Plus, It would pop-up even though I tried to control all the notifications. Anyway; anytime I used it, it would change settings without asking me.
Therefore; as I don't want any work interruption, I uninstalled it.

@Oscar2, Thanks for the tip about VGA running cooler.

 

IDLE:



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Just so you know, Real Temp GT reports 44 degrees on Stamina and 48-50 degrees on Speed for me when idle. I've got the i7-640M.

 

Yes you do have to pop it open to remove the last screw, no you don't need power for that. There is a small hole (its on the outside, closer to the vga connector) where you insert a paper clip, which pops open the drive.

 

Seems to be better with the external monitor running from VGA.

GFX: Stamina
Power: Balanced (max CPU allowed set to 80%)



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