Prospective Z Buyer, Looking for "Long Term" Impressions from owners.

I'll be buying a laptop for college in about a month or so and the Z series caught my eye. I've already got a very capable desktop so most if not all gaming will be confined to that system.

Things I'm looking for;

Battery Life: I'll be using this in class for most of the day, every day, so i need it to be able to use it as long as possible without having to worry about finding an electrical outlet.

Durability: like i said, this thing is going to be traveling quite a bit so it would be nice if it could withstand some abuse, along with a warranty that covers accidental damage.

Performance: This will be used primarily for school work, writing papers, taking notes, online research, possibly some programing (going to school for IT) etc. I'll also be using this for editing/processing RAW files in photoshop when the desktop is not available. And depending on if I or my fiancee decide to drop the cash on the camcorder i'll be viewing/editing AVCHD video files most likely with a consumer level app.

Portability: as stated above, i'll be lugging any laptop i purchase two and from class quite a bit along with several books, so the less weight the better. This isnt a major concern though, if its around 5.5 lbs or less i'll be happy, I dont want or need a 8lb desktop replacement.

Every notebook i've owned or had repeated access to has been a Dell of some variation so I'm in relatively uncharted territory. The other notebooks i'm looking at are dell's new e-series latitude (e6400, or 4300 if they price it reasonably), or a lenovo thinkpad (havent decided on one yet). I know this system hasnt been around for very long i'm just trying to get a sense of how people feel about it after a few months of use.

What kind of battery life are you seeing under real operating conditions? and what battery are you using?,

how's the build quality? is it holding up well under typical use?

I've heard about the screen lottery that both dell and lenovo are running in some of their models, Is the Z's screen quality consistent throughout the line, or is there a crap display that you run the risk of getting?

Have any of you had to deal with sony's support, more specifically the warranty/accidental damage aspect? I've had accidentally damaged laptops repaired within a week of contacting dell, and with no questions asked. I'm just wondering if sony's is comparable, or am i going to have to fight with them to honor the protection i paid for only to have to ship it back for repairs and be without a laptop for several weeks.

Finally, are there any little things that bug you about the system now that you've had a chance to use it for a while. And given the chance to switch would you get a different laptop or stick with the sony?

Sorry if all these have been answered before in the Z owners thread, I unfortunately dont posses the attention span to wade through 300+ pages to find what i'm looking for.

 

Do you need an optical drive?

The Sony Z is a spectacular piece of hardware- it sounds like a lot more than you need. You can pick up a Dell e4300 for around the same price that will hopefully be more durable, as light, and have a few neat options, for example a backlit keyboard.

 

Between the Sony Z and the Dell E4300, test the keyboard of the Sony Z. It's rather unique. Also check out the Sony Z screen, and see how much you like or need that. Those are the two primary differences aside from warranty.

Dell Business warranty >>>> Sony warranty >>>> Dell Home and Office warranty as a general rule of thumb just looking around the two forums (Latitude vs. Sony) in terms of user satisfaction with their warranties.

 

Yes I need an optical drive. Having the boyscout motto "Be Prepared" drilled into my head for years seems to have stuck with me. The last thing i want is to have to install some software or burn a CD/DVD while i'm out and not be able to because i left the external drive at home etc. That's probably why I still find it hard to consider a system without a dedicated graphics card. I'd looked briefly at the e4200 and X200, and even a macbook air (must have been a psychotic break or something), but that lack of optical drive always bugged me.

Any laptop i purchase is in all likelihood going to have to last for roughly four years. Since I dont know what situations I may need it for during that time, I would like something capable of handling most situations even if it does struggle struggle a little under some heavy 3d tasks. While i'm certain that an integrated intel 4500MHD is quite capable of handling photoshop, and some basic 3d tasks, I'm concerned about it meeting future system requirements. Photoshop CS4 is said to have support for hardware acceleration, so I'm taking that into consideration as well. As i said what initialy got me looking at the sony was the reports of the poor quality LED displays in the all of the other notebooks i was considering. From what i can tell the only way to avoid this would be to use a lower res, more power hungry display or go move to a larger notebook.

Of course none of this will matter if the leasing company I'm going through decides that the Z isnt a "business" notebook (i've seen them do it with desktops), in which case I've gotta pick between the dell or lenovo.

can you elaborate on what you mean by "unique"

The local best buy had a few VIAO's with a similar keyboard (cant be sure its exactly the same since no one has a z around here), and I did check it out briefly today. Unfortunately they had all the notebooks at a height and angle that i'd never use them at and as a result every system felt quite odd to type on. As for the screen, i was amazed when i saw that one of the options was 1600x900, for school work thats overkill, for photoshop on the other hand its about as close to perfection as i can see on a laptop this size.

 

I seriously doubt the e4300 will be more durable (it's magnesium alloy, not carbon fiber, and durability tests of the Z have shown it to be incredibly well built), and the Z is definitely lighter (with 6-cell battery - Dell's "3.3" pounds for the E4300 applies only when the uselessly short-lived 4-cell battery is being used - a dishonest marketing technique IMHO).

 

Dell E4300 comes with integrated graphics and is not very suited for editing AVCHD.

Any 13" with integrated graphics would be better.

By the way, at US prices you can get the Z cheaper than E4300.

Dell E4300 2.40GHz 4.0GB, 160GB Hard Drive 5400RPM, $2200

Sony Z 2.40 GHz 3.0 GB, 250 GB Hard 5400rpm, $1915

 

I've got a 3.0Ghz quad core with just over 1TB of storage to handle any serious editing i may do. The laptop would basically be used to store and view videos while i'm on vacation.

 

Ok then it does not matter too much.

Sony has a lot more features (hybrid graphics, HDMI) while Dell has the better warranty.

The 6 cell battery on Dell E4300 sticks out as far as I know, while the 6 cell on Z does not stick out.

 

I can deal with either battery sticking out a bit, as long as I get some serious battery life out of it. One of dells claims with the e6400 is up to 19 hours of battery life with the 9-cell and the 12-cell battery slice. Under real world conditions I'm guessing that would probably be enough to get me through a whole day of class (8+ hours) on a single charge. If need be i can just grab a second battery for the Z, since from what i can tell even with two batteries it wont come anywhere close to weighing what an e6400 weighs with a 9-cell & battery slice.

 

Go with the Z. It surprasses ALL your required needs AND offers you HDMI + 100% color saturation ON a 16:9 res widescreen.

I am a college student too, I get 4.5-5.5 hours on Stamina and Full Wireless on = it easily outlasts my 4 classes a day, every day. I get home, plug it in! The brick is kinda heavy to lug around.

The Z also offers you 9300M GS which IS better than the Dell E you're looking at, for your IT needs, get the Z!

 

"...The brick is kinda heavy to lug around..."

i've found that it's not that bad.... based on comments here, i thought it would be a lot worse... kinda like the fan noise thing. again, not that bad (so far )

 

Well, adding it to my packed backpack of laptop + even 1 textbook + 2 college-ruled notebooks makes it HEAVY lol

Just practically. In and of itself, it isnt at all that bad compared to other bricks I have seen though.

 

I assume you're using the extended battery?

Hows it holding up after being shoved in a backpack with other stuff every day?

have you noticed any small things that bug you now that you've had it for a bit?

 

yah, i guess when you aggregate the weight of the brick with everything else, it would be nice if sony provided something smaller... cuz you're not going to find lighter textbooks!

 

The keyboard I got used to rather quickly. I feel I type faster on my 13" Z then my old 15" FS. I really don't want to go back to non-chicklet type keyboards now.

As much I want to like Dells (and I think I do) there is no way I will pay the same price as a top of the line Vaio for a dell.
I get 4.5-5 hours easy on stamina.

I personally opted for the 1366 screen of the 540CTO because I like to have my laptop a couple feet away from me when I surf the web. (using a wireless mouse, obviously.) That is something I felt I wouldn't be able to do with the 1600x res. The screen is beautiful, in my opinion.

I should mention that I try to stay away from threads where people look for problems in their devices. I haven't found a single problem on mine.

 

Why would you assume that? She said it gets 4.5 - 5.5 hours on Stamina easily, which is what the standard 6-cell should be getting. The 9-cell should get you 7-8 hours or more.

 

I'm not saying to look for problems, I'm just wondering if there are any little annoyances that you've noticed over time that you wouldnt have picked up initially. Example; as much as i love my iphone the lack of flash support in safari is irritating, and it would be nice if the battery was removable and lasted longer.

7-8 hours? I had no idea actual battery life had improved that much. You've gotta understand the last laptop i owned myself was a p4 based inspiron 8100 that weighted 8+ lbs and would only get 2 hours if you had the display set to the lowest setting and were doing almost nothing. I've used Latitude D610, 620, and 630's but they were almost alway plugged in so i havent really seen what recent battery life has been like, let alone something based on the 45nm or low power chips.

I definitely need to check to make sure that the Z is considered a business laptop by the leasing co, and i'll have to read the fine print on the warranty.

 

Lol, same here actually . My old laptop was 9.x pounds and wouldn't get much more than 1 - 1.5 hours on battery even when doing nothing.

I just bought an SZ, and I love it - I get 5-6 hours easily from a full charge (standard 6-cell battery), and with Vaio Battery Care enabled (which doesn't charge the battery over 80%) I get 4-5 hours. And it's so light and runs so cool

So I see no reason why the Z won't get similar (if not better - it depends what you do on it) battery life with a standard capacity battery. And of course the Z is lighter, has a better screen, etc., etc. than the SZ.

 

I got easily 7 - 8 with the extended battery in the SZ, I get 7 - 9 with the G, and right now I'm a day in with my Z, but the extended battery once the time normalized was 8.5 hrs on light use, so I'd expect 7 - 8 as I got with the SZ. Sony's ratings aren't that far off.

Of course, how you use your laptop will affect things. If you use a lot of processor and disk drive, you're getting lower hours than if you're just doing general tasks (Word, Outlook, web surfing).

Time will tell with the Z, but it's comparable to every other SOny I have. The standard battery (6 cell) should get you 4 - 6 hours on normal usage.

 

Show the leasing company this url:

http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/subcategory/notebooks/ultra_portable/z-series

 

At the moment I suspect that when i'm using the Z in class it will be for word processing/web surfing. I would imagine that if they are going to be having us do any programing/heavy computing tasks during class that they will provide systems capable to do so. Going by what you've said, unless i get an uncontrollable urge to play a game of Civ IV during class it looks like it will be very possible that the extended battery will get me through an entire day.

Does anyone know anything about what you would have to do to void your warranty even if you purchased accidental damage protection? I have a couple reasons for asking.

First would be due to this part of the warranty that they provide on their site.

"Accidental Damage from Handling Protection (ADH) plans offer the same benefits as the Regular Extended Service Plans but gives the added benefit of repairing or replacing your Sony product when it malfunctions due to breakdowns that occur from handling the product under normal operating conditions."

If i drop the computer during class or something happens when its in my backpack, are they going to try to say that dropping it is outside the realm of normal operating conditions? My experiences with Dell's accidental damage protection have been extremely positive, they've covered damage caused by accidents as well as sheer stupidity.

The other reason I ask is because I remember seeing that replacing the HDD would void the warranty, unless it was done so by an authorized sony service center. I'm pretty sure that I'm more capable at servicing computers than the local geek squad tech, so it would be pretty bad to have to pay someone to perform an upgrade that I know i could do myself just to protect the warranty.

 

As far as durability is concerned, I feel that the z would hold up pretty well. The only concern I have is with the thin screen. If you were to hit it or knock it pretty hard in one spot, I'd be curious to know what type of effect this would have on the led screen. I could see it holding up less well in this area, than say a lenovo screen which seems to be held in a much stronger and more durable shell.

As far as portability is concerned, I find this laptops low profile perfect for typing notes in class. You'll really notice how small it is when you're sitting next to someone with a huge Studio 15" from Dell. This laptop is the perfect size for school, in my oppinion.

The weight of this machine is extremely reasonable and light. I'm very happy bringing it with me, because I find it hardly takes up any weight at all.

I have no problems to report, so far. Overall build quality would get a 7/10 from me. The keyboard and top of the laptop would get a 9/10 from me, but the plastic sides of the laptop and especially the back side of the laptop (where the battery goes) feels less solid and get a 6/10 from me. The screen looks and feels flimsy and very breakable, but many users have stated that it is actually very strong and flexible by design.

I got a crappy screen, so I'm in the process of exchanging it for another one. I had vertical bars bleeding light from the backlight. While my case seems to be the only one that has been reported here so far, you should definitely check yours if and when you get one. You could only notice it on a white or light background, but it was unnaceptable nonetheless.

- Yes, sometimes when I put the computer into sleep or hibernate mode, it will just randomly turn itself on.
- When I use Stamina mode, some websites are extremely choppy when scrolling, to the point where I have to switch back to Speed mode to correct this problem. I never had this problem with the integrated graphics on my MacBook. Could it be something about internet explorer that is causing this problem?
- While I love the thin screen, it just feels so fragile and delicate. I know it's actually quite strong and flexible, but I still haven't been able to get over the thought that I somehow might break it, lol.
- The fan is always on and is slightly louder than average when you compare it to other thin and light 13" notebooks. While this doesn't particularly bother me, I can see how it would bother some very much.

Please note, some of these things might be common nuisances with Vista on PC's, as I'm coming from a Mac.

As far as an overall grade, I'd give this machine an 8/10. Although I bring up a few negative points, no laptop, in my experience anyways is perfect. The positives have so far, far outweighed the negatives.

Would I switch to another machine if I was given the chance?

I still have a few more days left on my return policy, but so far, I think I'm going to keep it. It is the only laptop in it's class that offers a 13" display size with some of the core features I really wanted in a laptop, such as a high resolution screen. The only reason I would ever want to return it is if Apple launched a new 12 or 13" PowerBook. That is the machine I waited and waited for, for the last few years, but it never happened. I got tired of waiting, so I switched back to PC for awhile.

Good luck with your decision!

 

The only thing that I continue to wish it had was a 13.3" screen, that's due to how I use it - business applications were it's nice to have as much height as possbile.

The screen quality/clarity and incredible keyboard more than make up for it.

oh, and I do wish it had dedicated home and end keys - but not a big deal

 

Could somebody confirm that there is no problem with battery like discussed below ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=282258) with Z?

 

there's a similar thread setup for the z too...

 

Takashi, I can't find such thread...

 

Here's the Z battery drain thread. Strangely I could find it when using advanced search by title only in Sony forum with search term "drain", but not with "battery", even thought the title is "VAIO Z battery drain problem?"