Sat on a 5-day old Vaio VPC-Z119

Well....

Received my brand-new Vaio-Z (core i7m 620, 6GB ram, full HD screen) on the 15th of March.

Initial impressions were very good - nippy as hell, silent, considerably more so than the old Vaio Z whiner. Did I mention fast?
Good screen, marginally better than the old one in terms of viewing angles or so. Definitely no IPS screen, haven't found a way of seeing exactly which manufacturer produces it (ideas anyone?) but good. Resolution is ok when set to 125 scaling.

Initial impressions of the build where good - no creaking, feels solid, except around the battery, where it rattles a bit.
However I managed to slip on a icy patch (spring has yet to come to Stockholm) and landed partly on my (soft leather) computer bag. I rushed home quickly fearing the worst and lo and behold:

The screen was untouched, no problems. However, it seems as the laptop hit the ground on one side and then my weight twisted it backwards.
So - the left part of the keyboard was bent almost half an inch (1,5 cm approx) downwards from the screen (which was level).

Fearing the worst I started the laptop and surprisingly everything works! No errors or anything..

Slightly encouraged by the results I started twisting the alumimum frame until it became almost level. Now you really have to look twice to see something is out of the ordinary.
The aluminum shell seems very thin and not sturdy at all. It seams about as strong as a coke can. there are some cracks on it and it needs replacing.. The laptop is nowhere near as sturdy as my wife's Thinkpad X301. But, once again, i am surprised that it works.

It is now on repair and it will be interesing to see what Sony will charge me. I'll keep you posted, sorry that I didn't have any pictures ;(

 

Wow that could have been much worse (haven't got the price back yet). Makes me want to wait for the S series refresh (with hopefully the 330GT inside). Would have been great to have pictures of the damage!

 

now that some serious damage. tho, its usually end up with cosmetic damage. good to know that the screen are fine. thats explain how tough the screen compare to palmrest/keyboard to not break.

sorry to hear that this happened.

 

wow best of luck on the repair, hopefully they will be gentle on you pocket. Let us know what your result are.

 

Zap-xpilot, best of luck in your repair too.

However, it would have been interesting to see some pics of the damage if you happened to take photos of it.

 

The build quality of the Thinkpads are like tanks and this is a reason why I like them so much. But the awesome features, aesthetics, and weight savings of the Z are just too damn good to pass up.

Thanks for sharing your story Zap, thankfully no health injuries were incurred from the fall. Your Z will no doubt be back in brand new condition. Cheers man.

 

This makes me glad I had the extra scratch to spring for the accidental damage warranty.

Good luck with the repairs, Zap-xpilot.

 

The old Z was just as flimsy from my memory (maybe worse with the bendy screens) and people still have them in perfect condition. I think if you had fell hard on most other laptops it would have been a similar experience.

 

Encouraging to hear that Zs has started trickling into Sweden. I waited too long for what I feared could be an issue with the SSDs, so I missed the first (and last) batch SonyStyle.se got. Hopefully I get mine this week, but that's probably a long shot.

Regarding the alu casing vs screen. So you mean if I have the Z in bag on the back of my bicycle, it would better to put it screen-down in case it gets pressured from above? Otherwise the alu casing might get dented.

 

YMMV I will of course not answer this in any way possible, just telling my story As soon as I get my laptop back from repairs I will try to find a hard-shell case to have it in.
Obviously it is way more fragile than a thinkpad, but I guess you could expect that from looking at the construction.

Thinkpads have almost an exosceleton, the way they are built. The aluminum piece of the vaio provides rigidity for the keyboard, but not for the overall structure, it is too thin for that. On top of everything else it is surrounded by weaker plastic (whether that is CF reinforced or not doesn't change the structure) which protects the inards..

Overall, I feel lucky that everything is working, the laptop was so bent that I feared the worst (that's why no pictures, I thought it was nuked)

Sony repairs will probably charge me around €250 for exchanging the aluminum shell (and perhaps the keyboard) as well as the underside black plastic shell. Quite reasonable really. Half of that will be covered by my home insurance, so I guess I got off pretty easy.
Will see, the laptop is scheduled for delivery on Thursday, will let you guys know.

Thanks for all the supporting comments, btw, appreciate it!