Sony Vaio Z Review for the anal buyer

Hi,

I'm trying to avoid doing useful work, so I thought that I'd type in a quick review for the more discriminating / demanding buyers out there.

My strongest biases: like quiet computing, must have a great keyboard (good feel, no weird key placement, good key travel), must have a good screen (no grain, not too much bleed, good color accuracy, good black levels), high-res screen, good touchpad/touchstick, good quality speakers, card reader slot, bang for the buck, light weight (<4 lbs).

Things that many people care about that I don't: heat production, style, glossy or no glossy screen, thinness, quality of webcam, dvd drive noise, a blindingly bright screen, fast video card, good headphone out, no static background when listening through headphones, digital video output.

I will proceed by component and will just throw out what I think.

Good:

Screen: this is the best laptop screen that I have ever seen. And I have seen or used many, many, many laptops from all different brands. For reference, my prior reference was the Apple macbook pro. The Sony screen is even better. I used media center to watch some OTA HDTV and it is dare I say as good as a regular LCD HDTV. The colors really pop, and purists may say that they look unnaturally vivid, but I'll take that any day to dull, lifeless screens. I think that there is something special about Sony's color. If the screen is your #1 priority, you're done, frankly. This is the notebook to get. I wonder how come Sony doesn't make a screen like this in the 15.4" size or larger (do they?). Black levels are very good, and there is a dimensionality and depth to the OTA HDTV material that I saw that I've never seen before in a laptop screen. The screen has some backlight bleed, but no dead pixels. Frankly I've given up on finding the 100% perfect no backlight bleed screen b/c I've never seen one, really; at least I don't plan on exchanging 5-6 units. It's really a mind thing and it really doesn't interfere with your viewing pleasure. The screen is evenly lit as well. It is in a word, blindingly bright. I mean, seriously, you can use this outdoors. It is brighter than my macbook pro screen, and I thought I'd seen the best. Don't get me wrong, the macbook pro screen is still awesome. One thing I like is that Sony has included built-in rubber pads to protect the screen when the notebook is closed. The screen is so thin that I was worried that pressing on the screen in a backpack will cause keyboard marks on the screen. It still might happen, but we'll see. Please note that the vertical resolution is 768, not 800. Overall, this screen being 1366 pixels wide will yield more stuff than a 1200x800 screen, but not vertically. For the really anal, this translates into about a taskbar's worth of text being ommitted. I checked the 1200x800 vs the Z's screen side by side at the store, so I know what I'm talkin' about here :> You can't really notice it, and if you really must have 800, then just auto-hide the taskbar :> If you already autohide the taskbar, autohide the status bar in firefox. If you already do both, then yes, you're out of luck.

Keyboard:

I care alot about this, and the chiclet style is totally fine. It appears that you might not be able to type too well with it, but it's really a nice keyboard and in my opinion as usable as the Lenovo's keyboard. Note that you need to use fn + pgup /pgdwn to navigate if you like to do this. Key travel is great, and it's very satisfying. I am very happy with this keyboard, and I'm a stickler. I would only want apple, lenovo, or this sony keyboard.
No flex. Anywhere.

Battery:
The weight is down from the SZ I think also b/c of the smaller battery. Mine says 40 wH. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I think b/c of the newer processors, battery life should be about the same. It wiggles a little bit but I don't care that much. Battery life seems fine. I could probably stretch it to 4 hours on medium brightness if I'm just surfing/typing. AC adapter is of the normal size. Not a huge brick , but not miraculously Sony small. Same size as my Lenovo's.

Speakers:

These are great speakers for such a tiny notebook. They distort at the highest levels, but they are surprisingly good for a notebook of this size. I have no complaints.

Webcam: fine. Not too good, not too bad.

Ports: they managed to capture all the necessary ones. It is really hard to find a small notebook that has all of the following: digital video out, card reader, express card, firewire. Everything works well and I think they made the right choices.

Touchpad: very big size, which I really, really appreciate. It allows you not to have to drag a mouse along all the time; a small touchpad will cause your fingers to feel fatigued after awhile. Good response, and the mouse buttons are fine.

Fingerprint: a nice bonus.

Price: A steal. I got the 2.26 base model Z540 from Sonystyle and they're still going to give me an extra battery or a port replicator, a case, bluetooth mouse, etc? I can sell that for $100 and save even more.

Size/weight: It's pretty thin, but not anorexic thin. They say 1.3" at the thickest and that seems reasonable. Most of the thinness comes from the thin screen. The body of the notebook is probably of average thickness. The design makes it look/feel thinner than it probably actually is. But in terms of size and portability and power and ports, there is nothing out there that can beat this. That's the end of the story, really, and it's a fact.

Design: it's gorgeous just like everything else that Sony makes. No one can say that this laptop is anything short of beautiful.

Not so Good:

Charging time: took me 7 hours to charge the stupid thing from empty while typing/surfing.

Fan noise:

I have a lenovo and this thing is a jet engine compared to the lenovo. But compared to any other notebook it is average. You can undervolt and throttle the processor, etc. My only criteria is that when I am typing or surfing that the thing is quiet. It probably just makes it into that category. With all the gymnastics of undervolting, etc it will be quiet enough. Under load, it's a different story and I don't really mind it. Had I never used a Lenovo, I would probably think that the fan issue is not a big deal at all.
I would say it runs average hot. Not too hot, but it's not a cool running notebook in my opinion.

Build quality: The thing is pretty but appears fragile. It's not fragile in the sense that it seems cheap; it just seems like it's so light and beautiful that it won't age well. Time will tell.

Software: they install too much bloatware, but anyone reading this will likely be putting their own fresh install on it anyway.

Bad: none

So from a glass half-empty approach, I'd say that I wish the Sony beauty would somehow still inspire confidence in its ruggedness and ability to hold up after a few years. I wish the fan noise was less. I wish the battery would charge more quickly. Other than that, everything else is great.

From a glass half-full approach, this is the only laptop that will satisfy pretty much everyone. I say this b/c for the stylists, they've got that. For the hard core geeks, you've got the necessary hardware underneath. For the business folks, you've got a good keyboard, probably good build quality and good security features. For the multimedia folks, you've got the best screen on a notebook today. For the weaklings, if you think 3.3 lbs is too heavy, then the problem is you, not manufacturers.

Dare I say it heresy: I must admit that I still have thoughts of the Lenovo x200. I never use the dvd drive and I really admire the good build quality and keyboards of the lenovo's. I also love that they are the quietest computers ever. But there is only one speaker, the screen will be a downer compared to this, and there is no digital video out. But given that the Sony ended up costing me the same (through student discount and online coupons) + the free accessories rebate, I'm a sucker for the bang for the buck factor. Plus that screen....you look at it all day long and it never gets old.

As always, always accepting reps. I'd like to hit double figures in 2009 :>

 

Thanks for your comprehensive review. As for the fan noise, I found that thin and light notebook is noisier than bigger one. My 13.3" SZ is considerably noisier than my 16.4" FW, even when FW is under full load and SZ is doing light work. I guess it's because the fan has to work harder in the smaller notebook to keep it cool

 

I notice that undervolting the CPU on the Vaio Z does not effect the fan noise as they will still run at even 32c ....

 

wow... crazy good review. completely sold me on the Z over a unibody macbook. (currently using a Macbook Pro) Kudos to you.