What's so great about the Sony Vaio Z ??

I'm happy with my Sony Vaio FW. Very happy in fact.

I work from home and don't travel often so the FW is almost exclusively used within the house. Therefore, the extra weight of the FW is not a huge problem and the larger 16.4" screen is a plus since I'd rather not be tied to an external monitor. But since I often move from room to room within the house there are times I wish the FW were a tad lighter with a slightly smaller footprint... so I come here occasionally to read about the latest smaller/lighter laptops.

As a happy Vaio user I've looked into the Y and S series, but for my purposes I'm probably best off keeping the FW and picking up something like an Asus 1001P or 1201N just for occasional use.

Here's my question (finally ): we could literally buy an Asus 1001P and a 1201N and a Vaio Y or S series for the same (or less) money than a Z... yet the Z units fly off the shelves. Obviously they must be very, very good. So, could the Z owners here please satisfy my curiosity and let me know why the Vaio Z is worth the big bucks in your opinion? What makes it so great for you?

Thanks!

 

This may not be true for all, but I'm paying a premium for the Z's aluminium and carbon fibre construction (as i'm a sucker for solid well made things) and the premium quality LCD screen with 1600*900 or Full HD resolution in a 13 inch panel (which other notebook manufacturers simply don't have)

 

It's a 13.3 inch laptop that weights like an 11.5 inch laptop, and has the screen and performance of a 15" inch workstation. Makes sense you'd pay a premium for that sort of a machine.

 

Maybe you should ask, what's not so great in the Z.

Great performance in a 13"1 (16:9) screen, great build quality, light weight, good battery life, amazing screen - 1600x900 resolution or full HD, great keyboard, now finally good graphic card...what else could you ask? If the previous Z was a very good laptop, the new is close to perfection, in my opinion. The issue that Sony must solve somehow is the battery drain issue, that is not only an issue of the Z, but quite all the series.

 

Great question... Okay guys, what's NOT so great about the Z?

 

New Z is absolute powerhouse in netbook-sized, superbly built lightweight enclosure with higher than average battery life and few unique features.

And any other ultimate notebook is pricey (X200 tablet, Panasonics, Necs)

 

Based on my ownership of a Z-590, I'd say:

- 6-bit and oversaturated display
- Lack of driver updates from Sony
- "SmartWi" and other Sony supplied utilities
- As with all Sony products, inferior glue. Glued on rubber bits fall off on ALL Sony products produced the last few years, and with the Z, the glued-on fingerprint sensor will move too.

With the new Z, the main point against it is IMHO the proprietary drive assembly -- you can't replace the SSDs with one you buy yourself.

 

I've got a netbook, and it's nice because it's light, small form factor, and so it's really portable. There are sporadic times when I wish it was more powerful, and have a larger screen: when watching video clips, doing processing, etc. Not that frequent, but it happens.

So I went looking for something which gives more 'oomph', which probably means more $$. Since I'll have to pay more, I might as well pay for something that's really worth it. I figured the optimal size where the screen is sufficiently big, and the chassis can hold the high-powered CPU+GPU and battery, yet be small and light enough for portability, would be around the 12 to 13 inch mark.

There aren't that many laptops in this range. Very few well-built ones. The 13" MBP would be one choice, but it looks like Steve is not doing anything else including refreshing the MBP before his baby iPad grows up. The Thinkpad X series, besides not having a powerful GPU, is, well, I'm not sure it has the quality anymore... And in general I felt like there's no company that's innovative enough to think, "Ok, I want to lead the pack in terms of everything, and I'm going to work like hell to make that a reality."

Along comes the Z and it packs so much, and is (so far, according to reviews) better built than the previous Z. Sure, maybe there's a premium to pay, but see, the point is that I can still pay to get it. This is unlike the other laptop manufacturers, which, even if I want to pay, I can't get what I want. Sony is a stronger driver of new technology than other companies, and yet it doesn't sacrifice that much (ok I'm still not sure what the verdict is on the weird SSDs Sony put in the Z).

 

What's so great about the Z ? Probably that this " Steve " guy....okay, we all know who he is.....he secretly wishes his little MBP was as good as a Sony VAIO Z. There you have it.

 

It's not Full HD. 1080p is full HD (1920x1080). Personally, I enjoy a high resolution screen, but in an 13" machine 1600x900 to me seems awfully tight for the physical size.

The Z is a nice machine, it really is. But its price also really gets to me as well.

One question I have is about the SSD though. There was some discussion in some forum about its performance over time since you can't TRIM an SSD in RAID mode, which I believe is what is offered in the Z, dual sided SSD as a RAID 0 drive. So it will eventually offer diminshing returns with enough time and enough drive usage. Or is this addressed somehow, and how is it addressed?

 

The poster ascend stated " with 1600 x 900 or Full HD " in the sense he meant either or and not that 1600 x 900 was the Full HD, and just didn't specify 1920 x 1080. Also, some people are receiving their new Z's with the Full HD ( 1920 x 1080 ) screen and are saying good things about it in the Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread.

 

I'm with ya there. I enjoy that high of a resolution on a 15" laptop, but on a 13" laptop? Ouch. My eyes hurt just thinking about it.

 

One thing about the new Z. Design-wise (in terms of appearance), I think the old Z looks better. The new one looks awkward with the palmrest the way it is slapped on and the slight elevation in the rear part.

 

you got that right baby!

 

The slight rear elevation is actually good, and if you use the high capacity battery, then is a non-issue asthetically. The palm rest on the other hand, I totally agree. It's looks like every other palm rest in the VAIO line for 2010 and takes away from the sleek design of the rest of the new Z, well...that and the headphone jack and microphone port on the front, but that was already discussed in another thread.

 

Gotcha, I understand, my bad. You can get either the 1600x900 or 1920x1080 (Full HD). I took it as "or full HD" = 1600x900.

Anyhow, 1080p in that size will turn into a squint exercise.

 

Heck, that's my concern with 1600x900 @ 13.1"

 

If used on a table, I'd agree. If used on your lap, though?

 

Actually, in my experience with the Z's extended capacity battery it's beneficial. Think of it like this for a moment. Say when it's on the lap while sitting on the couch, the design of the battery coming out from the bottom provides a sort of stability as it's wedged between the legs, and gives it a little balance versus having a completely flat computer bottom on the lap which can be a little unbalanced. Just a perspective on the matter and surely argumentative.