Today we have this lovely sony vaio Z notebook to discuss. I must say this is a bit of a departure for me. I usually go for products more in the above average but still good value for money class. However, this time I went all out, and went for the top of the line sony vaio Z. I must say I still did get a good deal, as this model was being discounted for the new Z4 series, which added slightly better CPU and RAM. One other thing I will note is that I was considering going the Z46GDU which had the shadow border lid, and this one had the "black" lid which is carbon fibre. However if you look closely at the picture, it is not really flat black which is what I had anticipated. Which I was pleased about! The pictures on the sony website I not completely accurate. Hope that gives a better idea.
I was very excited to get this notebook. I took many months of research to find that this was the one for me. I will list the main points that led to this purchase. I will try to list it in some order of importance.
- It weighs 1.5kg WITH battery. This is as light as most netbooks, but has a 13" screen!
- It has a dedicated graphics card. This helps when you want to play games and watch full HD video.
- It has a 13" LED screen. This one is mainly about size. The res is 1600x900, which is plenty of screen real estate. I had toyed with the idea of getting a netbook, but the thought of 9" or 10" screen made me realise that was a lot of scrolling. So this size is much better in the long run. Unlikely to get sick of it .
- Battery life is decent. I have the battery care function on at 80%, so I get about ~3 hrs use with wireless on, and medium brightness. Not as good as what sony claim, but enough for real world usage.
- Bluray drive. This was just a bonus, because they were clearing out this model.
So... what can I say about this notebook? Its light, keyboard is great, screen is beautiful to look at. The weight is excellent. Great styling. Hmmm. A few of the negatives that I was worried about prior to purchase.. Double typing a letter... Havent really encountered this. Battery drain when left off? Well this certainly seems to be true. Turn off at 80%. Then turn on, roughly 75%? Although I have not full tested this. Certainly doesnt seem to be a dealbreaker for me.
Would I recommend this to you?
Well, I must say as an overall package, this is one excellent notebook. Is this what all notebooks should aim to be? light and powerful? yes! Do you pay a premium? yes! Therefore, if you have the cash, take pride in your goods, and strive for quality, then yes. This is an excellent mobile companion. However, if the thought of spending almost 4k on a notebook and trying to beg your wife/partner to let you do it, makes you cringe and run for the hills, then maybe there are other options for you. Some of these would include more recent releases such as the CULV offerings like the Acer Timeline which package decent battery and weight minus the dedicated graphics and bluray. One other to look out for is the release of Nvidia Ion which promises HD playback and decent gaming performance in a netboook like formfactor. It will be interesting to see what Ion is able to deliver.
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