Since its inception, the Vaio Z has been very clearly positioned as an extremely portable laptop with absolutely no compromises on performance. The newest iteration continues to build upon the legacy its predecessors have created.
Built around a screen size of 13.1 inches, the first thing you notice about the Vaio Z is how light it is. But with a sturdy and refined black body, you expect the Vaio Z to be a little weighty; the lack of it comes at a surprise, even after the first time. Sizing in at 0.66 inch of thickness, the Z is by no means chubby — but there are slimmer alternatives on the market.
Of course, these alternatives only beat the Vaio Z in terms of thickness.
Upon further examination you'll notice the port studded sides which give you the best in class connectivity, including two USB ports, headphone jack, HDMI port, ethernet port, VGA port and memory card slots. Many of these you may not find on other ultraportable 13 inchers.
Open up the screen and you'll notice the keyboard hinges up slightly, giving you a more ergonomic angle to type at. She's pretty and she's health conscious. The rest of the keyboard, with its chiclet styling, is a delight to type on. The keys are well spaced and provide great feedback.
When I say the Vaio Z makes no compromises, I mean the Vaio Z makes no compromises whatsoever; not even on the screen. The 13.1-inch display has a 1920x1080 resolution — that's full HD goodness on a screen that size. The sharp and crisp display took some time to get used to, but after that it was pure brilliance.
As for performance, this laptop packs a Core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, which means boot times were quick and performance was snappy. Those full-HD videos sure look good on this screen.
But that's just the laptop on its own. The Vaio Z comes with a Power Media Dock, which connects to the laptop via a USB 3.0 connector (included). Connect this to the laptop and you've supplied it with an external AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics card and a Blu-Ray drive. Suddenly, it seems like this corporate-friendly laptop has been transformed into a very capable, gaming laptop. The dock also provides you with two USB jacks, ethernet jack, HDMI and VGA ports.
With its weight and performance, you wouldn't expect much out of the Vaio Z in terms of battery life. But you can get well over six hours with real-life working conditions, and possibly stretch it by switching off the Wi-Fi radio or lowering the brightness.
Sony has pulled out all stops with its Vaio Z to stay true to its positioning — ultraportable computing without any compromises on performance. However, there's one little hitch stopping this unit from flying off the shelves — it's price. Costing slightly north of Dh11,000, this one is going to be out of reach for most people. Even those who can afford it won't be able to justify the expense based on their personal requirements. Then again, the Sony Vaio Z wasn't made for everyone. It's made for a niche set of customers — and to them it caters flawlessly.
Bhavishya Kanjhan is a digital marketing professional and an early adopter of all things digital. Follow his tweets on @bhavishya
