The Latest Sony Vaio Z - As Premium as Ever!
We were invited for Sony's Mobile IT Meeting on the 5th of July, to attend the unveiling of the latest iteration of the well endowed Sony Vaio Z. Besides an excellent design, it boasts more firepower with its Power Media Dock. Read on for the exciting details.
A New Z for a New Year
Last year’s was one of our top performers in the ultra-portable category. The well-designed 13-inch notebook sported an ultra-fast SSD RAID 0 configuration that swept away everything in its path, speed-wise as well as elegant build. That provided the laptop with staying power that would last its owners for at least the next couple of years.
So in light of that, how will 2011’s Sony Vaio Z seek to differentiate itself when it’s competing against its (only slightly) older brother? Will it even succeed and to what degree? Well those questions will be answered in our coverage of Sony’s IT Mobile Meeting, held on the 5th of July, 2011.
Thanks to Sony South East Asia, we’ve had the good fortune to be invited for the unveiling of the latest in Sony’s Z series. Sony products have always had the distinction of possessing highly functional design elegance, and this year was no different. We managed to get a quick hands-on of the unit at the event and a demo by Sony's own product manager:-
The brand new Sony Vaio Z (in the foreground) and Vaio S showcased at Sony's IT Mobile Meeting.
This year's 13-inch Sony Vaio Z reminded us quite a bit of last year’s model. The clean lines, minimalistic design and metal surfaces retains the classic look of previous iteration and the distinct premium build also adds to its confidence. Style wise, Sony has come up with what is called the "Hexa-shell" design, which has hexagonal shaped edges. The hexagon is one of the strongest natural occurring shapes (think honeycomb) and when applied to the notebook, should theoretically reinforce the strength of the notebook’s body.
During the presentation, the word "premium" was used liberally and in this case, it was not an exaggeration at all. The first point that will strike you about the new Vaio Z is how thin it is, measuring just 16.65mm. And because of its slim build, the moment you pick the machine up, you can feel an instant connection between the physical size and its weight (1.16kg), making it feel just right.
To get the machine at that level of thinness, Sony Product Manager of IT Product Marketing, South-East-Asia, Janice Yang told us that several parts found in the notebook have to be specially designed and manufactured to obtain the desired form factor. Lightweight materials like carbon fiber and aluminum have also been used in the production of the notebook to keep the notebook feather-light. Hence the amazing 1.165kg weight.
The Vaio Z’s screen is also something that has been taken into serious consideration by the designers of the notebook. Firstly, for a small 13-inch notebook, it actually sports a high resolution full HD display with an anti-reflective glossy finish. Theoretically it means that there aren’t any annoying reflections to marr the on-screen image, and you’d still get the vibrancy and deep blacks normally associated with traditional glossy screens. In practice, we found that it was indeed the case. It was so effective that we initially thought it was a matte screen. Kudos to Sony for that.
Premium being the name of the games dictates the use of back-lit chiclet keys. Yummy.
All of the necessary ports are found on the sides of the notebook. The USB port is used to connect to the Power Media Dock too.
You can't expect a notebook classified for business usage without some form of security, which in the Vaio Z's case is the Biometric scanner, found below the textured trackpad.
Specific parts have been redesigned to achieve a much smaller than normally possible form factor for the notebook. So much for upgrading a couple years down the road. But hey, who needs to upgrade if the notebook is specced as well as the Vaio Z? That's what Sony's betting on for its intended audience.
It's More Than a Pretty Notebook...
For the more discerning users who actually care about their machine’s performance as well as its looks, the Vaio Z is well covered in this aspect too. It has a second generation Intel Core i7 processor, as well as an ultra-high speed third generation SSD RAID configured drive array (no details could be wrangled out from them yet). And if all that sounded like tech mumbo-jumbo to you, well all you need to know is it allows the new Vaio Z to boot up in a trail-blazing 14 seconds flat. Not the fastest boot up we've ever seen, but impressive enough for a notebook.
Power Media Dock to the Rescue!
Still not impressed? Still have something which you wish the Vaio Z can do? Well, allow us to introduce to your the Power Media Dock, which according to Ms Yang, is bundled with every new Sony Vaio Z. This peripheral will cover all your connectivity bases from an external Blu-ray drive, to more USB ports and even more video ports like VGA and HDMI. So where did all those video ports come from? That's because the Power Media Dock has got an AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics accelerator with 1GB VRAM!
What that means for you is that gaming is always an option, while graphics processing (which includes video encoding) will get done faster and using the graphics horsepower is also an option. With a slim form factor like the Vaio Z, it 's almost impossible to incorporate a powerful discrete graphics engine in its frame and the same goes for most notebooks of this size. The only two options most gamers had was to buy a chunkier well-specced notebook or settle for a slim notebook for non-gaming purposes while a fairly capable desktop system caters to gaming needs. With the new Vaio Z, you get the best of both worlds on the same machine - a super light machine for portable computing, while full gaming prowess is reserved when you're back at your work desk to couple it with the dock.
Meet the Power Media Dock - the additional powerhouse that boosts the Vaio Z's performance credentials when attached to the notebook. "Light Peak" technology ensures that the data transfer is streamed over to the machine at 'light speed' (pun intended). It even doubles up as a Blu-ray drive!
With the basic ports, including a VGA port already on the notebook machine itself, the Power Media Dock has plenty of other ports which you may need to tap on to unleash the full capabilities of your system. For example, to take advantage of the built-in Radeon HD 6650M graphics engine and its extra video outputs for multi-screen usage.
More interestingly, the Power Media Dock features data transfer capability using "" (officially known as Thunderbolt) technology on an optical cable via a proprietary USB 3.0 port between the dock and laptop. This super fast and high bandwidth connection allows the system to leverage on the external features of the dock without lag or performance issues. And this also brings an added benefit as one can use the full set of video outputs from the dock and the notebook to connect up to three other screens. Together with the notebook's own screen, you've a grand total of four screens to multi-task effortlessly and conduct presentations like never before. When the dock isn't being used, the notebook's USB 3.0 port still works with traditional USB 3.0 devices just fine.
As always, you have the option of getting some accessories for your spanking new machine. The one that was heavily touted was the sheet battery add-on. It effectively doubles the Vaio Z’s battery life (of 6.5 hours to 10 hours), letting the machine last that much longer while you are out and about.
So this is as much information we were able to gather during our brief time with the new Sony Vaio Z. The expected release of the product is late July, and as far as pricing goes, we don’t have any solid answers from Sony yet. Judging from last year’s Vaio Z however, you can be sure that premium products demand premium prices (think upwards of S$4,000). Rest assured that once details are available to us, you can find them here at HardwareZone.com.
The sheet battery is a slim and lightweight add-on to the Vaio Z for double the battery life you can squeeze out of the Vaio Z, which impressively is an estimated 6.5 hours.
Premium products will need their premium accessories, and nothing shouts premium louder than handmade leather casings.
Just in case you're wondering how light the Sony Vaio Z is in terms of soda.
Last but not least was the surprise appearance of the Sony S1 and S2 Android tablets. They were enclosed, but were turned on for all to see.
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