Sony Vaio Z (2011) - Z For Luxury

Z For Luxury

“No compromises”, is Sony’s new tag-line to describe their latest Core i7-2620M (2.7GHz) processor based Sony Vaio Z. On paper, the Sony Vaio Z is perfect. It’s lightweight, it’s decked with the latest components other manufacturers only dream about (full HD screen on a 13-inch screen, high-end quad-core processor, etc.) and packaged in a compact form factor. It even has designer touches lurking in every corner, but most of all it has a Power Media Dock.

What’s that you ask? Well we’re glad you asked, because It’s actually the biggest compromise (depending on how you choose to look at it) that Sony had to make to keep the Sony Vaio Z so sleek. But at the same time, this extra piece of companion hardware that comes with every new Vaio Z is what makes it the most powerful 13.1-inch, 1.17kg consumer/business notebook you can find in the world right now. We've first touched on this when we attended the notebook's launch in July, but we'll get to the details in this article soon enough. Here's a video preview straight from the launch event on this beauty's highlights:-

Exterior Design and Features

Looks-wise, the Sony Vaio Z doesn’t lag behind anyone else in the market. It doesn’t really come with minimalist aesthetics, and you can tell immediately from the flamboyant gold option (the other option is black) and it sports a unique hexa-shell design, which describes its 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 to withstand some battering. It also makes the Sony Vaio Z look much more interesting than other notebooks, but on account of it being so expensive, we’d really advise against subjecting it to abuse.

The machine itself does feel light enough to be held comfortably for a long time without your arms aching (again, it’s only 1.16kg!). However we felt that build quality could be (much) better. Sure it uses one of the strongest organic shapes out there for its basic structure, but the weakest link here could be the materials used.

The Sony Vaio Z uses carbon fiber, the same stuff used in F1 cars and has a whole bunch of interesting physical properties. One of those properties however seems to put the Vaio Z in a bad spot. It’s supposed to be light, strong and flexible (or stiff depending on the mix of materials used to produce it).

If you ask us, flexible isn’t exactly how we like our notebooks. Why? Because it’s full of expensive components for one. Parts like the extremely fragile screen could benefit from stiffer lids for sure, so we’re not exactly sure where Sony is coming from because this is a compromise of sorts.

One reason we can think in Sony’s defense is that the more flexible body works like a shock absorber, soaking up knocks and shocks. Having said that, we’ve also come across reports that Apple has monopolized most aluminum suppliers, and that manufacturers have to turn to carbon fiber as the next best thing for their Ultrabooks.

Connectivity-wise, the Sony Vaio doesn’t really stand out from other machines until you realize it’s got a trump card on the right side of the machine. Located just beside the power port, is a seemingly benign USB 3.0 port, that is, until you realize it’s actually a Thunderbolt port working double shift as a USB 3.0 port!

This Thunderbolt / USB 3.0 port is part of the reason why the Vaio Z is as powerful as it claims to be, which leads us to the star of the show - the Power Media Dock (PMD) that uses this interface. It has the same general design philosophy as the laptop itself, and actually reminds us of mini PlayStation 3 when propped up.

This dock gives the notebook much more connectivity options, including HDMI, VGA, dual USB 2.0 ports, one more USB 3.0 port and another LAN port just to name a few. On top of these various connectivity options, the PMD acts as a Blu-ray drive via its slot-in loading mechanism. But, the one most interesting specification that makes the Sony Vaio Z such a dangerous beast, is the discrete graphics processing unit hidden in the PMD that enables much of the visual output options. It’s not a top tier discrete graphics unit, but the mid-tier AMD Radeon HD 6650M is more than enough to power almost all scenarios you can envision in a corporate environment (that also includes the latest PC games *wink wink*).

Just to be sure, we’re not talking about multiple spreadsheets all open at the same time, which it can do without breaking a sweat thanks to its Core i7 processor. We’re talking about engineering applications like AutoCad, powering multiple monitors (four screens simultaneously when counting the notebook's own), tackling photo and video editing programs and so on. In essence, the Sony Vaio Z has a credible processing platform on its own but its multimedia and gaming capabilities are further boosted by using the Power Media Dock. This presents two broad usage scenarios:-

• If you've bought it for personal use, the super light and powerful Sony Vaio Z is a handy companion anywhere and anytime for any processing needs at all. Back at home, you can tack on the Power Media Dock to indulge in Blu-ray movie playback on its full HD screen, or rely on its Radoen HD 6650M GPU for decent gaming needs.
• If you've purchased it for office usage, the ultra portable notebook is cinch to handle as you move from one boardroom to another for various meetings. If you ever need to setup a serious and impactful presentation, you can do in style on multiple monitors through the PMD's multi-screen support.

With the PMD, the new Sony Vaio Z is as almost as good as a gaming-grade machine, without the bulk. Sony isn’t the first to come up with an elegant solution to juice-up machines with limited capabilities. In essence, the concept is an evolution of port replicators and docking mechanism that have added features like more connectivity options, an extra integrated battery pack and more graphics processing power. One of these examples is from Gigabyte's Booktop series. The Booktops have been using docks for added connectivity to convert netbooks to a nettop, but the latest edition in Computex 2011 even incorporated a GeForce GT440 graphics. Not as powerful nor as elegant as what Sony's PMD packs, but you get the idea - it's not a new concept and it has been seen from time to time.

The only real implementation of a standardized external graphics connectivity technology was by Fujitsu Siemens in 2008, courtesy of ATI's eXternal Graphics Platform (XGP). Formerly codenamed AMD Lasso, the ATI XGP is as per the name suggests, an external solution to address space and size limitations for mobile platforms to house credible graphics power. The key to this solution was using a special external PCIe 2.0 x16 interface from the notebook to the XGP box housing the powerful discrete graphics. It's too bad that the concept never took off when the specifications had been ironed out, but we figured its due to implementation costs and perhaps high-speed signal control in an external box over a distance.

Sony's latest Vaio Z just revisited this concept of using an external unit for discrete graphics and with the advent of Thunderbolt technology (codenamed Light Peak) riding on the serial PCIe bus implementation, it's able to preserve high-speed data transfer externally. Sony's take however is a little more different as it uses a USB 3.0 electrical connector instead of the Mini DisplayPort established on the 2011 MacBook products.

Hard to Avoid Compromises

It’s been awhile since we saw a machine with such an interesting concept, but once you open the notebook, and actually start using it, you can’t help but feel slightly shortchanged. Sure it looks nice with a touch of designer influence all around the matter interior. Sure the accompanying matte screen is very sharp, with an industry-leading full HD (1920x1080 pixels) resolution for a 13-inch screen. There is also a nice engineering design touch which we like about how the notebook opens up. You can effectively lift the lid up with just one hand, while the bottom half stays anchored to the surface (unlike most notebooks requiring a two-handed operation to open the lid and hold the base). Once the lid is fully open, the keyboard is also slightly lifted to a comfortable typing position. But despite all the nice design aspects on the Sony Vaio Z, the issue we have here is the same as the one we have with the exterior, which is essentially build quality.

We know it uses a tough carbon fiber material, but with that amount of flex present throughout the machine, it really doesn’t command any sort of confidence about its build quality. So again, the promise of the Sony Vaio Z having “no compromises” is called into question. We’re fairly sure that to keep the Vaio Z nice and light, you’d have to use less material. So don't get sweet talked about its build material as from our experience, it's clear that carbon fiber requires some minimum thickness or a different composition to get the kind of rigidity and durability often associated with it. Sadly, you won’t find it on the Vaio Z. That's not to say it's weak. Surely Sony has done enough internal testing to figure out what should work for them, but the thought of having a flexing machine doesn't exactly invoke confidence from someone who doesn't know anything but what he sees and experiences at face value. In fact, some might even pass it off as a plastic build with metallic finish if they're not observant enough.

The chiclets keys on the keyboard were also somewhat a let down. While it’s good that the Vaio Z features chiclet keys (and they’re back-lit!), they are also extremely shallow with little key-travel. They lack the type of bounce you would normally associate with keyboards, for that very important tactile feel, making you feel as though you were typing on a touchscreen's software keyboard with haptic feedback . The palm rest layer on which the keys are on, is made of aluminum, which is supposed to be fairly rigid. Unfortunately we found the keyboard area to flex a fair bit as well.

Lastly we have the trackpad, which is covered with an aesthetically pleasing pattern, and has a fingerprint reader at the bottom that doesn’t get in the way. There aren’t any buttons, but the click-able space is clearly marked out by the area which ceases to have any pattern. Pressing on the 'buttons' was fortunately fairly comfortable, with just the right amount of click - not too mushy and not too hard. The only drawback here is that it's too small, and could gain much more usability if the trackpad area were somewhat larger.

So we checked it's build, usability and screen quality? What about its sound quality to complement videos? Unfortunately it's not worth mentioning and it's also barely audible at all. Given that it's a premium notebook, we were expecting more, but its slim frame wasn't suitable of supporting anything noteworthy. So if you're a stickler for good sound, you can always plug in your headphones or connect it to desktop speakers. Again, this is also a compromise of sorts.

Performance and Benchmarking

While the Sony Vaio Z raises some questions regarding its build quality, its performance however is something that actually lives up to its “no compromises” slogan. Here, its quad-core Core i7 processor, 8GB integrated RAM on the Vaio Z simply leaves all its competitors in the dust. Compared with several other slim and light business notebooks, in terms of pure performance, with or even without its powerful Power Media Dock, the Vaio Z manages to trump every machine we've tested (there were nine in this category), including the highly rated MacBook Air.

For comparison’s sake, we took the next lightest ultra-portable, the MacBook Air, and also the one of our favourite business notebooks, the Lenovo X1 - which also features a full powered processor (albeit it's only a dual-core model). Now we need to remind readers that the Vaio Z sports a Core i7 processor, and also an SSD drive, thus it’s performance numbers should be higher overall.

PCMark Vantage

As you can tell from the very slight lead that the Vaio Z has, its full-powered Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM doesn’t grant it much of an advantage here over the other two machines sporting Core i5 processors. The PCMark benchmarks is more of a general purpose benchmark than a detailed and taxing benchmark to show the Core i7's advantages. Professionals running engineering programs will greatly benefit from the Core i7 processors and the difference would clearly distinguishable. Also if you take into account that it has a Power Media Dock (with a much more capable GPU) to support, you can also understand why Sony chose a much more powerful processor as the brains for the Vaio Z.

Focusing on the hard drive test suite, its scores were the result of the second generation SSD RAID 0 that is included with the Vaio Z. Conventional wisdom tells us that the Vaio Z's RAID 0 array is supposed to perform much better than the singular SSDs on the MBA and the X1. However instead of outperforming the two in the hard drive tests, its scores were actually slightly lower. Since SSD performance are dictated by a wide variety of factors, ranging from chip, controllers, cache, it's not possible to tell unless we open up the machines to do an in-depth analysis. All we need to know now however is that the Vaio Z is running on two (embedded) 128GB SSD arrays in a RAID 0 configuration, and this is as fast as they get.

3Dmark 06

By itself, the Sony Vaio Z doesn’t really have scores out of the ordinary. WIth its integrated graphics, it only manages to perform marginally better than the MBA, and the ThinkPad X1, thanks to its processor that has a higher clock speed. Throw the PMD into the mix (which you should because the Vaio Z ships with it), and its scores are almost doubled. What this means is that Sony recognises the fact that when you need to travel, you need your machine to be extremely portable. But when you need to utilise some extra firepower, the PMD will be there to beef your machine up exponentially. The scores that we see the PMD achieve aren't necessarily on par with the best gaming machines out there, but they are pretty outstanding by any means. Scores like this typically enable you to play all sorts of the latest PC games, and also allows you to do semi-serious photo and video editing or rendering work.

Far Cry

If you are hankering for some real-life numbers to wrap your mind around how much power the PMD adds on to the Vaio Z, take a look at these Far Cry frame-rates. While it’s on integrated power, its average scores of 33.33 frames per second (fps) for Medium settings and 19.12 fps for Very High settings already give it pretty good standing when compared with its competitors. Here, the Core i7 rises to give the Sony Vaio Z a slight lead initially, but when the PMD steps in, its scores are almost doubled as expected. Of course we don't expect you to get one of these little beauties just to play PC games, but rather it is an indicator of what the PMD is able to do for you in addition to its base configuration.

Battery life and Portability index

When you have something like the Sony Vaio Z, that packs incredible specs into a small package, sometimes you’d be wondering where does it's battery go. Well that is a valid query because it is engineered from the inside out, and outside in, the Sony Vaio Z is remarkably small. Its interior architecture is designed to fit in as much as possible, and hence, another compromise is introduced. It has to be able to fit all of its components, and yet leave enough space for its integrated battery.

Battery Life

Battery life for the Sony Vaio Z isn’t abysmal, but it isn’t at the top of the pack either. To keep the entire unit tiny, we’re pretty sure Sony had to compromise on how much battery they can squeeze into the machine. And judging from the minuscule appearance of the Sony Vaio Z, we’d have to say that there’s not much battery in there at all (4000mAh integrated battery). However thankfully the batteries that they did manage to squeeze in, were utilized fairly well. The Vaio Z lasted for about 165 minutes, or just a little under three hours in our continuous video looping test. This result is something you would expect from a modern day notebook so it’s really nothing out of the ordinary. You also have to consider that it’s got a power hungry Core i7, as well as a bright, full-HD screen to feed. So perhaps it didn’t fare too badly after all.

Battery Consumption

The figures you see here are an indication of how much power a machine uses in our battery life test. Here, the Sony Vaio Z has a pretty average score of 16.36 watts, which is quite acceptable. This is a pretty straight forward difference in battery life when compared to the MacBook Air, and the ThinkPad X1, given the fact that it’s on a Core i7 processor which is of the full powered mobile variety. Factor in it's also got a bright, full HD screen to support with a tiny 4000 mAh integrated battery, and you'll know why the results are such. For reference, you might want to check how multimedia notebooks fare and you'll realize the Vaio Z is all right in comparison.

Portability Index

The portability index that we use here in HardwareZone is basically a mathematical formula that tells you if it is worth your time to carry a particulate machine with you with regards to other notebooks of a similar class. The elements that make up this formula are the weight, volume and battery life. The Sony Vaio Z didn’t fare better than other ultra-portables here, only because it doesn’t have a battery that is as big to support its superior specs. We mentioned before that it packs a full powered Core i7 processor, and not a watered down low-voltage version, so you’d have to choose if you want a more powerful processor when you’re on the move, so that you can work harder, or would you prefer a longer battery life so that you can work longer. Sony recognizes this and and takes the chance to sell you an optional sheet battery that effectively doubles the battery life of the Vaio Z. This sheet battery adds approximately 500 grams and will cost you S$249 should you choose to get it. We can't exactly say if it's a good deal or not, but if you need the extra juice, you know where to look.

Power on Demand

The Sony Vaio Z is a very strange beast indeed. Its marketing slogan is “no compromises”, yet at almost every turn, we see a compromise made. That’s not to say the machine itself is no good, rather we see them as compromises made to make the Sony Vaio Z better in other ways instead.

If you’d keep your eyes peeled, you’d realize that there is no machine out in the market that is as small, as sexy or as powerful as the Sony Vaio Z. Sony isn’t exactly known to produce affordable sub-par machines, so when it comes to their flagship model, you can rest assure that it’s definitely something good. So let’s take a look at what the compromises are, the issues they address, and perhaps improve on.

First we have the build quality: When you look at the Vaio Z, its extraordinary styling already speaks volumes in itself. The hexa-shell design will reach out and grab you by the collar if you choose to ignore it, but when you actually put your hands on one, you’d get a strange feeling of disappointment. Yes it’s got a tough structure, it’s got a tough carbon fiber shell, but why does it feel so flimsy? That’s not a good way to capture your first impression. Especially if you have to pay four thousand dollars for one of these machines.

The very flexible carbon fiber frame and screen lid flexes to alarming degrees when you apply a reasonable amount of force. Not to be spared, even the keyboard area experienced flex, which is also made of the same material. The keys on the keyboard are also so shallow you’d feel like you were typing on a software keyboard on a touchscreen instead. Hence the first compromise of build concerns in exchange for extreme portability. We can tell you what we’d choose in a jiffy. Why, we’d choose extreme portability of course. That's because you can always plug in an extra keyboard if you need to use it for extended periods and you wouldn't have to be concerned with the build much. For short periods of usage, the keyboard serves its purpose with no major issues. It's also back-lit - in case you decided to glaze through the first part of the review - and you just can't spell premium without back-lit keys these days.

Next, we have the fixed configuration and everything that's not vital coupled externally via the Power Media Dock (optical drive, discrete graphics and ports). If you missed the crucial bit, let us repeat again that the Sony Vaio Z is only available in one configuration or SKU (stock keeping unit). Most parts, like the 8GB RAM and SSD flash memory array for example are soldered on the main PCB to use less room within the chassis. For this, we applaud Sony for their brave move as it allowed them to really customize the Vaio Z to the extremes that we've not seen in a long while. Gone are the days when customers can order the Vaio Z according to the components that they want. Today, Sony tells you what you want, and you’re going to like it. And as you can guess, the lack of options is a compromise again to keep the machine as small as possible. So there's no large integrated devices to bog the Vaio Z down with unnecessary weight and volume here.

The best possible screen (full-HD at 1920 x 1080 pixels) is also chosen for this tiny screen size (13.1-inches, for which you seldom see anything above 1366 x 768 pixels). Whether or not your eyes are able to read what's on the screen is a different matter altogether. For those who prefer more readability, there are Accessibility options to apply on the software level, but the main advantage of the full HD screen is you can do more on the screen if you need some professional engineering or design work to be done. Not to mention, enjoy Blu-rays in its full glory, though it's hard to appreciate on a small screen.

So while the Sony Vaio Z packs in all the vital components like SSDs, full HD screen, lots of RAM and a powerful processor in as compact a frame as possible, Sony ventured to re-introduce the external graphics option with a new spin. Instead of just housing the AMD Radeon HD 6650M GPU, the Power Media Dock also acts as a Blu-ray drive, and a hub for USB and multiple display ports (which means you can plug in a maximum of 3 monitors if you include the VGA port on the body of the Vaio Z). All of this is only made possible with the introduction of Thunderbolt / USB 3.0 port. This high bandwidth interface between the PMD and the Vaio Z allows for high-speed data transfer without expensive cabling and electrical connectivity considerations. This is one compromise that Sony made with the Vaio Z that acts as a bonus in fact. By not stuffing all this into the Vaio machine, Sony was able to optimize the main machine for extreme portability with excellent processing throughput when required.  Instead, they bundled the PMD device to offer extended multimedia and gaming options when required and that too is in a pretty slim format.

So with this, you can essentially have yourself two very different beasts, hiding in one box. On one hand, you have yourself the most portable, full-powered Core i7 machine money can buy, and on the other hand, you have yourself a very capable workstation with a decent discrete graphics card that is capable of handling three extra monitors and almost any mainstream workstation software (Photoshop, AutoCad and the likes are no problem for the Radeon HD 6650M GPU and the Core i7 quad-core CPU). The only problem that’s left is, are you (or your company) willing to part with a cool S$3999 for an impressive feat of engineering (and can handle the notebook's flex), or would you rather use the money to get two separate machines that aren't as impressive? The key factors here are ultra light weight, excellent processing power, versatile, and a compact/portable design. You would be hard pressed to find one delivering all of that, but the Sony Vaio Z can do that if you don't mind a few of its design choices to address its intended user group.

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