James Bond loves it, should you?

Oct 11, 2008 08:01 GMT  ·  By

The world of computing has changed drastically over the recent years, the evolution of technology making computers increasingly portable, smaller and more lightweight. This led to the appearance of a whole new segment of users, called “digital nomads” or “road warriors”, who tend to spend a lot of time out of the office, while still being connected at all times to the Internet and carrying out their work-related tasks.

With the aforementioned market segment in mind, Sony developed and launched back in mid-2008 the Vaio Z Series of notebooks, a family of products that combine an ultra-portable form factor with a very impressive level of computing power, plus several interesting and useful multimedia options (the Vaio Z is among the world's smallest portable computers to incorporate a Blu-ray drive). Probably due to these features, plus the many more you're about to see, the Sony Vaio Z Series notebook has become the official notebook used by one of the world's best-known secret agents, 007, James Bond.

We've had the chance to test the Sony Z for ourselves, and even if we're no James Bonds (well, we are, but don't tell anyone), we found it to be quite worthy of a super-spy... and that's about it. This is clearly a device targeting a special class of users, namely those people who are looking for elegance, style and power in their computing systems and, at the same time, are willing to pay quite a hefty amount of money. The reasons? Well, read our review, and you'll see exactly what we're talking about.

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Design and aesthetics

Overall design features

Upon unboxing the Sony Z Series notebook, I was amazed due to its very slender form factor. Of course, I knew that I was dealing with a 13.3-inch notebook, but after the previous experience with the Vaio FW, which was quite a large model, this ultraportable device came as a very pleasant surprise.

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One thing's clear in the case of all Vaio notebooks: even if they're more expensive than their rivals, their design is worth every penny. And that's also true with the Z Series model, whose case is very sleek, smooth to the touch, and elegant. Actually, the whole device “breathes out” elegance, and will certainly draw attention whenever it will be used in public.

As far as its dimensions are concerned, this notebook is no MacBook Air, but it's not far, either. Its height is of around 1.3 inches (in the thickest area, around the hinge), which means that it won't fit into a yellow paper envelope, but it will occupy a fairly small space in a handbag (or even a large purse). Plus, at 1.5 kilos, it's quite light, which means that users will find it pretty easy to carry around.

The notebook has quite a sturdy build, with a multi-layer carbon-fiber casing that covers the LCD panel and bottom of the chassis to help protect against shocks. And speaking of the LCD panel, the display seems to be quite flimsy at first sight, since it is just around 3.5-mm (0.13-inches) thick due to the fact that it employs LED backlighting technology. However, despite the apparent frailty of the panel, it's firmly attached to the body via the strong hinge.

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The speakers are a lot less visible than in the case of the FW, being located just above the “Esc” and “Delete” keys, respectively. However, they're quite powerful, but we'll talk more about this particular subject in due time.

Keyboard and button placement

The keyboard of the Sony Z Series notebook follows the classic Vaio design, with relatively large spaces between its 82 keys compared to other portable computing systems. While the quality of the keys and the feeling one gets while pressing them is not exactly the same as in the case of the FW, it's by no means bad. It's just not extraordinary.

Since this Vaio is not designed for multimedia playback in particular, it lacks the additional supplementary multimedia control keys usually found above the keyboard itself. The control functions are still available, but they have been moved onto the F2-F7 keys, and they can be accessed by pressing  Fn + the respective key.

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Additionally, the manufacturers put two function-assignable buttons (S1 and S2), which can be configured for launching various software applications.

Directly above the S1 and S2 buttons, we can find a very important switch, which is placed directly on the hinge. This switch allows users to choose between “Stamina” and “Speed”, which translate into either improved computing power (Speed) or improved battery life (Power). Practically, by flipping this switch, users can adjust the graphics on-the-fly, without having to reboot. While we'd love to tell you more right now about the Vaio Z Series' innovative hybrid graphics system, we'll further develop this subject in the hardware-related section of our review.

Opposite the two “S” buttons we can find the “Eject” button, which is used, quite obviously, for ejecting the Blu-ray drive's tray. As all other notebooks on the market, the Z Series from Sony also sports a Wireless switch (located on the front side, in the immediate vicinity of the built-in memory card reader), which either activates or deactivates the built-in WiFi and Bluetooth modules. Last, but not least, there's also the Vaio-specific power button, located on the right side of the hinge and glowing in two colors when the computer is switched on (green for activity, orange for stand-by).

Touchpad and fingerprint sensor

The notebook sports a rather standard-looking Electro-Static touch pad, with two control buttons located directly under it, which suffer from the same design issue as their counterparts from the FW model (they're at exactly the same level as the palmrest and they're exactly the same color, which makes them a bit more difficult to distinguish).

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However, the Z Series notebook has also been equipped with a biometric fingerprint sensor, located right between the two buttons mentioned earlier. Thus, users can very easily authenticate to secure websites, a feature that really comes in handy for most businessmen out there. Or for James Bond. Connectivity options

The area of connectivity options and interfaces is perhaps one of the few where the design of the Vaio Z Series can really be subjected to some criticism. It's not their number (although three USB 2.0 ports would have been a lot nicer than the only two available), but rather their positioning. Indeed, the engineers from Sony have tried their best to fit as many interfaces as possible into a relatively small space, but the result is not exactly fantastic, posing serious usability issues.

On the front side of the Vaio Z Series notebook, we can see its two memory card readers, one compatible with Secure Digital (SD) cards, while the other is specifically designed for Sony's own Memory Stick Duo format (with extended MagicGate functionality).

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On the notebook's left-hand side, we come across several interfaces. First (starting from the lower-left corner) are the microphone (line-in) and headphone (line-out) jacks, followed by the IEEE394 (FireWire or i.Link) interface. Then, there's a USB 2.0 interface and an RJ11 (phone-line) jack for the built-in modem that has been hidden behind a small plastic cap for protection. Also for protection (this time against theft), the device sports a Kensington lock, located in the immediate vicinity of the RJ11 jack, followed by an ExpressCard 3/4 slot.

Also on the left side, we can find the Ethernet connector, which is hidden behind yet another plastic cap and is probably the hardest connector to find on this thing (it took me about two minutes to figure out its location). Near the RJ45 panel, we can find the AC adapter connector, located directly on the hinge.

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While the rear side of the notebook has no connectors whatsoever, the right-hand side also sports three interfaces, related mostly to video output. Thus, immediately to the right of the Blu-ray drive (and slightly underneath it), we can find an HDMI interface, accompanied by a USB 2.0 port and, finally, a VGA output, located directly near the Power button.

The Vaio Z Series notebook also comes equipped with a docking connector found in the immediate vicinity of the battery, on the lower side of the notebook.

Webcam and microphone

Fast and seamless online communications are vital in today's highly competitive world. In order to make things easier for the users, the engineers from Sony have equipped the Vaio Z Series notebook with a 0.3 megapixel (640 x 480 pixels) MOTION EYE camera, as well as a microphone. This way, users can take advantage of those IM clients capable of making video calls in order to set up teleconferences and communicate more easily.

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Blu-ray drive

As mentioned above, this is among the smallest computers to feature a Blu-ray drive. Actually, up until recently, when Sony launched their Vaio TT model, the Z Series held the title of “world's smallest”. As in the case of all other Vaios, the optical unit is located on the right side of the notebook, and is quite easily accessible, by pushing either the eject button or the one located on the tray.

Hardware performance

System setup

CPU: Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo P8600 running at 2.4 GHz, L2 On-board Cache 3MB, ECC, Enhanced Intel Speedstep Technology, Intel Virtualization Technology, 45nm Manufacturing Technology

Chipset: Mobile Intel Cantinga GM45

Memory: 4GB of Dual-Channel DDR3 533MHz memory (7-7-7-20)

Storage: Toshiba HDD, 320 GB, 5200 RPM, 8 MB buffer;

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS, 256 MB memory; Intel Mobile 4 Series Express Chipset Family

Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Business

Wireless: Intel Shirley Peak (Shiloh) Wireless WiFi Adapter

Battery: Li-Ion, 5400 mAh

Testing

Now, after the extensive "Hands-on" experience with this small and elegant Vaio notebook, it’s time to really see what it is capable of. Obviously, we did not expect a 13.3-inch notebook to have been designed for gaming applications; nevertheless, that doesn't necessarily mean we are dealing with a low-performance system. After all, the Z-series has been built to meet the requirements of the world's most renowned secret agent and, yeah, it is built on Intel's latest mobile platform, Centrino 2.

As mentioned above, the 13.3-inch Vaio has not been designed for gaming, proven by the 3DMark Vantage score which only gave the Z-series a maximum of 2121 points for the GPU and 4569 for the CPU, for a total of 2449 points. The test was run at a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels and setting all the other options to Entry, as this was the only mode the Vaio could handle for a full run through the tests.

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With PCMark Vantage, the Vaio did a bit better, scoring a total of 3464 PCMarks, earning the biggest points for communications and music, while for memory and gaming, the Z-Series scored the lowest points. However, we do have to say that, unlike the 3DMark Vantage, with PCMark, the Vaio didn't struggle so much.

We tested the memory and hard drive using Lavalys' EVEREST application and HD Tune, and for a better understanding of the notebook's gaming capabilities, we decided to play a little with Crysis. In terms of hard drive performance, the 320GB Toshiba HDD offered an average transfer rate of 42.1MB/s while the access time settled at 19.1ms.

As for our experience with Crysis, we have to say that, if you have nothing else to do and want to see for yourself how your small Vaio will handle one of the most demanding computer games to date, then and only then you could try running Crysis on the 13.3-inch Vaio. If not, well, just take our word for it and consider some less demanding games, as you won't get more than 7-8 FPS with the game set for entry.

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Aside from testing the notebook using all of the above mentioned benchmarks, we also wanted to see how hot it would get while the CPU and GPU are in full load. For that, we measured the temperature let out by the notebook's internal cooling system while it was running 3DMark Vantage, HD Tune Benchmark and Super PI simultaneously. We can tell you that this small Vaio got pretty hot (43-50 Celsius degrees, to be more precise), pretty quick that you wouldn't have wanted this thing in your lap. However, it's unlikely a user that decides on purchasing this small Vaio will ever need to stress the CPU and GPU to its limits. In idle mode, the cooling system lets out about 28-33 degrees Celsius, which is rather acceptable.

We can say that the Z-series from Vaio is one of the best ultra portable computer systems on the market, providing you with just enough performance to handle high-definition entertainment and even some decent gaming.

Real-life performance

You read in the previous section that the Sony Vaio Z Series stands from the point of view of the raw, basic hardware performance. We also took the notebook for a spin and forced it to do some of the things it was designed for, in order to see just how well it would behave in a normal, everyday environment. And we've done it all with the included software to help you get a pretty clear idea of what to expect.

Display

The display of the Vaio Z Series is probably one of its most impressive components, and it deserves quite a good deal of attention. The 13.1-inch LCD panel employs XBRITE-DuraView technology, one of the reasons why all the images are quite crisp and clear, regardless of the resolution the user might have chosen (from the available 1366 x 768 or 1600 x 900 maximum resolutions). Moreover, the viewing angles are also quite impressive, close to 180 degrees on both horizontal and vertical directions (OK, perhaps 178 degrees is closer to the real value).

Of course, the fact that the diagonal size is rather small doesn't make the device particularly well-suited for playing games or watching long movies, unless you're the type of person already used to watching videos on small screens. Even so, the quality of the displayed images is absolutely astounding, especially when playing back high-definition videos.

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We've tested two different clips, one at 1080p resolution and the other at 720p. The second clip was OK, but the first one (1080p) was amazing, with a breathtaking level of contrast and color. Plus, the playback was seamless, without a glitch, proving once again that the Vaio Z Series could easily be used as a high-definition player, especially by those people who don't own a standalone model.

Audio

Quite surprisingly, the quality of the audio is superior to what we initially expected. The sound generated by the notebook's tiny speakers is not necessarily very powerful, but it's crisp and clear, to some extent superior even to that of the Vaio FW, which, as you can probably remember, was a dedicated multimedia device.

Multimedia playback

Since the Vaio Z Series is a device designed especially for business users, its multimedia playback capabilities have not been pushed too far. The device comes pre-loaded just with the Windows Media Player from Windows Vista in order to handle the audio files and non-Blu-ray multimedia files. Of course, some might argue that's quite enough, but we won't go any further in this direction in order to avoid controversy.

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The notebook can handle DVD playback and authoring as well, since it comes pre-loaded with the WinDVD For Vaio and Easy Media Creator software applications. Photo viewing/editing/organizing/sharing tasks are carried out quite easily, with the help of the Google Picasa  and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 applications.

To sum up, we'll just say that, while not providing so many multimedia-related apps right out of the box, the Vaio Z Series notebook offers pretty much all the basic tools that would allow a normal user to enjoy a complete computing experience, according to today's standards. Gaming

While this machine is not a gaming-dedicated one, it can be easily used for such purposes. Of course, the fact that the size of the display is quite small will represent a pretty serious drawback, but it beats playing games on your mobile phone by far.

Despite featuring the very innovative hybrid display system described above, the Vaio Z Series notebook is not particularly powerful. When running Crysis (the original, not Warhead) at 1280 x 1024 pixels resolution and in Directx10, the experience was a rather strange one, and clearly not seamless. There were quite a few hiccups, and the graphics weren't exactly what one might expect from such a legendary FPS.

Taking this into account, I'd go as far as saying that the Z series notebooks will support several games, but especially those that don't stress them way too much. However, they are more than enough for casual gamers, or even for hardcore ones, as long as they keep the graphics settings at a medium/low level.

Office work

First of all, I must mention the fact that the whole review was written using the Vaio notebook's own keyboard and office software (since the portable computing system comes pre-loaded with 60-day trial versions of Microsoft's Office Word 2007 and Excel 2007, as well as Works, Windows Meeting Space and the Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard software for manipulating PDF files).

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To tell the truth, staring into the 13.3-inch display for a very long period of time wasn't exactly my idea of a good office experience. However, if you're not going to write a few thousand words while browsing screenshot photos and other menus, then you should be OK. The office applications work quite well and the fact that the device sports a pretty powerful CPU and loads of RAM will ensure you easily multitask, albeit the screen space on which one can actually view the files is rather limited. However, for prolonged working sessions, one can always connect the Vaio Z Series to an external monitor, which brings us to the next section of our review.

Connectivity and networking

The Sony Vaio Z Series notebook is designed and developed for people who tend to spend a lot of time on the road and need to access the Internet wherever they might be, by using all the possible available methods. For this reason, the notebook sports an Ethernet connector, phone line connector and built-in modem, an Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN wireless adapted (802.11a/b/g/n supported), as well as a Bluetooth module, for connecting to a mobile phone or a pair of wireless speakers/headphones/etc.

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While we won't go into any further details regarding the particular networking options and applications (the Vaio SmartNetwork application does quite a good job of managing all the available connectivity options in a very user-friendly manner), and they're pretty much the same as in the case of the FW, we're compelled to say a little something about its output capabilities.

Pretty much as in the case of the Vaio FW, the devices from the Vaio Z series can be transformed into full-fledged Blu-ray players in a couple of seconds by simply connecting them to a high-definition television set via HDMI and then pressing Fn + F7. Furthermore, users can even adjust some of the playback options by pressing Fn + F2/F3/F3 in order to adjust the volume or Fn + F5/F6 to adjust the brightness level.

Built-in software

As mentioned right from the start, the Vaio Z Series notebooks have been specifically designed in order to match the needs of digital nomads and business users, and that is the case with the included software. Fortunately, the device comes pre-loaded with a fairly low number of software applications, all of which are actually quite useful.

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Besides the ones you've already read about in the sections dedicated to multimedia playback and office work, the notebook also offers users such applications as Internet Explorer and Google Earth, Skype and Google Talk (for communication), a 60-day trial of the McAfee Internet Security Suite, Sony's MyClub Vaio, Google Desktop Search, as well as several utility software apps, namely Vaio Control Center, Vaio Smart Network and Vaio Recovery Center.

As for the OS.... well, since this notebook is designed for business-persons, it only seems fit to run the Windows Vista Business operating system from Microsoft.... with all its array of issues. Conclusions


The Good

Probably the most impressive feature of the Vaio Z-Series notebook is the fact that it delivers quite a lot of computing power, while maintaining a very slender form factor. The LED-backlit display requires less power than a normal one and provides crisp and very clear images, even in HD. Furthermore, the portable computing system delivers extensive connectivity options, packs a Blu-ray drive and enough hardware to help users carry out their normal (mostly office-related) tasks without a glitch. The battery life is quite a good one (five to six hours, depending on the type of activity you're carrying out); the device also has a very interesting design, which will certainly be noticed by the people around.

The Bad

Despite of all the good things mentioned above, the Vaio Z-Series also has a few shortcomings, the most important being related to its gaming capabilities. Of course, demanding extensive gaming features from a device of this type is not exactly fair, and should one stress it way too much, it might reach some pretty unpleasant temperature levels. Another serious minus is the placement of the Ethernet and modem connectors, which, despite being well-protected by their plastic caps, are not exactly very easy to spot, especially in the dark.

Overall impressions

Overall, the Vaio Z-Series ultra-portable notebook from Sony is just the device you need if you're going on a business trip and want to work a little (then relax a bit). It's quite good at playing back multimedia (either video or audio), you can also use it for viewing HD movies as it offers all the connectivity options you might require (and a little extra on the side) and it's very easy to carry around. Plus, you can also throw in a little gaming, as long as you don't stress it, otherwise, it might get a little too hot to handle, even by James Bond.   Sales package

- VAIO Z notebook - Lithium-ion battery (VGP-BPS12) - AC Adapter - Power Cable.

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