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Sony have been creating laptop computers now for as long as I can remember and their flagship range, the Z Series has been attracting the attention of aficionados for many years. Today we are looking at a fully specified Z Series system with Core i7, full 1080p 13.1 inch screen, 8 GB of DDR3 memory, Bluray drive, backlit keyboard, Raid SSD and power media dock with AMD HD6650 discrete graphics. This is only for the demanding enthusiast who desires a superportable machine, without making compromises.
When it comes to actually buying a laptop, I tend to opt for a superportable computer as I hate traveling with a heavy 17 inch machine. My current machine of choice is the IBM ThinkPad X1, as it delivers a bulletproof chassis, with class leading keyboard and nippy Core i5 processor. I also admire the 11 inch Macbook Air, it has a better screen than the ThinkPad X1, but feels a lot slower, with weaker battery life.
The review product today is more than twice the price of either of these systems, but has a seriously hardcore list of specifications. The VGPPRZ20A/B.CEK BluRay Power Dock adds £459.00 to the overall price, which brings the total to £2,336.99 inc vat.
VPCZ21C5E
(custom build)
- Processor Intel® CoreTM i7-2620M 2.70GHz
- Operating system Windows® 7 Professional
- Language and keyboard English (QWERTY)
- Finishes Premium Carbon
- Hard drive 128 GB SATA Gen3 Flash SSD
- Memory 8 GB 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM
- Power Media Dock
- Display 33.2 cm LCD, 1920×1080, webcam
- Connectivity No Wireless WAN
- Security features Security features
- Battery Long-Life Battery
- Keyboard Style Backlight keyboard
- Microsoft® Office 2010 Office 2010 Starter
- Antivirus software No protection
- Adobe® Creation No Adobe® Creation
- Adobe® Lightroom® No Adobe® Lightroom 3
- Sony Creative software No Imagination Studio Suite 2
- Wireless LAN Wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g/n)
- Graphics Intel® HD Graphics 3000
- AC Adapter 1 AC Adapter
- Z Series Power Media Dock
- Bluetooth® Bluetooth® 2.1
The Sony Z Series arrives in a large brown box which is padded for protection. Inside, the primary black box with the laptop inside. Understated and elegant.
The bundle includes a high grade cleaning cloth, literature on the product, a quick start guide, and power adapter. The full user manual is installed on the machine itself. The power brick is small, and is rated at 19.5V, 3.3A. It gets warm, but never hot.
The Premium Carbon finish is a limited Edition extra, which adds a little to the overall cost of the machine. It looks beautiful however with a textured, subtle appearance under specific light. The entire machine is actually crafted from slices of carbon fibre. This Z series laptop feels very rigid and extremely light due to the choice of materials. It measures 17 mm thick and is even lighter than our MacBook Air, weighing 1.15 kg. It doesn't feel as tough as the IBM ThinkPad X1, and a little care would be needed when traveling. Carbon Fibre is very strong, but the screen area of this machine in particular is wafer thin.
Due to the super slim dimensions, this latest version of the Sony Z series has no built in optical drive and relies on Intel HD 3000 graphics. Obviously we will look at the Power Media Dock shortly, which redresses both concerns and adds a docking station to the mix.
The front of the Sony Z series has an SD card reader and a Sony card reader (does anyone use flash Sony media anymore?). There are also wireless, battery and drive activity indicators at the far left. The left side of the Z series has cooling vents, a VGA connector and security lock. The right side has a headphone connector, Gigabit Lan, HDMI out, USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports and a power connector.
The chassis underneath is very neat, with two fan vents noticeable at the rear. The LAN port has a cover which slides down. The optional battery connects to the underside of the machine, we will look at this shortly in the review. The primary battery is built into the machine and not easily removable.
The Z Series really is beautiful to behold, with a super slim screen (this 33.2cm panel has been upgraded to 1920×1080, from 1600×900). Stickers on the right side highlight this, and the use of a high end Core i7 processor (Core i5 option is available at a lower cost).
Cramming 1920×1080 resolution into a 13 inch screen sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the quality of the panel is fantastic. We would have liked a couple of additional brightness levels however as during bright daylight it could be a little tricky to read some smaller text. Viewing angles are decent, both horizontally and vertically.
Sony are using a ‘semi gloss' screen coating which gives the image quality a nice ‘sheen' with rich colour reproduction and deep blacks, but reduces the problems of glare, often associated with pure glossy screens.
The onboard sound system is a different matter, it is without doubt, one of the worst I have heard. At moderate volume levels it distorts, and there is no bass response at all. Headphones or speakers will be a necessity for anything remotely serious.
The trackpad is textured and features two buttons at the bottom, and a fingerprint reader, which worked flawlessly during testing. I had no issues using the trackpad, although it wouldn't be one of the best I have used in the last year. It is also a little small, a compromise we feel they had to make for this specific machine. This touchpad supports gestures, such as two finger scrolling.
For the majority of the review I used a BMS33 Bluetooth Sony mouse.
Sony charge extra for almost everything, including the backlit keyboard (£15), which has been added to this custom build. This backlit keyboard has a light sensor so it activates automatically in low light conditions. This can be disabled and adjusted via preinstalled software. Surely this should be a default option for such a luxury, high end laptop?
It took me a little while to adjust to this keyboard as the depth of travel is only a few millimeters. It is well spaced and actually works surprisingly well, although pales in comparison to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 keyboard. We like the physical switch to enable and disable wireless.
The power button is positioned on the far right, just underneath the screen. At the left are three buttons for quick access to a browser, application of choice and the Sony Care software which offers a wide range of diagnostic utilities.
Sony offer an engraving service, which is free on this particular machine. It is limited to a certain number of characters split across one or two lines in plain or italic font. There is a web camera in the center.
Inside, the layout is extremely neat, and compact. Two small fans are attached to several heatsinks which cool the processor.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.
The long life battery adds around £130 to the price of the system although Sony are currently offering a £20 price reduction with a purchase. It ships in a plain box, as shown above.
Sony include some literature on how to use and install the product, alongside a VGP-BC10 battery adapter. This can be used to charge the battery without the laptop involved in the process.
The battery is a very clever design, as it slots onto the bottom of the Z series laptop while maintaining the airflow. The side which connects to the laptop has several areas ‘cut out' which force hot air out from the side of the Z series laptop at specific locations.
The battery pack is rated at 11.V and is a 4,400 mAh/49 Wh design. Sony claim it doubles the battery life of the machine from 7 hours to 14 hours, but we will look at this later.
The sides of the battery have locking screws which are rotated to lock into the body of the Z series. There is a release lever which is used to remove the battery from the main body. It only takes a few minutes to attach the battery and to ensure it is secured in place.
Before attaching the battery, a rubber cover has to be removed from the Z Series. This should be safely stored.
The external battery adds a little thickness to the body of the Z Series, as shown above.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.
The Power Media Dock arrives in a box with the product ‘illustrated' on the front.
The bundle is extensive, including another power adapter, user literature, various multi country plugs and a heavy, ‘anti slide' chrome styled base.
The power supply for the Power Media Dock is larger than the main Z Series power adapter as it can be used to power both the media dock and the laptop, rather than having to use two power supplies at the same time. The image above right shows the size differences between the two.
The stand for the Power media dock is very reflective and is very heavy, to offer stability on a desk or table.
The Power media dock ships in a protective bag, which has to be ripped open by hand.
It can be used laying flat on a table, or slotted into the stand as shown above.
The Power Media Dock might look like a simple optical drive, but it includes an AMD Radeon HD6650 graphics solution with the bluray drive. This drive can be used to burn CD's and DVD's as well. Additionally, the Media Dock offers docking station capabilities. At the rear is a USB 2 port, USB 3 port, Gigabit Ethernet and VGA and HDMI video output. At the top of the unit is a USB 2.0 port, hidden underneath a cover. This is ideal for quick connection of USB flash media.
The connector between Power Media Dock and Sony Z Series laptop is actually a unique header based on Intel's Light Peak/Thunderbolt technology. This can handle the data stream for the AMD HD6650 discrete graphics and the USB and networking throughput between devices. When this is plugged in, the screen flickers for a second, as the more powerful AMD HD6650 takes over from the onboard Intel HD3000 solution.
It is important when removing this plug that all games and active video programs are quit. A button on the plug has to be pressed and the light will change indicating that it can be safely removed. If you don't follow this procedure, the computer will crash.
An elegant solution, although if you want the Bluray capabilities and added power of the AMD HD6650 discrete graphics then a plug socket has to be close by. The only real downside with this methodology.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.
Sony supply a ton of proprietary software with their machines and the Z Series is no different. We like the fact they have included a trial of Office 2010, but we aren't so keen on Bing Bar, McAfee and Skype being installed ‘out of the box'. We deinstalled some of the software and used Kaspersky anti virus as it has a much lower overhead.
The machine rates a 6.3 out of a possible 7.9 with the media dock disconnected. This rises to 6.8 as both graphics and gaming graphics capabilities are improved thanks to AMD's HD6650.
With the Media Dock operational, Catalyst Control Center becomes available and you have the choice of using extra external displays, or to accelerate the onboard graphics capabilities of the internal 1080p screen. The maximum supported external resolution is 1920×1200, which is obviously limited by the HDMI interface.
Sony supply a ton of programs to help improve the functionality of the laptop, and we particularly like the update application which ensures you are never running outdated software.
An overview of the system courtesy of CPUz and GPUz. The Sony Z we are testing today uses the highest option of Core i7 2620M processor which is clocked at 2.7ghz and has 4MB of cache. It can turbo to a maximum of 3.4ghz. It often runs at 3.2ghz in this machine with all cores active which is impressive. It was launched in Q1 2011, is built on the 32nm manufacturing process and is a 2 physical 4 logical design (via Hyperthreading). The 8GB of DDR3 memory is running at 1333mhz with 9-9-9-24 1T timings.
The Sony Z series has onboard Intel HD3000 graphics, and via the power media dock also can use the excellent, low power HD6650 graphics with 1GB of onboard GDDR5 memory running at 725mhz core. It is connected via a 128 bit memory interface with 8ROPs and 480 Unified shaders.
While many people would prefer the HD6650 to be inside the main unit, we like the fact that it can be added when needed, as using the Intel HD3000 will still offer video acceleration on the move, while demanding as little power as possible … therefore improving battery life.
System validation is available here.
We are testing today with the AMD HD6650 enabled via the power dock as the Intel HD3000 is unable to power many of the modern games at decent high definition resolutions.
Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares):
Asus G74SX (featuring Intel Core i7 2630QM)
Dell XPS 14z (featuring Core i7 2640M processor).
AlienWare M18X (featuring Core i7 2960XM Extreme Edition).
MSI CX640 (featuring Core i5 2410M).
Intel Core i5 2500k desktop processor.
Software:
3DMark 11
3DMark Vantage
PCMark 7
Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
HD Tach
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
Resident Evil 5
Dead Island
F1 2011
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Lacie 730 Monitor (Image Quality testing)
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Kill A Watt Meter
Nikon D3X with R1C1 Kit (4 flashes), Nikon 24-70MM lens.
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Native ports for all major operating systems are available:
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
- Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
- Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
- Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)
All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:
- SMP – Multi-Processor
- MC – Multi-Core
- SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
- MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
- GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
- NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
- AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
- IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit
As would be expected the i7 2620M falls in behind the i7 2640M found in the Dell 14z laptop. Very good results however all round, especially when factoring in the diminutive physical dimensions of the Z series machine.
PCMark 7 includes 7 PC tests for Windows 7, combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed to cover the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 7 offers complete PC performance testing for Windows 7 for home and business use.
An exceptional set of results, and a higher overall score than the Asus G74SX which we reviewed last week – a 17 inch machine built for the gaming audience ! The solid state configuration of the Sony Z Series really helps to boost the overall score.
CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.
CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.
Considering there are only two physical cores in the Sony Z series system, a score over 3 points is exceptional. This machine could be used on the move for light rendering duties.
Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.
The system scores 4,107 points which indicates decent Direct X 10 gaming performance with modest settings. The CPU scores well over 10,000 points, but the overall score is held back by the HD6650 discrete solution.
3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.
After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.
If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.
We used the default ‘performance' setting as this is the one most people can relate to. The system scores 1,260 points with the AMD HD6650 which shows the potential for modest Direct X 11 gaming with lowered image quality settings. The Core i7 2620M delivers a great result in the Physics test, scoring over 4,000 points.
When this machine was built for us, it was configured with the latest ‘Gen 3' Flash SSD setting – offering 128GB of storage at the fastest speeds. A 256GB configuration adds another £410 to the price, and 512GB a wallet sapping £1,150. Ouch.
Wow. A sequential read score of over 1GB/s! not bad for a superportable machine. If you want to see just how right Sony have got this, head over to our last review of the Asus G74SX system which uses two 750GB mechanical drives. We are talking around x8.5 times the read drive performance from this svelte Sony superportable system.
In real world terms the Sony Z Series is lightning quick to use, booting up in around 20 seconds, and eating through data without so much as a pause. For instance Adobe Photoshop CS5 64 bit loads in around 3 seconds on this laptop.
The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.
The ATTO Disk Benchmark verifies the sequential findings with CrystalDiskMark, showing around 1GB/s read and around 290 MB/s sequential write. Amazing results, and the highest we have seen from any laptop system since we opened Kitguru.
Finally, we added the Physical Disk Test from SiSoft Sandra, which scored the drive at around a whopping 957.14MB/s.
Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 is one of the finest solutions for the BluRay experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the new extended Bluray Disc of Lord Of The Rings.
The system demands an average of 15 percent CPU time, leaving plenty of cycles for other tasks.
The Matroska Media container is a very popular, open standard Multimedia container which is usually found as .MKV files. It is a very popular format in enthusiast circles and can be played directly in Windows Media Player with suitable codecs installed. We use the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP).
We ripped our BluRay disc of Sniper Reloaded to 1080P MKV and use Windows Media Player to playback the file.
MKV contained High definition files can place a heavy load on a processor, but we have no problems playing back our demanding test file, averaging 40%.
Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online. Full hardware acceleration is enabled.
Flash HD performance is great, averaging 15 percent demand with the high definition test file.
CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.
Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.
New and Improved Features
- Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
- Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
- Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
- Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
- Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
- Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.
For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2h:12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power. We are using the newest version which has been optimised for Sandybridge processors.
The system returned a final score of 16 minutes and 2 seconds, which is around two minutes faster than the Dell XPS 14Z system which we reviewed in December last year. Very impressive overall results.
Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5, is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.
Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the best-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of December, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling Resident Evil game ever made.
We tested this title in Direct X 10 mode at the native 1080p resolution of the built in panel. Anti Aliasing was disabled. The discrete HD6650 was enabled for all game tests today as the Intel HD300 struggles to maintain double digit frames with almost all titles at 1080p.
A surprisingly good performance, with a few hitches below the sweet spot of 25 fps. Overall however we could live with this.
Dead Island is set in the fictional island of Banoi, located off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The main characters wake up in the Palms Resort hotel to find the island attacked by zombies and mysteriously, they are immune to whatever is making people into zombies. As they try to find and help other survivors, they must also find a way to escape the island as well.
This isn't the most demanding game engine released in the last year, and we found it was playable at 1080p, although borderline with the settings we selected. A few image quality reductions would help increase the frame rate a little.
F1 2011 is the newest Direct X 11 racing game from industry pioneers CodeMasters. The 2011 Formula One season is the 62nd FIA Formula One season. The original calendar consisted of twenty rounds, including the inaugural running of the Indian Grand Prix before the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Pirelli returns to the sport as tyre supplier for all teams, taking over from Bridgestone. Red Bull Racing are the reigning Constructor’s Champions. Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel is the defending Drivers’ Champion, one of five World Champions appearing on the grid.
At 1080p this game is demanding of the partnering hardware and the Sony Z Series system struggled a little at this resolution. We would lower the resolution to 720p to improve the frame rates.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (abbreviated as Call of Duty: MW3, or just simply MW3) is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, with Raven Software having assisted in development. It is the third installment in the Modern Warfare series, a direct sequel to 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the eighth Call of Duty installment.
Again, at these settings, the system struggled a little, dropping under 25 fps from time to time. Many people would be happy enough however, but some image quality settings could be reduced a little more, or the resolution dropped to 720p.
We measure from a distance of around 2 foot from the chassis with our Extech digital sound level meter to mirror a real world situation.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum
The system is generally fairly quiet, until the CPU is tasked hard, and the fans quickly whir up to compensate. When gaming, the fans are very noticeable, generating quite a lot of noise. The Core i5 processor option might run a little cooler, and therefore quieter.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 23c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by running Furmark and Cinebench together.
We had no way of measuring the temperatures of the AMD HD6650 without disassembling the Power Media Dock, and we decided against it. The Core i7 processor can get fairly toasty, peaking at 85C under load, dropping to around 53c when idle.
To test the battery today we put the machine through three sets of real world situations.
One as a media movie lover on the move, a person wanting to watch HD media on a train journey or bus with two thirds screen brightness (any less and quality suffers).
Secondly as a business man, using the machine for productivity with wireless enabled and balanced power settings with a mid way (around half) brightness setting.
Thirdly as a gamer on the move, with screen brightness up high.
We are testing with the optional external battery disconnected, then connected.
Battery life is fantastic, although our results fell short of Sony's claims – which are ‘up to' 7 hours with single battery, and ‘up to' 14 hours with dual battery. Perhaps if you used the Z Series with everything disabled and brightness down very low, it may be possible. These aren't realistic conditions however. Still, excellent results and with the extra external battery, realistic ‘all day' life is possible.
An added benefit with the external battery added, is that the heat from the underside of the Z series laptop won't make contact with your skin or clothes.
The customised Sony Z Series laptop we reviewed today is without a doubt one of the most impressive computers we have tested since we opened Kitguru. The build quality is fantastic, and the use of Carbon Fibre has ensured the Z series weighs as little as possible … even less than the Macbook Air.
While the Z Series starts at a very reasonable £1,454 inc vat, by the time you add the upgraded Core i7 processor, 4GB of extra memory, uprated 1080p screen, backlit keyboard and extended battery, the cost is around £2,000 inc vat. This is a lot of cash, especially for a 13 inch superportable computer … almost twice the price of the excellent Lenovo ThinkPad X1.
If you want the benefits of the Power Media Dock, there are three options to choose from. All have onboard AMD HD6650m graphics with identical connectivity, however you can select either a DVD version for £369, a BluRay player version for £419, or a BluRay burner model for £469. If you have been keeping track of the price, the system now costs around £2,400 inc vat.
The software install could be better because I don't expect to receive a £2k system for review with preinstalled applications such as Bing Bar and McAfee Security suite. They aren't critical concerns but I normally end up de-installing a handful of applications then cleaning out the windows registry before initial backup.
The Z Series ‘semi gloss' 1080p screen is absolutely fantastic, and surprisingly clear, especially considering Sony have to cram all those pixels into a 13 inch panel. It didn't quite scale as bright as I would have expected however, and might cause problems if you frequently use the machine in bright, sunny conditions, outdoors. Otherwise, it is as close to perfect as you are likely to see. With the added media dock, you can also power several 1080p external LCD screens in the office, or at home.
The Intel Core i7 2620m is an extremely capable mobile processor, although in the confined physical space of this chassis, the fans have to work rather hard to maintain mid 80c temperatures under load. Performance however is not a concern and it is easily capable of handling video encoding or even modest 3D rendering duties on the move.
One of the standout points with this machine is the absolutely blinding Raid SSD performance, scoring over 1000 MB/s in the sequential read tests of both CrystalDiskMark and ATTO Disk Benchmark. In real world terms this helps ensure the Z series laptop also feels lightning quick, responding to most tasks almost instantly. Booting into Windows takes around 20 seconds, and loading Adobe Photoshop CS5 64 bit only takes a few seconds.
Drive performance is a critical system aspect, which many people still overlook. We experienced this recently when reviewing the Asus G74SX, a machine crammed with powerful components, hindered only by the use of mechanical hard drives. The Sony Z Series may have a slower processor, and inferior discrete graphics, but outside of gaming it feels significantly faster than the Asus G74SX thanks to the class leading solid state performance.
If you are able to overlook the cost, then there isn't a better superportable on the market today. If you are already looking at buying one of these machines then we would assume you can already afford it. Just be sure to buy the extra battery for the 10 hour+ life.
Pros:
- Beautiful styling.
- Very light.
- Strong.
- 1920×1080 13 inch screen.
- Solid State Performance is class leading.
- Battery life is fantastic. Over 10 hours with the optional external unit.
- Keyboard is good.
- Power Media Dock really enhances the appeal of the machine.
Cons:
- Expensive.
- Onboard sound is dire.
- Can get loud under load.
- Touchpad is small.
- Can't use the bluray drive and discrete AMD graphics without a plug socket.
Kitguru says: If money is not a concern then you can't get any better than this in the ultraportable sector.
well thats amazing, but the price is just madness. Wish I could afford to burn 2.5k on a laptop mind you 🙂
its certainly state of the art, but I cant see many people paying that for a superportable. macbook air is much better priced
Fran, get a grip, the macbook air is a toy compared to that machine. the apple computers are pretty naff, they look good.
that sony is one of the best machines on the market right now