Fans of VAIO laptops may remember that the flagship Z-Series is known for its impressive portability, until it quietly disappeared in 2017. The good news is that the Sony spinoff is now retiring this line, thanks to a breakthrough in the production of carbon fiber. The new VAIO Z is said to be the first laptop in the world to carry a ‘3D shaped full carbon fiber body’, as it is mounted in each carbon fiber piece on all sides of the cover, palm rest and chassis. Previously, VAIO could only use flat carbon fiber boards, so he had to rely on metal or plastic parts to hold them together.
VAIO
By developing this new production technique with carbon fiber specialist Toray, the result is a stronger structure – one that can apparently survive a drop of 127 cm or 4.1 feet (slightly further than the MIL-STD-810H requirement) – while maintaining the weight of the laptop to a little less than 2.3 kg. Not bad, considering that the VAIO Z features a 14-inch 4K anti-glare LCD screen, as well as a backlight keyboard with an enhanced 1.5mm pitch.
But as for the connectors, you only get one USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port on each side, a full HDMI port, a headphone jack and a security lock. Very far from VAIO’s earlier SX series.
For your convenience, VAIO has added a physical privacy blind to the 2-megapixel webcam, though of course you want to keep it open for Windows Hello. On a related note, the VAIO Z offers a keyboard shortcut (Fn + Tab keys) to mute both stereo microphones in one go.
VAIO
Battery life is another important selling point here. The company claims that the VAIO Z can last up to ten hours (the Japanese specification sheet even contains 17 hours, based on local test standards), but it is powered by an Intel Core i7-11375H high-performance processor, complete with Iris Xe graphics . . This is a very welcome change compared to the low-voltage CPUs on older models.
VAIO
Interestingly, the US market only gets the Signature Edition VAIO Z, which starts at $ 3,579 (16GB LPDDR4 RAM and 512GB “4th Generation” PCIe SSD) and is priced at $ 4,179 (32GB RAM and 2TB SSD). Despite VAIO’s attempt to set the Z up against Apple’s M1 MacBook Pro, it’s clear that this laptop is not for everyone. But if you happen to be looking for an excuse to splash out while sitting at home, VAIO is now taking pre-orders. Otherwise, of course, there are many other more affordable options.