Sony VAIO VGN-Z11WN/B 13.1in Notebook Comments

Also worth noticing is the fact that for the extra bit of price Sony always offers consistent and exceptional build quality across its laptop range over other manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo.

I've owned Dell laptops before, and the superiority in build quality and finish of my current Vaio is immediately tangible over anything Dell has ever made.

ThinkPad's are the Rolls Royce of the laptop world. Their build quality is nothing short of exceptional.

Thinkpads are not Lenovo's only laptop line, I agree the Thinkpads are nothing short of exceptional but their more consumer orientated notebooks aren't so well built.

I love Sony's style when it comes to there niche end of the market of notebooks, so stylish. I'm just not sure what to get the Vaio Z or the Vaio TT, hurry Trustedreviews i need to hear your review of the TT before i decide :)

Seriously tempted to pull the trigger and buy this. Seems to be a great little product. Only thing that's making me think hard is the fact that I've been using ThinkPad's for the last 10/11 years and might find another laptop not meeting the high standards set by IBM that I've come to expect.

Is the Vaio quality really as good as people claim? And the keyboard looks a little odd, would it be a come down from a ThinkPad keyboard or is it really as good as this review suggests?

Thanks for the reply Andy :)

Ordered it this morning! Without seeing a demo unit! I live on the edge ;)

I've had the machine for a few days now. Apart from an annoying error that I occasionally get on start-up ( http://club.vaio.sony.co.uk/clubvaio/gb/en/forum/viewthread?thread=58440 ) the machine has been a joy to use.

The size & weight is exactly what I was after and it's fantastic to have so much power in such a small & light machine.

One of my fears was not adjusting to the keyboard and I'm happy to report that it hasn't been a problem at all. It's not quite up to ThinkPad standard, but it's very comfortable to use and each key has the perfect amount of travel.

The screen really is fantastic. It's the first WXGA++ panel I've used & the 1600x900 resolution ensures that my desktop will never be 'cramped'.

I really can't find much wrong with this notebook yet and I'm a fussy bugger to please. Hopefully the glitch on start-up will be resolved in some way although the Vaio forums haven't been particularly helpful in offering a fix. If I have one grumble it's not with the machine itself but the price of the accessories. A spare PSU is a wallet busting £85! Outrageous! On the plus side I managed to get a further two years warranty from Amazon for a very reasonable £70 (the Sony Store wanted double that amount).

So yes, I'm very pleased. I'll be ecstatic once I sort the start-up problem out.

I was looking for a laptop like this for months. I was so glad when I found this Vaio, Had it now for the last 3 months and it's the best thing I have every owned. Love it. HDMI out to my TV to watch TV programs, and films etc.

When I bought the laptop there wasn't an option for a Blu-ray drive, in some ways I wished I waited. Would have loved the option of watching Blu-ray on my TV, nevermind.

Well worth the money, and had a excellent service from Sony as well. With most things Sony nothings cheap but you get what you pay for. Do recommend the carry pouch from the Sony Style website product number is VGPCP15.AE which comes in at £30, expensive for what it is, but well worth it.

@Andy

I'm very happy with it! Thanks! :)

@Mark Horton

I bought the carry pouch you mentioned, it's expensive but the laptop fits snugly inside and helps protect it, so it's £30 well spent.

Regarding the warranty length, the Sony website states 12 months, this review states 2 years. I assumed the Sony website would be accurate which is why I bought the extra 2 years cover giving me 3 years in total (about the lifespan of a notebook). After registering the extra two years it told me my support contract had been extended from 11-2011 until 11-2013! So the standard warranty of the machine is 3 years! Gah!

I would definitely get an extended warranty with any Sony laptop. In my (admittedly limited) experience the number I get in for repair is surpisingly high for a premium brand and the exorbitant price of spares makes a lot of them uneconomical to fix (though thats true of most makes).

Never see a Thinkpad.

@Steve

Agreed it is worth it, after all it's a £1500 laptop your carrying around.

Hello,I'm about to buy the Z series, but to my surprise , vaio has just released Z 26, Z 27, and the current z series (Z12 )is still available but not on display any more, any Idea or thoughts why vaio would replace and Already new released product that soon??I had came across 2 isolated complains in the show room, one regarding the fast drain battery, and the other one the hard desk but not sure what is it exactly, any advices guys?

@SAM

The Z27 appears to be a model only available in Asia. The models available here are the Z11 & Z21. There's doesn't seem to be much difference, only that the Z21 has a 2.53GHz CPU and costs about £250 extra. That's a lot of wonga for a minimal performance gain! I presume it will have a knock-on effect on battery performance too...

Link here: http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProductCategory.action?site=voe_en_GB_prof&category=VN+Z+Series

Hi TR and all writers, thanks for your valuable input. Sony did it again. This Z series is a jewel. I travel 10 times a year and have a heavy Thinkpad. Fast and robust but the keyboard is rubbery/crap, the screen will make me go blind and it weighs 3 kgs+ (on top of my cabin luggage) with its bag and adaptor. Even though I get it for free at work, I am going to buy the Vaio next spring with my own money for work. It is really worth it. I was not surprised by the positive review.

DO NOT BUY THIS NOTEBOOK if you need to use a docking station. It does not work with the docking station. My experience with Sony "support" was extremely disappointing. After many phone calls and countless hours on hold I gave up and returned the product. Sony initially refused to accept the return even though it was within the 30 day window. I am extremely dissatisfied.

Thanks for an excellent review Andy. I am in the market and choosing between this, the TT, Lenovo X200s/X300. Do you know if the hard drive in the Sony Z or TT are easily replaceable? I think in a year or so I might want to swap with a new fast SSD drive (& likely more affordable then) but on some of these 11/13" it is virtually impossible to get to the drive? (Lenovo is easily replaceable)

Hallo, I see the comment above about problems using this Sony Z notebook with a docking station - that it does not work. Can you/anyone else add more information? I am thinking of buying one with a docking station & am now nervous about it. Thanks.

I've got the Z21 together with it's docking station. It does work, but it's a very disapointing docking station for such a good laptop. There's no power button, so you have to use the button on the laptop, which requires the lid to be lifted. The docking station won't show anything on an external monitor until the OS and display drivers have loaded. Even then you may have to log in and configure it to use the external monitor each time if you've booted the laptop undocked inbetween. These aren't major things, just annoying. Why couldn't Sony have put as much thought into the dock as they did into the laptop.

Hi Andy. I've been dithering between a Sony Z and a Dell Latitude E4300... I'll need to use Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software with it, so I've two questions. Firstly, is there a lot of fan noise? And secondly, is the version of Vista 32 bit or 64 bit? (Dragon is not yet 64 bit compatible.) Any comments on the quality of sound recording would be appreciated.

@Emer

This is a small amount of fan noise when the laptop requires cooling (the CPU kicks out a surprising amount of heat), but it's not a noisy fan although I had expected it to be quieter than it is.

Basically, it's no better or worse than most notebooks when it comes to fan noise.

Hi Folks and hi to Trusted Reviews folks in particular. You have a great site! Anyway, I'm thinking of buying this. I've got a few concerns. 1) First, the start-up glitch Steve reported--Steve, is that still a problem? 2) Also, I've read some posts elsewhere about the Z battery draining even a decent amount when it's not in use for just a day. Anyone had a problem with this? 3) Any further impressions re the Z's docking station or Sony's customer service? FWIW, I'm also thinking about the Lenovo X301, so would welcome any comparisons people care to offer. Finally, and this is a strange question I admit, does anyone have trouble fitting a laptop this size into safes in hotel rooms? I travel a fair amount for work and it seems that sometimes my current 12.1" just makes it into those safes. Thanks for any info or advice.

@Southside

The start-up glitch is still an issue. It's nothing to worry about, but once in every 10 start-up's I get some weird error popping up, it looks to be some sort of software/driver issue but I haven't been able to work it out yet. It's really not a big problem, but I'd still like to get to the bottom of it.

The battery does drain - there's been about 2 BIOS updates and as I haven't seen a changelog I don't know what they improve/resolve.

No laptop is perfect, but a few minor (and they are very minor) niggles aside, the Z series is absolutely fantastic and I can't recommend it highly enough. In a perverse way, I can't wait to see how they improve it. A more powerful niggle-free Z series running Windows 7 would be impossible to turn down!

(p.s. Not sure it would fit in the average sized safe, it might be a bit too long for that)

I bought a SONY VAIO VGN-NR21Z last August. It looks like the one reviewed here. It had a faulty hard disc. The help people were friendly but kept making me try things out rather than fix it. I eventually got a new hard disc in January having spent months messing with an intermittent fault that kept loosing all my work. It is very heavy to lug around, and very slow when doing calculations even with dual core Intel. The power lead keeps falling out the back. It only lasts for an hour an a half without power. It often hangs up for a minute or so for no obvious reason. It doesn't always connect to the Internet. The Sony Vaio connection panel is a pest because it doesn't give the obvious options. The keyboard keeps missing key presses unless you tap much harder than you feel you should. I bought a Panasonic Business Toughbook recently at the same price and it is miles better on every count. Very lightweight, instant connection to the Internet. Zips along. Lasts 5+ hours unplugged. I wouldn't buy another Sony computer unless they can match my Panasonic point for point.

This is my 3rd Vaio in the last 5 years or so ..
I got the Z48GB, with 2.8GHz (P9700), 6GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and Vista Business 64Bit. I wanted to have Bluray drive as well, but for some strange reason, you have to choose either SSD, or Bluray, but not both in UAE!!!! The salesman explained un-logically that it would be too expensive to buy with both options!!!!

Anyway, I am replacing my 1 year old SZ79, and all I have to say: WOW .. That’s a big improvement from the SZ, and it's worth its high price. It is much better in almost all aspects, faster CPU, much better responsiveness, and best of all much better looking!! In fact, the attractive design of the Z looks much better in real than on paper!!

In short... what to like: Well, almost everything, but especially:
1- The handsome design.
2- The dedicated buttons of DVD eject over the keyboard ... very convenient.
3- Switching between Stamina and Speed without a reboot ... very convened.
4- The shortcut keys, S1, and S2.
5- The quality of the LCD screen.
6- The keyboard buttons style.
7- Built-Quality... better than the SZ!
8- The design of the 9-hours extended battery... makes the Vaio even easier to type with angled keyboard.
9- Some of the bundled software, BUT I am just wondering; why on earth would Sony bundle competitor’s applications such as Adobe Premier Elements?? Why they do not bundle Sony's own Vegas Studio instead??!!! It just does not make any sense to me!!!
10- The light weight..

Anyway...What I disliked:
1- The speaker sounds very thin comparing to the SZ!
2- The battery sometimes harder to remove than the SZ!
3- The keyboard keys sometimes dose not register unless I press hard! Same problem with SZ!!

Finally, what I would love to see in future VAIO Z next year is:
1- Multi-Touch OLED display with ambient sensor.
2- Bigger & faster SSD drive.
3- Much faster CPU for hardcore work such as 3D graphics, and video editing.
4- Better battery technology to last 24 hours or more on Stamina mode.
5- Back lighted keyboard with ambient sensor. This feature is so important and convenient when working in dark places. I always have a very hard time to see what to press in such conditions.
6- Dedicated buttons for sound volume, and mute.
7- Multi-Touch panel.
8- Much better speakers with deep bass.
9- Standard Bluray burner.
10- Smaller power-supply adapter with the LED light on both the adapter, and at the socket that connects to the Vaio. They had such feature on older models.
11- Better build quality.
12- Optical finger print sensor which does not require sliding my fingers, instead placing my finger on it to register.
13- Finally, built-in laser projector for on the fly presentation of PowerPoint.

@Yasser Saeed

"Better battery technology to last 24 hours or more on Stamina mode."

24 hours?

*sniggers*

Sorry.

Steve .. I am sure the technology to 24 hours already exist today, but maybe it is just very expensive to apply ;)