Sony Vaio VPCZ21M9E/B.CEK Z-Series 13.1 Inch Laptop (Intel Core i5 2.3GHz Processor, RAM 4GB, SSD 128GB) - Black
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Great but not perfect, By
Rasputin - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sony Vaio VPCZ21M9E/B.CEK Z-Series 13.1 Inch Laptop (Intel Core i5 2.3GHz Processor, RAM 4GB, SSD 128GB) - Black (Personal Computers)
I have owned my Z series for about a fortnight now and it's great: small, VERY light and clearly built using some decent materials; there's no feeling of flimsiness here. Being that I'm not much of a Windows fan, I installed a Linux OS on mine and am extremely impressed by the speed. Boot time is under 20 seconds and programs open almost instantly - the SSD is rapid. I opted for the full HD 1920x1080 screen which, if I'm honest, may be a slight overkill, text can end up being on the minuscule side but should you decide to watch a movie or look at photos, I don't think you'll find a better laptop screen, I think it's clearer than the Macbook Pro, giving truer blacks.However, it's not perfect, and at this price, it really should be.
First, there's the keyboard: there's a lot of talk in reviews about the lack of travel in the keys due to the thinness of the machine. To me, this is not a problem, in fact, I actually like the feel of the keys, they seem solid and I was quickly typing as fast as I had been on my old Macbook. The principle problem for me is that the right hand shift key is very small so that whenever you want to press it with the little finger on your right hand, you invariably end up hitting the up arrow key which doubles as a home key, meaning that the cursor returns to the beginning of the passage that you're typing - VERY frustrating.
Secondly, the trackpad is TERRIBLE, to the point of being almost unusable, dragging and dropping is virtually impossible, I am forced to use a mouse with mine - something that I would have done anyway, so not a big deal, but even so, you would think that a laptop costing close to £2000 would at least manage a decent trackpad. My 4 year old Macbook has a trackpad that is infinitely better than this one.
Last, but not least, the speakers. AWFUL. Absolutely hopeless. If you think you might want to play music through the laptop's own speakers, forget it. They're so tinny and weak, the sound distorts at anything above whisper volume. Again, this isn't an issue for me as it is either plugged into my hifi or I'm using headphones, but on the few occasions when I've used the speakers, I'm amazed that Sony had the nerve to sell these things.
So summing up, a quality machine, no doubt. It's stylish, it's a bit different to the ever expanding army of glowing Apples that seem to be taking over the planet. It has a brilliant screen and I am confident that it will last, with an upgrade to 8gb RAM, it's hard to think of anything besides future games that this machine won't run for the next 5 years or so. If, like me, you can deal with the horrendous speakers and the miserable excuse for a trackpad then you'll have yourself one of the best, if not the best laptop of this size that money can buy. I can't pretend that the keyboard isn't an issue for me, but the good points of the Z series do make up for it, so I'm prepared to let it go. If it was even £500 cheaper, it would have been a bargain. As it is, it's really just a bit too expensive for a computer which is, if only slightly, flawed.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Excellent choice, By
gt - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sony Vaio VPCZ21M9E/B.CEK Z-Series 13.1 Inch Laptop (Intel Core i5 2.3GHz Processor, RAM 4GB, SSD 128GB) - Black (Personal Computers)
Excellent machine, that works perfectly in all conditions. Quick processing of "heavy"files, works easily with data analysing software with files of more that 2 million records.Excellent screen, very low weight.
Only drawback that has been somehow annoying is the small life battery.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Awful reliability and service, By
Garth - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sony Vaio VPCZ21M9E/B.CEK Z-Series 13.1 Inch Laptop (Intel Core i5 2.3GHz Processor, RAM 4GB, SSD 128GB) - Black (Personal Computers)
Bought the top of the range Z series (i7) in December 2011 and initial impressions were very good - Small, lighweight and quick. Some of the other reviewers have picked up on the drawbacks; mainly the awful speakers for a laptop in this price range (not usuable for Skype) and a very small screen size to be running full HD resolution.Very disappointed when the laptop failed to respond to the power button in January 2012, symptoms were as if the battery was flat, but definitely not the case. Even more disappointed when I discovered Sony do not have a next business day repair. They organised a courier to collect the laptop the following day and returned the laptop one week later on the Friday. This might be suitable for home users, but this is a business machine and one week out of use results in serious disruption. On return (Friday afternoon) I checked the machine (using the docking station) and all appeared well. That Sunday I boarded a plane to the US and fired up the laptop, or rather tried to, and found while the laptop was powered up the screen was blank. Tried contacting Sony in the US, they refused to raise a support call for a international machine so I was left without a machine for another week while travelling on business. Returned to the UK and had to repeat the same frustrating return to base, wait a week, etc. Sony confirmed the display connector was not properly seated following the initial repair. In total over 3 weeks out of use. As compensation when the unit was returned Sony included a free screen cleaning cloth. Thanks a lot Sony.
That said some time has passed and I've grown to like the Vaio again; Until this weekend (June 2012). Again tried to boot the machine and no response at all. This time our IT department have tried to contact Sony customer support, only to discover there is no such line in the UK (or anywhere else we've tried for that matter), all lines are directed back to technical support. Technical support are only able to follow their script and get into the same routine of returning via courier, apparently customer satisfaction isn't something Sony give any attention.
In summary as much as I love the form factor I will avoid Sony products at all cost. Fundamentally the machine has to be usuable and reliable for my primary business needs. In my experience Dell offer an excellent next business day repair which ensures downtime is minimised. Some repairs will be inevitable, but three repairs in six months is completely unacceptable, as is a return to base warranty on a business machine.
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