Sony VAIO Z Series (VGN-Z530N)

It’s supplemental than an executive status symbol. the sony vaio vgn-z530n ($1 , 999) is an ultraportable pocket Book that delivers the functioning serious road warriors demand without sacrificing battery life. the 13.1-inch exhibit with a unusual 16:9 appearance ratio makes watching dvds a pleasure—black bars , be gone!—and you may bastinado between intel’s integrated graphics and discrete nvidia graphics depending on the boost you destitution. and for the initial time , unlike the older vaio sz series that offered this feature , you’re not forced to reboot the system (which is a good object , since the z takes its sweet time). a comfortable isolated keyboard , hasty integrated mobile broadband connectivity , and a lasting carbon fibre case form up one of the best lightweight machines of the year.

Design

All it takes is one see at the brushed aluminium that adorns the bedeck and the stylish cylindrical exhibit hinges (the left side houses the ac plug and the right the vigor button) to acknowledge that the z530n is a luxury-class pocket Book. it’s a mote on the thick side at 1 to 1.3 inches , especially when compared with wafer-thin systems like the apple macbook air and lenovo thinkpad x300 , but we possess no qualms about the z530n’s 3.3-pound heft. we barely noticed the system in our backpack. plus , at 8.3 inches deep , the z530n keeps a slavish conformation , large for air travel (the thinkpad x300 , by comparison , measures 9.1 inches). the overall see of this wedge-shaped pocket Book is handsome but not as stunning or iconic as the air or voodoo envy 133.

First we thought the isolated keyboard , whose keys are separated by a reasonable amount of space , would require a learning curve. it doesn’t. we begin the layout easy to use and the keys comfortable , with apparently the right amount of springy feedback. the touchpad is nice and large , but the mouse buttons , which flank a tiny fingerprint reader , are too small. we would possess liked sony to chop the difference by sacrificing a Good Deal Of touchpad surface area to leave room for larger buttons.

Above the keyboard on the left are two programmable shortcut buttons , and above those is the stamina/speed bastinado. to the right is a dedicated eject button for the optical ride. the left side of the z530n houses the ethernet jack , expresscard/34 slot , modem , one usb demeanor , a firewire demeanor , and the mic and headphone jacks. the vga connection , second usb demeanor , hdmi output , and dvd burner are on the right side. apparently a 2-in-1 sd card and reminiscence stick slot is up front , along with the wireless on/off bastinado.

16:9 display

The z530n sports one of the best led-backlit displays we’ve seen on an ultraportable. its xbrite-duraview protect is bright and crisp , and we saw excellent viewing angles from side to side when we streamed an episode of the colbert bruit on hulu.com. the panel is also scratch-resistant. because of the lcd’s 16:9 appearance ratio , the 1366 x 768-pixel courage minimizes the dreaded black bars when watching dvds. but that’s apparently if the movie was shot in widescreen (look for an appearance ratio of 1.78:1). certain sufficient , when we popped in a heroes dvd , we didn’t see any black bars at full-screen.

If you want 1600 x 900-pixel courage , which gives you the capacity to see at two ingenuous windows side by side , the starting value for the vaio z series jumps from $1 , 799 to $2 , 079 , a rational $280 premium.