Most ultraportables already come in a lightweight build. That, along with a slim chassis, have long been the main selling point of this class of laptops. As such, those two criteria have long been the ways that new models in the category try to set themselves apart. The Vaio Z looks to set the bar on the lightness department by coming in an unusually featherweight build.
Quite possibly the lightest laptop to house the 11th generation Intel H-series processors, the lightest model in the range tips the scales at just 2.11 pounds. Granted, that’s not a model that will be sold stateside, with the lightest one to hit North American shores weighing a slightly heftier 2.32 pounds. We know… that’s still ridiculously light.
The Vaio Z achieves the impressive lightweight build by using contoured carbon fiber all around the laptop’s chassis. Not familiar with that? Neither were we. According to the product page, it’s a material that stacks ultra-slim fiber sheets in three dimensions, allowing it to exhibit sleek, tapering shapes while maximizing the shell’s rigidity. Yeah, we’re not sure what any of that means, either, but it’s a beautiful-looking shell that, the outfit claims, is both incredibly lightweight and impressively strong (it’s carbon fiber, after all).
Inside, it’s powered by an 11th generation Intel Core i7 CPU, integrated graphics (Iris Xe), up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of PCIe SSD storage, so this should be on par with most productivity machines folks will be buying for general-purpose office work. It has a 14-inch UHD 4K display that supports HDR, covers 99.8 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and supports Panel Self Refresh for power savings during on-the-go use. The display is not a touchscreen, by the way, so you’ll have to use the built-in trackpad or plug in your own mouse for all interactions.
The Vaio Z comes with two 40Gbps USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, one on each side, both of which support plugging in an external monitor, so you can have a three-monitor setup using your laptop at work. Oh yeah, it has HDMI, too, so it actually support a four-screen working setup. We know… that sounds too much, but you do you. There’s a webcam, of course, with a physical shutter, so you don’t need to put a sticker over the lens, in case you’re afraid of the camera being hacked, while the newly-designed AC adapter is compact and light, making it easy to bring along everywhere you travel with your machine.
It pairs all that with a newly-designed keyboard that boasts a 1.5mm key stroke for improved typing stability and force, while sporting a concave key top that cradles the fingertips during use. All these detailed changes to the keyboard are supposed to minimize keystroke noise, improve typing comfort, and reduce wrist stress. The keyboard, by the way, comes with backlighting, so you can type away even when the lights go out for whatever reason.
The Vaio Z is now available for preorder. Price starts at $3,579.