Sony VAIO Z13 (SVZ13114GXX)

The Sony VAIO Z13 (SVZ13114GXX) is Sony's premium ultaportable laptop, bringing all of the thinness and performance you'd expect from an ultrabook, but also offering top-of-the-line construction and several extras for a premium price. In direct contrast to $600 ultrabooks, most ultraportables tend to cost a lot more , and the Sony VAIO Z13 is an extreme example of that, selling for $1,949.99 (direct). And while it has the slim dimensions of an ultrabook, the Sony VAIO Z13 comes with a standard-voltage processor?a subtle, but important distinction. The VAIO Z13 certainly delivers a premium experience, but a few elements fall short of what we expect, given its price.

Design
The VAIO Z13 features premium carbon fiber construction for a chassis that is exceptionally lightweight yet strong. Measuring 0.66 by 13.0 by 8.27 inches (HWD), the ultraportable weighs only 2.58 pounds, closer in design to the slim Acer Aspire S5-391-9880 ultrabook than the thicker, heavier Toshiba Portege R835-P88 , our Editors' Choice among ultraportables. The thinness doesn't stem entirely from the materials, however, as Sony uses a special drop-hinge design which actually places the rear feet of the laptop on the hinge-edge of the lid, so the open laptop is propped up slightly. This makes for a more comfortable typing experience while also keeping everything extremely compact when the system is closed. On the downside, however, this makes for a slightly less comfortable experience when you're actually using the laptop on your lap?the hinge and feet aren't very comfortable on the thighs.

The VAIO Z13 features a 13.1-inch backlit display panel with 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. This resolution is well higher than those of the displays seen on most ultraportables and ultrabooks, including the 1,600-by-900 display on the Samsung Series 9 15-inch (NP900X4C-A02US) , but it's matched by the 1080p displays seen on the Editors' Choice Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 and its Zenbook Prime siblings, some of which can be bought for under $1,000. Sony pairs the VAIO Z13's display with built-in stereo speakers and Dolby Home Theater v4 software, which offers clear sound at most volumes. The audio provides enough sound for one or two people to listen to and understand dialogue in a Netflix or Hulu video, but not enough to share music with a room.

The VAIO Z13 is equipped with a full-size chiclet keyboard, and the keys have a slight sheen to them despite their matte appearance. Though the keyboard isn't as comfortable to type on as the one on the Lenovo ThinkPad X230 , it's more than passable. The accompanying touchpad is accurate and responsive, but it has a strange glossy, fingerprint-collecting surface on the buttons and a textured hexagonal snakeskin pattern. I didn't particularly care for either. Between the two mouse buttons is a fingerprint reader for easy secure logins.

Features
The VAIO Z13 fits two USB 3.0 ports (one with power for charging devices while the system is asleep), an HDMI-output, and a compact Ethernet port that opens to full-size when needed, but closes up when not in use to maintain the laptop's slim lines. On the right is a full-size VGA port, and on the front edge of the palm rest are two card reader slots?one for Sony's proprietary memory formats (MagicGate/HG Duo) and another for the more common SD formats. Between the right and left mouse buttons is the aforementioned fingerprint reader, with a TPM chip inside for further security. Above the display is a 1.3-megapixel webcam, equipped with an Exmor sensor from Sony's camera and imaging department. Wireless connectivity comes by way of 802.11n Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 and Intel's Wireless Display (WiDi) technology, which lets you wirelessly stream HD content to TVs through an Netgear Push2TV adapter.

As is often the case with ultrabooks, there is no optical drive, but the 256GB solid-state-drive (SSD) should provide a workable amount of storage space while also helping the VAIO Z13 to zip right along. Installed on the drive are the usual bits of trialware and bloatware, like a 30-day trial of Kaspersky Internet Security, Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, Microsoft PowerPoint Reader, and a few free programs like Evernote and Skype. Sony piles on with proprietary utilities, like VAIO Media Gallery, VAIO Care, VAIO Messenger, VAIO Gate, Sony PlayMemories, and Sony Music Unlimited. But Sony also includes a few extra premium offerings as well, namely full versions of Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum, ACID Music Studio, and Sound Forge Audio Studio. These premium multimedia tools are bundled with the laptop, along with Sony's one-year warranty.

Performance
While the VAIO 13 may be slim, there was no skimping on the processor; it's equipped with the same 2.1GHz Intel i7-3612QM quad-core processor seen in the Dell XPS 15 (Summer 2012) ?a full-size laptop. This almost-ultrabook packs a processor more commonly seen in larger laptops, offering a step up in processing power from the low-voltage CPUs used in ultrabooks.

Paired with 8GB of RAM and given a healthy speed boost from the aforementioned SSD, the VAIO Z13 scored an impressive 7,096 points in PCMark 7, well ahead of the Acer Aspire S5-391-9880 (5,053 points) and Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 (2,523 points), both of which have a low-voltage quad-core processor, and ahead of the Toshiba Portege R835-P88 (2,313 points) which used an older second-gen Core i5. With four cores running a total of eight logic threads, the VAIO Z13 also rocketed ahead of competitors in Cinebech R11.5, scoring 5.64 points. The nearest competitor, the Asus UX32VD-DB71, scored 3.58 points. With that sort of processing power, it's no surprise that the VAIO Z13 also led the category in our multimedia tests as well, zipping through Handbrake in 1 minute 22 seconds and Photoshop CS5 in 3:31.

Unlike premium ultrabooks, however, the VAIO Z13 doesn't have a discrete graphics processor, relying instead on Intel's integrated graphics processing. In 3DMark 06, therefore, the VAIO Z13 scored a respectable 7,462 points at medium detail and 1,366-by-768 resolution, but was challenged by the Nvidia-equipped Dell XPS 14 (Summer 2012) and the Asus UX32VD-DB71, which scored 7,047 points and 8,627 points, respectively. Even with its healthy graphics capability, the VAIO Z13 wasn't able to produce playable results in either of our gaming tests.

While the full-voltage processor made for some impressive results in our performance tests, it chewed through battery-life pretty quickly, as the VAIO Z13's battery lasted only 4 hours 51 minutes when tested it in MobileMark. In a category defined by convenience and portability, the failure to hit the five-hour mark is a pretty big disappointment, especially considering that the Toshiba Portege R835-P88 stretches well past it (8:40) and the Dell XPS 14 (Summer 2012) nearly doubles it (9:37).

The Sony VAIO Z13 (SVZ13114GXX) sets out to dominate the pricier end of the ultraportable category, and in some respects it does, with unbeaten processing power, featherweight carbon fiber construction, and great multimedia performance, along with the software tools to take advantage of it. If you want the best ultraportable available, this may well be it, but with the highest price in the category, you'd expect a discrete graphics processor and the long battery life seen in other ultraportables and ultrabooks. It can't match the value-per-dollar offered by the ultraportable Editors' Choice Toshiba Portege R835-P88, and the leading ultrabook Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 offers an equally gorgeous display, crisp audio, and strong multimedia performance, and for considerably less. Nevertheless, if money is no object, the Sony VAIO Z13 is a top-tier ultraportable, if not the best value for the price.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
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