Vaio Z-series young, healthy machine

Sony Vaio Z's improvement over seniors is the ability to switch between two graphics cards without rebooting the machine .

Sony Vaio Z is an alternative to the Vaio SZ series, one of the first laptops equipped with dual graphics cards. Vaio Z's improvement over seniors is the ability to switch between two graphics cards without rebooting the machine and making it easier to use thanks to the Intel Centrino 2 processor platform supporting hybrid graphics technology. .

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Z-series is the first Vaio equipped with dual graphics cards. Photo: Laptopsarena .

Sony Vaio Z laptop series includes many versions with built-in configuration. The two most advanced models VGN-Z48GD and VGN-Z47GD are equipped with SSD hard drives and Blu-ray optical drives. The most "affordable" model, the VGN-Z45GD uses weaker CPU and less RAM, costs $ 2,000 (36 million). The evaluation version is the VGN-Z46GD with 2 different designs that Sony coded Z46GD / B and VGN-46GD / U.

If you choose VGN-46GD / U, you will have to pay an additional $ 66.92 (VND 1.2 million), but in return will be owned with a beautiful and sturdy cover. Those are the large horizontal pattern lines that run across the lid. Beautifully designed, simple and sophisticated design, which is already the "tradition" of Vaio laptops for business people.

Frames and mines are made of thin, light but durable and solid alloys. Machine ownership chiclet keyboard standard size with floating keys, spread comfortably when used long. The unique design is the expansion card slot - ExpressCard and modem jack all have a protective cover.

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Vaio Z-series is a series for business people. Photo: Zdnet .

Because Vaio Z is a business laptop series - business laptop - so Sony does not arrange multimedia touch keys like in other models but still has two S1 buttons, S2 for quick access to the necessary applications. Besides using dual graphics cards, Vaio Z also has up to 2 memory card slots, one for Sony's Memory Stick and the other for common SD / MMC cards. With these two card slots, you can access data on two different types of cards at the same time without any difficulty.

As a high-end model, Vaio Z focuses on exploiting the features and equipment needed most for the business of the business but only at a moderate level. It has fingerprint recognition security and a hard drive with an accelerated guard clock (deactivate the read / write head on the hard drive to protect data when it falls or bumps strongly). But other attractive features such as a spill-resistant keyboard, and HSDPA broadband mobile connectivity have not yet appeared on the Vaio Z.

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The device does not have multimedia touch keys. Photo: Bestlaptopblog .

Sony Vaio Z uses dual graphics cards, including an integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD card (power saving mode) and a discrete Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS card (powerful execution mode). Although the GeForce 9300M GS card does not optimize gaming, it also has a good deal of good handling of online games and some old 3D games. But most of the time, Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated card supports HD video playback, so there's no need for a separate card. You should switch to power saving mode to extend battery life. 13-inch large LED backlight screen is bright, bright colors with a high resolution of 1,600 x 900, 16: 9 ratio.

The outstanding features of the Sony Vaio Z are fingerprint recognition sensors located between 2 mouse buttons under the touchpad, handy mouse scroll bar and built-in VGA resolution webcam. Besides being able to upgrade to Windows 7 operating system after the time of purchase, Sony still supports "downgrade" from the Windows Vista operating system preinstalled on Windows XP Professional. It is equipped with LAN connections, Wi-Fi 802.11b / g / n, Bluetooth, Modem, full VGA output, HDMI output, Micro / Headphone audio jack and DVD burner. But one obvious drawback is that it only has 2 USB ports and is equipped with a small ExpressCard 34 mm expansion card slot instead of the standard 54 mm card.

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The Vaio Z-series in Vietnam costs from 25 to 60 million, depending on configuration. Photo: Cdrinfo .

With an amount of about 2,208 USD (39.7 million VND), you will own the VGN-Z46GD with a configuration of 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 6 GB RAM and 320 GB hard drive capacity next to 2 graphics cards. With such a strong configuration, there is no doubt about the performance of the machine. And it is not surprising that the evaluation trials have high results. In particular, the Windows Experience Index reached 4.4 / 6 and when switching to run card mode leave the evaluation point of GPU graphics card is 3.7 / 6.

Not many people will wonder what advantages Nvidia card has over Intel GMA integrated card? The answer is right when looking at 3DMark test results. With an integrated Intel 4500MHD card, the rating is 1,092, and with Nvidia discrete card this number is twice 2,282 points.

When watching DVD with the screen brightness set in medium mode and running integrated graphics card, Vaio Z maintains a battery life of 2 hours 42 minutes. But when switching to discrete card to improve image processing efficiency, the device only works for 2 hours 3 minutes. It is clear that the battery life of the Vaio Z is limited, but users with an extra battery pack will be better suited for long trips.

On the Vietnamese market, Vaio Z has enough models with quite diversified configurations and prices range from VND 25-60 million.