Z as in ranked in price - new VAIO ultrabook announced

[williamcll]

 

While its specification is very typical of a latest generation ultrabook, it spots a fullbody carbon fiber build. It's priced at 3579 USD.

Quote

Kaoru Hayashi, Director, Vice President and Head of PC Business at VAIO Corporation, proudly states, “It is with great pleasure that we introduce VAIO Z to the world. With over a decade of relentless carbon fiber research, VAIO has succeeded in creating and mass producing the world’s first 3-D molded full carbon chassis for laptop PCs. “VAIO has developed a unique process of working with carbon fiber to achieve beautifully contoured lines and the flexible molding of carbon fiber, that was previously difficult to mass produce. The achievement of harnessing carbon fiber’s full potential of lightness and durability is both revolutionary and evolutionary as we continue looking ahead. With this evolution, the new VAIO Z offers exceptional performance, lightness, endurance, now with true ruggedness, and without compromise, all converging into one elegant design. With VAIO Z as our flagship model, we hope it is the start of VAIO’s future array of laptop PC developments.

Source: https://videocardz.com/press-release/vaio-z-contoured-carbon-fiber-laptop-with-tiger-lake-h35-costs-3579-usd
Thoughts: The LG grams beats it by weight, the GPD beats it by portability and expandability, the Asus flow beats it by performance. I cannot see the selling point of using carbon fibre if you are going to price it this high.

[dizmo]

Hmmm. Interesting. 

 

I take issue with some of your comparisons. If it's more stiff than the Gram, then that's a huge plus. Comparing it to a GPD makes literally no sense at all, they're in different leagues. The Asus Flow is almost a pound heavier. 

 

[Guest]

You can compare it to lots of laptops - but you can only buy one laptop. If its a good balance of weight, build quality and performance (for instance a MacBook), then its a good buy. 

[porina]

Surprised Pikachu face. Vaio are still around? After Sony sold the brand they seem to pretty much disappear, at least in the West.

[Arika]

Quote

With VAIO Z as our flagship model, we hope it is the start of VAIO’s future array of laptop PC developments.

not likely

Quote

Pricing for the VAIO Z starts at $3,579.

[Nowak]

4 hours ago, porina said:

Surprised Pikachu face. Vaio are still around? After Sony sold the brand they seem to pretty much disappear, at least in the West.

They're still around and are making all of these weird, overpriced laptops. Who buys them, I don't know. Why they still exist, I don't know.

[RevTadd]

The Vaio Z series, whether this latest version or any of the previous iterations over the last decade plus, has always been a prestige product that never made sense on any sort of value or relative product competition basis vs. other manufactures. It's meant to be a more like a rolex you buy to show off.

 

That said, I'm not a fan of this latest version, though back before ultrabooks became a thing the Z series was about the only option for a no compromises ~13in laptop.

[Brooksie359]

It's an interesting concept to have a carbin fiber chassis. Maybe they can bring the coat down to lower end models and have that same build quality at a power price tier. Granted I have no idea how a carbon fiber chassis would actually feel like. Is it better than some of the other laptop chassis out their? I would actually like to see one in person to see just how well carbon fiber suits a laptop chassis. 

[Cysero]

Watched the launch event for this retrospectively and the VAIO Z seems conflicted as ever. The plethora of i/o ports seems to have gone which was one of the main USPs. It still seems to be targeted at business users who want a high quality unique laptop. Launch event seemed to suggest it would be suitable for creators but not convinced.

 

I was actually interested in replacing my Sony VAIO with another VAIO but without proper dedicated graphics there is not much difference between the VAIO Z and my 10 year old Sony VAIO with the exception of battery life.

[Bombastinator]

I’ve thought of viao as a PC for Mac shops.  You can get something as well as or better made than a Mac but it costs even more money. 

[krakkpott]

Japanese makers always have this kind of "looks very nice but not very value oriented" products.

[AlTech]

I imagine that’s the cost of using real carbon-fibre.

 

I don’t think Dell’s XPS lineup actually uses much carbon-fibre at all. I think it’s more of a look than actual functionality for Dell.

 

Edit: And oh god. Nobody mentioned the CPU aspect of it but it uses the DOA Tiger Lake H35 quad core CPUs.