6. Sony VAIO Z
The Sony VAIO Z is not an ‘official’ Ultrabook by Intel’s definition (in fact, it might be overqualified), but I’m including this ultrathin on the list because, in addition to having a great set of on-device ports, it also offers a unique ‘Power Media Dock’ which adds tons of functionality to the VAIO Z. With the Power Media Dock (which connects via USB 3.0), you’ll actually get the power of a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6650M GPU, more ports, and the ability to run up to three external displays (alongside the VAIO Z’s own display). This is significant because Sandy Bridge Ultrabooks only support up to two displays total (ie: the Ultrabook’s own display and one external display, or two external displays), while Ivy Bridge only supports up to three displays total (two external + native display, or three external [and that’s IF you’ve got the ports for it!]). Here’s the full port rundown, including what you’ll find on the Power Media Dock:
On the VAIO Z:
- 1xUSB 2.0
- 1xUSB 3.0
- full VGA
- full HDMI
- 3.5mm headphone
- ethernet/LAN (RJ4g)
On the Power Media Dock:
- 1xUSB 2.0
- 1xUSB 3.0
- full HDMI
- full VGA
- ethernet/LAN (RJ45)
- CD/DVD burner
- (optional) Blu-ray burner
- AMD Radeon HD 6650M GPU
The premium nature of the VAIO Z series puts it up there in the price department, but given the flexible nature of the Power Media Dock (which is included), the VAIO Z is actually quite reasonable. Starting at $1549, you’ll get a Sandy Bridge Core i5 CPU, 13.3″ 1080p display, 128GB SSD storage (configured as 64GBx2 high performance RAID 0 mode), 4GB of RAM, and the Power Media Dock with CD/DVD burner which adds the discrete GPU and extra ports.
Sony has been running deals on the VAIO Z lately and Amazon reports low stock — Sony might be planning an Ivy Bridge refresh in the near future.
Nice job Ben.,
The Ultrabook buying advisor is being updated this weekend to include more information about ports too and I have an article being prepared about desktop usage. Ports can play a big role in desktop usage although there are some USB docking solutions which are quite interesting.
Chippy.
I honestly don’t know how you & Ben are going to keep up with all these new UB’s over the next few years. UB’s are about to become the “new” Android phones! Brilliant move by you Chippy for seeing the new trends coming & getting in on the ground floor, even though it was slow for the 1st year or so.
This is excited as I’ve been about the PC market since the netbook & UMPC days. MS & Intel are so desperate to stay relevant in the new world of Apple/Google/ARM that I expect to see the biggest marketing push in the history of PC’s coming up.
The Z835 is the retail version of the Z830, not the US version.
Also, I’m surprised the first one on the list is the UX32 considering it lacks full sized VGA and Ethernet which are very important ports imho.
Other than that, great article.
Thanks Tsuki, updated the article.
It depends where you are in the world. The retail version in UK and Germany is the Satellite z830. Confusing.
That is confusing… All I knew was that you could get a Z830 in the US if you got it directly from Tosh.
The vario z actually uses Intel’s Light Peak, not the USB 3 interface ( but it use the USB port ) :)
very minor detail, awesome article
All I really, really need are USB-ports. The rest can be solved wirelessly or in worst case scenario with a dongle.
I can see why a business user would want three different video-out ports, but I suspect that it’s just wasted space for a lot of people like me, mostly using the laptop at home for music, video and internet. Sure, at times I bring it to school or to the library, but even then I rarely use any other ports than the USB ports.
If I was a business user I probably couldn’t get enough ports though. If I’m at some new place and I need to give a PP presentation I just want to be able to set it up right away without any hassle. But then I probably wouldn’t care much about screen or sound quality.
I wish they would separate the different types of laptops a bit more to be able to cater to our needs a bit better.
These ultrabooks are so well endowed. I’m jealous.