VAIO Z Core i7-11375H Review: The Laptop for CEOs and Executives

[Redaktion]

This $3800 USD Vaio system is one of the first to ship with a Tiger Lake-H Core i7-11375H CPU. However, the luxury laptop falls flat in most other aspects when compared to the Dell XPS, HP EliteBook, Asus ZenBook, Apple MacBook, or Huawei MateBook models that all retail for significantly less.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/VAIO-Z-Core-i7-11375H-Review-The-Laptop-for-CEOs-and-Executives.524276.0.html

[Anon456]

"We're not going to complain about the price. If you think $3800 USD is too much for an Ultrabook, then this laptop wasn't made for you. [...] What we can complain about, however, is the laptop itself when compared to less expensive alternatives [...] but the very presence of audible creaking screams low-budget instead of luxury. [...] The low weight is therefore the most impressive characteristic of the Vaio Z; it's just unfortunate that almost everything else isn't on par with competing laptops that are less than half the price."

Do you read your own articles?
How can you excuse the premium price just because the vendor positions the laptop as a luxury product and everything about it is sub-par? In your own words, there are laptops half the price of this one which offer more for the money (quality, performance, battery etc). And some of them are light and thin enough. Still, they've got the same is not better build and quality, and they're not sold as luxury laptops (lol what does that even mean, it's a damn laptop/tool, be serious). It's harsh because you deserve it.

[Grinnie Jax]

Hm, I got my YOGA 14-IIL for around $900 and I hardly see any advantages of this $3,800 laptop. Yes, it's not for me  :D I can say that confidently. Even my YOGA looks better with its thinner bezels.

[xpclient]

Not impressive in any way. The only good thing I can say is it has dedicated touchpad buttons which are now gone from all thin and light laptops except Fujitsu and Vaio.

[S.Yu]

VAIO did creaking carbon fiber chassis a decade ago before Sony spun them off, The teetering is annoying but I don't think its actual durability is subpar because of that.

>the bottom panel is attached to the keyboard base with ribbon cables
...and they were doing that ~6 years ago. The ribbon breaks very easily and it's a ridiculous design.

I somehow expect this to be on sale ~40% off after less than a year.

[CCP Uighur Genocide]

No idea why C-suite would even remotely consider VAIO when you can get excellent, faster and better looking machines such as:
- Macbook 13
- iPad Pro + pipi pen
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
- Dell XPS 13

Plus that average keyboard and childish design? No thanks.

[bryan]

All those competitors you mentioned are maybe better at one various single thing than this Z but not as a whole package. You can't even spec XPS13 with H cpu and if you wanna have fun being an owner of HP laptop please go ahead.

[garbagereview]

3D UD carbon fiber outshell rates at 69 because it bends....... hahahahahahaha laugh my a** offffffff. you know how many times carbon fiber is stronger than aluminum alloy ? the garbage reinforced plastic lenovo use doesn't bend, but it's fragile, weak.....

you know NOTHING about material !

[Rijoshiro]

3D UD carbon fiber outshell rates at 69 because it bends....... hahahahahahaha laugh my a** offffffff. you know how many times carbon fiber is stronger than aluminum alloy ? the garbage reinforced plastic lenovo use doesn't bend, but it's fragile, weak.....

you know NOTHING about material !

Carbon fiber is not directly used for construction, as it is just a fiber and graphite-like and brittle. Carbon fiber is used as an additive in resins or plastics. That means the elastic strength of carbon fiber is not representative of the material properties of the composite material. The elastic strength of a machined piece of aluminum is usually higher than many varieties of carbon fiber composites. Carbon fiber composites is also much less dense than aluminum, which means that a thicker chassis is usually needed to have material properties that rival aluminum or magnesium. To make matters worse, carbon fiber composites are terrible for machining like threading screws. For this reason, all carbon fiber chassis use brass inserts to hold screws, and these are the weak points of the entire machine, as they are pressed into the body and can be easily ripped out. You can't do that with a metallic body.

There are advantages to carbon fiber, but there are also lots of disadvantages as well.

[S.Yu]

3D UD carbon fiber outshell rates at 69 because it bends....... hahahahahahaha laugh my a** offffffff. you know how many times carbon fiber is stronger than aluminum alloy ? the garbage reinforced plastic lenovo use doesn't bend, but it's fragile, weak.....

you know NOTHING about material !

Carbon fiber is not directly used for construction, as it is just a fiber and graphite-like and brittle. Carbon fiber is used as an additive in resins or plastics. That means the elastic strength of carbon fiber is not representative of the material properties of the composite material. The elastic strength of a machined piece of aluminum is usually higher than many varieties of carbon fiber composites. Carbon fiber composites is also much less dense than aluminum, which means that a thicker chassis is usually needed to have material properties that rival aluminum or magnesium. To make matters worse, carbon fiber composites are terrible for machining like threading screws. For this reason, all carbon fiber chassis use brass inserts to hold screws, and these are the weak points of the entire machine, as they are pressed into the body and can be easily ripped out. You can't do that with a metallic body.

There are advantages to carbon fiber, but there are also lots of disadvantages as well.

Carbon fiber resins are still over 90% carbon, and I believe the general quoted strength is that of the resin, not just carbon, but yes I agree with the other points.

[Urrl]

Great review. I had the 2010 version Z and loved it. Ordered the i7 512GB 2021 version from Amazon for $3078 (4th of July sale $500 off) a few days ago. There were too many complaints on Amazon regarding the XPS 13 build quality and customer service and I left the Apple scene due to their restrictive software long ago. Hoping the in-house Japanese build Vaio Z will be as reliable as my 2010 version was.

[Bill]

I've had mine about 3 weeks now, purchased it on 4th of July $500 off sale. Very impressed especially while gaming without a dedicated GPU. I use it for video editing and web surfing.  My i7 512gb version does not creak at all. I'm not an executive, just a retired Civil Engineer who has had the 2010 version Z and was so impressed with its performance and reliability I decided on the 2021 version. I am not disappointed and no regrets on this one so far.

[Bill]

Nearly a year now with the Z and no problems. Upgraded Windows 10 to 11 without a hitch. The carbon fiber shell has held up well, still does not creak and Japanese reliability has been stellar. With all the critical comments I've read here I see the overall gaming performance with Xe graphics is top of the line combined with the super fast SSD drive and CPU.
So no touch screen which I generally don't use anyway. Noise is not so loud as to annoy me. As for screen brightness it is great since I never use the laptop in the sun. Still no regrets.

[S.Yu]

Nearly a year now with the Z and no problems. Upgraded Windows 10 to 11 without a hitch. The carbon fiber shell has held up well, still does not creak and Japanese reliability has been stellar. With all the critical comments I've read here I see the overall gaming performance with Xe graphics is top of the line combined with the super fast SSD drive and CPU.
So no touch screen which I generally don't use anyway. Noise is not so loud as to annoy me. As for screen brightness it is great since I never use the laptop in the sun. Still no regrets.

Congratulations. I had the only generation of the Z Canvas which was quickly discontinued, it turned out the best digitizer I've ever used (only because Apple Pencil, which is more accurate and responsive, doesn't have an eraser included, lacks shortcuts, and its tip is ridiculously slippery), but its battery swelled and AFAIK it's a common occurrence. Even with the tiny number of adoptions there were multiple reports, also subtle suggestions on ebay listings(how the battery was pristine etc). They just shrugged it off, there was no recall, no reimbursement, or even an acknowledgement of the issue. I was even refused service even though my warranty was a few weeks from expiration when I discovered it(it actually started far before that). No VAIO ever again for me and I'll try to dissuade anybody considering one with my own experience.