Screen, Video Card and Keyboard
The Screen and Video Card
As mentioned on the previous page, this laptop comes with a 1920x1080 resolution LED backlit panel. This is a demanding pixel pitch for some people to work with as it is a resolution usually reserved for 24" monitors. Considering this is a 13.1" display we are talking about, you can imagine how fine the text is! This is why Sony ships the machine with a 125% DPI text size set as standard, meaning Windows 7 will scale everything up by 25%. That makes documents and web pages far more readable. For me however turning it down to 100% - meaning down to the default font size works just as well, and you of course then get the full potential out of this screen. Whether this works for you or not is purely down to your eye sight – many have reported problems, many have reported that they can use this fine. You need to try it out to be able to determine what's right for you.
This appears to be a TN panel, unfortunately, something which can be seen by tilting the screen up and down resulting in a noticeable colour change. An IPS panel would have been nice to see - particularly considering the laptop’s price tag - but it is still a very good screen with bright colours and good contrast. Due to the TN panel the viewing angles are fairly limited, but nothing that we found to be a problem on a daily basis. At least there are no dead pixels! Whether the claimed Adobe RGB 96% colour space is accurate I haven’t been able to judge as I don’t have a colour meter on hand. If you prefer to work with an external display the Vaio supports resolutions all the way up to 2048x1536.
The Vaio ships with discrete graphics in the form of the Nvidia GT330m. This isn't a gaming grade card, but will allow you to play most titles at a reasonable level of detail providing you don't mind dropping both the image quality settings and the resolution. As is becoming increasingly common, the laptop supports dynamic hybrid graphics. This allows you to switch between performance and endurance on the fly by moving a simple switch. Doing this turns the discrete solution on or off, disabling the built in GMA-HD.
Backlit keyboard
This is something that the previous generations of Vaio Z have been lacking. It ensures you can see the keyboard even when the environment around you isn't particularly bright - for instance on a long distance flight. This functionality is based on a sensor, meaning you can't switch this on or off manually. The keys may look a little odd with their old-school rounded edges but rest assured typing on the Vaio is effortless. We found it just as easier to use for extended periods as much larger keyboards, and it's nice to see Sony have avoided reducing the size of certain keys like CTRL, tab, backspace and enter.
|
