Sony's extensive family of VAIO notebooks includes plenty of business-orientated systems. The recently launched BZ series comprises a pair of 15.4in. Centrino 2 workhorses. We reviewed the most affordable BZ11MN model, which includes a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive for £645.96 (ex. VAT). On paper, it sounds like good value for money — but is it in reality?
Design
As far as design is concerned, the BZ11MN lacks the glamour of some of the company's smaller, more consumer-friendly notebooks. The mostly black outer shell is rescued from blandness by the VAIO branding, which stands out in reflective silver on the lid; a row of backlit status icons along the front long edge add another splash of colour.
The 15.4in. VAIO-VGN BZ11MN is a workmanlike Centrino 2 notebook, with only a few of the designer touches for which Sony is renowned. It does cost less than £650 (ex. VAT) though.
The BZ11MN might lack charm, but it feels very solid with its magnesium alloy chassis, which bodes well for its robustness on the road. This is no ultraportable though, and you may balk at carrying its 2.7kg on a day-to-day basis. The notebook's 15.4in. screen ensures a sizeable footprint (36.2cm by 26.6cm), but it's reasonably thin (2.98cm – 3.77cm).
The hinge mechanism has plenty of tension except for the last few centimeters of descent, where the lid drops down with a thump. The tension returns when you try to raise the lid, though, and you'll need to hold the keyboard section down to stop it from simply following the lid as you pull it up. This could become irritating over time.
The screen is an anti-glare LCD with a matte finish, which is a welcome change from the shiny screens on Sony's consumer notebooks. If you work outdoors, or with a light source to the rear, you'll appreciate the lack of reflectivity.
The display measures 15.4in. across the diagonal and has a native resolution of 1,280 by 800 pixels. This should be enough to accommodate two document windows on-screen simultaneously, but it's a disappointingly low resolution.
Among the features in the more expensive BZ model — the £748.09 (ex. VAT) BZ11XN — is a more acceptable 1,440 by 900 pixel resolution, plus an LED backlight for reduced power consumption. However, the XN model's screen also uses Sony's X-black layer for improved image clarity, which results in a more reflective screen.
The keyboard is very well constructed, with large and well-sprung keys that deliver a satisfying click when pressed. Touch typing, at normal speeds, is no problem at all.
A full-height row of number keys is topped by a half-height function key row. There's plenty of space for an set of inverted-T cursor controls on the right side of the keyboard. A large inverted-L-shaped Enter key helps boost typing speed too.
The touchpad is a wide-format unit with horizontal and vertical scrolling built into the bottom and right edges respectively. The left and right mouse buttons beneath the touchpad are large and click solidly when pressed.
Above the keyboard is a grille concealing a pair of stereo speakers. To the left of this grille, nestled in the corner, is a slider switch for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, a speaker mute button and a user-configurable shortcut button. Both BZ models include fingerprint reader, which sits on the top right of the keyboard area.
Features
The VAIO VGN-BZ11MN is built around an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor running at 2.26GHz. With 2GB of RAM installed and a maximum of 4GB supported the notebook is plenty powerful enough to run the preinstalled operating system — Windows Vista Business with Service Pack 1. The more expensive model, the BZ11XN, has the same CPU but comes with 3GB of RAM.
Graphics are handled by Intel's GMA 4500MHD, which is integrated in the Mobile Intel GM45 Express Chipset. Our review sample limits the available graphics memory — which is shared with system RAM — to a maximum of 780MB; the more expensive BZ11XN, which has 3GB of RAM, elevates the graphics complement to 1.3GB.
Intel's WiFi Link 5100 provides 802.11a, b, g and Draft-N wireless networking; Bluetooth (2.0 + EDR) is also integrated, and there's a 56Kbps modem too. There is no native support for 3G data communications, although this is easily added via a USB dongle. Gigabit Ethernet comes courtesy of Intel's 82567LM module.
The hard drive on the BZ11MN is a shock-protected 160GB SATA unit spinning at 5,400rpm; the high-end BZ11XN model has a 200GB drive.
There is a good range of ports and connectors around the edges of the notebook.
On the front edge are separate readers for Memory Stick and SD-compatible flash memory cards. The front edge also contains 3.5mm jacks for microphone and headphones. The left edge has a single Type II PC card slot, a USB 2.0 connector and a VGA-out port. On the right edge is a FireWire (IEEE 1394) connector, two further USB 2.0 ports plus the Ethernet (RJ-45) and modem (RJ-11) connectors. The two USB ports on this edge are very close to each other, and it may be difficult to use them both at once. Our own 3G modem dongle (a Vodafone USB Stick) obscures the port next to it for all but the smallest of connectors, for example.
Both notebooks have an optical drive, located on the right-hand side. Our review sample had a fixed-position 1.3-megapixel camera, which is suitable for use in video conferencing — although we always prefer cameras with a swivel mechanism. The preinstalled ArcSoft WebCam software allows you to capture stills and video, edit media files and use the camera for motion detection.
In typical Sony style, there's an awful lot of preloaded software, including Skype, which can be used for video conferencing as well as audio-only calls over Wi-Fi. Google's Picasa and Adobe's Photoshop Elements 6 are here too, as is Acrobat 8 Standard, Acrobat Distiller, Google Desktop, Google Earth, Google Talk, a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office 2007 plus a link to eBay on the desktop and a full copy of Microsoft Works.
Performance
Sony claims 3.5 hours of life from the supplied Li-ion battery. Anecdotally, we easily managed half a day's work on battery power, with heavy internet use over Wi-Fi during that period. A full day's work will almost certainly require access to mains power at some point, which shouldn't generally be a problem for a 2.7kg machine that's likely to spend most of its time on the desktop.
The Windows Experience Index (WEI) rating of 3.4 (out of 5.9) puts the VAIO VGN BZ11MN towards the top end of the Windows Vista notebooks we have reviewed to date.
The overall WEI rating corresponds to the lowest component score rather than an average. For the BZ11MN, that is Graphics (desktop performance for Windows Aero) — perhaps not surprising given the system's integrated graphics. Gaming Graphics (3D business and gaming graphics performance) got 3.6, while the other three elements all scored over 5: RAM (Memory operations per second) 5.1, Processor (calculations per second) 5.2 and Primary hard disk (Disk data transfer rate) 5.3.
Conclusion
The VAIO VGN-BZ11MN is a cost-effective workhorse of a business notebook, whose integrated webcam could prove to be a boon for professionals who like to keep in touch with a set of distributed contacts. We like the manual switch for wireless networking, and the keyboard is good enough to allow fast touch typing.
However, there are some definite budget elements to this notebook. The screen resolution is lower than we would like, for example, and there aren't enough USB ports.
Build quality is solid, but the design uninspiring — which is a surprise coming from Sony. And for a notebook aimed squarely at the business community, we're puzzled by the enormous amount of preisntalled software. Some of it will be welcome, but many customers would prefer to have it on CD, available to install if it's required.
If you opt for the more expensive £748 (ex. VAT) BZ11XN model, you'll get a higher-resolution LED-backlit screen, 3GB of RAM and a 200GB hard disk.
Specifications
| Audio | |
|---|---|
| Audio processor | Intel High Definition Audio |
| Microphone | yes |
| Speakers | stereo |
| Audio connectors | microphone, headphone |
| Battery | |
| Battery technology | Li-ion |
| Estimated battery life (mfr) | 3.5 h |
| Number of batteries supplied | 1 |
| Cabinet (chassis) | |
| Case form factor | clamshell |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 36.2x3.77x26.7 cm |
| Weight | 2.7 kg |
| Colour | black |
| Display | |
| Display technology | colour TFT (with matte anti-glare layer) |
| Display diagonal size | 15.4 in |
| Maximum resolution | 1280x800 pixels |
| Expansion slots | |
| PC Card | 1 x Type II |
| Flash card | Memory Stick (Std / Duo, PRO Std / Duo, high speed data transfer), SD card |
| Hard drive storage | |
| Hard drive interface type | SATA |
| Hard drive type | standard |
| Hard drive size | 160 GB |
| Rotation speed | 5400 rpm |
| Input | |
| Pointing devices | 2-button touchpad |
| Keyboard | full size |
| Interfaces & networking | |
| USB | 3 |
| FireWire (IEEE 1394) | 1 |
| Ethernet | 10/100/1000Mbps |
| Modem | 56Kbps, V.92 |
| VGA (analogue) | 1 |
| Bluetooth | 2.0 (+EDR) |
| Docking station port | 1 |
| Wireless LAN | 802.11a, b, g, Draft-N |
| Memory | |
| RAM installed | 2048 MB |
| Number of memory slots | 2 |
| RAM capacity | 4 GB |
| RAM type | DDR2 SDRAM |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Accessories | AC adapter, power cable |
| Other | fingerprint reader, TPM module, hard disk shock protection, Kensington lock, 1.3 megapixel webcam |
| Motherboard | |
| Chipset | Mobile Intel GM45 Express |
| Data bus speed | 1066 MHz |
| Optical storage | |
| CD / DVD type | DVD±RW (±R DL)/DVD-RAM |
| OS & software | |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business with SP1 |
| Software included | WinDVD 8.0 for VAIO, Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, Google Picasa, Easy Media Creator 9, Adobe Reader 8.1, Adobe Standard 8, Microsoft Office Ready 2007 (60-day trial), McAfee Internet Security Suite (with 60 days free virus updates), VAIO Recovery Utility, Protector Suite QL 5 |
| Processor | |
| Processor manufacturer | Intel |
| Processor model | Core2 Duo P8400 |
| Clock speed | 2.26 GHz |
| Level 2 cache | 3 MB |
| Service & support | |
| Standard warranty | 1 year |
| Video | |
| Graphics processor | Intel GMA4500MHD |
| Graphics RAM | 780 MB |
| Graphics memory technology | Dynamic Video Memory Technology |
| Expand | |
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