Sony VGN-TZ11XN/B laptop

Gimme, gimme. Wait... is that the price or my phone number?

By Leo Waldock • Get more from this author

8th August 2007 10:44 GMT

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Fire up Internet Explorer and you’ll find that Sony has set the home page to three different Sony sites, so the browser pops up three tabs, all designed to sell you something. You’ve spent £1,600 on the laptop so surely you deserve some slack from Sony’s marketing department or, possibly, a word of thanks.

battery test - constant use (in hours)
battery test - longer bars are better
Longer bars are better

While we’re picking fault, the touchpad is tiny and as it has the same matt black finish as the chassis you’ll find your finger slipping off it time and again. The two mouse buttons are located on the front edge of the chassis and they also suffer somewhat from questionable positioning - although it is clear that Sony had very few options with such a tiny workspace.

3DMark06 benchmark test
3DMark06 test - longer bars are better
Longer bars are better

There are a couple of especially neat touches, starting with the keyboard, which has the keys poking up through holes in the chassis. It looks superb and has a lovely feel. Just as importantly, the layout of the keys is close to ideal. The other feature that catches the eye is the fingerprint reader which is located between the mouse buttons. It is allied to an Infineon TPM 1.2 module so you can be confident that your data is protected no matter what fate may befall your TZ11.

PCMark05 benchmark tests
PCMark05 test results - longer bars are better
Longer bars are better

Verdict

There are times when we’re not the least bit fussed about returning a product after the loan expires, but we’re going to miss the TZ11 because it looks so damn great and its ultra portable size and weight is backed up by incredible battery life. We’d love to have a bit more performance, but as that inevitably hurts battery life, we’d leave the hardware alone and just rip out the Sony bloatware. The problem is the price. We can see why it costs so much, but even so you’d have to plan your justification for this purchase for quite some time.