Sony VAIO Z series VPC-Z390X

An upscale 13-inch laptop to give even the MacBook Air a run for its money, Sony's Vaio Z is fast, slim, and light, and includes a docking station with an optical drive and discrete graphics.
The slim, black carbon fiber body of the Sony Vaio Z is essentially unchanged from the 2011 version of the system, and my aesthetic reaction remains largely the same. The matte-black finish and slatelike chassis look and feel very high-end, although all the various joints and seams stand in contrast to Apple's unibody construction.
A few oddities make the Vaio Z feel clunkier than it should. Our package (which included the optional slice battery) had two separate AC adaptors, only one of which--the larger one--fits the docking station. The stiff proprietary cable that connects the two components eats up the onboard USB 3.0 (but is replaced by another USB 3.0 port on the docking station), and it's short, so you can't place the dock more than a few inches away.

The flat-topped keyboard used here has the now-standard island-style layout, which Sony has been using for years (along with Apple and a few others). Because the body of the laptop is so thin, the actual keys are extremely shallow, even more so than on most ultrabooks. You can get used to it, but it may not ever be a favorite for long-form writing. The keyboard is, however, thankfully backlit. sony vaio z series