Sony Vaio VPC-F21Z1E - Intel Core i7

Overview

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 21 expert reviews

Excellent:

5
Good:

7
Average:

7
Bad:

2

Pros:

Slick industrial design; excellent 3D movie playback; fast on CPUintensive tasks.
Great 3D technology, superb HD display, powerful specifications, brilliant all-rounder, good 2D to 3D on the fly conversion, nice chiclet keyboard.
Good audio, if you enable Dolby enhancements, Beautiful display with excellent 3D support.

Cons:

Underpowered graphics can’t deliver smooth stereo 3D at high resolutions.
High price tag, average battery life, gamers will miss a dedicated high-end GPU.

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Last revision on December 2, 2012

Reviewers Liked

Slick industrial design; excellent 3D movie playback; fast on CPUintensive tasks
Great 3D technology, superb HD display, powerful specifications, brilliant all-rounder, good 2D to 3D on the fly conversion, nice chiclet keyboard
Good audio, if you enable Dolby enhancements, Beautiful display with excellent 3D support
Excellent performance; very good 3D gaming and movie experience; Blu-ray drive; lots of extra features
Great performance, Nice backlit keyboard, Decent speakers

Reviewers Didn't Like

Underpowered graphics can’t deliver smooth stereo 3D at high resolutions
High price tag, average battery life, gamers will miss a dedicated high-end GPU
Overall unit is quite unattractive, Pioneer Bluray drive is very noisy
Hefty 3D glasses; short battery life; won't play some Blu-ray 3D discs
Boring design, Noisy fan, Loud touchpad buttons, Subpar screen

Expert reviews and ratings

Sony has been on a tough mission for the last year, showing perseverance akin to our Prime Minister's dogged determination for a carbon tax. The consumer electronics giant isn't out to save the environment though; instead its goal is for every...

By APC Magazine on September 15, 2011

A powerful, multipurpose luggable laptop. An ideal home PC that looks good and runs...

By Pocket-lint on August 15, 2011

Alright, fancypants. You want a laptop of luxury, but you don't want an Apple MacBook? Not even a 17-inch MacBook Pro? You want 3D but a Zalman 3D monitor isn't for you? Fancy the sort of black plastic slab that your friends can only dream of...

By TechRadar on June 21, 2011

The $1,799 VAIO is a compelling multimedia laptop for those who crave 3D. The 240-MHz, full-HD screen combined with Nvida's 3DVision technology adds a new level of enjoyment to watching movies and playing games. We also like the backlit keyboard on...

By LaptopMag on June 21, 2011

What you do alone in your man cave is your business. If you want to put on a pair of 3D glasses and practice the Na’vi language, more power to you. Sony’s F Series Vaio 3D can make that dream a reality in style, but it lacks the graphics...

By Maximum PC on June 10, 2011

Sony has got its proverbial fingers in so many third dimensional pies, we can't believe the Japanese powerhouse took such a long time to roll out a 3D laptop off its production line. But the Sony VAIO F-Series (VPCF21Z1E/BI) is worth every second...

By T3 Magazine on May 31, 2011

Overall, I was happy with performance of the Sony Vaio VPCF21Z1E/BI, it’s pretty damn good but not great. Yet compared to others in this class that Reg Hardware has tested lately, it seems Sony makes you pay for that extra performance. Tech specs...

By RegHardware on May 19, 2011

Announced in January, the expensive VPCF21Z1E/BI Vaio F-Series laptop takes Sony's Bravia TV 3D technology and squeezes it into the laptop. As if to justify the added cost of buying the Vaio brand, Sony has also added a couple of unique 3D features...

By The Inquirer on May 11, 2011

A very powerful laptop indeed, but it's just far too expensive. The cheaper Vaio models or a desktop PC are far better value...

By Computeractive on April 28, 2011

Sony includes Nvidia’s 3D Vision with its latest 16-inch laptop, but it’s more attuned to stereoscopic movies than to games....

By PCWorld on April 28, 2011

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