VAIO Z Canvas Review

Lisa Gade reviews the Vaio Z Canvas, a powerhouse Windows 10 Pro 12.3” tablet/ 2-in-1 convertible with an N-Trig pen, wide color gamut display and a quad core i7 CPU. The spirit of Sony is back in the new Vaio company with their flagship Windows convertible that’s the fastest and most port-endowed on the market. The Z Canvas is a marvel of engineering and design, and it has a price tag to match. It’s a high end product that competes with higher end MS Surface Book configurations and even laptops like the 15” Retina MacBook Pro. It has a 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7-4770HQ quad core CPU with Turbo Boost to 3.4 GHz and Intel Iris Pro 5200 (GT3) graphics. It’s available with 8 or 16 gigs of RAM and a variety of fast SSD drives. The base model is $2,199, and more expensive configs vary by RAM and SSD size only. The tablet has full size ports: 2 USB 3.0, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, an SD card slot, 3.5mm audio and a mini DisplayPort (it can drive two 4K monitors). The 3:2 aspect ratio, 2560 x 1704 IPS display has an unusually wide color gamut of 95% of Adobe RGB, making it perfect for graphics designers, photographers and video producers. The convertible comes with a Bluetooth detachable keyboard that serves as the display cover, and an N-Trig Duo Sense 2 pen (Vaio branded). This is the updated N-Trig digitizer with 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity (like Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book) for more natural drawing and writing. It has dual band Intel AC7265 WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, a front 1MP camera and a rear 8MP camera. It has a 63 Whr battery for surprisingly decent battery life given the quad core CPU and high res display. Three internal fans keep things fairly quiet and cool. The Vaio Z Canvas is available direct from the Vaio website (no longer owned by Sony) and from Microsoft stores (both stores sell it as a clean MS Signature Edition with no bloatware).