Without a doubt, Sony's Vaio Z series notebooks are some of the most powerful, portable and elegant computing systems out there, the Japanese company really managing to outdo itself with the latest addition to the series, which we've had the chance to check out live, during a local launch event.

First and foremost, it's important to mention that, similar to all of the other business Vaios, the Z series is manufactured entirely in Japan, at Nagano, in a factory Softpedia had the privilege of visiting earlier this year (you can find out more on this topic here and here).

This ensures that the Z series provides a great build-quality, the device being crafted from carbon fiber and aluminium for maximum portability and robustness.

Additionally, the notebook has an all-black design, as well as a tough yet light palmrest is precision-machined from a single thick slab of aluminium.

Moreover, despite its cook looks and the powerful hardware packed within (which we'll detail as follows), the Z series Vaio is actually pretty lightweight and easy to carry around, the device tipping the scales at under 1.47 kilos).

However, leaving aside the elegant, business-oriented external design, what really makes Sony's Vaio Z series stand out is the extreme level of performance it provides, a lot more than one would normally expect from such a portable system.

Hardware-wise, the most important feature the Vaio Z has in store is represented by its proprietary quad-SSD system, which seriously boosts up the notebook's level of performance, especially in terms of data transfers.

However, the built-in Intel Core i7-640M CPU and the switchable graphics solution (Intel built-in GPU plus NVIDIA GeForce GT330M with 1GB VRAM) also play a very important part as far as the level of performance the notebook delivers is concerned.

Plus, the Z series features a built-in 3G modem, which means that users can stay connected to the Internet also while being on the go.

During our shorts hands-on time with the Vaio Z, we were able to watch it perform a variety of tasks, ranging from opening a large number of Office applications and documents to multimedia (Blu-ray disc) playback to Internet browsing to games, and it carried out each and every single task perfectly, without any delays or lag.

Some special attention should also be paid to the Full HD display that, despite having a diagonal size of just 13.1 inches, delivers pristine images, the fact that it covers around 96 percent of the Adobe RGB color space making it especially interesting for all sorts of applications, including photo and video editing.

All in all, the Vaio Z series is an extremely attractive solution for the demanding businessman, but we'll have to admit that one has to have a pretty good financial situation in order to be able to afford one of these highen portable solutions.