The VAIO FZ21M comes with a 15.4” wide-screen display featuring a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Again, that’s pretty much standard fare for displays today, and some screens of this size are moving to 1440 x 900 instead. At this point we can’t help but point out that Sony could be accused of misleading the customer. The laptop sports a sticker proclaiming support for Full-HD 1080p playback. While this is true as long as you’re using the HDMI output and an external screen, the VAIO’s display is obviously unable to provide this resolution, i.e. 1920 x 1080.

On the whole, we liked the display. As we’ve said in previous reviews, the glossy display is certainly a matter of personal preference. On the plus side, it tends to bring out colours better, making them livelier. The downside is that reflections of your surroundings and especially of light sources can be distracting. Sadly, this is especially apparent in this display. Also, some of the colours actually suffer from over-saturation. Red and orange seem too vibrant, for example. Black is so deep that details tend to get smothered. This could be remedied by adjusting the screen manually, but probably at the cost of the black, which could take on a washed-out grey tinge.

The viewing angle is a bit of a mixed bag. Most colours remain stable when viewed from the sides, but very dark tones, greys and especially black tend to wash out and even invert rather quickly. The viewing angle from the top or the bottom is much more limited. However, this shouldn’t be an issue, considering that the lid opens as far as it does.

Screen Uniformity

Screen uniformity is another important ergonomic factor, as uneven screen brightness or a too dim display can take its toll on the eyes. Subjectively, the VAIO’s display acquits itself quite well, offering an average brightness of 134 cd/m² at full settings. For indoor work, this is more than enough. Outside in the sun or in especially bright environments, this may be a little on the low side, however. Then again, the very reflective glossy display disqualifies it from use outdoors almost entirely anyway.

We noticed some clouding right around the edges in the lower third of the screen. While not overly distracting, it was apparent nonetheless. The same goes for the backlight, which bled into the bottom of the screen. We measured the average black level at full brightness to be 1.08 cd/m². Seeing this, we were quite surprised at the deep black we saw. As mentioned above, the black does tend to swallow details in a scene, though.