Any deals for Vaio Zs?

I'm looking into the Vaio Z line and really liking what I see.. except the price. Are there any current deals on them right now? Also, where are they the cheapest? Amazon?

 

Well after scouring the web for the last hour, it seems like the best deals on it are at Sony's site.

 

Sony has a student discount.

 

The Sony Style website has the Z starting at $1849.99, but they also add tax in some states ($111 in my case).

Buy.com has a great deal for $1698 with FREE Shipping (and no sales tax)- LINK to VAIO Z

It has the 1600x900 display rather than the upgraded 1920x1080 version. But all the other specs are top notch! =)

 

Hmm I'd be fine with that resolution too. The only thing holding me back is the quality of it..

 

If you live near a Micro Center, they sell the Z. I believe they offer both the 1600x900 and 1920x1080 models, allowing you to compare them in person.

 

By all accounts I can find, the 1600x900 display is exceptional in its own right! According to Notebookcheck.net (an Austrian website that conducts more detailed testing than any other source), the 1600x900 achieves a higher overall max brightness rating than the 1920x1080 (284nits vs. 236nits). They also measured an EXCEPTIONAL contrast ratio of 1146:1 and Black value of 0.26 cd/m2. The 1920x1080 was measured at 773:1 contrast ratio and 0.37 cd/m2 black value, both of which are still considered top of the class. To give you some perspective, the Lenovo ThinkPad T420s only has a contrast ratio of 154:1 and black value of 1.75cd/m2, both considered mediocre but acceptable.

Here are the two reviews on the Notebookcheck site-

1600x900 - LINK

1920x1080 - LINK

From a practical standpoint, I wonder how practical 1920x1080 on a 13.1" display is for prolonged usage (especially text docs)? 1600x900 seems much more usable for the majority of buyers. It provides 27% more viewable desktop space than the 1366x768 display on virtually every other competitor.

Let us know what you decide and I would love to hear your opinion of whichever display you choose. I've had an itch for a VAIO Z for almost three years now and I just paid off my car, so I might be able to talk myself into one...I'll due for a new notebook and it will either be the Dell Latitude E6420, SONY VAIO Z or ASUS Zenbook based on what's available now or in the near future....

 

As an owner of several Sony Zs with each screen I can confirm that both screens are superb and the 900p screen is noticeably brighter than the 1080p though the latter is no slouch in that department. The 1080p also has somewhat wider color gamut (near 100% of Adobe RGB vs. about 80% for the 900p panel) though you'd never notice it with the naked eye; it's really only important to professional graphic or video editors and the screen size would rule out doing that kind of work on it. It is said that the 900p draws a bit less power - though no one has tested this and it does not appear to be a good reason to choose one screen over the other. The small text argument against the 1080p doesn't hold much water because you can always set the text to 125%, though that will limit the width of side-by-side documents you can have on the screen and that capacity is a major reason for choosing the 1080p. The 1080p does have noticeably better video quality, but only on 1080p video, which is still rather rare to come by outside of blu ray disks.

You really can't go wrong with either screen but if I had my 'druthers, I'd go with the 1080p. It's part of what makes the Z exceptional and it will bring more in resale value than it costs to buy; it's only a $100 upgrade and generally brings at least $200 more on resale. This is particularly true of the Z2, the vast, vast majority of which are sold with the 1080p screen, while with the Z1 series it was more like 50/50.

Any other questions, feel free to post; I owned one of each screen for a time and did extensive A/B comparisons. I ended up with the 900p screen because I love brightness and contrast and, at 13.1", the difference in resolution - though huge on a ppi basis - to the naked eye is negligible on all but 1080p video and even there, many would be hard pressed to identify which was which in a blind comparison. Still, not only do I recommend the 1080p if you are purchasing a new Z2 series, I even regret not sticking with it myself.

Final note. The 1146:1 contrast ratio and .26 black level notebookcheck.net reported was possibly erroneous. On the same 900p screen in the Z1 they reviewed 3 models and measured contrast ratios of 646:1 (admittedly, a pre-production unit) to 898:1. Brightness ranged from 240 nit to 280 nit, FWIW.

Whew! Sorry for such a long post, but I really have made something of a project of evaluating these displays, so I am passing along everything I have learned.

 

you check the sony outlet?

 

These days the outlet has lousy prices on Zs; the current discounts on new ones - up to $400 - are the best bet, though still very expensive. I've seen new Z2s on eBay go for as little as $1,350 in recent weeks, plenty at around $1,500, for the base specs, of course, but that is still a screamin fast laptop.

 

Thanks for all the helpful info. I should have updated this sooner. When I found out the upcoming Clevo refreshes will have back lit keyboards and possibly optimus tech, I decided to wait for one of those.

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