Official Sony VPC-Z2 (VAIO Z 2011) Series Owners' Thread

Sorry to hear about your screen, they started building my replacement on Monday but after speaking to Sony it seems there has been a delay with some components and my estimated arrival date is September 8th

 

Did you ordered with WWAN?

Anyway, some pixels can be burnt.. with 1920*1080. But the problem is that for such an expensive laptop, I want it perfect.

 

Yeah, I did have WWAN, maybe that is the problem.

I wouldn't mind a few individual stuck pixels, they would be almost impossible to see, it's just a problem when you have a cluster....

 

I had 2 pixels as a little cluster and I was able to see them clearly.. probably I would see even singular pixels without big problem..
Big delays are always due to WWAN module for what I've seen. I didn't ordered WWAN by the way

 

anyone hearing a VERYY VERYY HIGH frequency whining on the Z2 ?? This is getting very annoying.

Also, anyone suffering from BSOD? I happen to get it quite frequently.

 

^
I didn't notice any whine.
I also didn't get BSOD...what did you do to get them?

 

Hi,
Thinking about getting this one.
Can someone point out what parts are aluminum and what parts are carbon externally.
How solid is the aluminum palm rest?

 

I barely installed anything or do anything and it gives me BSOD! The only thing I did is to turn on the laptop with the PMD plugged in, which I heard is not recommended in the manual, but I guess a lot of ppl do that anyways - or am I wrong?

And the other Z2 I bought doesn't have any BSOD (didn't use any PMD either) but just have the screen frozen twice and have to force restart twice in less than 10 minutes just now.

You experiencing any issues?

 

^
Nope.
Didn't get any BSOD's or freezes so far (knock on wood).
I didn't know that it is not recommended to power on the laptop with the PMD connected.
I have started the laptop with and without the PMD and have so far not experienced any issues.

 

Sony VAIO Z components - Engadget Galleries

 

Do you get the whine on both Zs?

 

my girlfriend is using the other Z2 at the moment and she says she can't hear the whining sound. I have to check that out later.

However, I don't hear any whine on the old Z1 or the VGN-Z. I can, however, hear the very high freq whine of the E series aross a quiet room. Maybe there's sth wrong with the 2011 VAIOs regarding this matter?

 

I've turn it on many times with the PMD plugged in. Never had any issues.

 

I am in the processes of installing windows and am getting an error with the ATI drivers.

According to the instructions in this thread, i boot with the PMD installed first, and installed the ATI+intel driver combo. It says it installed successfully, but, after reboot, i get the message

c:\Windows\system32\atiadlxy.dll is either not designed to run on Windows, or it contains an error.

Any thoughts. I to try again, i manually unintslled the Intel drivers, and ATI drivers, but the end result was the same.

 

So I've got the case, but not the laptop. Should arrive next week tho. Fingers crossed.

When it comes to the case I have to say the obvious thing; it looks better on the pictures than IRL but I still think it's a very nice case. Not really worth that big price tag, but most cheaper cases look like crap anyway. Even without the laptop I got a real feel of just how super thin the Z2 is.

 

**UPDATE** I completely wiped the Intel Drivers and ATI drivers from the system, and reapplied. This did not work either. I did this again, but, this time i did not boot with the PMD plugged in. After I loaded into windows, i plugged in the PMD, THEN installed the drivers. This *seemed* to work, but,, i need to verify more. I just ran the WEI, and I get these results:

7.1 // 7.5 // 6.8 // 6.8 // 7.9

This seems to be aligned with what people are posting on the forum for benchmarks. So, there ya go. Don't boot up with the PMD connected when installing the drivers. Boot up, then connect PMD, then install drivers.

 

Just found this video on UTUBE

Laptop Exclusive: Sony Engineer Takes Apart New VAIO Z Laptop - YouTube

 

They seem very bad at "selling" their product, at least in english.

 

wish the teardown was slower... I'm gonna try replacing the speakers with some other ones.

 

And now, if you're completely bored, please enjoy watching Shinji Oguchi putting the Z2 together again in time lapse:
Exclusive :Sony Engineer Puts Together VAIO Z From Memory - YouTube

 

^wow, he did this without watching a step-by-step youtube video!

 

Can we get some more detailed pics of the case?

Thanks,

Y2J

 

^
Here are some nice pics:
????SONY VGP-CKZ3 ????? - ??????? - ePrice ???

 

Hi!

This is my first post here. I'm french, so, sorry for my bad english.

I will buy the Sony Vaio z on the Canadian's store in a month.
I ("hesitate" ?) .... between the "carbon indigo" color, and the "carbon black".
I saw one post of this thread and the color was "purple". Does anyone have another "real" picture of the carbon indigo color please ?

Thank you!

 

Has anyone connected to the internet succesfully via the ethernet port on the PMD? My friend is having trouble doing it, but it works fine on the ethernet port on the main unit. And when he troubleshoots it says local area connection doesnt have a valid IP configuration.

 

If they can build them so quick why does it take them 2-3 weeks to ship.

 

Hey I just picked up my Z from the local Microcenter. This thing is beautiful as you guys already know. I have a quick question. Do you guys notice a slight shimmer or graininess to the display? I haven't seen anyone mention this yet. I've seen it before on other displays, but I'm a bit disappointed to see it on such an expensive machine. I'm curious if Sony is sourcing the display from a few different manufacturers, and I just happened to get the one with the grain. If you want to check on the display type you an find it under the Device Manager under Monitors > Generic PnP Monitor Properties > Details > Hardware Ids. Mine is a SNY06FA. I have the 16 x 9 display. Thanks.

 

I noticed this as well when i first got mine. It seems that it more noticeable when the brightness is dimmer. I think its just because of the matte finish and it looked weird to me because i was coming from a glossy display. Im used to it now.

 

How can a Z2 be switched from AT&T/Sprint to Verizon??

 

Nope, mine works fine.


Does anyone know if the noise cancellation headphones can be used with other devices IE an iPod? I've noticed the jack looks substantially different compared to regular headphones.

 

That graininess is the anti-glare treatement, it's not a defect and it's useful to avoid glares (and this treatment is lower effective then full anti glare/ matte since this is a semi-matte, it means that on those matte display you would see more grain than this). It's not a question of better or worse ... it's more like "de gustibus" .. but, if you hate glares, this is the right choice. It's a laptop for mobile utility, so it's meant to be also in open air. That's why it's a semi matte display.

 

I tried using it on my phone (nexus s) and the noise cancellation didnt work.

 

The headphones work with other devices, but noise canceling is a function of the laptop. You can see the "NC" icon in the systray.

 

I have the 5240, and no it's utterly silent running Outlook, Firefox, Chrome, IE9, Word 2010 and Excel 2010. Like if I put my ear right beside it, it's warmer than it is noisy, and I can't hear the fans over the office AC output.

 

As for the i7, I've been using it at work this week. With the Vaio Control Center setting changed to silient, the fan only spikes up when playing Flash vids or while manipulating Visio's. The Z1 was more chatty, so noise with the Z2 is better overall.

Also, and this is big for me, the palmrest stays cool even with high CPU load. It can warm up when charging the battery, but this makes sense since the battery is directly below it. This should be the case for all Z2's, not just the i7 flavors.

In other news, I was able to play a blueray via WiDi but the steps required make it impractical.

1. Disable the ATI GPU (WiDi only works with the Intel processor). I did this in Device Manager
2. Since WiDi isn't HDCP compatible, I used AnyDVD to forego the copy protection
3. Browse to the \BDMV\STREAM folder, find the appropriate M2TS file and play it with Windows Media Player.

Picture/sound quality is great, but the video still stutters from time to time, especially when doing something CPU intensive on the laptop itself. I think WiDi drops frames when other processes are using resources.

All said and done, the compromises needed to use WiDi outweigh the utility it provides. Disappointing.

 

Well the problem is that I've owned quite a few matte display notebooks, and having a matte display does not automatically mean that it has a grainy appearance. My work notebook is a cheap Dell and it has a perfectly grain free matte display. Of course the rest of the display attributes are crap, but that's a different story.

 

Yeah, Sonys current Matte preference is probably the lightest Matte coating I have ever come across. It's *just* barely enough to make reflections blurry, but not enough to do much else.

 

Uhm.. every matte display I had, had the same grain.. by the way, if there's no grain in a matte display I wonder how glare is cut off... and if it's really cut off or not. It may be a matte display withou any anti-glare treatment.

 

o.0 I thought Anti Glare = Matte....!?

 

Matte is the contrary of Glossy but it doesn't mean that there's always an additional anti-glare treatment.

 

The carbon black is gorgeous. There have been lots of posts about the indigo, mainly critical that it is very purple, not blue at all.

 

It was my mission tonight to find a laptop sleeve for the Z. I went in store so i could test them out. I hit up best buy, office depot, and then compusa. My results were fairly dissapointting.

Its very hard to find a case that fits the Z well. The Z is very long one way and very short the other. I ended up picking this: Amazon.com: Altego Clear Sleeve for 14-Inch Laptops (Black): Electronics at compusa. It was the best fit i found all night.

The width fits perfectly but the length is a little long for the Z. imgur: the simple image sharer. I like how its clear though and you can see the vaio logo. It feels pretty good in the hand and doesnt add too much bulk. imgur: the simple image sharer

but alas its not perfect. I will use it for now and continue the search. If anyone find a sleeve that better fits please post! I remember someone posted a japanese company that was making Z specific sleeves. Could that person repost and Ill bookmark it this time?

PS i tried the be.ez and it had pretty much the same fit as the altego (perfect wide, too long) but i didnt like the feel of the memory foam.

PPS I also picked up the anywhere mx tonight. Much better than the orochi. Beautiful ergonomics, and it renders the kabuto i bought useless since it actually does work on any surface (including my glass desk). The on/off button is also satisfyingly springy.

 

I was thinking about this one for the laptop.. obviously, the black one or red one... I don't think it's so bad.. LaCie - LaCie Coat Laptop 13'

 

Have you looked at this one?
iPad case Kindle cover MacBook sleeve iPhone slip case: Sony Vaio Z and TT/TZ laptop sleeves

They made customised sleeves and I have them for my first two gen Vaio Z. They look quite nice and the alcantara option certainly is in line with the Z's luxurious level.

That said, I don't think this sleeve offers a lot of shock protection.
I'm currently looking for bags (messenger bags) that have a padded laptop compartment. None of them look good and fit my requirements at the same time...

 

Another option Custom Leather Laptop Cases

 

At first I bought a Be.ez 13" sleeve, but I didn't like the fit (a lot of movement/sliding around inside the sleeve)

Now I got a Booq Vyper XS3, which has a much better fit and offers much more protection, it's even water resistant. The sleeve/case is really well made and feels sturdy and durable. It's quite thick though (~40mm or 1.58"), but can also hold the Z2 with the sheet-battery.

I'm very pleased with the Vyper XS3.

 

I bought one of these and found it pretty good. Bit pricy though. But if you can afford one of these laptops you can't exactly be poor.

Kobe from knomo: Official Store | Men's Brown Leather Messenger Bag | Stylish 15" Laptop Bag | Messenger Laptop Bags | Laptop Sleeves | Luggage

 

I think a big problem could be the special ati/intel gpu driver. After all my tests and readings in other posts, i think we only can pray for newer ati/intel gpu driver set. This is anoing! Open GL ist not full supported and i´m sure there will be a lot of other driver related issues in the next days...

 

Do you have one of these? It is really gorgeous. From the pictures, I can't tell how much protection there is for the laptop, though - looks like just a leather pocket. That wouldn't do in an airline overhead bin.

ETA: Ah, this review clarifies that there is indeed no padding. So you'd need a sleeve as well.

 

Today i´ve tested the intel driver set and find the first issues. One of the biggest problems is the missing Open GL 2.0 support. The driver is only Open GL 1.1 capable.

On the Intel webseite, the Intel HD 3000 is Open GL 2.0 cabable, so i think this is one of the sony "benefits" of the special driver needed...