Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Now that the Z Series has officially been released, let's spin off a new thread for owners and potential owners.

Basic specifications are:

- 2.2GHz (P8400) to 2.53GHz (P9500) Core 2 Duo, 3MB - 6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz FSB
- Up to 4GB DDR3 SDRAM
- NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS with 128 - 256MB dedicated video RAM
- Hybrid graphics system (speed/stamina) now switches on the fly with no restart
- 13.1" LED Backlit display (now true 16:9) with available resolutions of 1600 x 900 or 1366 x 768, XBRITE-DuraView technology
- Variety of available HDD options, including 64GB and 128GB SSDs*
- Available Blu-ray RW*
- HDMI output, in addition to VGA
- Redesigned keyboard (Home, End, PgUp and PgDn removed; now Fn-driven)
- 802.11a/b/g/n and Gigabit Ethernet standard
- Mem. Stick Duo, SD card slots (relocated to front), ExpressCard 34 slot
- 2 USB 2.0 ports (1 on each side), Firewire port
- 1.3Mp camera, A2DP Bluetooth, Fingerprint sensor, TPM 1.2
- Power jack and power button relocated to sides of "hinge"
- Carbon-fiber case; better use overall of environmentally-friendly materials
- Claimed battery life of 6 hours (std. battery) and 9 hours (lrg. capacity)
- 3.42 lbs (with standard battery), 12.4"W x 1.3"H x 8.3"D
- 1 year warranty
- Priced from $1,799.99

*At present there does not appear to be a way (even CTO) to order an SSD drive AND a Blu-ray drive in the same unit.

Full information here:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=8198552921644570897&parentCategoryId=16154

DC

 

Do you have any confirmation for that battery life? If the 9hours is true, then I think I will pick this up instead of the Lenovo X200 since this has a better video card.

 

info looks good, according to the sonystyle website.

so which card has the 128/256? the dedicated one or the intergrated one?

assuming the Z series goes on sale in canada this fall (unsure of that now, no announcement on sony canada's site as far as i can see) I might pick one up.

I configured to what I want, and price came out to 2500 US lol. the 128 ssd drive is a nice price lol.

 

I'm a bit disappointed in the keyboard layout. Seems from the amount of space on the left and right sides that they could have put in the Home/PgUp/PgDn/End row and full sized cursor keys as on the SZ and M1330.

 

With Sony battery claims always assume that 6=3.5 and 9=5.5.

(Posted with my iPhone 3G.)

 

Keyboards not bad its more comfortable to type on than the TZ series and the 16:9 screen is really easy to read, light, battery depends on how you use it if you really want to you could have it last 8 or 9 hours especially with the option to disable the DVD drive. The speed stamina switch is a great idea but if you have some software using specialized graphics or hardware acceleration you shouldnt have to manually close the programs. At least the software is more stable with SP1 preloaded and less programs starting up with the computer.

 

Do you guys know when it will be shipped?

 

Higher end Z series, Z590+, has 1600x900 resolution display and gforce 9300 with 256 MB dedicated memory.

The lower end Z with 1366x768 resolution display has gforce 9300 with 128 MB dedicated memory.

 

Why does the 1366 x 768 resolution not sound "standard" like the 1600x900. Is it just me?

 

It's a 'standard' 16:9 resolution that is sometimes found in TVs and laptops (Sony TZ for example).

 

Can I pre-order in europe already?

 

thanks for the clarification, I guess then the 9300 with 256 should run most games fine (fine as in not uber high graphics but above average at least).

now if only sony canada announced the new z series.

 

http://www.notebook.de/sony-vaio-vgn-z-serie-g-842/?section=shop&group=842/&lang=en

i will get it there...

 

Wow, I didn't realize that. Bummer. Believe it or not, that bugs me -- a lot.

I use the Home and End keys all the time, and I'd much rather just use one key (and one finger) to do so.

 

When Sony says mid-August - like August 15th, or like August 20th? This laptop is making me re-consider the VooDoo, but I need a laptop by like August 21st.

 

w/c 18th of August, calendar week 34

 

I have a question about the blu-ray drive. I understand that it can't write blu-ray media, only read. However, can it burn dvds and music/data discs like the standard DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive?

 

I don't think it can. As of for now, that would require two different laser head inside the drive.

 

Anyone else notice the Z drops the custom Sony Sound Reality chip produced by (formerly) Sigmatel? I think audio quality from my SZ is excellent, it would be shame to go back to 'standard' sound quality.

Although, they may have had to switch to get HDMI audio working properly....

 

Ordered Z today and got ship date of August 15.

 

I find this annoying as well. And the Function key is all the way on the other side so two hands are required.

My old Sony TR2 did not have dedicated H/E/U/D keys either, but there was a Function key next to the arrow keys so you could do H/E/U/D with one hand - it worked pretty well.

 

Yep, I'm already looking at other units, partly for this reason.

 

That's the conversion factor for Japanese specs, which lists the two batteries as 11 hr and 17 hr max usage...

US specs are actually pretty accurate if you turn the brightness to minimal and use stamina mode.

 

Hey, what were the dates that they were going to be shipped, when you bought yours?

 

I think Sony's sales info is really confusing as to exactly what the Z's Blu-ray drive is. On the CTO screen it says "Blu-ray Read/Write Drive". The "More Info" blurb makes no sense at all....even for the DVD. I think it was a written by a dimwit.

The $500 price tag screams Blu-ray burner. Afterall the FW has a Blu-ray burner option for only $300 and $150 for a Blu-ray reader. BD readers are available in other laptops for under $200 all over the place. No way even Sony would charge $500 for a BD reader-only.

Anyway my order clearly states "Blu-ray Disc™ Read/Write Drive". Nothing ambiguous about it. As to the notion that it won't read or write DVD or CD because they couldn't add another laser, I say balderdash. That would be insane. Anyway, if you look at the Z user manual, it clearly states that the Blu-ray burner does EVERYTHING!!

Hope that stops this FUD right in it's tracks.

 

August 15.

 

Really? Look forward to real-life reports. Those Japanese times are crazy!

 

Please explain:

I can't understand I wanted to buy Z long before they even announced it and now I'm... dissapointed.

I did understand (and basically loved the idea) fitting 8400gs into gma3100 laptop... But 9300gs (1500 3smarks) with gma4500 (1100 3dmarks)??
I'm using notebook mostly for writing/surfing and i need it light... And would like to play from time to time... (of course nothing tooo heavy..)

Please tell me there is some trick... On the nVidia site it is written only about linking 9300gs with 9100...

 

I really don't know what you're trying to say. Unless the lower the 3dmarks score the better it is then it does make some sense. Anyways, if you're purchasing the higher end Z with 256MB dedicated memory. You should be able to play MOST of the game out there already. It's a 13.1 inches laptop with tons of equipment, what are you asking for? look at the TZ and the SZ, you are more capable already.

 

I think i know what you mean. You think they can linked like SLI right?
Well that's not the case. On the Z the 9300M and X4500 are hot switchable.

9300M for more performance, X4500 for more batterylife.

 

Can someone explain me more about the HDMI? I never used it...

Is meant to attach the Z to the TV right? So you can see movies that you have in the laptop in the TV?

 

It's a digital video+audio output. It can be used to connect to TV or LCD monitor.

VGA, which is common on laptops, is only analog and suffers from quality loss on higher resolutions. HDMI does not.

PS. HDMI to DVI connectors are very cheap. So any laptop with HDMI can be connected to a LCD screen with DVI in digital quality.

 

Thanks Phil,

Two more things.

Much more clear now. If the TV has a resolution of 1366x768 the laptop must have the same resolution for making the HDMI work good?

I offen watch live TV programs in the laptop. I will be able to connect through HDMI to the TV to watch these programs?

 

Of course make sure your TV has HDMI, but all HDTVs have it now.

When you output to your TV, you can disable the laptop's screen and that will save you battery life. Or you can display the image on both screens if you want.

The resolution does not have to be the same on the TV and laptop. Your laptop's screen could be 1366x768 and the TV could be 1920x1080 and it will output fine. Of course your desktop would look smaller on your TV, the icons would be smaller. But you can output to lower resolutions as well to see more clearly.

Intel's integrated graphics may have some slowdown displaying out at that high resolution, but I am not sure.

 

Yes. For the best image quality the laptop should output the native resolution of the TV.

If the videocard driver does not offer this option (usually it does) then there are utlities that can do this. One is called Powerstrip.

Intel X4500 has hardware H264 acceleration so it should be ok. Theoretically.

 

i think what he's trying to say is that the dedicated gfx card perform ~ the same as the x4500 since the differences btw 3dmark is only about 400. he's actually expecting a dedicated card to be performing much better than the integrated one... eg. 3000+ range

 

Glad somebody did understand me - Firestone...

There was a reason to put in one laptop a 600 3dmarks card and 1500 3dmarks card (SZ). But I can't see any reason to put inside 1100 and 1500... There's too little difference between them...

It's almost useless now...

And I don't expect too fast GPU either because I know it would impossible to put into such a small notebook... Still... 400 3dmarks...

And 9300gs basically IS a 8400gs... So there's no improvement either.

 

there was a comparison chart somewhere in the big new vaio thread, where the specs of 8400gs and 9300gs were compared. it seems that the figure were a lot better so i am really wondering why only geht 1500 3dmarks

 

VGN-Z11MN/B 1639,- euros: http://geizhals.eu/a351776.html

That should be 1700-1750 US$ when it's available in american retail.

 

Conics.net has added the Z series!

Prices are incredible though:
The SSD costs 1.598 $...All together the Z costs 4.505 $!!!
Specs:
2.53 Ghz
1600x900
4 GB RAM
128 GB SSD
Large Battery
DVD
3 Years accidental warranty

Better the price with blu-ray drive (3.356$):
Specs:
2.53 Ghz
1600x900
200 GB 7200 rpm HDD
Blu-ray drive
3 Years accidental warranty

Why the CPU has these prices? Why the P9500 2.53 Ghz is cheaper then the P8400 2.26 Ghz?

What do you think guys? btw can you enter the site of portable one?

 

The Z series is on PortableOne.

http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=SONYZ

 

i liked the skins from jp.sonystyle.
are these skins easy to duplicate?
think skinit ..etc can do such jobs? not sure where to obtain these graphics file myself anyways.

 

I don't know why I can't access the webpage of PortableOne.
What do you think about the prices of Conics rahul? Are these of PortableOne similar as well?

 

Doesn't work the link.

Is way overpriced this SSD. 1.5K for 128GB SSD! You take another laptop with these money.

 

Link works fine for me. Here's another attempt:
http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=SONYZ

 

Come on guys, the purpose of having two graphics is to SAVE POWER --> put a good dedicated card in there then try to fit something similar enough that can help to save power and the goal is try make both as close as possible performance wise. Everybody know that if you put a small dedicated in, you will save power but putting a crappy one that you can't do **** then what's the point of it? 400 points different is good enough, it could have been much closer.

 

And besides that 3d Mark06 is not the only important performance indicator.

I expect 1080p playback from Nvidia9300M over HDMI also to be better. Important when you hook it up to your TV.

 

Does anybody know if the GeForce 9300M GS 256MB version that is build into the Vaio Z has DDR3 RAM?

And will the Z's on-the-fly switch between the on board Intel and the Nvidia GPU work under Windows XP or Linux?
When no one knows weather it works or not without a restart, could you, notebook-review team, maybe try the "Stamina-Speed"-switch of the Vaio Z with a different operating system than Vista?

 

Where exactly are you getting these scores?? (Please dont say notebookcheck lol) the Z will score almost 2500+ with the 9300mGS, seeing as a FW scores round that with a much less processor. and the Z has DDR3 ram.

You understand that processors and ram have alot to do with GPU as a bottleneck right

 

I thought all 9300m GS's are ddr3?