Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Yeah, the way I see it is that:

Non-premium SZ --> succeeded by SR
Premium SZ --> succeeded by Z

 

Elemido, thanks for the comparison photo.

 

Thanks a lot for the photo!

I haven't seen the Z in person, but in the picture, the Z's color reproduction is indeed better than the SR.

 

At my SonyStyle, I had the FW, SR and Z display several solid colors in Microsoft Paint. Probably not the best measure of a screen's quality but the Z BLEW away the FW and SR.
The difference may not be as noticeable if you view these displays normally with multiple colors, but when viewing a single solid color, you can see the difference, night and day. The Z's color reproduction is amazing.

Sigh, I can only afford the lower end Zs, if only I could get the 1600x900 screen on them.

 

Don't really think its a CR successor, the only thing that it has in common with the CR is the color variety option.

 

I wonder how much of the color difference is the display and how much is a difference in video cards (ATI vs nVidia) and color calibration?

The size difference between the two machines is amazing. The SR is fairly small, but the Z is tiny. I wonder how well Sony was able to tame the heat from the CPU/GPU in such a small package? Hopefully, the machine doesn't sound like a jet taking off when pushed.

 

That's good to hear.

Yea...we are pretty much in the same situation. I will probably get the 570 because I can't afford the higher res. I wonder how much the 590NFB(the cheapest pre-configured 590) would cost. It's got a P8600, 3 gb ram, 320 gb hdd, and a regular DVD driver. I don't think it would cost more than $2500. What do you think?

Also, color wise, do you think the Z's lower resolution screen would look as good as the higher res screen?

Also the fact that there's a letter "R" in the name "SR". lol

 

I'm quite sure it would. Its not really the screen thats causing the brilliant image, but the excellent LED back-lighting Sony is using.

For instance, I've managed to compare my Vaio TZ to the Lenovo U110 and Asus U2E side-by-side at my Microcenter store. All three use an 11.1" WXGA screen, in which the only manufacturer right now is Toshiba-Matsu****a. All three are also LED-backlit.

I naturally expected all three to have similar image quality but yet the TZ blew those two away in brightness and color reproduction.

Sony was the very first computer maker to use LED-backlighting in their TX series in 2005, so they have experience.

 

Based on your statement, I'm getting the impression that your basically saying the Z cannot get any better than this; That it cannot be improved and it cannot get any better than this. I'm looking beyond the box by my previous statement. The Z is not going to be with us forever, that's a given. Sony will only improve it. Whatever that may be, I don't know, but in 3 years some other 13.1" model will replace the Z.
Carbon is not going to be the only high end material Sony will consider. Somewhere down the line, new materials will evolve, speed and performance will improve, concerns with battery life will bring increased longevity. See where I am going with this? Technology doesn't stop with the Z. But anyway, I say all this with sincerity to your reply :wink:.

 

How much is the lower end Z that you can afford in comparison to the lower end Z with the 1600x900 you wish you can have?

 

To further improve upon it, I would like it to have dedicated media buttons and an Expresscard 54 slot. Not going to happen though.

 

I think the higher res screen lends itself to a smoother overall appearance especially with Vista. Text and fonts will render a bit better...one of the reasons why the Z screen appears a bit more crisp than the SR. I saw the specs somewhere that the DPI for the high res Z screen is about the same at the TZ display. With that said it might not be so bad to get the lower res screen in the Z if you plan on using it quite a bit. I have pretty good eyes and I found the TZ display caused headaches and some squinting. Vista should help a little with that, but 1600 x 900 is going to be a strain for some people.

 

My absolute max budget would be around $2000 and it looks like the Z's with 1600x900 screen start at around $2300 and above.

 

I thought the same thing as well, but you're right that the Sony does have the best display. To be fair though I thought the Lenovo wasn't too bad, but they stuck that stupid plastic sheet in front of the display. The sheet makes the display grainy, and it cuts down on the screen's brightness. Stupid all the way around.

 

Answer this, the Sony Z on display at Sony Stores are powered ON all-day. Customers are always trying them out. Wouldn't that be an example of a machine being pushed. Because in all my 3 visits, I was at the Sony Store a few hours before closing and I've never heard any sounds like they've been pushed beyond there limits. Now for my SZ, yes, often I hear the fan, like it was gasping for air, and the most I've had it on before I hear the fan is about 2-3 hours into use.

 

Why do you say that? I was really hoping for dedicated AV so that you didn't have to boot up Vista/XP when watching movies. This was the one feature on the TZ that I liked - saves on battery life. Did you read somewhere that the Z will not have this later as a refresh.

This is exactly the improvements I was talking about.

 

That's a great heads up! The SZ, S, and TX had various fan noise issues. The S and SZ being the loud obnoxious kind while the TX was more of a buzzing sound that repeated itself every 20 seconds. Both types equally nerve racking in a quiet environment. Hopefully, Sony made some headway with the Z. From personal experience the SR and FW are very quiet machines even when pushed.

 

LOL. I doubt the Z would be any hotter than the SR because the Z has p9500 and the SR has T9680. To my knowledge, the Z has slightly longer battery life than the SR even in speed mode. You know, the amount of heat dissipated corresponds to the amount of energy consumed. Also, remember that unlike the Ati card on the SR, the dedicated graphics card on the Z can be turned off.

How can you say the Z is tiny when the SR's FAIRLY small? The screens have the same width. The screen on the Z is only shorter by 1/10 of the SR's height (16:10 vs 16:9). The Z looks smaller than it is because the edge the under the screen is thinner than the same edge on the SR.

 

Exactly, I also really wanted the dedicated media buttons and AV Mode from my TZ to the Z, if I get a Z, I would miss those little features.

I feel Sony won't implement them because the Z is a direct replacement to the SZ, which also lacked the buttons and AV Mode. But instead, the Z and SZ have two shortcut buttons you can program to launch whatever you choose.

Its silly for Sony not to do this since the Z has Blu-Ray as an option and HDMI out, when the lower end FW and SR have these features.

 

True, but I think you missed a point.

We were talking about the possible cosmetic enhancements on the current Z.

 

I didn't know that the FW and SR had dedicated AV/Media Buttons. Yeah, your right, why wouldn't Sony have this especially on the models that have Blu-Ray. I never thought about that. Let's hope it will be implemented later. Just because the SZ didn't have it doesn't mean the Z won't have it later on. I guess we can daydream about it:wub:.

I've already decided on the Z, that's why I didn't know of this. I've been visiting only Z threads - I'm not familiar with the SR and FW.

 

Granted the Z can be run in a low power mode, but I was looking at max temps. The GPU in the Z is a better performer than the ATI solution in the SR, and from my past experience nVidia GPUs perform very well but they draw a lot of power and produce a lot of heat. nVidia has always lagged behind ATI in power management and die size/geometry. Since the Z has an overall smaller package than the SR the cooling solution will need to work harder to remove the heat generated by the CPU, GPU, and assorted components.

The Z is much smaller in comparison to the SR. Which I believe is one of the big selling points of the Z. You can see that Sony trimmed quite a bit from the palm rest area and moved the keyboard even closer to the barrel. The display on the Z is quite a bit shorter in height than the SR.

 

When you started off by saying you went the local Sony Store in Eaton Centre I was like oh shi! its finally out! and then you go on to say nothing yet. Dont toy with my emotions budd. Oh nice dude, what u takin at Ryerson?

 

Oh yea and to fellow Canadians, dont expect a lot or any options at all for the Z eh. Look at the SZ780, we only have ONE freaking preconfig option which was the lowest configuration. If Sony does that this time, im gong to write a letter to Sony. And if they do that, I think that shows you how cheap the company is and what kinda service and all u'll get wth them IMO.

 

I just got the email from Sony Japan that I can custom order the Z. As of 1pm yesterday I placed my order for the 2.8Ghz T9600, 4 gigs of DDR3 ram, 256MB GPU with 1600x900 screen and just the regular 200GB 5400rpm HD. (Just to brag a little )

WHICH leads to my next question. It has the option for dual SDD drives in RAID0, would I be able to swap out the crappy drive and install two SSD's myself? I know that for an OCZ 128GB it's around $500 which is much cheaper than what sony is asking for, for a 64GB. (I asked the sales rep at a local retailer and they said no, but I'm sure that's not the answer, well not that one I was looking for )

The only restriction they had was no BR drive with the SSD because of the small size of the SSD (64GB).

I hope there will be some nice guides to open this workhorse of a machine for upgrades!

(the total of the above configured machine came out to about 270,000 YEN which when converted to CDN ($2597) or US ($2488) is a great price.)

I can't wait to get it on the 19th!!

 

Nice man, would they ship to Canada? Just outta curiousity cuz for ur config thats pretty cheap. Now is $2597 after or before tax? And are you from U.S by the way?

 

Very nice config you've got there. Hope you are aware of the 35w TDP of the 2.8Ghz CPU and the according influence on battery life.

About the SSD, a 128GB OCZ Core is a nice drive but also has some weaknesses. People have reported major slow downs/freezes in multitasking situations. Let me know if you need some links. You might be better of with a different SSD or a 320GB/7200rpm drive.

How much does Sony JP charge for shipping to US/Canada?

 

I'm originally from Canada (Vancouver) and have been living in Japan for almost 3 years. I'm pretty sure they won't ship outside of Japan, and that's all Japanese tax included. (272,800 YEN)

I checked the US Vaio site and they only ship to US. So I'm sure the Japanese site would be the same.

PhilFlow,
thanks for the info. Didn't realize that. Though I have heard good things of the scorpio drives. I don't plan to be using it without an AC adaptor for 5+ hours so I think I'm good.

 

Right, I misunderstood your first post.

If people are interested, these custom versions can be ordered through Conics.net and PriceJapan.com who ship worldwide.

The first review said it got 3.30 hours with that CPU and 2 SSDs.

 

Do you have any links to reviews? I can only find the new release news... nothing of reviews.

Thanks for your time!

 

I'm trying to collect them here

The one you're looking for is this review I think

 

Well thanks for that big bunch of reviews! (some already seen... and more like previews...)

But now I'm thinking about the CPU... I can't chance my mind now and hadn't thought about the power draw when I first ordered... never crossed my mind. Would a underclocking be effective in getting more battery life out of it? I'm sure 2Ghz would be fine or even lower underclock. I just wanted something a bit future proof for a while.

Again thanks for everyone's input.

 

Don;t forget about the the show around of the Z series I found. I think the following video is great to see the dimensions of the Z to get an aspect of what to expect.


http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=3e34617c-eb47-4c3e-9680-8cdc08ad0035

 

I've just preordered a VGN-Z11VN/B. Apparently they're due to arrive on 21/8 but Sony Style need to 'process orders' then which means it likely won't arrive until after the Bank Holiday weekend... ah well.

Anyway, at I've finally jumped off the fence after months deliberating over which new notebook to get...

Now the only question remaining is... how do I tell the missus?

 

I was on the fence too, either the Z or the Voodoo Envy 133. I had my name on the preorder list and they said they would call or email to confirm all the details but nothing happened and then they had delays. Which gave Sony enough time to present the Z! so that ultimately pushed me. *^_^*

And to kinda answer my own question about upgrading (based on speculation and pictures...) It looks like it's possible to upgrade for sure to any mechanical HD and for the dual SSD, I think all you need is the special HD ribbon (for dual HD's) and the dual SSD mounting rack thing (and maybe perhaps to take the casing of the SSD's you buy). All they have images on the Japanese review website. Looks like we just need the part numbers!

 

I think the 3:30 hours was already with underclocking. Undervolting may help though.

I'd personally get it with 2.53Ghz CPU (P9500), it has a TDP of 25w and more than fast enough. It will be good to the batterylife and run cooler.

But then again I hardly use programs that max out my CPU, even on a 1.6Ghz Pentium M.

Don't. When she asks 'is that a new one?' you tell her 'no had it for months. how could you have missed that."

 

Ah I don't know if I should buy a Z with a Blue-Ray Drive or without one X_x
I never watched a Blue-Ray and the most Movie are on my HArddrive, some on DVD's but it can be very nice if I have a Blue-Ray Drive. Mhm but I don't know if I need it. It's very expensive T_T

 

That put a sorely needed smile on my face this morning, PhilFlow.

Thanks

 

I have a rather important question myself. Should I pay through Visa or Master card? What about just going debit? What u folks think?

 

Nice. Got any pics with a window or two open?

Also, it looks like the icons on the Z are huge, when they should actually be smaller than the SR's icons. Someone must have tweaked something on the Z.

 

True. Too bad the lower res Z comes with the weaker graphics card.

 

Well apart from basic issues like "will I still have the rent money if I put it on debit/credit", I suppose there's the question of whether your credit card offers some kind of built in insurance.

I'm sure someone here mentioned that Amex offer an extra year's warranty?

 

Im not too sure, im with CIBC bank by the way, and my credit card number is 214...

Hey is that you in the pic with ur wife?

 

Look for the guy with the bushy eyebrows.

 

3:30 with what? wlan on, full brightness, stamina mode?

 

I think these tests where done when they were transferring a file.
You can read the results here translated. 3hours 29 mins in stamina mode with bluetooth of and in power saver mode.

http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...co.jp/docs/2008/0730/hotrev369.htm&hl=en&sa=G

 

lol sorry dude!! I'm in the ITM program.

Yeah we always get the short end of the stick. For example, the SSD option for the TZ never came to Canada. And sadly I doubt we'll get an the SSD option for the Z But I have my fingers crossed....

 

The footprint of the Z is definitely quite a bit smaller than the SR, especially shorter, but I wouldn't exactly call a 9% reduction in screen height "quite a bit". When looking at the screen, I hardly even noticed that it was shorter than the SR.

Unfortunately it's still a 35W TDP, compared to the others at 25W TDP. Even with underclocking, you'll still have considerably less battery life with T-series compared to P-series CPUs.

I'm not saying that the Z can't be improved - of course it can, in future models. There's all kinds of stuff they could add / improve over time in a future model, but I thought Sony never changes their model designs with refreshes? Because if this is true, then I doubt they'll add media buttons, etc. Which leaves the only improvements of refreshes to be build materials, paint color, and internal components. Obviously internal components will be upgraded over time, that's no surprise. Build materials could possibly be improved, but how much better than carbon fiber does it get? I doubt Sony will use Titanium, since it's quite a bit weaker than carbon fiber (63,000 psi tensile compared to 820,000 - 72,000,000 psi tensile). So all this leaves is color changes. What I said was, how else can the Z be externally improved (not counting repaintings) in a refresh?

 

This was the model with 2.8Ghz 35w CPU and 2 SSDs. It may have been a pre prodcution model with early firmware/drivers/bios.

 

What are the sites that can ship the Z worldwide (or at least to Canada)?

P1, Conics, and PriceJapan...is that it?