Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Re: Best Buys Return Policy. Don't you have to return your Z within 15-days to get a full-refund? Your assessed a 15% restocking fee if you open it and decide within 15 days to return it. Any notebooks/p.c.'s over 15-days opened or unopened is subject to a store credit. All other items have a 30 day return policy. How many days have you had your Z610?

 

Once again, I know I'm the stupidest guy in the world. So all this discussion about setting the DPI to 140 for 1600x900 screens means that it will show "similar" screen details to a 1366x768 screen with 96 DPI? If so, then what is the point of getting the 1600x900 screen? Forgive me for my ignorance, yes call me stupid if you want because I am STUPID!

 

I've not installed & run 3dMark on my Z610 yet because I don't intend to play any games on it due to the Nvidia fiasco on their 8xxx series GPUs.

I'll think that the bootup to Windows desktop is "pretty" fast. However, I think my SZ791 boots up a bit faster. Then again, this is not a fair comparison. Furthermore, I did not run a time test on it & it is just based on my perception.

Like Geeee is saying, you may want to make sure that you're still able to return you Z to BB within their allowable return time frame. For me though, I'm keeping mine because I bought mine for about $1,550.

 

What you see on screen will be much better looking at any size. Compare the quality of letters the same size on two displays with different (and correct) DPI settings, and you'll see a big difference.
At smaller font sizes, a higher DPI display will be far more legible, especially for serif fonts. Times 8 pt on a 96 dpi display looks just awful, and is near unreadable. But on a 140 dpi display set to 140 dpi, it's very readable. (On a 140 dpi display set to 96 dpi, it becomes flyspeck.)

 

sonystyle uk CTO page out of stock for the last few days and now the entire website is offline.

"Dear Customer,

The Sony Style shop is currently closed. We are upgrading our systems to provide a better service. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Your Sony Style Team"

God I hope there updating the CTO page to include 256GB RAID 0 option, all my problems would be solved

 

Since Sony released the Vaio Zs, they are listed as Energy Star Qualified. Does anyone know why the Z610 is not Energy Star Qualified? Does this mean that it is more energy hungry than the Z5xxs? Yeah, I know this is plain stupid, please forgive my stupidity & ignorance.

 

I've had it for a week .

 

I'm still experimenting with my z690, and so far enjoying it.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to enable GPS without a broadband subscription? Since they hacked the gobi chip to the point of enabling HSDPA, i figure enabling GPS should be no huge challenge.

 

See JJ, you aren't the stupidest one in the world. I had a feeling I was letting my ignorance show with that post. You are absolutely correct, I had no idea what DPI really was and still don't totally get it.

I adjusted my DPI to 140 (as recommended by the calculator) and everything got real big. I changed the icon size on the desktop to classic and that shrunk them so they look good again. The OS fonts are much bigger now but they look good and clean. However, when I opened iTunes, it's all fuzzy now. Is there a way to fix that? Thanx for your help arth.

Nevermind, looks like it screwed up alot of stuff. I put in a movie and the movie was playing in a little box in the upper left hand corner of my screen.

 

Thanks for that. So it doesn't delay when waking up from sleep or opening programs? The one at Best Buy didn't seem slow at all but who knows how it really is =). Thanks again! I might return my 1340 now--I actually didn't find much difference with the SSD it had except that it was quieter. I did like the 6MB cache though =).

 

Finally had some free time earlier yesterday (Sat, Feb. 14). Yeah, everyone are celebrating Valentine's Day, except me. That's the "sucky" part being without a girlfriend. Oh well, the good news is that this gives me time to take some photos of my Vaio VGN-Z610Y/B & share with everyone.

I know all of you have seen the Z but I thought maybe the Z owners can share some of their Z photos as well. I guess it doesn't hurt to see more Vaio Z photos from Z owners? Hopefully, more Z owners will post pictures of their Zs.

I would have loved to share some high quality photos but my camera is plain lousy & I just sucked big time on photography. My apologies in advance for the non-professional quality photos. Here is my humble Vaio Z:

 

Thanks for the pictures! What is the clear stuff over the keys? Does that come with the computer and have you found that it helps eliminate any scratches on the screen from the keyboard? Also, if you don't mind, can you time the startup?

 

The clear stuff is the silicon keyboard cover I bought from ebay (a seller based in Hong Kong). I've always bought keyboard covers for use with all my current & previous laptops (Vaios, MacBook Pro, Thinkpad, XPSs, Inspirons, Satelite). I love them a lot & it works well for me, though I cannot say the same for others. It seems like almost everyone I know hate these keyboard covers, except me. All my friends & family members thought I'm just plain silly to use keyboard covers.

Sure, I can try to time my boot up time to Windows Vista. However, you'll have to understand that this is not be a very good measure of boot up time because it may be faster or slower in your case because of different installed programs, tweaks in eliminating unnecessary start-up programs, etc.

theguac, by the way that Dell Studio XPS 1340 looks like a killer machine with 128 GB SSD & GeForce 9500M!

 

Haha...well the 1340 is nice but I was expecting a little more out of it. I'm not a gamer so I don't need the raw power that it supplies. I wanted something lighter that has a good battery life. With the 1340, it is almost 5 pounds and its battery life is about 3 hours on a good day. It is quite fast and the SSD makes the whole computer silent, but I don't know...I really liked the Sony when I played around with it at Best Buy. The thing that's holding me back a little is the speed of the 610 and its pricetag...I got the 1340 for $1340 without tax after some negotiating--it also comes with a $200 gift card from Dell so technically it was $1140! But who knows, maybe I'll change my mind and stick with what I have if the Sony doesn't seem much faster or responsive than my current tablet.

 

Wow. That is a great price given that your 1340 has got a SSD drive as well as the Nvidia 9500m GPU plus the Intel P9500 CPU! Personally, if I'm able to buy a 1340 with your config for that price, I'll jump in without thinking twice about it. Having use quite a few Dell myself (I had a 700m, 2 M1210, 2 E1705), I have to say that Dell makes very good laptops & they are very good with their service/support.

 

Nice pics! Thanks Speedy

I had the Z590 and your trackpad looks completely different!! It has somewhat resistance looking dots?? Lol is it synaptics?

+_+ and dont fret, I too spent vday alone looking at which laptop to buy.. AGAIN lol

 

All models have the dots, I don't know why the 590 doesn't. The dots aren't resistance, they are just for aesthetic purposes with no function at all. I guess you could say it's just painted on underneath the touchpad, so you can visually make a distinction between the chasis and the touchpad. Must be Sony's way of making it look slicker. But it feels no different, with or without dots.

 

Hey guys, I am new to the Sony thread, but am a regular over on the Panasonic ToughBook thread. Love this place!

Anyhow.........I needed a new laptop at the house. My old HP finally bit the dust after 4 years and a now 11 year old! I have a ToughBook CF-30 that I use 95% of the time in my vehicle. I like quality as you can tell, and don't mind paying for it if it's a good price. I made a quick, uneducated purchase yesterday at my local Best Buy. I have eyeing the Z series for a couple of months, saw my 1st one at Fry's.

I ended up getting a VGN-Z610Y/B yesterday. It has the foolowing specs:

1366X768 Display
P8600 CPU
320 GB 7200 RPM HDD
4GB Memory
DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM Drive
9300M NVIDIA
Vista Ultimate
Non Carbon

I was able to get him down to $1749.00. I was just configuring one on Sony's website and the closest I could come to was around $2100.00. But I did not try the $300.00 discount.

I have spent most of all last night reading this thread, trying to educate myself on this thing. LOL What do you guys think of this price? The only thing I wish this had was the BD Drive, and a embedded Verizon Card. I have the Verizon on my Toughbook and it would be nice to have it on this one as well. But I still have my USB Card, so it's not the end of the world.

Please give me your honest opinion. I can box this thing back up, no problem, and order one from Sony? Different model# though. That one was a 540 series. This is the closest I could get in configuring mine like that.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40GHz)
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1
4 GB DDR3-SDRAM (DDR3-1066, 2GBx2)
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
No Fresh Start™
Microsoft® Works
Photo Standard
Video Plus
QuickBooks Simple Start
Windows® Live OneCare 90-Day Trial

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No Engraving
DVD±R DL / DVD±RW / DVD-RAM Drive
LCD 13.1" (XBRITE-DuraView™)
Wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
Integrated Wireless Wide Area Network
Trusted Platform Module / Biometric Fingerprint Sensor
Standard Battery (BPS12)

Thanks guys, I appreciate your input and can't wait to start adding to this thread!

 

Hey guys, I did a fresh install of Vista Business because the Sony install was way too bloated to be imaged onto my SSD. So far, performance seems hugely improved. I've installed pretty much all of the Sony drivers and utilities, and my work programs (office, visual studio, expression web, and a few others)

I'd like to see if someone can possibly stopwatch time their laptop for comparison, because I didn't get a chance to do so with the old HDD.

With an OCZ Core v1 64GB SSD:

Boot time: 63 sec
Shut down: 31 sec

Wake -> Sleep: 4 sec
Sleep -> Wake: 6.3 sec

How to measure:
Boot time: from the time you press the pwr button to fully usable desktop, cursor inactive.
Shutdown: from the time you press shutdown to the time the front power led is off
Sleep: from the time you click Sleep to the time that the front led goes out
Wake: from the time you press any key on the keyboard to the time that the windows login screen is up.

 

It is very hard to do a reliable, accurate comparison with boot times. Everyone's PC is configured different. Start up programs, virus, all that stuff changes the sectors at start up.

Just remember that when you see other peoples times. I wish it was easier!

 

Optimized Vista (not clean install)...other specs are below...

Boot time: 63 sec (all processes loaded incl. AV - 75 sec)
Shut down: 17 sec

Wake -> Sleep: 4 sec
Sleep -> Wake: 1 sec


Just ordered Samsung 128GB MLC SSD...curious about improvements than...

 

Wow, Best Buy actually negotiates prices? I bought my Z610 at $1899 so that seems like a good deal you got. I do have a 10% off coupon but it doesn't seem like it works on laptops. How did you get them to go down?

 

Interesting, it seems that i'm not getting much boot performance gain, if at all with this 64gb ssd. Perhaps it might have something to do with me running it on battery? Were you on AC or batt? It does feel phenomenally faster than the 160gb 5400 and definitely quicker than my other laptop with a hitachi 320gb 7200rpm.

The bad part is that i've lost about 45 minutes of battery life coming from the 160gb 5400rpm.

Also Metsn, what kind of battery life are you seeing with the standard battery and the 320gb 7200rpm?

 

Yep, I was plugged in...I think it can be the cause... And I have the latest Sorg Graphic Drivers installed...

The battery life is quite depening on what I'm doing....the usual work (Office, emails, browsing) in Stamina Mode, brightness 6/8 will give me around 4 - 4,5 hours... When I was testing the real maximum battery life in a plane (it means I turned off everything what was possible and was mainly working in a Word) i got up to 7 hours....really surprising!

 

There were 2 models at BB on display. One of them was on a clearance sale. I believe it was the model under this one, maybe the 5??, I can't remember. Anyway, he started to try and talk me into the 3 year accidental plan. I asked him what is the best price he can do, he told me that he can't negociate on the warranty but can on the computer. He told me at 1st $1799.00, then I got him down to $1749.00. He was a Supervisor of some sort I do know that. I guess they just wanto to make sure they do whatever they can in this economy not to lose a sale.

Thanks for making me feel better about the price! I always have buyers remorse for about 48 hours. LOL

 

What discount are you talking about?

 

The refresh for europe has arrived! Sonystyle europe has updated its CTO page to include the VGN-Z35X, the EU version of the Z91 by the looks of it. The P9600 2.66 GHz is now an option and so is the T9800 2.93 GHz I'll take the 15-20 mins less battery for that bad boy

An option of 256GB SSD is also available but doesn't specify much detail, just 256 GB SATA SSD. Can that mean RAID 0? What other 256GB SSD does sony use in their Z's other than RAID? These Z's are configured in Japan with a turn around of 2-3 weeks. Crazy european prices as usual

There is also a new pre-assembled model the VGN-Z31WN/B which comes with the P9600 2.66 but with a 320GB 5400rpm HDD, which i find disappointing..why would they use a 5400 HDD for this?

Now available on www.sonystyle.co.uk, The latest Vaio Z CTO for the UK, The Sony Vaio VGN-Z35X

 

The VAIO Z31 is released!!

sonystyle europe has released the VGN-Z31WN/B

It's pre-assembled and includes the P9600 2.66GHz Processor.

more: https://www.sonystyle.eu/

it's only showing on the French and Spanish sites, not the UK yet

 

Is it really needed that every local Z refresh will have it's own "Official thread"?

 

maybe not, I just got little excited about the news

I've put it on the "Official VAIO Z Series Owners Thread" the only place to visit for all VAIO Z owners:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=272690

 

I can understand that, maybe I'm just jealous that there's no Z90 Official thread On the other hand solving peoples's problems is much easier in one thread and there's no real difference between each models...so maybe just information that new European refresh is here would be enough

 

THis VGN-Z35X , does it really exists?

edit: just found it on the spanish site!!.. awesome!

I'm curious if the SSD is RAID 0 or a single drive.

 

This is kinda hard to give you any advice. However, the thing going in favor of the Z540 in my opinion is that it has got WWAN built-in (it is using Sprint if I'm not wrong). If you want convenience with WWAN & you use it often, then the Z540 is a good choice. However, you mentioned you're using Verizon & the Z540 has Sprint, so....

 

All the WWAN talk makes me sad. No Sprint OR Verizon here, so it sucks either way.

SPEEDwithJJ, see you're selling your Z. Going with another version of it, or switching to ...?

 

Why feel sad about lack of WWAN? You still have to pay for it, unless of course your work pays for it...

Yep, thinking of selling my Z. Will post in the Marketplace section in the next few days. Hopefully, I don't lose too much money & don't get those $350-$500 offers. Most likely, I'll get another previous generation MBP (MB134LL/A) & wait for year's end or early next year for the new Intel & Microsoft goodies.

 

Not having the option to pay for it and utilize it is what sucks ... I end up getting stuck with something in my laptop that I'll never use, which is stupid. Applies to many laptops with WWAN. I wish Sony would do an option like some of Dells, with a WWAN upgrade for future, nothing locked in. That would be more potentially useful rather than wasteful.

 

True & I agree with you. At least you want to use the WWAN function in your laptop but where you live do not offer the service. What is worse for me is that I have the WWAN module in my SZ791 & SZ381 but I just do not use them, not even the 1 month free trial service. This in another way sucks too!

 

WWAN is only like 20-30$ difference anyway.

 

If they're still too big, the "Appearance Settings" control panel is the place to change it. For unknown reasons, Microsoft has forgotten to add a link to this control panel in Vista, but it's still there. One way of getting to it is to hit F1 on the desktop, search for "Windows fonts", and choose "Change Windows fonts" from the results. The top link will then let you open this Appearance Settings control panel.

In the advanced tab, you can adjust the size of title bars, fonts, colours and much more. Go through the "Item" pulldown list, one at a time. Segoe UI 9 is the default for most -- it can be changed to 8 with no problems, which will be slightly smaller than 9 with a smaller DPI setting, but far crisper.

Yes, there is! In the advanced DPI settings, check the box for "Use Windows XP style DPI scaling", hit OK, and then reboot.
Now, the older programs that use bitmap fonts instead of scalable fonts won't have their fonts and widgets scaled.

 

It's not the $ that bothers me.

 

Which Best Buys did you buy yours at?

Speed JJ
Not sure if you already mentioned it, but what are your reasons for selling it?

 

thegauc, I've just timed my startup. I believe that yours will easily be faster than mine on startup.

The results are below:
Hit power button to log-on screen (screen that asks for username/password) - 58 seconds.
Hit power button to windows desktop (everything such as AV, Firewall, Windows sidebar loaded) - 4 minutes 12 seconds.

Note: I attached the battery to my Z & plugged in to AC as well. Laptop is switched on to SPEED mode. I did a semi-clean install on my Z, but I have about 99 processes running.

 

Yeah, it is interesting that you can negotiate the prices at BB. Which BB is that? My local BB used to have a VGN-Z520N/B on display, now there's no Zs on display but they do have the VGN-Z610Y/B in stock!?!?

 

You just got your Z..?? Why are you thinking of selling it? And wouldn't it still be within the return period, anyway?

 

Yes, I just got my Z. I got it NEW through a good friend at a "slightly less than BB" price so...

I'm thinking of selling it because I'm getting buyer's remorse. I just cannot stop thinking that getting the Vaio Z is a big mistake. I mean this is the best laptop for everyone, except me. I think I'm better off sticking to my "tried & tested" Vaio SZ. Yeah, I know, I know. I'm just plain silly.

I'm not looking to make money on it, but I just hope that I don't lose too much money when I list it for sale. Hopefully, I can pass on the savings too.

 

I bought this Z to unbox it & take some photos for this forum. Plus to be able to say that I once owned a Vaio Z. Just kidding though. Sadly, I think that I bought the Z by mistake.... This is stupid of me but at least I learned my lesson. I had high hopes of the Z, but unfortunately, it is not as good as I expect it to be....

 

Kick A**! So far I am really liking it. My movie even plays normal now. However hitting F1 at my desktop does nothing and I would like to find the "Appearance Settings" program you mentioned.
Is there another way to get to it? Thanks again. I suggest people try this out.

 

You are selling it because you are "getting buyer's remorse"? Can you be more specific than that? Which component of Z that are you not satisfied with?

Thank you.

 

Yes, I'm selling it because I'm getting buyer's remorse. I personally feel that if I don't like it & cannot return it, I might as well sell it ASAP because Vaios don't hold their resale value well. I'll not lose too much money if I sell it now, rather than like 2 or 3 months later.

I don't want to spoil anyone's feelings about the Z. What I don't like about the Z will most likely not apply to anyone else. This is truly a good laptop. Hope you understand why I'm not going into specifics because most likely most people who read what I think will think that I'm all BS & nothing else, so I guess before I offend anyone any further, I better just keep my stinky mouth shut.

 

Hi All,

I just ordered a Sony vaio z 690 configure to order notebook through their website(USA). When I configure vaio z690, there wasn’t an option to select my Wireless LAN (wifi) card, so I thought there is a wifi receiver comes with this laptop by default (As it says on their product home page). Few minuets later, I got my order confirmation, and it says:

LCD 13.1" (XBRITE-DuraView™)
Black
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium 64-bit
Trusted Platform Module / Biometric Fingerprint Sensor
Microsoft® Works
QuickBooks Simple Start
SuperMulti Drive
Windows® Live OneCare 90-Day Trial
Integrated Wireless Wide Area Network
No
No Fresh Start™
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P9600 (2.66GHz)
Standard Battery (BPS12)
320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
4 GB DDR3-SDRAM (DDR3-1066, 2GBx2)

There is no clue listed in my order about the Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, or graphics card. I am assuming Wireless LAN: Intel® WiFi Link 5100AGN (802.11a/b/g/n), Integrated Stereo A2DP Bluetooth® technology, and dedicated NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300M GS chip included as it says on Sony Vaio Z product home page).

can anyone confirm if Sony VAIO Z690 CTO comes with Wireless LAN: Intel® WiFi Link 5100AGN (802.11a/b/g/n), Integrated Stereo A2DP Bluetooth® technology, and dedicated NVIDIA® GeForce® 9300M GS chip.

Thanks