Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Thanks RickReno,

Great post! I will consider both T400s & VAIO Z+SSD .
Do you have any experience on running eclipse on your Z 820 ?

 

WOW cool, what a spec. i can live with 2000$. the problem is that i don't live in US and if i did i probably order this product TODAY. (i'm from Israel and here you can't find this model and if you find, it probably will cost $3000)

MicroCenter is doing international delivery but they don't have that's specific vaio.

 

Perhaps you can order from Microcenter and since that VAIO is by far the cheapest price, use the extra money to buy the SSD from them as well and maybe that total cost will fit the budget.

 

I have a both a T400s and VAIO Z (256GB SSD) here. If you have any questions about either of these, ask away.

 

Cool! I'm sure I'm in the right place!

I am considering both T400s and VAIO Z (128 SSD)

This two are business notebook and i'm not sure what's is actually means:
I need a primary pc. This laptop should run eclipse, a full developemt environment. The portability is also important cause i need it in a few months while stay overseas.

It look like the big problem is that i'm in Israel and it difficult to make
a transaction in US.
One more question: do both laptop has a place to put cell modem inside.
(i don't want to use dongle! )
Please add your preference also, it will be very helpful.
THANKS

 

If you're going overseas I'd like to give a word of warning about the international warranty of Sony.

I send a few mails to SonyStyle in the US to ask about Sony's international warranty. Basically their response was that only the TT and BZ models have an international warranty. Furthermore I learned elsewhere that this warranty is not offfered by default, you have to specifically purchase it with your order, or get it within a limited time after your purchase.

The mail support was a rather bad experience I must add. At the end I had the idea it was either answered by a sophisticated bot, or someone who just didn't bother to read beyond the first line of the mail.

 

Where can you buy a warranty for a Z series bought in the US to be valid in the UK?

 

I got a z790 with 250ssd from portableone, and they sent it here to Israel.
costs me about 2400 (USD) including some other upgrades.
Good luck.

 

Sony Vaio Y11, S11 and F11 leaked ahead of launch, Z and CW series refreshed

It has an i5-520M and a GeForce 330M...

 

I believe they just revealed the specs of my next laptop.

I have been on the verge of flipping the switch for the current Z but managed to hold on for a bit.

 

Well... at some point I did manage to get this answer:

 

GREAT FIND!!! Based on the article, it looks like there will be one more refresh on the Z with the Intel Core i5. But what exactly is the 13inch. S11 laptop the aricle is referring too? Is the S11 the replacement for the Z? Confusing? Also, the photo on that site, is that the one replacing the Z?

 

In terms of power, they are roughly the same (similar CPU, memory, etc.). However, the Z's RAIDed SSDs are significantly faster than the Lenovo's single SSD in terms of real-world performance (my Lenovo has the Samsung 1.8" 128GB SSD rather than the Toshiba which is on some of the units). The screen on the Z is also plainly better, with more horizontal resolution (1600 vs 1440). This allows me to open up two apps side-by-side. The battery life on the Z is also far better than that on the Lenovo. The single regular battery on the Z lasts far longer than the dual battery configuration on the T400s does! Another major advantage of the Z is that it doesn't have the annoying piezoelectric noise of the T400s (you can do searches to find out what that is).

The Lenovo does have a few benefits. Lenovo has much better support options, including a 3-year international warranty, which I upgraded to on-site with accident protection. Also, accessories (like batteries and AC adapters) are cheaper. Other advantages are ergonomic. The trackpoint is excellent, and I like to have dedicated PgUp/PgDn/Home/End keys (on the Z I "created" dedicated PgUp/PgDn keys by using SharpKeys in Win 7 to remap the unused right Application key and Ctrl key; this works fine for me). The touchpad on the T400s has multitouch, but I never find myself actually using it (it's nowhere near as useful as that on a Macbook).

As for purchasing, I would at this point recommend looking at eBay at either a preowned or new Z. Here in Japan, I buy stuff all the time from the US to take advantage of the weak dollar. Plenty of people ship abroad. Pay via PayPal with a credit card if you can (for your protection), and be sure to factor in customs duties. A new Z will be released soon, so you could probably get a great price on the outgoing Z. As you might guess, I'm using the Z as my everyday machine, and will be selling the T400s as soon as I have the time to list it. They're both great machines, but the Z is better engineered IMHO.

 

The Z will have a Core i5, along with a high-end graphics card. The Z-series will remain as the Z-series.

The S-series seems to be the new name for the SR line.

The good thing is that the DDR2 RAM is being replaced across the range with at least DDR3 RAM, including in the previous FW-series (renamed as the F-series) and the the SR line (S-series).

Also, a new line (Y-Series) is now available, which has a 13.3" screen and is positioned between the S-series and the Z-series.

 

Here in Japan, the X Series also comes with an International Warranty. As far as I know, it's included free, though I think you have to sign up for it.

 

I don't understand the marketing for all three: the S (SR) Y and Z, which will all have approx. 13 inch screens.
Is it ok to assume that the Y will be 13.2 since the Z is 13.1 and the S a 13.3

 

Your in Japan, right? Are you sure you can't locate pics of these new vaios: S, Y, and Z.

 

No pics yet here, I think. Actually, the long 2ch VAIO Z thread only has links to the Netherlands shop "leak".

 

Its pretty simple:

Y: lower power, better battery life CULV machine. No optical drive. Similar to HP DM3, ASUS ul30a (non dedicated graphics model), Acer 3810T.

S: SR replacement. Higher performance, integrated or dedicated graphics(I assume) (but not both), heavier, short battery life.

Z: Very high performance, low wt, midrange gaming, switchable graphics (with good battery life when graphics are off.) Basically what the Z is now, but with respectable dedicated graphics, since the 9300GS is a joke.

 

That makes sense, so my hunch was right. A couple months ago, I was expecting for Sony to redesign the Z in and around the time of the CES 2010 Show. I just had no idea it would be out for sale at the end of January. I wonder how those that purchased the X feels about this Y release? There's gotta be pics out there.

 

The core i CPU's come with integrated graphics, so if a dedicated graphics card will be an option for the S series, it will have both. The battery life could then be near to the Z series. The main differences would be in the use of materials and the screen.

Edit: The X will still be much more portable. I held one and it made my netbook feel heavy.

 

While i'm overseas with a vaio, what are the possibilities of getting service ?
Do you find vaio 13.1 screen enough for a full working day ? (12 hours) or maybe the resulation of the vaio just make it irrelevant?
I did find some online shops selling the vaio z internationally but as to t400a only in ebay. (i'm affraid in ebay seller promote a republish as new!)

THANKS

 

As a user of a high resolution laptop, what the high resolution brings is the ability to fit more information on the same screen. The downside being that the font size would be smaller than on lower resolution screens.

I don't find the smaller fonts problematic but some might and if so, they will have to turn down the screen resolution to increase the font size (but then less info will fit on the same screen).

 

Isn't this the pic of the new Y?

 

Weird that the new Z runs W7 Home Premium though.

S

 

I'm sure come this Friday, the start of CES 2010, pictures of the S, Y and Z will surface. I can't wait. I returned my Z820. I'm glad I didn't open it.

I'm happy with the rumored specs on the Z. The question is how long it would take Sony to sell the premium carbon on the new Z. Did Sony introduce the Premium Carbon on the current Z during the Z5xx or Z6xx? Otherwise, I may have to hold off until Summer or Fall 2010 for the 1st refresh of this new model.

 

I would have done exactly the same thing at this juncture, with the new Z being just a hop and a skip away from being released for retail sales, with significantly upgraded innards and probably price remaining the same.

I was on the verge of going with a CTO Z-series (T9900, 8GB RAM, Blu-ray burner etc) but glad I waited.

 

It looks like your patience (and willpower not opening and using the z820) will pay off. The updated Z sounds perfect- and its even lighter.

 

I was only patient because I had a feeling in mid-Dec. 09 that Sony was going to introduce either a refresh of the Z (Z9xx) or a newly design Z. I purchased the Z820 to benefit from the $50 rebate that ended mid-Jan. '10. But I am glad I returned it unopened, otherwise, I'd be hit by a 15% restocking fee. Now.......(lol), has anyone found any pics of the S, Y, and Zzzzzzz? I guess CES 2010 starts this Wed. and not on Friday, as I indicated. So we should have pics surfacing in 2 1/2 days.

I just want this Z to look slimmer/thinner than the current Z with premium carbon as a standard lid immediately. Sony has the Y and S to keep cost down with magnesium or with the plain black carbon. And I'm hoping that it doesn't have that barrel hinge, and for it to look more or less like the X. But something tells me it might still have some sort of cylinder design around the hinge or power source.

 

I didn't find Israel in their country list. Did you order by phone
or something ?

 

Did you purchase it from SonyStyle and if so did it cost you anything to return it? I ordered mine (hasn't been shipped yet - still in processing), but I am not sure if I should cancel the order and wait. I am concerned the price on these new models will be higher and not sure what options of color they will have.

 

If from Sonystyle, they won't charge you a penny for cancelling an order. Just that you will be on hold for a LONG while when dialling their customer service line.

As I mentioned in the other thread, I would cancel the order and wait and see what the new Z offers, before flipping the switch on the current generation. You have already waited till January, why not wait a couple of weeks more and go with the latest and greatest, than be paying top dollar for last generation technology ?

I personally will be CTO ordering my Z with all specs maxed out and intend to go with the new i7-620M (3.33GHz with turbo) processor that is expected to be available as an option on the Z, along with 8GB RAM, blu-ray burner et al.

 

I purchased from MicroCenter. You have 30 days upon receipt of your Z to return for full refund even if you open it. As for price, I expect the New Z's to start around $2199-2299 (approx). Based on experience, Sony always prices these laptops at over 2k. It won't be cheap, as some expected, back when the current Z's hit market a couple years ago. My pricing estimate is based on what the based model Z550 started at when it first hit market (2 yrs. ago). Now, as far as color, according to this site, it will only be offered in plain black carbon. As in the past, the refresh (perhaps 4-6 months from the first release), will then be offered in premium carbon, followed by other color lid designs in preceding refreshes.

As for keeping the Z you ordered, it depends on if you really need to have a laptop now and if you can sacrifice the cost since it will be a new design. Photos should leak out by Friday at the latest - 2010 CES Show.

 

Well I wouldn't go by a third party site for colors. Even today you can't find a Z in red at a third party site. Only Sony Style sells them. Which can I say is a pain? If it comes down to it obviously I can deal with black, I was just looking for something different and being picky

As for price, if it starts that high, I may be going with the old Z. The website that everyone is directing people to has a SSD drive in it, which ups the price. So I will be interested in seeing what a non-SSD drive model costs. I don't need SSD.

Oh well, I am on hold now and I will wait until the end of the week and see what comes from CES. If it isn't what I want to spend, then I will just put my order back in.

My husband and I are going back to school for our MBA, so the student discount is nice on Sony Style and makes the price worth it from them vs others who did not have the color I wanted. But if third party places start to really lower there prices to get rid of the old Z, I might have to look elsewhere and compromise on the color.

 

I personally would go with a Hard-drive too, during the purchase, since it costs literally nothing. SSD drives are VERY expensive but are expected to come down in price, substantially over the next year or so. They are also an evolving technology, with HUGE performance differences based on which drive one goes with.

My plan thus is to go with a hard-drive for now (500GB 7200rpm) and then replace it with an SSD drive a year or so later, by which time SSD prices would be a lot more reasonable, along with the availability of larger sizes. I would think that in a year we would get 512GB SSD drives for a fraction of what they cost now.

The good thing is that I will get to use my hard-disk in the meantime and then get an automatic performance upgrade when the hard-disk is replaced with the SSD drive, later on.

 

The Premium Carbon design/color option was first made available in the U.S. market towards the end of the VGN-Z590CTO life.

I would also advise anyone who is thinking of getting the current VGN-Z series to wait till the successor is announced because that just makes sense IMHO. Of course, this is just my opinion, & yours may differ depending on other reasons/situations/conditions.

I personally would expect the successor to the current VGN-Z series notebook to be release end of this month (last week of this month) or 1st week of February. I humbly think that with technology getting cheaper & cheaper with each passing year, there is a very high chance of us seeing the Vaio VGN-Z successor (CTO model) start off at around the $1,999 price point.

Anyway, the leaked "unofficial" specs look very promising & if those photos are correct, there doesn't look to be too much changes in design & I like the fact (based on those photos) that they've gotten rid of the "ugly" silver cylindrical screen hinges (or whatever one calls them).

 

Also, with the economy on the verge of turning around, they would not want to spoof it with ultra-high-pricing for the products, since that will just drive people away. At least I hope that is what their reasoning is.

 

Seems the new Z has a Quad SSD and backlit keyboard. As well as the new Intel CPUs (which are more expensive than those in the current Z), this isn't sounding like a cheaper lappie to me......

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/sony-vaio-z-to-offer-ultra-fast-quad-ssd-in-raid-0-configurati/

S

 

It might just be worth you trying one.

S

 

They'll get cheaper sure, and they are massively expensive compared to HDDs sure, but I do think that they now offer genuine value in terms of the enormous performance they provide in a day-to-day computing environment, and in the context of notebooks in the price range of the Z. The step is huge.

Given that certain companies have apparently been keeping flash memory prices artificially low by manipulating the market price, I'm not sure they're going to come down quite as quick as you think though. There are other factors too explained in the thread on 8GB RAM. I am no expert on this though, but I would be surprised if prices drop in a year to a "fraction" of today's prices.

SSDs vary in performance too, sure, but it isn't difficult to find which is the drive which is almost unanimously recommended for general computing.

I would highly recommend it, and would suggest getting one now in order to get use out of it. There's always something better a year away. I'm waiting for the first post to warn off buying the new Z because there's an Arrandale refresh expected in Q2......

S

 

Not if a SSD costs a ton more money. It is not worth it to get the SSD now when the price is going to come down in a year or two. I don't need a faster drive for that much money.

 

As a complete aside, I wish they would have a 80GB boot/application SSD drive and then a big old 500gb HDD for storage. That would be the best of both worlds, and if the SSD was primarily just used for reads it would not have to be top dollar.

Like I posted earlier, on macs you can use the express33 slot for an inexpensive ssd boot drive. The same could be done with a Z, but I don't think the Bios allows for the expresscard as your boot device.

 

My exact frustration, in trying to choose between
MBP13 and SONY VAIO Z!

The current MBP13 does not have the ExpressCard Slot; for that matter, neither does the MBP15- You only get this extremely useful functionality with the DTR MBP 17(!) The far more useful ExpressCard slot of the previous gen MBP got downgraded to just an SD card slot in the current MBP; IMO it is poorly designed as well since the SD card slots sticks halfway out instead of nice and flush, which allows for convenient storage/transport

The current Z series has the ExpressCard slot, as well as SD card slot and MS slot; but AFAIK, none of these media/slots are bootable with an installed OS? (as you pointed out, the MBP can boot off ExpressCard; it can also boot off SD card)

 

What photos are you referring too? Is there more than one photo, because all I've seen is the "Y" Photo, the one w/o an optical drive. Please post link. Thanks.

So I guess the new Z will have back-lit keys according to this link. There was a guy a year ago that knew someone from the San Diego Sony Service center and posted about a Z refresh having not only back-lit keys, but a slot-loading optical drive. That never happened. But I guess what he meant to say was that it was under consideration for the redesign of the new Z. So he was right after all.

This new Z won't be cheap. I expect it to be well over 2K and not under, even with a spinner HD. Remember, Sony has the Y and S for those lower price points.

 

In the context of a Z and its price, I really would suggest trying one. eg at UK prices, it's not a matter of adding a £300 drive to a basic £400 laptop, it's adding a £300 drive to a £1750 laptop. And there are options like premium lids and so on that can be dropped to save money.

I tried the SSD out, and I was optimistic about it of course, but I ended up being blown away. I think it represents enormous value in this context, especially if a meaningfully cheaper alternative is 1-2 years away - I have to use my machine a lot in that time! It doesn't have to be the Sony option, which is often more expensive.

S

 

I'm not sure you can't boot off of the expresscard (I've never gotten an answer) but I've never heard of anyone who has. I'm not even sure the expresscard SSD's are seen by the machine as expresscard or the slower USB. I'll probably try it out when I finally have the courage to purchase the Z (old on ebay or new Z.)

 

Guys, please I'm desperate and need help on an urgent matter:

I bought the palm rest (Photo attached) for my Z750D/B

but after I looked into the pic, I feel that the touch pad on my Z is wider in dimension than the one I bought.

Now, is it the same or the previous Z had a different touch pad?

second question, will I be able to take the touch pad and the keys of my keyboard and install it?

its stupid to ask after buying, but I just wanted to replace my Black arm rest as its very sensitive to finger prints, and also I wanted to save it through the years.

Please advise, putting in mind that if its a hard job, I will take it to a professional laptop service center to do it for me.

Will

 

I bought one as well but it is used and the scratchs are present.
If there is a difference between indimension, I bet it's due to the absence of the fingerprint sensor.
You can take the touchpad, but for the keys, I'm not sure

 

I don't think it will be lighter.

 

This has been bugging me for some time.



Why is my Z16 disk on SATA Gen 1? Everything on my Z is stock components except the OS which I upgraded to Win7 64bit. All drivers are current.