Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

Arrived today...
I can just say: "Here it iZ"

 

I'm the other way around. I prefer the looks of the Macbook over Z. Z is technically superior imo.

MBP is too large and heavy for me.

I got my Z at a very low price so I'll see if I can make some profit. I offered it for sale here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=310220

 

lol, you're the first to ditch the Z so far up here. lol
I'm going to the mall and take a look at the new Macbook Pro now. between the Z and Macbook, I will stick with the Z since over here, Macbook is everywhere. After awhile, u just get sick of it because u will see tons of them at all kind of condition... and u just can't feel the love anymore. The weight will be much lighter with the Z and the screen is amazing. Macbook may give you th feel with the glass black border but it won't be as good as the Z. Macbook pro, on another hand, comes with tons of graphic processing power, but thinking about dragging that monster to school everyday, I can't just jump on it. Will see.... if the look make me feel that good like other said, I will make my move.

 

With the new MBP having switchable graphics, I'm considering that as well over the Z. However, I'm not in any hurry to get a new laptop. Maybe I'll just wait till Intel's Nehalem is released...

 

Well ditch is a big word. I only bought it because I could get it at an amazing price, for european standards. I don't mind buying and selling laptops.

 

if not a secret, where did you get it lower than 1400 euro?

and you didn't like the laptop? I mean you are not going to buy z again, aren't you?

 

With the exception of the GPU, I'm pretty sure that the Z can pretty much go toe to toe with the MBP on performance (Z even beats the MBP on screen resolution). And its a ultra portable!

I'm actually the opposite, I took my sweet time and waited for the Apple notebook refresh before deciding if I would go MB/MBP or Z. After seeing what Apple had to offer, I decided to "switch back" and get the Z.

 

A shop in Amsterdam. Someone canceled an order and the Vista was already set to english. That justified the huge discount in their opinion. They may have confused it with a SR standing next to it. I did not complain.

It's an amazing latop. Best I ever worked on. Very light. Fast like a desktop, very bright screen with vibrant colors, the HDMI output is great on my TV and LCD. Even the sound is good.

Only downside: fan makes a slight noise. Not a problem though.

Sony makes the best looking windows laptops, but Apple looks better in my opinion. I love the minimalistic design.

Besides that, I love glossy screens. Too bad Z has a matte display.

 

Guys, not that there is anything wrong, but it amazes me that you can consider MBP and Z at the same time and go one way or the other. Not that either one has any flaw, but they are so much different in size and weight -- it's like considering a two-seat roadster and a minivan that holds 8 side-by-side when purchasing a car. What gives?

 

Does this mean you tested the HDMI output under XP, or are you referring to pre-downgrade usage?

I don't have an HDMI capable device so I can't test my Z's output under XP at the moment... but I'm interested to know if it works because of the "maybe doesn't work" comment on the Sony Asia site.

 

Under XP yes.

 

There is nothing wrong with that, i was thinking the same thing, I am between wanting a powerfull small guy (sony Z) or a more powerfull small 15.4" guy, MBP or maybe dell M4400 or dell E4600 (14.1").... 15.4" notebook is the biggest i will want to go, smaller is better though for me, but still 15.4 works. Still don't I know, going to have to make another trip to bestbuy, see if the 13.1" screen is too small, 13.3 is good, but the 13.1 was surprisingly small the first time i saw it... I have sort of thrown dells out based on audio problems and other random problems they have been having....

 

yeah, im kind of confused too.. id prefer a black mbp, but considering the MBP makes me also consider the FW..

do you guys think its really possible to get 5 hours in the MBP?

 

Where can I find this?

When I go to 'control panel > mobile pc > power options' my 'battery plan' is set to 'VAIO Optimized', HOWEVER, my battery does charge itself fully to 100% whenever I'm working with my AC adpater ?? :S

 

Control planel -> Vaio control center -> power management


PS. Is there any way I can assign Hibernate and sleep to S1/S2 buttons?

BR
Miki

 

Is it normal that gpu-z is reporting that the geforce 9300M gs only is running at PCI-E x1? this is under windows xp. Could I get someone test if they have the same?

 

Yup. Just hold down either button for a few seconds and when the config box appears, choose "Hibernate" from the first dropdown box and "Standby" from the second...

 

the problem is I don't get Hibernate or Sleep in dropdown menu, I have Mute, Brightness ...., but not these two options. Any idea? Maybe to use launch application, but which application starts sleep/hibernate?

BR
Miki

 

actually, i have the same issue...
so what i did was set the power button to sleep and don't have any quick way to put it into hybernate... works well for me.

 

Maybe we could get lucky and the new refresh would include a Nvidia 9400M to replace the 9300M

 

yeah, i dont understand why the Z could only pack the 9300 GS, are their size limitations?

 

I feel the Z is comparable to the MBP simply because regardless of size both basically have similar specifications. Yes the MBP has a more powerful GPU but I'll be using this laptop for mostly for Photoshop and illustrator anyway so the Z's GPU is enough. Also despite of its smaller screen the Z's 1600 * 800 gives more real estate then the 15 inch MBP.

Besides, if I wanted a bigger screen I can always dock my Z to a high quality 22 incher (which I always do with my notebooks). The Z is more portable too for the same price and grunt.

 

Well, that's exactly my point -- you have a range of mobility you can accept so you have considered MBP AND Z AND other choices in between (Dell and 14.1" screen size)! The others are picking MBP and Z head-to-head.

Everyone has different needs, but I am just curious what kind of need/preference would reach that conclusion. Are we just sucker for style and performance so other options just don't look attractive, quite literally?

On a brighter note, just ordered myself a Z540EBB. 15% EPP + 10% customer appreciation knock this one down to $1529.99 + tax for me. Can't resist anymore...

 

You may need to enable hibernation on your system.

If you did not do that, Go to control panel > display > screen saver > hibernate > enable hibernation. (that's for XP, Vista is something similar)

4.5 hours with IGP will probably be more realistic.

 

cool, any advice on how i could get a deal like that? cheapest i can find is $1680 for a Z530N/B, which is nice. but $1450 for last gen MBP, with 200gb hd 2.4 ghz and 256mb gpu is looking pretty tempting as well.... **** these decisions

 

yeap, Philflow, im jumping the ship with you, im heading to NY next week and hopefully they have some MBP in stock...

 

I have people on local forum, complaining about screen scratches. Those are not caused by keyboard, but by the "step" between keyboard and palmrest.

Here's image they posted. Looks, like screen is not that mush scrach-resistant. Thus I don't know if regular screen could get even worse in same situation.

The word, written in red is translated as "scratches"

 

i have the same problem, but i can wipe that out with a little effort..

 

Big difference between the Z's switch and the MBP's switch is that you have to log out in OSX before it switches, and it's not done on an actual, physical switch, but rather through the control panel. On the Z you can have programs open and it'll still switch on the fly.

 

true, but you switch from a 9400M to a 9600M GT
and both outperforms the 9300 GS

 

I use one of those screen protector cloth thingeys to prevent such scratches on the screen. But I would expect those to happen only if pressure was put on the screen when in a bag or whatever... looks nasty though.

 

does the 9400m really outperform, it is integrated graphics, just because the number is higher doesn't mean it is faster. Although it could be???

 

they ran benchmarks over at the Apple section

it beat the SR's HD 3470..

9400m > HD 3470 > 9300 GS

 

Well the Apple (9400M) scores 2204 in 1280*720. Tony the Tiger got 2277 on his SR.

I don't know how the Z scores in 1280*720.

I think it would be fair to say they perform similar.

And this is only 3dMark 06. The scores in real games will be different. I assume HD3470 > 9400M/9300M.

 

Same thing on my TZ...Sony will never learn... ,(

 

I'd say some people never learn.

Here's my screen protector from my MBA, but it works for Z too.

 

I used the same model of protector at first with my Z (it came with one!)... but decided I wanted something a little more permanent and professional looking, so I ordered one of these and trimmed it a tiny bit to make it a perfect fit.

 

Hi everyone, i have problem with my fn key on my z. like when u type o=6; p=* and so all the organ letters, anyone know how to get back normal.... ty a lot

 

Are you sure your num-lock is turned off?

 

So I just did a fresh install of XP on my Vaio Z. Everything seems to function except for the S1, S2 buttons. When I press/hold the buttons, nothing happens. What am I missing?

 

About the difference between 9300M GS and 9400M:

9400M is just the NVIDIA name for a 9100 Chipset + 9300 or 9200 graphics card, as they state here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_9100m_g_mgpu.html

But there are some small differences:
9300M GS: 550 MHz (580 in the VAIO Z?) / 64 bit bus
9400M: 450MHz (New Macbook) / 128 bit bus

 

I think these are handled by the VAIO Event Service. Did you remember to install the Sony utilities (in the correct order) as well as the drivers?

 

So it is better in performance AND takes lower voltage to run on??

 

The Macbook with 9400 scores 2054 in 3d mark 06 1280*720.

How much does the Sony Z score with the latest Nvidia driver? i thought it was similar.

 

Also Z has dediceted 128-256 MB od dedicated DDR3 RAM. That might give a good bit of advantage over MacBooks.
But PciX16 @ X1 and 64 bit bus looks strange to me. There must be something wrong with that indocation on GPU-Z... Anyone has Ideas? What gpu-z says in vista?

Anyway MBs and Z are so much different. They are not competitors. MB is a Mac. That's it. That make me want both MB and Z, which is No problem, except I'll need to pick one every time I travel

 

And pick up a second job (in my case, lmao)

I agree though, the Z and MB should not be compared.. totally in a separate league of their own, respectively.

I owned a Z, I have a slight bias towards it, but I am waiting for the new premium carbon Z.. and THAN I will go yelling its AWESOMEEEEEEE in front of MB-lover faces =P

 

I can understand that you say that. For me it's different:

They're both: 13", LED, full power Pxxx CPUs, decent graphics, DVD drive, 2.5" HDD.

I'm probably going to keep one of them.

 

They use different chipsets, overall voltage use is still unknown.

 

to me difference is:
Weight.
1600 vs 1280.
DuraView vs Glossy.
Battery life (I don't beleive nVidia chipset can be same power-efficient as centrino2 in Z's stamina mode)

 

Phil, how is Apple priced in Netherland? Just curious. In US, MB really is priced closer to SR, which in your reasoning would really be the direct competitor to MB anyway.