Official VAIO Z Core 2 Duo Series Owners Thread

It's an LED light, i highly doubt you'd save much

 

Premium Carbon Fiber available for Z590CTO in USA now! $50 add on.

 

I've been hearing about this a lot. What exactly is it. Can you do a step-by-step on this 'fastboost' thing. I've got my 8GB flash drive ready to go. It says, 'readyboost' on the packaging. By the way, its the 007 8GB flash so you know it's going to work. "M" go ahead and instruct......or was it "Q".

That's so cool. I knew it would make it to the USA. I just checked the site and the prem. carbon is only offered as a CTO for the Z590. The nice thing is Sony is offering an educational discount of 10% if you register as a student or faculty.

I was curious what the cost of a Z with prem. carb. CTO would be the specs I selected priced at $2389 plus 10% off = $2159 which is not bad considering the Z550 I bought was $2099 and the Z570 at SonyStyle is $2199-10% = $1979.10.

Z590 CTO Specs would be: 1600x900, 3GB Ram, prem. carn. only available with P9500 option, 250GB Sata HD 7200rpm.

But Torontoguy warned us of these CTO's what da' ya' think????

 

Now, in order to get P9500, buyer must add Premium Carbon.

 

Very nice, my dad's company can give me another 10% off a computer I purchase and I got that discount when I bought my TZ, a Z looks mighty tempting at this point.

If you buy the Z from SonyStyle, you really can't get the free Mobility/Productivity bundle correct? Its a shame because the pre-configured Vaio models with the premium carbon finish are reserved for the highest-end, most expensive models I can't afford. Whereas with the CTO, its only a $50 extra but I don't get the free bundle. A free battery and case is always nice.

 

I don't see why not. I have to look for that PDF file to check for conditions. But I think you can qualify for that bundle as long as you purchase by a certain date. Can you post that link for that bundle? Thanks!!!!

Where did you see the preconfigured models with the premium carbon? It wasn't at the SonyStyle site.

EDIT
I just found it rahul. I have the PDF and read it and all you need to do is buy the Z before Dec. 31st, 2008 to qualify for 1 of 2 bundles. Nothing was mentioned about not being able to combine offers, in our case, student 10% discount + bundle package. The qualifications is pretty cut and dry. No small print.

I wrote down the site, but its no longer working Sony.com/VAIOSMB

 

There aren't any preconfigured Z models with the Premium Carbon yet but its guaranteed that the models that have it will be the highest-end $2500+ models as with all previous Vaio notebooks that have had that finish which I just can't afford. At least with the CTO Z950, I can afford it.

Someone here had said you cannot get the free bundle if you buy from SonyStyle. But it is valid if you buy from the B2B section, but then you don't get the 10% student discount which I qualify for.

Below is some info about the free bundles.
http://images10.newegg.com/uploadfilesfornewegg/rebate/SH/SonyVAIO9MIRsOct1Dec3108ll97us.pdf

It says to go to sony.com/VAIOSMB to read more about the terms and conditions but the link is currently broken.

 

Hello. I'm kinda new in these forums, but I was following this thread with some regularity. About the Z I have two things to share with you since my cousin who lives in San Diego is married with someone who works at Sony there.

1) The Z is getting a refresh very soon. I didn't get dates or any technicalities but for what I was told, it is likely to get a redesigned keyboard now backlit like the ones of the MacBooks and probably a slot drive, flush with the chassis, which will be also slightly redesigned to make it somewhat thinner and look more updated.

2) My cousin was recommended by her own husband who works at Sony San Diego, to better get a model pre-configured from Japan for her computer. This comment caught my attention. When someone who works there, tells his wife to better buy a "Made in Japan" unit, it must be for some reason.

This is all the info I got after like a week of asking her to ask him LOL, but the bad news come here... I was told all this 3 weeks after I got my Z

I really don't know what to do now...

 

That rumored refresh is very interesting to hear, perhaps that explains the sudden price drop on the Z's right now.

I say just enjoy your Z. I know it seems like a pain that you just bought one and it will probably be updated very soon. And some times are worse to buy a notebook than others, like before a price drop or new model comes out. That is the world of technology, especially laptop technology which changes extremely quickly. I remember when I bought my HP DV4000 notebook with Intel integrated graphics three years ago and just two weeks later, a model was released with much more powerful ATI X700 graphics for around the same price.

Even if you picked a "bad" time to buy your notebook, just enjoy it now and when you buy your next one, you'll probably pick a better time to buy it.

 

wow. That sounds like a redesign more than a seasonal refresh.

 

Just got my Z590UBB for 2 days. Managed to do a complete clean install.
Issues I've enccountered with it include. The double type as seen there <---- LOL. Also, the fan noise is preetty annoying. It's quite loud even with the music set at very loud volumes you can hear the fan. The SZ is so much quieter.

 

I agree that the fan is louder than TZ but it isn't really that bad. ( I don't own a SZ.)
Is your fan running in full speed?

 

Put Vista in energy saving mode, put the Vaio control center in Silent mode. That should make it a lot more quiet.

 

(LOL!) Wow, that's amazing. I just bought the new MB. My 3rd day owning it and I know now why many of you wished the Z had Backlit keys - its AWESOME!. I had always wished for Sony to adopt that slot drive in their notebooks and hopefully it will be in their next refresh. And to hear the prem. carb. made it to the US. These are great news.

My prediction is there will be a preconfig Z with prem. carbon on this refresh. I am confident of it. Like I was confident the prem. carb. would make it to the USA.

(lol) I think this MB is going back, but I love the OSX too much. Do I go for design (Z) or OS (OSX)?

 

I'd vote for OS.

 

I love my Z (well, now not so much LOL) but the OSX is too awesome. Fortunately there's also a Macbook at home.

Great OS>>>Design. Any day of the week.

 

Well if you don't mind Vista or XP i would go for the Z.

OSX is nice but i don't find it that amazing. Stuff like photobooth is good but i never used it after a couple of times but my younger relatives loved it i think it is mainly for kids. I can do without OSX and as i won't compromise on what i need i bought a PC. I am not really missing anything right now not using it. Ideally it might be nice to use both operating systems if the hardware was right.

The backlight keyboard was nice and looks pretty when lit but the screen is very bright on the Z. On battery power i would not use it anyway as it consumes more power.

As for the slot drive i had one on the M1330 and there were some CD's that i could not play because they were smaller. Also with a MBP my CD's sometimes got stuck inside the slot loading drive and it was difficult getting them out so there are pros and cons to using a slot loading drive.

Thing is do you like the MB in terms of hardware does it meet all your needs? If it does not then i would definetly consider returning it. If you want a more media orientated OS then you should also maybe consider using Vista Ultimate.

 

Well the fact that you think it's going back says a lot.

Maybe you should try something new... SR, Macbook Air?

 

Um...I thought one of the reasons that Sony sticks with tray-loading optical drive is becuase it is typically thinner -- you can take the top cover off and it still works. So they are making it thinner while using a thicker optical??...

 

I never heard of a laptop with the fan that say on all the time.

At least the palm pads doesnt stay warm.

 

I would be really happy if these rumors turn out to be true.

Fingers crossed...

 

I played around with Undervolting the CPU of my Z21.

After 7 days of tweaking, I am quite happy with the result. My CPU temperature rarely reaches more then 45 degrees Celsius. This noticeable reduced the fan activity.

Does anybody know if I also can undervolt my graphics card?

 

They don't make sense to me these rumors...why Sony should change such a succesfull design that is also the top model on sales? They never produce a model and after few months redesign...Just to keep up with Apple for a backlit keyboard and a little thinner? Well, I hope the don't make the mistake similar to TZ-TT.
Have the Z for a month now, and I am really with it. The fan in silent mode is ok, and everything is superfast. Finally, I managed to install a clean Vista and the processes now are 58. After the extended battery is the best buy for this laptop. Makes the typing better and you get easily 9 hrs.

 

I personally do not believe these rumors. Sony is not going to redesign a notebook 3 months after it came on the market. (like armadilo said).

 

I think a backlit keyboard is something that Sony could easily do. I for one would be truly gutted.

 

What's wrong with TZ-TT?

They may not redesign the whole keyboard. But I wouldn't be surprised if they fix the double typing and the sticky key problems like what they did to the non responsive space bar on their SZ1.

 

You'll have to be careful & sure where you're buying your Z to qualify for that rebate. Ever wonder why that pdf file is located in Sony's SMB (B2B) section & not on the regular Sony Style (consumer) section?

Newegg qualifies for it because they are an authorized Sony b2b reseller:

http://direct.where2getit.com/cwc/apps/w2gi.php?template=search&client=sony_b2b

Like I said earlier, of course I agreed with you that there'll be a pre-config Z with Premium Carbon coming in the refresh. The main issue is what config will that be. Given past experiences (of course I know, my SZ381 & SZ791 are top-of-the-line models that have premium carbon lid), it will most likely come in the top of the line model like Rahul mentioned (with blu-ray and so on). The best we can hope for is one that has high enough configurations without blu-ray & SSD... How much will that cost? About $2,500 hopefully...

Slot optical drive is not a bad thing. I personally is not too fond of that because of one thing. Using it has a higher chance of getting a scratch disk than you would get if using a regular tray loading drive, especially during loading and unloading the discs. This is just my opinion though.

I agree with you on this. That is the trade-off of having a slim, nice looking drive (some people called the sliding out tray of regular tray loading drives ugly).

 

i don't know nothing about rumours about refreshing Z series but i received email from one shop in UK.

I asked them about Z11VN/B, and they wrote me back:

"Unfortunately this laptop isnt available to order anymore other than through sonystyle or any other smaller retail outlets which may still have some in stock."

So who knows what is going on. I think that backlit keyboard is very possible.

 

Nothing wrong with the TZ, in the contrary great little laptop. I intended from the TZ to the TT...the last one is a step backwards imo (in design terms). I didn't experience yet any double typing or sticky keyboard issues, so I don't know if it is so common to push Sony to redesign the keyboard.

 

Z11 is being replaced by Z21 that's all.

A backlit keyboard would not require a redesign, so it may be possible. Who knows. I doubt we will see it within 3 months though. Maybe in Z31.

 

grrrr that sux! Z21 is about 200 pounds more expensive, and afaik there is only one change. 7200 rpm hdd, but im not even sure about it. So im payin extra 200 pounds for what?

for less hdd space? or just for higher number



btw. i dont believe in redesign new Z series

 

Maybe there's also a CPU upgrade?

You could also look at the CTO models. (Vaio by you)

 

I totally agree. They should have implemented the backlit keyboard in the very first series (current ones).

 

When I passed by SonyStyle at Heathrow airport twice this weekend I was told that there is no difference what so ever between Z11 and Z21, I asked about it, it's just a name change. Supposedly the price is exactly the same, as well. Or so they said.

 

Anyone able to confirm that you can get the productivity bundle when purchasing from newegg?

 

I doubt it.

It takes 7 weeks for them to process it.

 

Personally (lol), a redesign with backlit keys and a slot-loading drive can still be done, while maintaining the Z's current design. The drive profile on both sides will probably change a little, but overall still look the same, don't you think?

I'm just curious what this prem. carb. looks like in person.

As far as OSX, I like it cuz its uncluttered and clean. And I like the ease of setting up that email account in "Mail", unlike the wizard you have to go through in Vista and XP - too complex.

 

My mind is telling me to get OSX, but my heart is for Vista/Windows 7. I admit that OSX is more stable and simpler to use than Vista as far as office/school work goes.

The interface of OSX remains me of all the horrible essays and labs that I had to do at school (My school uses mac)... I guess I've already been permanently conditioned to link OSX with horror...

 

yes I think so too, but I doubt Sony will do a slot-loading drive. I do, however, hope they add backlit keys. It'll give me a reason to upgrade in a year or so (I honestly can't justify changing models for spec bumps), haha .

It's worth having a look at the premium carbon finish on the TT, which is on the shelves now. The only difference between them should be the TT has the top layer of carbon tows aligned vertically rather than horizontally. Has a blue speck in the paint just like the SZ premium lid did, but it's not tinted brown any more.

Try the beta for Windows Live Mail, which will replace Outlook Express / Windows Mail completely. Clean and simple:
http://download.live.com/wlmail

 

Adding ESata ports to their notebooks would be nice as several other manufacturers are doing it.

 

no, it's this same, or i'm blind.
Now i'm waiting for answer from sony shop.


One more thing. I read a lot about those CTO models from Japan. So I live in UK, so its better to buy CTO or 'ready made models' ?

 

Many claim ready-made assembled in Japan are better of quality parts..

I got the CTO from San Diego - it was perfect.

To each their own, are you wanting to customize it with specs of your choosing or not, is the question

 

Please note that the OP is from UK. I don't know if there are local european production facilities or that everything is assembled in Japan.

 

So I'm in a predicament here....I'd like to order a Z but not if there will be a refresh any day or week now.

Their new financing offer ends on the 27th so I have 16 days to decide, plus I don't know how long their $150 off will be active.

Any advice?

Also, the last pics posted of the premium carbon are of low quality....I remember seeing higher quality premium carbon pics of the Japanese model earlier in this thread but I can't find them now, does anyone have a link to those? And is the Japanese premium the same as the US?

 

The last refresh just happened this month, Sony refreshes every 3 months. I consider any refresh before christmas highly unlikely.

 

This pic on conics makes the premium carbon look great:



If anyone has real world pics of the premium carbon please share them

and is it just me or does it look like it extends to the keyboard/wrist area...is it supposed to just be on the lid?

 

It looks similar to the keyboard area but they are not continuous. it's pretty obvious from the picture too.

 

now i know the difference between Z11 and Z21, i dont know if this is 100% truth but here is email from sony store.

 

We've seen a couple of times that Sony makes mistakes on specs and here they do it again. Z11 already had Duraview coating.

I'm guessing they're wrong about the video memory too.

 

Question... Is the User Guide/Manual supposed to come bundled in the Vaio Z box?