Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Sorry but I don't buy it. Next thing, people will be saying an i3-330 is nearly the same as an i5-540, but with smaller clock speed, just cause they have the same number of transistors or w/e. The platform might be the same, but we have no way of knowing it's the same chip design or not. And unfortunately there are no tests linking the "5-10%" difference in frequency with actual "5-10%" power consumption (or disproving the link).
Of course, if the difference in performance justifies the price.... I think that's where the marketing comes in, there I have to agree with you.
But this has been hammered on enough, as said, so I'll stop arguing (at least until we see reliable 1:1 test results ).

[if I sound harsh.... of course this is just my oppinion, I'm in no way claming to posess the truth just trying to leave some doors open]

 

It's the same die design with some things turned off. Go research it if you don't believe me.

As far as "there are no tests..." that's bunk. There are many. they are called BENCHMARKS.

Intel doesn't do a complete redesign for every single chip they put out. That would be pointless and stupid.

They design a processor and turn features off and on for two main purposes:
1: to meet different market segments.
2: to disable non-working portions of the chip.

You may be surprised to know that Core 2 solos have two die in them, usu. the disabled one is a non working one but it may in fact be perfectly good.

Here is something you may find of interest (from the Wikipedia entry on the Arrandale chip):

Arrandale is the code name for an Intel processor, initially sold as mobile Intel Core i3, i5 and i7.[1][2] It is closely related to the desktop Clarkdale processor; both use dual-core dies based on the 32 nm Westmere version of the Nehalem microarchitecture and have integrated Graphics as well as PCI Express and DMI links.

Arrandale is the successor of the 45 nm Core microarchitecture based Penryn processor that is used in the many mobile Intel Core 2, Celeron and Pentium Dual-Core processors. While Penryn typically used both a north bridge and a south bridge, Arrandale already contains the major north bridge components, which are the memory controller, PCI Express for external graphics, integrated graphics and the DMI connector, making it possible to build more compact systems without a separate northbridge or discrete graphics as Lynnfield. The Arrandale processor package contains two dies, the actual 32 nm processor with the I/O connections and the 45 nm graphics controller with the memory interface.

Arrandale was released on 7 January 2010, during CES 2010.

 

Pretty sure all Windows 7 DVDs now come with a fresh OS install, no bloatware whatsoever.

In fact, you can download an official ISO and install from that, if you don't have the disk. All you need is the Ultimate licence key to be able to use it.

 

ok.....
@Oscar2, I understand that they don't redesign the whole thing, but as one core is disabled in the core solos as you mentioned, it's possible that other things are disabled in the i5. However you are right in that I haven't investigated this to the point of going to the datasheets.

Also, since we're suggesting wikipedia, you should read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_power_dissipation among other things, it clearly states that TDP value is the same as power consumption in recent Intel chips. Please tell me how the i7 consumes more if both have a TDP of 35W. If the i5s had a lower power consumption, why would Intel make them look worse than they are and advertise a higher TDP?

 

TDP or Thermal Design Power, is not a good parameter to use when trying to determine power consumption. The primary purpose for that number and the primary way it is intended to be used is in the design of the heat dissipation for a semiconductor (in this case the cpu). It is based on a number of criteria including how hot the chip can comfortably get, the conductivity of each of the thermal junctions starting at the die itself. Therefore it is more useful for the folks deciding how to design a given computers heatsinks and fans than it is for someone trying to decide how long their battery life will be.

 

Someone else had this problem too... If you ordered it off the internet you can return it without charge for 30 days, so threaten to do that and they will replace the screen to keep the sale. Most likely they won't just take the return. 3 or 4 stuck pixels is a lot to have to put up with for the life of your laptop, so even if you had to return and re-order it, I would do that if I were in your position.

 

I don't think he can return it even if he wanted to since it specifically states that all CTO notebook sales are final. I would still push to have them do something about the dead pixels; 4 dead pixels are a lot considering the money spent.

 

Anyone know the difference in weight between the standard and extended battery off the top of their heads?

 

TDP would be the maximum power consumption from the chip. it won't be running at 35W at all times - if it is idle, it will use less. by knowing the absolute maximum power requirement, manufacturers can accomodate for the PSU, cooling etc.

during normal use, i7 will use more power than i5 for equivalent tasks as it is running at a higher clock speed. at peak load, both would be nearing the maximum TDP of 35W.

here are some of the battery tests from those initial japanese reviews we saw some 150 pages back in the thread, haha. pink is i7, blue is i5, green is the previous Z.

PEAK LOAD


VARYING LOADS
(the last one is the extended battery)


you can see at peak load, both chips are pretty close. but in normal usage, there is more of a discrepancy, as one would expect by understanding what TDP means.

 

I just wanted to say that after owning the z for a weekend I don't know what people are talking about when they are complaining about fan noise.

YES when the computer is 1' from my face I can hear a whirring. But other than that the sound is very low and in my other rooms I can't hear it peroid. Under load yes I can hear the fan but so what.

I used to own macbook pros, and they have the worst cooling ever, in fact I had 4 logic boards melt on me, luckily all under warranty but Apple gives up deisgn for cooling and I am so happy this laptop doesn't burn my leg when watching flash.

I don't understand the whining regarding the fans on this computer, maybe their fans are faulty because mine is perfect.

Also people keep saying, why is it ON when its @ 40c.
Fans are always on with computers, they are @ 40 because the fans are moving the heat, especially in a laptop they aren't going to use passive cooling.

 

I think the no-return is for engraved products. CTOs can be returned, right? Or am I mistaken?

 

It may be different in the US but on the Canadian sony site, it says that CTO sales are final.

 

wow, that totally sucks. In the us only the engraved results in that.
Now, I know they won't accept a return for the pixel problem, but I'm sure that if he makes just the right complaint, returning it shouldn't be too much of a problem. What would be the best complaint? Maybe, sometimes won't boot, it just hangs?

 

Thanks, I do see on the Canadian site it is explicitly stated.

 

any sony US carbon fiber signature owner here?

i would like to know your battery life, it is nothing near the website came on mine do i have bad battery?

regular battery last only about 3 hrs on regular webrosing, excel, MSN chat with wifi and blue tooth on with stamina mode, on my spare extend battery i have about 5 hrs for doing the same thing (brightness around 4 bars)

please report, thx

 

I was just watching a full screen video from a website in Auto graphics mode and all of a sudden my screen went black and there was some serious beeping going on until I shut down manually with the power button....I almost crapped my pants.

I restarted and it didn't go too smoothly with a black screen being shown most of the time until finally the windows screen came up.

Has this happened to anyone else and are there new Nvidia drivers that I am not aware of that prevent this from happening again.

Cheers.

 

Could it be due to overheating?

 

my intension isnt to return the product cause i really like the vaio z ..i just hope that the person i talk to tha calls me tomorrow can sympathize with me that spending so much money on a system that has such a defect with the screen just isnt right. I dont expect to return the system but i hope they would either fix the problem for me or offer any other solution to make me a happy customer ....cause in my opinion i saved up long and hard for this system and its just to have a system that isnt perfect is disappointing to me

anyways ill update my situation once i get to talk to the customer relations from sony..

 

I guess all I was really saying is that they likely won't repair it for a few stuck pixels in which case the quickest solution may be to return this one and then buy the exact same model again

 

I don't think so it didn't feel hot on my lap. Funny thing now is that when I restart just after the Windows log on screen comes on the bottom half of the screen has vertical pink and black lines for about less than a second then the Windows log on screen comes back up again....this didn't happen before.

But I hope I never experience that noise again...when it did occur the fan was working overdrive.....so I shut down fairly quickly. I read somewhere before in this thread I think something similar happened to someone else I really hope it is just a driver issue. I might try a system restore point to see if that fixes the issue completely.

Before this happened I only had Firefox running about 14 tabs open using 50% of my RAM.

 

Okay....further troubleshooting, I found out that I don't get the striped pink/black screen when I boot into safe mode. This basically tells me its a display driver issue.

I think I'm going to uninstall the display driver and let it install again and hope it solves the problem. I tried to do a system restore and it would not work on several restore points....I didn't like that even though I disable Norton Auto Protect.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

 

any sony US carbon fiber signature owner here?

i would like to know your battery life, it is nothing near the website came on mine do i have bad battery?

regular battery last only about 3 hrs on regular webrosing, excel, MSN chat with wifi and blue tooth on with stamina mode, on my spare extend battery i have about 5 hrs for doing the same thing (brightness around 4 bars)

please report, thx

 

Hey mate please don't double post, especially not so close in time!

Anyway, you never expect to get the battery life that manufacturers state. It's the sad truth.

There are plenty of owners here who have posted info on battery life. Go ahead and do a search in this thread with the search function on the top right hand side on the screen.

 

1st Post !!

I've been reading through this thread for the past week in preparation for my Z to arrive from Japan via Conics. I placed my order on March 11 and I got an email this morning stating it would be shipping to Texas today! I went ahead and went all out... did anyone else pay this price for a top of the line model?
1 x Sony Vaio Type Z VPCZ11AGJ [2.66GHz Core i7, quad SSD option]
- 1st AC Adapter Option: Stick, short cable adapter
- 1st Battery: VGP-BPL20 (7800mAh, 460g)
- Bluetooth: Yes, Internal
- Colour: Premium Carbon
- CPU: Core i7 620M 2.66GHz
- Docking Station: Sony VGP-PRZ10
- Extra AC Adapter: no extra Adapter
- Extra Battery: no extra required (1 only)
- HDD/SSD/Optical Drive: 4x128GB SSD(RAID 0), Blu-Ray-bur
- Head Phones: Sony, Noise Canceling
- Keyboard: US English with backlight
- LCD: 1920x1080
- Memory: 2x 4GB (8GB under 64bit OS)
- Palm Rest Colour: Gray (for Black / Carbon colour
- Security: Fingerprint sensor & TPM
- Unlock the Modem: not yet possible for this model
- USB / iLink: 3x USB (2.0)
- Warranty: 3 year warranty
- Web Camera: 310K Pixel Motion Eye Internal
- WiMAX or WWAN[3G]: gobi 3G/WWAN [not tested], WiFi
- Windows Version: Windows 7 [Pro] English 64bit $5,637.74USD
1 x Sony High Quality case for Vaio Z $197.35USD

 

Hi, mine should be the Hong Kong-equivalent version of the US carbon fiber signature and yes, it doesn't last 5 hrs on the stock battery too, prolly 3 hrs at most. Well, I had expected it when I bought it

 

Exactly. It's a thermal guide for design purposes.

 

I also have the VPCZ117GG from HK.

I can get around 5 hours of wifi surfing, 2/8 brightness on stamina.

 

Got my Z this weekend!

Specs - US CTO model US-VPCZ1190X-LBOM:
i7 620M, 8GB, 384GB, 1600x900, DVD, premium carbon, Verizon broadband, fresh start, win 7 pro,
Also: 2 year service plan, VIP backstage security, VPCZ1190X docking, VGPCKC4/B carrying case (wrong order/waste of money, it is for really thick 14")
Total USD 3,453.39 (15% discount on computer, free express shipping)
Order date: 03/25/2010, Shipped: 04/02/2010 (sonystyle.com US)

First impressions:
- Really happy, its so light and fast! It's so light and compact it will follow me almost everywhere.

- Noise: quite silent when idling/surfing etc, BUT if it is really silent around you, it can irritate due to high frequeny/pitch noise. When doing heavy work, the fan really whinds up and gets noisy, but it quickly spins down also. Not bothering me, and is expeced from a workhorse in a small package.

- Looks: Good and quality feel, but a little anonymous. A little disapointed about the premium carbon, it is darker and the carbon fibres aren't that visible. Hoped for a little mor visible structure, as I'm used to carbon parts on cars, and hoped it would remind a little. Also, some fingerprints will stick, and there is a color difference between lid and the lower line (keyboard alu- piece) when viewed from the side. But still - it looks really nice and does look a a bit exlusive.

- Speed: No problem importing/processing a lot of pictures in Lightroom and surfing etc. at the same time (with external monitor). Also, previews and browsing in lightroom pictures flies. Amazing statup time from hibernate/sleep. (I'm used to under 1 minut boot time with my old Lenovo and Compal machines upgraded with SSDs)

- Graphics switshing: a bit annoying black blink, and it switches automaticcaly to "power save scheme", while I want it to stay in balanced. This might be sorted with settings, but the settings are also confusing (Vaio control center, advanced settings, windows settings etc).

- Display:Very nice!! 1600x900 is enough - I like 100% font, and it's small enough. Just about right. Very clear, bright, contrasty and saturated. Almost too saturated, all pictures look really good, almost too good, like they have been manipulated with more contrast/saturation - but in a good way (but not good when you are doing photo work yourself - suddely the photos look like they need no adjustment, but they do). A bit uneven backlightning (when black screen, it is bright at top/bottom). Also, I hate auto dimming, but that's just me and I've turned it of (no problem). It is a bit too glossy for my taste (but I guess not the glossiest out there), but reflections aren't too bad when increasing backlight.

-Sometimes it goes black for a split second, for example when running install files (this is possible a win7 thing??).

- Heat: barely tested, but I used it on the train on the lap for half an hour without any issues what so ever (browsing pictures in lightroom).

- Battery: Not tested, as I've mainly used it in the docking station.

- Build quality: Good, but I really fear spilling on the keyboard (compared to my old Lenovo thinkpad T60) - it seems to me it would ruin the computer with the wuit big gap around/between keys and aluminum plate. I will be a little bit more carful with this machine than Lenovo , which I don't mind "throwing" here and there. More worried about dirt, dust, and scraches with the Sony. Nothing to complain about the battery fitment or screen flexing issues.

- Keyboard: Very nice feel, but it takes a little time to get used to the spacing and completely flat keys. Material feels/seems a little cheap, but really no issue.

- Mousepad: OK feeling so far. Buttons are a little hard to press (for my taste anyway). Also I'm used to having a little more area lower(to the side) than the pad to rest my hand on, but that's the nature of 13" widescreen I guess...

- Docking station: 1920x1200 HDMI works fine. Dissapointed about the lack of sliding/guiding/holding tracks and release button. So it' a bit fiddeling to put into place, and doesn't sit so well (can be twisted and lifted out by "accident"). Also I would appreciate if the computer got tilted up a little less. And of course no sound output. Would wish for more USB-ports too.

I've read somerthing about modding/unlocking the broadband module to put in a sim card, anyone has got a link/more info??? I really would like to use this function (US model verizon, live in Norway, europe).

 

Does anyone know if there is a program for windows similar to the Battery Use tab in Android? For those that don't use Android, it tells you which programs or hardware components are using up the battery as a fraction of the total discharge. I'm getting about 3.5-4 hours now where I was getting 5+ a few weeks ago.

 

I've searched the forums and only found bits and pieces, but could someone either post or direct me to a complete list of what I would need to configure my Vaio Z (i5) to in order to get maximum battery life out of the stock battery. As is I have only been able to get about 1.5 hours out of it, and I am seen that some people here have been able to get significantly more than me. This laptop is wicked, and once I figure out the battery it will virtually be flawless.

Thanks for your help, and patience with the question if this is already listed elsewhere, and I just haven't been able to find it.

Justin

 

Zamot you cannot unlock the Gobi 2000 cards. You can buy them unlocked from different manfacturers. You can also buy them apparently unlocked and unbranded. These cost £130 on ebay. Whether it will work in your Sony unless someone has tried and no-one has appeared to yet i cannot say if it will work for sure for you.
The Z1 ones in the EU though come unlocked.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Unlocked-Qual...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5ad864f7e1

The Gobi 1000 cards can still not be unlocked and these have been out a while.
As for the sim card holder you would to solder that on yourself.
I have seen these on ebay but never tried using one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USIM-SIM-Card...opAccessories_PCMCIACards?hash=item2eabbe6a93

Clearly it looks better to get the original but if soldering is not an option may be it is something to look into.


Also, battery life tips and these are for the large general across all the latest Vaio's

1) Silent mode in the Vaio control centre
2) Put GMA drivers in max power saver settings
3) Turn ambient sensor of
4) Turn the backlit keyboard of if you have it
5) Turn of the dvd drive
6) Use power saver
7) Set your wifi card adapter settings to medium power consumption
8) Turn Bluetooth and wwan of if you're not using it
9) Again you can go one further and lower the refresh rate
10) Use a flash block like ad block plus to surf if you can

 

I'm beginning to think that people are experiencing two different types of fans. My Z is very noticeable when used in my bedroom, it makes a whining noise.

My theory is that the fan blades got misaligned with the bearing during shipment, and that is what causes some people to swear that their fan makes noise and for others to swear that it is silent. This happens with some video cards too - if the fan drops out of the bearing slightly then it still runs, but becomes much more noisy.

I think that it should be completely silent, and when you hold the vent up to your ear, you should just hear the "whoosh" sound of the air coming out. This is the case for many other laptops.

 

@Vogelbund, @Orscar2:
I know that in previous models, the TDP was just a power dissipation requirement indication. This has changed, at least for Intel.

If you read the datasheet for the i3/i5/i7's (or simply skim through it searching for "TDP" like I did) there are a few places where they state that TDP is the actual power consumption of the processor, or use TDP as the measure of power consumption (for example page 54). In some tables, they indicate as well the max junction temperature for a given TDP (for example page 55).
http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/322812.pdf

 

If it were, Z would last less than 2 hours on standard battery. Typical power consumption has little to do with maximum power consumption.

CPU is not guaranteed to keep working while consuming more power than defined by TDP. It may melt, short-circuit, etc. That's all TDP is.

 

Yes, I've stated before that TDP is max power consumption under worse case load, I'm not trying to say that it consumes that amount of power all the time. The actual consumption varies with time, of course, and will be usually significantly lower with some spikes.

 

A lot of drivers are skipped in safe mode, not just video. It's possible that some other driver takes long to load and takes over system while graphics is switching during boot. If nothing interferes the switch is almost instant and we don't see pink stripes. That's a guess. Are you booting with switch in auto? What if it's in stamina (i.e. Intel only) position during normal boot? Then try it in speed position.

 

My configuration is like yours but without docking station and head phones. Price for my configuration was: 3,736.66 EUR.

 

I will try just that. I am just waiting for gobi card and my new Z from japan to arrive (will document whole process). It should be easy to do it since my configuration already have gobi card and SIM card slot.

Hopefully, card will work with software and drivers coming with it. But you are correct, you never know with Sony.

 

Is there any list out there of the options in the Japanese Sony Vaio Z customizer? I am thinking about importing one but don't know what all the options mean

 

Not to be a pest but, BUMP!

 

If it's a language issue, try Conics to get a sense of what's configurable:
http://conics.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=479&osCsid=ad0f37ff3f35a0dcdeaf24ace5a4f988

I don't remember if Sony Japan is willing to ship overseas, and in any case I don't know Japanese

Mine is shipped today, and I'll get it by Friday!

 

this sounds plausible, although as has been said so many times one mans 'terrible whine' is another mans 'blissful silence'

i recall reading that the cpu was responsible for 'whine' on earlier vaio's - or was it the screen? again, many conflicting reports and theories

my ancient vaio S uses to 'whine' (to my ears) when revving up - it seemed to me that it was a small fan having to work overdrive and when doing so hit an unfortunate resonance/frequency

i'd LOVE a z that for me only ever pleasantly 'whooshed' - but who knows if I will see the day?

meanwhile, what's the latest with trim for raid? do we have it, or not yet?

 

ic ic, i will try it out (din really try it out thoroughly), thx

Now that I think about it, my 3 hrs of battery life could be becuz I am using 80% battery only (cuz I set Battery Care function on to cap at 80%)

 

VGP-BPS20 5200mAh 315g

VGP-BPL20 7800mAh 460g

Anyone knows what are the coding rules and the meaning of different Z11 models' codes ?
e.g.: VPCZ11X5E, VPCZ11V5E, VPCZ11X9E

 

just took my VPCZ119FX (i540) on a 7 hour plane ride and watched 6 hours worth of videos (dvd drive was turned off) with minimal screen brightness. by the end of it, still had 30% juice left.

 

Nice! ^^

how long did u charge it when u 1st bought it?

 

1.5h sounds to me like like you are stuck in speed mode. That's the amount of time I get if I forget and leave it in speed mode.

The main one, from Rachels list, that seems to have a good effect is: lower the refresh rate to 40Hz.

Other than that I don't really do anything special to get 4+ on standard battery.

Also, with regards to Rachels list: I leave the keyboard backlight on myself. First of all because it looks cool and is one of the main reasons I bough the Z and secondly because it doesn't seem to suck very much power in any case.

 

So I assume those weights are for the batteries themselves. Judging from that, looks like the total package with the larger batter would be about 3.4 lbs if I did the math right. That's not a lot more weight for the larger battery; I think that sold me on going with the larger one.

 

I went for the larger one and have no regrets. It still feels light, and as someone said, the extra bulk underneath helps the cooling and its also something to hold on to when you carry it around.

 

For those looking for a lightweight minimalist travel bag solution I found a great Level 8 case which is a neopriine sleave with an outer zipper pocket WITH handles!

I can carry:

1) Z (i-540 Carbon, 256GB SSD, 4GB RAM)
2) Kensington 80-ADs power adapter (7oz)
3) Verizon MiFi + extendable USB cable
4) Kensington Lock
5) USB Key

Really nice light weight package that packs a phenominal punch...

The Level 8 case is available NOT through Sony or Sony Store but from an Apple Store which sells the brand. They had only 2 and I was told it's a new line. The padding is nice... Hope this helps.

ps. If you need a mid-size but still quite small, the Tumi 12" is a work-horse and when I need to carry extra stuff, that's the case I go with...