Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

Japanese screenshot with 100% DPI settings. Enjoy.

 

Here's an old trick; photograph the bottom of the machine. Make an 8x10 printout. As you pull screws, put them on the printout where they came from.

 

What about overall quality of 1080p screen? Viewing angles?

This review shows relatively poor viewing angles of 1600x900 display (TN panel).



Here's example of what notebookcheck.com does:

Lenovo Х200s


Lenovo X200 Tablet


Difference is obvious, isn't it?

 

I wouldn't get any engraving. You won't be able to return your laptop if you don't like it, you can't sell it so easily and in my opinion it's cheap looking.

In the old new Z thread I had a post regarding the screenshots. Here it is. You'll find a link to a Japanese review and on the bottom of the page you'll find 1920 screenshots with and without DPI scaling, 1600 screenshot and 1366 screenshot of old Z.

 

Any chance of doing this again, but looking at the Storage Manager? Should be able to get the specific part numbers there. Also, runing CrystalInfo would be great.

If not, thanks for the info regardless. + rep

I have some anecdotal evidence this works. I have a craptastic Patriot Warp v3 256GB SSD in my work laptop. This device does not have trim and because it is 2x128GB drives in an concatenated volume, the firmware can't be updated. After about 9 months of use, the machine would freeze up while the HD activity light remained almost solid. I wouldn't call it a stutter, but darn close.

I installed the Workstation Edition of Diskeeper (with hyperfast) on the device and used CCleaner to wipe the free space (DOD 5220.22-M). I'm not sure which did the trick, but I haven't had any problems since. It's been about 3 months and the performance has been maintained, which may be attributed to Hyperfast.

 

Thank you guys, I appreciate all suggestion for safe operation! How can I assure anti-static environment? Special screwdriver?

 

I never worry about static and never had a problem. Just touch a metal window sill or door nob if you are.

 

This may be a silly question, but what is this? Is it functional? Can it be removed?



I can't find reference to it in the VPCZ11 User Guide. If you haven't seen the guide, you can download the PDF here:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=VPCZ11FHXXQ
Select "User Guide" under "Manuals."

 

It looks like Felica port.

 

Interesting, if not a bit gimmicky. I can't see myself swiping my laptop to get on the subway, but swiping my credit card to buy junk online may be cool.

http://www.sony.net/Products/felica/abt/index.html

 

Z with Felica port is selling only in Japan and even there you can choose not to put it in your configuration.

 

so the general thinking is that 128GB is 64x2, whilst 192GB is 64x2 plus a 64? i wonder if there would be a performance difference.

the engadget review of a 192GB model seems to indicate there are 2 separate SSDs.

 

Can you provide more details about creaking? You have new Z, right?

 

I've liked the 1600x900 screen in the 1st gen Z. Viewing angles have been workable; i.e. odd angles while cramped in coach on a plane, laying down on the couch, checking email at night, etc.

I'm also interested how well the FHD screens do, although viewing angles aren't a huge concern to me. There are many more elements in the FHD screen which makes it darker, so Sony had to brighten the backlight to compensate. We will see how well they did soon enough.

This is a repost from the old thread, but the Sony folks talk about this starting at about 3 minutes into this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEOd8hbYf0E&feature=channel

 

Yes there are... A 128GB (double-sided 2x64GB) module, and a single-sided 64GB module... Most probably arranged in triple RAID-0.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll have to research this a little further to figure out what hyperfast actually does. So far, I've read mixed reviews on the hyperfast feature of Diskeeper after doing some digging on the net.

 

Diskeeper tends to be, um, optimistic when doing tests. I haven't seen any objective test results that conclusively say it works or doesn't.

Their latest claim that fragmentation shortens battery life is in the same category. Logic would indicate that yes, if the machine takes longer to access data, more power is consumed to complete that task. How much power is highly questionable.

 

can anyone tell me what are the specs for the blu ray burner? what is the read and write speeds for blu ray disc? thanks

 

two q's:

1. on the japanese keyboard, the space bar is miniscule. how on earth do they cope?

2. on the HDD Z can the eject button be reconfigured to turn the screen on/off?

 

This information is readily available on the Sony website, but:

Optical Drive
BD-R DL Read / Write : 2x max
BD-R Read / Write : 2x max
BD-RE DL Read / Write : 2x max
BD-RE Read / Write : 2x max
BD-ROM Read : 2x max
Blu-ray Disc™ Support : Read / Write (BD-R/-RE/-ROM)23
CD Support : Read / Write (CD/-R/-RW)
DVD Support : Read / Write (DVD±R/±RW/±R DL/-RAM)

 

@ aznblitz,

you can get a 10% and an extra 5% if you buy an extended warranty

 

Any word on the battery life on Stamina mode with the i7?

 

Got reply from conics on when they can ship HDD model:

 

I don't think the i7-620M (Dual Core i7) or the i5-540M/520M (all Dual core chips) etc used in the Z-series are optimized to take advantage of the DDR3-1333 RAM. They will only be able to fully utilize the DDR3-1066 RAM that the Z-series already comes with. Spending more money and fitting the DDR3-1333 RAM might not yield any additional performance over the DDR3-1066.

The Quad-Core i7 chips in the Vaio F-series (i7-720QM and i7-820QM) on the other hand, are fully optimized to take advantage of the faster DDR3-1333 RAM and Sony has put DDR3-1333 RAM into the F-series.

 

What makes you say this? Have some data you can share?

 

If you call SonyStyle and request a discount, you should be able to get the 10%. They may call it a student discount or simply a generic discount. But that will really be about it for the next month or so. The current Z is Sony's flagship. you HAVE to know when you are ordering it that you are paying a premium for a Sony flagship product. 120 to 150 days ago this tech was cutting edge and this is the production cycle length it takes to get it to market.

If you are even considering purchasing one of these machines, congratulations, you are in for a treat, just know that you will never be able to catch the carrot that Sony does a great job marketing and refreshing into its flagships. It is just impossible to put bleeding edge tech into a production machine.

If you want to save a 'little' bit of money, yes, you can wait three months and get this exact computer for a few hundred less than it is being offered right now and then maybe several hundred less the day that Sony announces their refresh. But at that point, you will want the refresh version with whatever candy they are sprinkling at that time (I am totally making the following up, but you may very well see the current model discounted considerably the day Sony announces a refresh with USB 3.0 and Intel SSD drives in a RAID 0 configuration).

Will you be the guy at that point willing to save $700 for what will then be 365 day old tech? Welcome to the Sony trap. It is a vicious cycle and you will never win. So just commit to jumping at a point you are comfortable with and then STOP reading the blog threads on the upcoming models and be happy with your new computer. You will have plenty of opportunities to jump in the carnival again after you have had your new notebook for a year or two and can then jump in a solid couple of generations newer than what you own.

And the engineer in me has to remind you that it really does not matter because in that time the software cycle will not have advanced enough to make your spring 2010 Z obsolete. It will be capable until the day that it dies or you upgrade.

 

I see there is only a $180 difference in the F series Blu-Ray/DVD option.
Other options are way smaller as compared with the big bucks you need for the Z series. $500 for a Blu-Ray in the Z series seems outrageous. Wonder what gives?

 

miniaturisation innit?

 

Both Diskeeper 10 with Hyperfast and Perfectdisk 11. Many prefer Perfectdisk 11 since it is more straight forward over Diskeeper. I have seen a slight increase in Seq Writes and Read using Perfectdisk 11 once per week now.

 

Note that in case of Blu-ray, 1x = 36 Mbps, which is different from that employed in DVDs and the even older CDs.

In case of DVD's, 1x = 10.88 Mbps, which is considerably slower than the 1x of a Blu-ray.

Thus posting a number like 2x etc., could be mis-leading, if someone thinks that 1x in case of Blu-ray is the same as 1x in case of a DVD drive or the even slower 1x of a CD drive (1.21 Mbps).

 

By the way guys, I bought a brand new SR for only $400 bucks in my local store (my first vio) and have to say that its really nice, specially the screen, it looks like a plasma screen. Also, even though it only has a core 2 duo, it kicks the """" out of my gateway tablet that I bough 2 years ago for $1300 which at the time was a top spec.

If this SR is awesome, I can only imagine the speed of the Z.

 

I am assuming this statement was about the DDR3-1333 vs DDR3-1066, right (don't see a quote to know what your statement is directed towards) ?

Read up on the Intel spec sheets and you will notice that the Dual-core chips (i5 and i7) are only optimized to utilize UPTO DDR3-1066 RAM. So spending more money and fitting DDR3-1333 RAM is just a waste of money.

 

The Z's price wouldn't be altogether unreasonable on the U.S. CTO site if you could at least pick and choose from all the parts. We shouldn't be forced to go through Conics to get the 1080p screen without spending $4K.

Also, I'm finding the SSD/HDD arrangement even more troubling the more I read about it. Let's say you do buy the U.S. CTO machine with a base-level 2x64GB SSD. Where do you buy the hard drive optical bay caddy? Are we going to run into some catastrophic showstopper trying to run the proprietary SSD plus another drive in the optical bay?

Sony's really got us high-resolution lovers by the balls here. Everything about the Z screams "bad idea" to me, and yet the competition isn't even close. Literally the next-smallest laptop with a 1080p display option is the 15.6" Dell Studio 15, a system that's physically massive by comparison to the Z (not to mention the cheap plastic build quality and glossy display without antiglare coating). I'm sure there are plenty of other 15-inch laptops with 1080p options, but you guys get my point.

Two 2.5" drive slots really is the best possible choice: you can buy a lower capacity SSD for speed (like an 80GB X25-M), and a cheap high capacity hard drive for storage (like a 640GB disk for a hundred bucks). It's absolutely tragic that Sony decided to crap all over this, especially since they had it right in the 2009 Z.

 

Fitting a bluray player/burner into an F-series (or any other larger laptop) is no big deal. There are a TON of suppliers who could merrily supply such a drive.

However, shoe-horning a blu-ray burner drive into a 13.1" laptop like the Z-series is a VERY rare thing....and the cost reflects that. Very few suppliers might even be making such a rare bird.

 

I just pulled the trigger on the new Z. I ordered it online, punched in my info, but my browser refused to print the receipt page and Sony hasn't emailed me any information aside from a welcome page for registering. Oh, did I mention the password I clearly entered isn't working to let me in? I can't even copy over my spec sheet.

Anyways,
1600x900 Screen
Core i7
4GB Ram
256GB SSD
Premium Carbon Fiber
Win 7 Professional/Fresh Start

 

You got that point absolutely right. Sony seems to be dumping the lowest screen specs into the US market, while providing better options in the other markets.

In case of the F-series, the only Full-HD option that Sony provides in the US market is a glossy screen. Other markets like Japan and the EU, get a non-glossy Full-HD screen with 100% Adobe RGB color gamut (in addition to the cheaper glossy Full-HD screen that the US market gets).

 

1. The space bar is no issue. Interestingly, I can't stand typing on US keyboards any more because the Enter key is too small.
2. The eject button, from what I have tested so far, is configured to do whatever the VAIO key next to it is. I think Sony has to update the software for the HDD model so the eject key can do something unique.

Windows reported 5 hours of battery on STAMINA mode with the wireless off and brightness way up this morning. Judging from the Full HD display reports, lowering the brightness should increase the life considerably. I was in direct sunlight, so this was not an option at the time.

This evening, I tried as hard as I could to get the CPU to throttle. I simply couldn't. Actually, the fan lowered off the highest RPMs multiple times during the 3DMark06 test. As an example, I attach some data from the last 2 minutes or so of the 3DMark test. It's not particularly informative, but displays what the cooling system is capable of on this machine. In terms of heat, I wouldn't worry about the i7. Battery life is still not decided though, since I have nothing to really compare this to. Hopefully a comparative review will appear soon (not that I would swap this for the i5!).

 

I just found a link to order Micro Sata to Sata adapter, so looks like it is not that hard.

http://www.molex.com/molex/products...&key=micro_sata&parentKey=serial_ata_products

 

I just found out that the Z comes with the backlit keyboard with the edges on the keys lit. I spoke to a rep who confirmed it with his manager, so that should come as a relief as it is much nicer looking as well.

Does anyone know for sure if you can un-raid the SSD drives to make use of more space?

Thanks.

 

You only use quotes when your question is several posts after the one you are asking about. Since the question immediately followed the post, no quotes needed.

Anyhoo...

What documentation are you looking at? I've reviewed the Intel HM57 spec doco's in some detail. Haven't seen anything like what you mentioned. Got a link I can read?

 

Is the extra 5% on the whole order, or just on the extended warranty?

 

I think there are 2 issues:
1. Getting the cable + adapter right (needs to be thin, and occupy hardly any space). So that adapter needs to fit with the drive, in that space.
2. Getting a decent drive that can fit in that SSD space. That drive must perform reasonably well (For an SSD, we need speed and something like TRIM. Are there any HDDs that can fit in there?)

There's this recent article from WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703502804575101013088128250.html

The article says Sony is going to take on iPad. Given the drive for thinner devices, and the fact that Kunimasa is working on both Vaio and mobile products, I'm going to say the SSD in the Z is going to appear in the iPad-competitor. If so, then the Z is the guinea pig But the good news perhaps is that maybe in the future there will be decent support for this generation of Sony SSDs...

 

True. However, you may not be the only person typing up responses to the thread (in such a worldwide forum) and there could be several other posts that could come between my post and yours, in the intervening period.

It is always a good idea to quote the relevant portions that you are referencing.

Check out the "memory types" in the below link from Intel:

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43560&processor=i7-620M&spec-codes=SLBPD,SLBPE

Now check out the "memory types" in the Quad-Core i7 chips below:

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43122&processor=i7-720QM&spec-codes=SLBLY

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43124&processor=i7-820QM&spec-codes=SLBLX

 

I did one more test this evening: running Furmark Stability Test while at the same time running the EVEREST CPU stability test. That's a worst-case scenario for both GPU and CPU. The system still didn't throttle once, although I managed to bring the temps to 87C. The underside still didn't feel warm, although the fan was really pumping out hot air. This is a piece of engineering brilliance.

 

@RMCX

The 5% extra is on the whole order.

For example, if you just get the system and no extended warranty, you can get a 10% discount.

If you get the system + and extended warranty(2-3 years), you can get a 15% discount.

They did it for me, I could post a picture where it shows where they credited my visa, but I really dont know how to post pictures. They credited me $400 bucks.

I did not get the signature series, I am not dumb enough to drop 5k on a system that 2 years from now will cost 2k or less (no pun intended).

I got the regular series with the carbon fiber color ($50) and 192SSD ($200)
pretty much the base specs with the options above.

 

I'm remotely impressed with its cooling capabilities as well.
What are your impressions of viewing angles?

 

Has anyone tried to put Linux (Ubuntu or otherwise) on one of these bad boys? I am really leaning towards ordering one, but I'd like to make sure the drivers play nicely before pulling the trigger. I do wish they had Ready-To-Ship models without the Verizon broadband built in...as it stands, I can build a CTO model that is cheaper than the rts ones with the options I'd like (basically the same as xxgersonxx above).

 

Any user pics out there of the glossy version?

 

So that's why they provide the noise-cancelling earphones (j/k)

 

Bit of a duh moment on my end. I had been looking in the technical documents for the chipset. Your way is much easier

Regardless, I purchased these for the Lenovo W510 that never shipped. I may swap them with the 8GB in the Sony if the latency is higher in the supplied sodimms. I have them in my current Z.