Sony Vaio Z i5/i7 Official Owners Thread

The review said that the viewing angles are very good.

 

I heard sony uses hynix RAM chipset in their high end machines and bought these for 100$ extra. guess i am obsessed

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233081

 

I provided an example of very good viewing angles (X200 t). Difference in quality is obvious for me.

 

Not necessarily. Look at the latencies too. DDR3-1333 @ CAS8 will have lower latency than DDR3-1066 @ CAS7
(Of course, DDR3-1066 @ CAS5 would be even better, latency wise)

Also, overclockers would definitely be better served with DDR3-1333, but Vaios aren't exactly overclocker-friendly so this might not be much of a point.

 

Perhaps the review meant that it had good horizontal viewing angles?

There are horisontal viewing angles and vertical ones. No TN display has good vertical viewing angles, as can be witnessed by my picture to the left of this post -- move your head up or down or tilt the display, and the square shifts between green and red. With a better display (like IPS), it will stay grey with hints of yellow and blue between the lines, no matter what the angle.

 

The review on Czech website only says that "for a notebook the viewing angles are very good, despite it still being TN screen, of course".

 

They spoke about viewing angles in general (who knows, maybe they just weren't expecting anything good from ultraportable?) My point is that we may get better viewing angles with FullHD display (nobody knows whether it is S-PVA, eIPS, IPS or TN). Looks like it's 8-bit and therefore chances of getting something better than TN are higher than average.

That's why I was asking about pics.

 

It sucks to live in sweden, only possible to order the one with i7, 6gb ram,256 ssd, win7 pro,dvd, black (no premium carbon!!) for $3830!


If I order from japan I have to pay 25% taxes on the order+shipping price

$400 for a swedish keyboard (not possible to change it myself, have to send it to a sony legit workshop so they can change it)

and maybe $100 for a new sticker to the AC-adapter.

I could order directly from german and use the german keyboard, its pretty close to the swedish one, but y and z have changed place the german u instead of å.

If we want the best possible vaio z we have to pay around $6500 after all changes,shippment,taxes and stuff.

 

Sure, I was not arguing, just translating, because it is one of the very rare moments that I can use my native language skills, once a year or so

 

I would also like to see screen pictures showing viewing angles and a head-on shot, preferably with a black background to judge black levels

 

Bad news....

A user in Taiwan just posted a message about the battery life of Z117(i7 model)...he said no matter how hard he tried, the battery life never pass 4 hours with standard battery, unless he tune down the brightness to 20%.

Dimension, can you do a test too?

 

Dude that's good...

 

I heard it was 5~6 hours in reviews? I definitely will order large battery...

 

About SSD of Z117...

Z117 Quad SSD deos not Support Windows 7 for Windows SSD TRIM command~~!!

There is no wear leveling neither...

Looks like HardDisk version makes the most sense now...

 

Can someone answer this for me? In the US, is the only differences between the signature collection Z ($4500) and the fully spec'd out CTO Z (~$4000):
1) the option of glossy finish
2) HD full 1080p
?

So there's a $500 margin between the fully specd CTO and the signature collection just for these two items? Does anything else come with the signature collection?

 

I want the extended battery as well but that bad boy is $200+ everywhere I've looked.

 

Hey guys! I'm new but I've been following these threads like an animal for the last month or so. Last night, (or this morning) as I worked on a school paper at 2 am, I saw that the preorder page for the Z had gone up on sonystyle Canada, so I went and pre-ordered it, but ran into some problems with sony's faulty website. All kinds of issues. At one point it didn't want to authorize my card! Fine, don't take my money!

Nevertheless, after much toil, (and using a credit card I didn't want to use) I had made it to the "print this receipt for your records" page. At that moment, my browser froze, and since then, I haven't had any emails confirming my preorder. Is that normal? Did you guys get some sort of email confirmation after preordering? I called my credit card to check recent transactions and no money has yet been charged. I figure it's because I only preordered it and they are going to charge the card once its shipped, but I wanted to ask this really amateur question just in case the Z sells out F-series style and I have to wait another 5 months before I get a new laptop; I've been waiting for 5 years! Or what's worse, If I just ended up thinking the order didn't go through and then go and accidentally buy two of them! OR maybe I was dreaming?? It was pretty late..

For the sake of the thread, I ordered, (or wanted to order)

* Intel® Core™ i7-620M processor (2.66GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GH
* 13.1" widescreen with XBRITE-DuraView™ LCD technology (1600x900)
* Large Capacity Battery
* No Engraving
* 512GB (256GBx2) Solid State Drive with RAID technology
* Blu-ray Disc™ Read and Write Drive (Windows XP Professional downgrade disc not included)
* Fresh Start™
* Premium Carbon Fibre
* Microsoft Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit with XP Pro downgrade disc
* 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066


Anyway, I appreciate any help, if any. I realize this is a very, very stupid quesiton. Also, yes, my username is nads. lol

 

In stamina mode it should be 5~6 hours in speed mode it should be something around 4 hours. Seams to me he was running it in speed mode.

 

I know I asked this once on here, but I couldn't find the answer (this thread and its parent are ginormous ).

Instead of imaging and re-doing the ssd every six months, to maintain performance. Can't one instead just wipe the unused area with the appropriate value for a cleared bit (it's either going to be zeroes or else ones).

Is it maybe that the journaling gets in the way of doing that properly?

 

No, that won't work, and will actually do more harm than good. It's not the content of the blocks that dictate whether it's considered empty or not, but an allocation map. Writing zeroes (or ones) to a block only ensures that it gets marked as in-use in the allocation map, even if it previously was seen as unallocated.

Telling the drive which blocks it can remove from its allocation map is what TRIM does. You can't fake that, unfortunately.

A "security erase" or wipe causes the entire drive to be marked as empty, with the side effect of zonking the allocation map too. This is why HDDerase works to restore the performance of a drive -- it's not the intended behaviour, but a beneficial side effect.

 

Wow... does that mean none of the ssd configs in US support TRIM? sucks. will wait for more reviews.

 

No, sadly to say, he tried stamina mode and he tried very hard to pass 4 hours mark with normal usage like browsing, reading, writing...and never succeeded except only when he lowered brightness to 20 %.

 

I would call Sony ASAP if I were you...

... and also try to get the 10% discount at the same time, which so many people seem to be getting

 

I noticed that too, however the margin is not $500 but $400 ($4100 vs $4500), once you add in the $100 Verizon broadband built-in card the Signature series comes with.

Bottomline, the additional $400 gets you a glossy finish and the Full-HD screen, which is clearly $300 too much, based on prices in the other markets where $50 is what is charged for the Full-HD screen and $50 for the Signature color. Puzzling for sure !

 

Where did you see this information? I could see the lack of TRIM support, but no wear leveling? An SSD without wear leveling wouldn't last very long.

Riley

 

So when we call Sony for the discounts, how do we tell them we want it?...

"Give me a discount or I'm not buying your product, biatch."
"Well I was thinking about buying the Mac Book Pro..."
"I have very poor vision and need the Z's good-rez screen to use the internet *violin plays*"
"I heard on the interwebz that people were getting a 15% discount, give it to me too or I'll tell everyone you guys suck."

So yeah, how do I go about it?

 

Interestingly, the other "Metal Mosaic" Signature series, costs $2349.

When we try to option out the CTO model with the same features, it comes to $2249. This means that they are charging $100 for the "Metal Mosaic" signature color.

 

Welcome to the benefits of Sony loyalty

I purchased the extended for the last gen Z ($250), and will likely do it again. I like how the extra bank of cells raises the rump of the laptop. Makes for a better typing angle, IMO.

 

When you call, just say "what kind of discount can you give me on this purchase?". I've done it twice now and they take 5% off immediately and then if you throw in a warranty they'll go to 10% without questions. I'm not sure how others got 15%.

 

Not stupid at all. I'm in the exact same boat as you. My browser also froze when I tried to hit "Print page" (lol) and all I got was an email from Sony regarding registration. Needless to say I called Sony right away and he confirmed my name and address on file.. so as long as you make that last page, it'll go through. Checking is always safe. It'll take you 3 minutes anyways. Tell them, people are having issues with their web order system lol. Maybe it got pummeled today with the orders of the Z!.. thats what happens when you take so long.

I also paid for the Express shipping and I was told if they do ship out on the 16th like we're told, we can expect to get our hands on them on the 19th - or the following Monday (cuz of the weekend). Something a bout a holiday? lol He said they only charge/authorize when they ship.

 

Pretty much all of them, if they dont take any of these, just tell them:
"I know where you live".

That made me laugh

 

Yeah I was sort of dreading that for awhile. I really do hate customer service lines.

I think I have no choice! And why not, might as well attempt to get the 10% off. I've heard it mentioned around here. Seems a little too easy.

Thank you! I'm not alone after all! Glad to see it stayed on file. I would much rather risk it and hope they have me on file, but I guess the safe thing to do is call when there is a $5000 laptop at stake! lol And they definitely got pummeled. A friend of mine who tried to order this afternoon was told his shipping date would be late march. I guess that means something!

Thanks for the help guys.

 

not so sure that particular one would fly Jon...

 

Also, have we found out if the battery drain still exists?

 

Hey ReactionRED, were you able to get any discount from them when you ordered - it seems people are having luck in the US but I have had none so far in Canada.

 

if you check the Canadian CTO thread, you'll find that I was able to get 200$ off (must be at least 2500$), and expedited shipping at the price of standard. I'm calling the guy back later tonight, and will see if I can get free shipping as well.

 

I attached some monitor information. I don't think we can really tell much about the display, since it's exclusively a Sony display. As for the viewing angles, they are just fine. Horizontal is better than vertical, as arth mentioned.

 

It's definitely right off the assembly line. Nice.

Any chance of you doing the HWiNFO dump? I'd like to see the the output from a default scan. Just dump it to CSV and zip.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/HWiNFO32-version-3.43-download-1078.html

You would be by best online friend ever! BOF's!

 

Man, i am totally bummed about the 1080p version not being available to the US market, except of course in the $4500 signature collection.

In the UK, it's just a $100 option.

Why put an NVidia 330GT inside, and a Gig of video memory, and use a 1600x900 monitor? Seems like a waste...

That's total BS.

 

Oh, and slightly over 4 hours seems to be the average battery life for my Z with brightness perhaps 80% and wireless on (light usage). Not as good as the previous Z, but certainly a different class of machine. I think I will order an L battery so I have the power to choose. The Z should fit in my the Sony leather case (same model as the previous Z) with either battery.

 

Wait a minute... Does the image change in colour with the vertical viewing angle on the new Z? Then the early reports about it being an 8-bit non-TN display are wrong.

 

For gaming, doubt the 330GT can push the latest games at that 1080 native resolution with all the bells and whistles turned on. So for gaming, you will most likely be gaming at a lower resolution.

As for video, I would prefer to watch HD on a large screen.

Text on such a small on such a high res screen is painfull

In other words its not that big of a deal, but its always nice to have options. But I just believe that its not that big of an option that people make it to be.

 

Yup it sucks that the 1080p screen isnt offered in US... but if you are talking about gaming then the 330gt is not that great of a chip.....

maybe you are confusing the mobile and non mobile versions??

gt 330 (DEFINATELY NOT IN THE Z)
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gt_330_us.html

gt 330m (THIS ONE IS INE THE Z)
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gt_330m_us.html


The mobile chip looks about half the power of the desktop unit, based soley on specs. It will likely have difficulty maintaining good fps in most games at 1600x900, let alone trying to make them playable at 1920x 1080

If you were gaming on this machine I think you would be doing it at 720p (1366 x 768), at which the few reviews which are out are saying the Z can get decent (not great) frame rates.

 

How about whining Pleeeeeze ... pleeeeze ... pleeeeze give me the 15% discount. Or the more subtle approach ... "I have a gun to my head and if I don't get the discount, I'm pulling the trigger ... see?" Then there is always the "all of the other executives at my company are bragging about the 15% discount you gave them and I won't be able to show my face in the boardroom unless you give me the same."

One of these should work for you. Let us know how it goes.

Bronsky

 

What should I be looking for? The colors either gets lighter or darker depending on the angle. Has it been confirmed that this is an 8-bit panel?

 

Nope I didn't bother. I was prepared to pay the full price. I'm not a sucker.. it just seems too difficult to try and hunt around for a deal at this point. Especially on their newest flagship machine yet to be released here.

 

RE: 15% discount

I cancelled my order (384 GB SSD) this morning and placed an order for a reconfigured Z series with 512GB SSDs.

When talking with the telephone salesperson I said, "I understand that there are 15% discounts available to those that order a high dollar laptop like this if you also get accidental protection. She said that they could offer the 15% discount...and they did.

 

Look at the square to the left of this post, under my nick. Tilt the screen forward and back. If the image changes between red and green, it's a TN display.
If it stays the same hue of greyish (apart from the very top and bottom lines), it's a better type display.

For 6-bit versus 8-bit, try looking at a smooth grey gradient from black in one corner of the screen to white in the opposite corner. If it looks "banded" or non-smooth, it's likely a 6-bit display.

 

I thought that looking at a display from below is enough to tell if it is TN, as they always show inverted colours from that position.

BTW, on my Dell 3008WFP I see your picture with a faint red tone, I assume that's because it's not calibrated...

 

Some info about the Z was posted here today. You need to scroll down the page.
http://kunkoku.livedoor.biz/

http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...=/search?q=http://kunkoku.livedoor.biz/&hl=en