Any new models on the horizon? (VAIO summer refresh)

New 15.5" NW

 

Wow, that's surprising. I never thought they'd upgrade the N-series and rename it too.

 

What is the screen native resolution? Does it come with XBrite HiColor or XBrite ECO? At 6 pounds, it seems that FW has better weight/size ratio. FW weighs almost the same as NW, but FW has much larger screen and better video card.

 

Only 1366x768 in Japan, so...

 

The "n' series along with the 'cs' are meant to be the budget end of the Sony Vaio range, so the fw and sr are better than those two respectively.

But looking at that web link the NW looks to pretty flash for the 'budget' range.

 

Cnet


$799 without Blu-Ray
$879 with Blu-Ray

Japanese Specs

Quickstart seen on the P
Up to 8GB DDR2 Ram
3.1mp webcam

 

Anyone fluent in japanese xD?

I was reading the sony jp site and i saw this
http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Special/Computer/Vaio/F/index.html

Sony vaio FW comes with a ATI 4650 (1GB???) or is it still 512mb?


Also
http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/vaio/products/F/

if you scroll down and look to the right, were the colors always like that for black? I saw some other pictures and the inside was grayish(besides key), only the outside was black if you chose black

 

So Dear's,

just picked up a brand new SR-46MD


Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53 GHz)
Network Connection: Intel® WiFi Link 5100
Chipset : Mobile Intel® PM45 Express Chipset
Processor System Bus: 1066 MHz
Memory Bus: 800 MHz
Cache Memory: 3 MB
Pre-installed/Max: 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Disk Drive: 320 GB (Serial ATA, 7200 rpm)
Graphics Accelerator: ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4570 Graphics
Dedicated Video Memory: 512 MB
Bluetooth: Bluetooth standard Ver. 2.1+EDR

Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista® Business 64-bit with Service Pack 1

So just de-crapping it at the moment then lets see what she can do ...

 

Look here much simpler in English

http://www.sony-asia.com/product/vgn-fw47gy

 

holy :O

So how much of a price difference will the 4650 1GB vs the default 3650 512mb be? Also are we even getting the 1GB version in N/A(USA) and is this new FW model a pre-configured or will we be able to customize it to our liking? For example i like the current customizable option on the FW and i would buy one but i would like to customize it with the upcoming 4650 (1GB if possible or 512MB if not).

 

Sorry no customization here we have to take what we get but the top of the line here is AED 9,999 which is US$2,731.45, played with one yesterday when I picked up the SR-46

 

well will the 4650 512MB be part of the customizable option?

 

Can you run 3dMark06 and post the result please??

 

Do a battery life test also. =]

 

Where are they available?

 

In Dubai

(that's what it says under his avatar)

 

Here u Go !!!

 

any specific benchmarking tool ?

 

That's it, but they are available all over ASIA now!!

Don't worry we tend now to get everything here 2-3 weeks before the rest of u

 

And still no VT-x Support in the BIOS and no BIOS online to Patch

Runs way way cooler than the 3570 Version SR-24 I have now passed on to my other half

 

Thank you! Rep for you.

4143 is very good. It's the same as Dell Studio 1555 with 4570.

It means Sony is using DDR3 and has not downclocked it.

 

The prices of the Z7's in the US look pretty decent. I mean $2,199 for a laptop with built in WWAN, 2.53 processor and a 128GB SSD drive is not bad in my book at all.
http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VGNZ780DB/

 

I've hear Win 7 has this feature to offload GPU computations on CPU to help get an extra kick. Can you use it with 3D Mark? Wonder if that'd improve results and how much.

 

Nice find. The price does look reasonable. Too bad it's still "Coming Soon" though.

 

I don't know if you're a gamer, but can you try running Fallout 3? I wonder what settings could SR handle...

And I can't wait to get one myself! I hope they're released in US soon (like, Monday) because then I could ask my friend to bring me one.

They are available in Europe, but ready to ship versions SUCK and customized are only available with weird keyboards (QWERTZ, AZERTY)

 

Not a modern Gamer C&C or WOW I'm afraid..

QWERTZ, AZERTY means Germans and French

 

Nothing Scientific I know ... But just watched 2 episodes of Heros using VLC in full screen Brightness = FULL and only down to 59% states 1:51 to go...

If anyone can point me towards a util to do the battery test then ill be more that pleased to run it over night here

as soon as its fully charged again ill try and see if they fixed the Battery Discharge issue... seeing how this is a completely new motherboard

impression sofar runs longer and cooler ... can't be bad..

 

the software called battery eater.

kind of ot, but maybe some can assist me here a sec, but what is the difference between the VGN-TT150 and the VGN-TT190? They both have the 1.2ghz cpu, both have the same ram, and hd, so what is the difference?

 

The 150 was a pre-built model, and the 190 was a custom built to order model.

 

Nobackup, can you post your temps when idle and also underload?

 

Quick guess here is that TT190 is CTO (Configure To Order) while TT150 configuration is fixed.

 

You could just do a typical battery run down test when your ready. I think power saver, 50% brightness with wifi on surfing and bluetooth disabled is pretty normal.

I did a battery eater test before and i found it quite draining on my battery.

 

And according to a post in the german VAIO-Club-Forum from moderator benste
http://club.vaio.sony.de/clubvaio/gb/en/forum/viewthread?thread=63491&offset=10
this morning Sony doesn't plan to release firmware updates until enough people complain via vaio-link about the missing VT-x support. So if you want VT-x write an email or open a call via phone to vaio-link.

 

So from what I have been reading here, the CTO models are built in America and have a slightly lower quality what the pre-built models are made in Japan with slightly better quality? Is this the case or no?

And all the review I have seen for laptops most of them are using battery eater to do battery tests.

 

IMO, I've to agree, having owned both a Japan assembled Z & a U.S. assembled Z. The interesting thing is that built quality even seems to be getting worse with each new product. IMO, the SZ has got better built quality than the Z & the earlier SZ has got slightly better built quality than the later SZ.

However, be aware that built quality is still a subjective topic.

Note also that these are just my observations & my opinion. You & others may or may not agree.

 

I guess I am gonna with the group on this topic & will go with TT150. I guess thing I loose out on is HDMI, noise canceling phones, the 8% ms cashback, but instead I get a nicer black instead of the gold.

I was at the Sonystyle store today and the person helping said that the new Z700 series will get 8gb of ram, but some of the older models can support 6gb and 8gb of ram depending on options. He also said there will be no TT in the next string on updates, and that Sony may have plans to release the instant os, that is on the P and their new lower priced 16in device for all the devices that can support it.

 

Does anyone know if the 6GB FW models are dual-channel memory?
Maybe it is 4+2GB and NOT dual channel, while the 4GB models are 2+2GB and maybe dual channel.
Does anyone know? Does it make real difference?
Thanks

 

idk but i heard it's like a 4% difference.

 

So here are the numbers ..

1) All Devices on (Wifi,CD-ROM, Bluetooth etc)
2) Power Scheme "Power Management Off"

So I guess as bad as it gets

Battery Eater reports 2:41 with 2% left (Hibernated on Critical Alarm) !!!

Sony states:-

Bundled Battery : VGP-BPS13A/Q Lithium-ion battery: up to 3 hours of use
Optional Long Battery : VGP-BPL13 Lithium-ion battery: up to 4.5 hours of use

which usually means on low power settings ! so 2:41 on full power (BE) is not bad...

a quick calculation based on my "Watching Heroes" experience (Post #378) earlier would indicate a normal run time of 3:21 mins..

Later on today after its all charged up I'll set up a power scheme for browsing, that means ill set the max CPU usage at around 55-60% (2.53 -> ~1.3/~1.5) and see how long the beast lasts.

All Test's were done including the 3D Mark using win 7 RC, with all the SONY "Special" drivers installed so that all the buttons etc and the ATI driver work, I still have Vista 64 loaded on another Partition so in the next few days I can try the same tests under that.

 

Hi everyone I'm new to this site, but I've been reading it for a while now. I just wanted to post that while I've been waiting for sony credit approval (still waiting) I have noticed now on the sony site when I pick the fw and select customize it now tells me {Product not available. Please try later. } so with any luck this means the are about to update the site with the refresh - or maybe i'm just being hopeful.

 

Sony usually have new things every monday. I believe the refresh may show up this monday or next monday.

 

Wow, these all great results underload. I bet with all the power-saving options turned on, you could get an extra hour or more! BRILLIANT! I don't feel as bad returning my precious Z anymore.

 

Excellent definitely the best gaming 13" available now!(actually the P310, but oh well )

 

So I just bit the bullet and "Upgrade" my bios via the instructions http://levicki.net/articles/tips/2009/02/20/HOWTO_Enable_Intel_VT_on_Sony_VAIO_notebook_with_AMI_Aptio_EFI_BIOS.php

Now I have VT enabled and XP running in a window

If I have any problems I can always go back to the original ROM

 

I see that notebookjournal.de has reviewed the SR4. Battery life seems to be about the same if marginally better than the SR3 with the ATI card.
http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/review-sony-vgn-sr41m-w-932
Now that could be because the more powerful card might handle their stress tests better but in power saver mode etc the advantage might well go to the SR3 but i don't know.
Sony could have also done a better job with power management.

There must be some more reviews on Japanese websites seeing as this laptop was released in Japan first.

@Coldmack
These battery eater tests are ok indicators but i do prefer when professional reviewers actually do battery run down tests. I probably prefer user reviews more these days. The biggest difference between a pro/user though is that a pro is returning the reviewed laptop. I ran two battery eater tests on a Dell M1330 and i was not to pleased with the impact it seemed to have on my battery. That might just be my experience though.

 

Interesting the one on the German Site is using a T6400 compared to the P8700 in mine, that means they are using a slower CPU wth a TDP of 35W compared to my P8700 which has only a TDP of 25W

Why would they do that ?

That might however explain the difference in what I am seeing about heat and noise (FAN) to their test....


and in general I have over the past year looked at a lot of the reviews that the German site puts out, and so so many of them are very "opinionated" (Compared to review's here and on other sites) to say the least, I much prefer the quality of the reviews on this site which have helped me along to many a happy purchase


Little example they tested the SR21 back in January

Battery time back then 183 mins with a weaker GPU, now they complain that with a double up on the GPU power and a battery time now of 191 mins that the notebook is only OK!, seems a bit unfair to me.. or looking back to January they compared it to similar Devices, this time they compare it to extreme devices across the board... in German they call this "Boulivard Presse" Tabloid Reporting ... I hope you can see why

 

Because that's the only model available here in Europe ;-) US/Asia has more specked up versions and all we get is crap. So far, I haven't seen any better models coming (which gives me a big headache, since T6400 doesn't make me too happy); maybe configured to order, but that's not available everywhere and waiting time is simply atrocious.

 

So, I notice that the new NW also has the instant OS like the P does. Do you guys think more sony computers would get this? Also, do you think it is possible to install the Sony instant OS on any sony laptop? I kind of want to have it on my TT.

 

If you live in the US and just have to have the 4650 with 1 gig ded right now then stop by your local conns and pick one up. In Stock @ Conns They Have them in stock, I'm going to pick one up tomorrow - update after that.

 

Nice nice, with J&R and this site having them we can definitely see sony having them in stock by next week or at the very latest the following week. I would buy but 2.10 GHz is a bit weak, i need 2.4 at the very least =/

Also it says:
ATI Mobility Radeon® HD 4650 with Total Available Graphics Memory of 2790MB

lol?