Are there any plans for a high-end 15-inch VAIO?

One thing that's disappointed me about Sony is that their high-end laptops are either 13" (Z) or 16.4" (F) and the Z still beats the F in specs.

Their E-series laptops are little underwhelming for my tastes, with no SSD options, no media buttons, etc. Do you think Sony will ever offer a 15-inch laptop with the specs of the Z?

 

No

10char

 

Sony is all about the small and the large. No in-between. If you want a good 15", try Acer or Apple. (Dell needs to work out their recent reliability issues.)

 

or hp elitebooks or probooks

 

As HAL says, the VAIO lineup is about the extreme (well, it used to be, though it still is to a certain extent today).

The recent E series are more-or-less in line with all the usual 15 inchers in the market, just with a slightly higher price tag.

Though you used to see the likes of the Japanese-built TZ (11' carbon fibre glory with optics drive weighing in at 1.2kg), to the mammoth Chinese-assembled AW (4kg+) which you could CTO with a terabyte of HDDs. But that seems to be changing these days as the market demand is changing too.

And to fully answer the question. No; Sony won't release a high-end 15' incher any time soon. If you still want a VAIO, then I'd suggest you dish up extra for a Z or buy a E series and mod it up.

 

Thanks for the info. It wasn't so much that I was seriously considering a Sony, it's just that I find them so damn attractive. What I'm really looking at is the Dell XPS 15, but I was just worried that I'd get it and then a month later Sony would release a 15-incher on par with it (spec-wise). But that doesn't seem likely based on what you guys are saying. Thanks.

 

Sony doesn't even bother to be competitive so they don't react to gaps in their product lineup nor do they look at Dell's new XPS range and think they have to be competitive in that segment. Rather they are about making a single product that has no competition at all (expense be damned) which makes them magnificent and completely rubbish all at the same time.

They usually go about creating a market leader or first in class like Z or X505 series with strong emphasis on aesthetic and industrial design, lots of custom made parts so that the price is astronomical and then everything else they sell is sort of like a compromise of that singular vision.

So what you have right now is S and Y series which are basically Z series notebooks for people that can't afford a Z series. They are the Boxters to the Z's 911.

F series is a very fat Z series with plastic underpants instead of carbon fiber. And E series is kind of like Sony's hand waving attempt to actually be competitive with other brands in the mainstream market segment but as always with Sony, you pay extra for the association with the Sony brand.

 

The E-Series and F-series are where their profits come from. The Z's r&d takes money, and to fuel that they need to have a mainstream "common parts" notebook, and the E and F series fill those niches quite nicely. (While being slightly overpriced because of the "Vaio" stamp on the lid.)

 

Are Vaio E's and F's really that more expensive than the competition? There aren't many laptops with the option of a full HD screen and mid-level GPU (5560/425) around.

 

When I say overpriced, in this price segment overpriced is $50-100 more. Sometimes less. The 15" market is HUGE, so there's no way possible for Sony to get away charging more than that.

 

Ah OK, I agree. If you take away the full HD screen option, theres nothing separating a VAIO from any other 15" (or 16") on the market, and then they might very well be overpriced.

Your options are much more limited if screen real estate matters to you though.

 

VERY, very true. Screen options are an important factor with some people, and at least with Sony, FHD panels are usually an option.

 

I was looking for a laptop so I studied the market very carefull over the last 6 months and I can tell Sony might be overpricing the Z but in no way the F serie. Any i7 from most of the brands (HP, Toshiba, Dell, Asus, Acer) would be less featured, with more issues and more expensive(at least a couple of hundreds).

 

Best answer is to wait for CES in two months where Sony will unveil a ton of new notebooks including a potential Airbook killer.

Oh, and PSP2... (if not before CES)

 

Thanks for your analysis! It's comprehensive.