Just bought the Sony VAIO TZ90!!

In my case, their response times were fairly snappy, considering probably having many customers.

However, the responses I got were always very short and simple (sometimes to simple to my liking) and without any greetings or regards. But I assume it is due to their mediocre English skills.

 

Performance is excellent as long as you are running on 1 screen. If you connect the tz to an external monitor and output to the internal lcd as well, there is a noticeable performance penalty when running video on the 2nd screen.

But as I said, 1 screen and the speed is great.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. Your answers alleviates many of the fears that I had.

I was initially going to go for the sz93, but after much thought and debate, I opted for the Tz90, with my main concern being the performance.

I also ordered the external DVD writer, as I thought it would be more useful to have 160gb of extra space. I wonder if this makes it heavier that 2.25lbs with the light battery.

The wait is killing me!!!!!! I keep checking everyday if there are any new reviews of the laptop!!! Just to try and pass the time until I get (hopefully) both the tz90 and the Canon HV20 (both from pricejapan)

I will install Windows Vista Ultimate as I have a 32bit OEM version here. I hope this wont be slower than the premium edition

 

I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps Outrigger can answer this??? I'm especially concerned with the hinges since my fujitsu's hinge broke completely off.

 

Hey guys and gals,

I have been reading and watching this forum for a few weeks while waiting for my new TZ90 which I just got today!!!

I did a clean install with Vista Business and then updated all drivers using Outriggers guide (thanks).

All seems to be good except that my FN button on my keyboard is not working at all. All other keys work but not the FN (I can't do any hot keys).

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

I ordered the TZ90 from Dynamism today. The computer has 32GB SSD and the 160GB HDD, 2GB Ram, Standard battery, Fingerprint Reader,Premium Carbon Casing, English English Premium Vista Home edition.

The cost including shipping (no shipping charges) was $2,977.00 and I should receive the computer tomorrow.

The same machine configured on Conics.net was 2,672.00. However Conics would add shipping charges and since I used my American Express Card an additonal 3 1/2 % of the purchases price. The actual difference is less than $150.00 . Based on the fact that Dynamism is located in the United States and that you can actually talk to a person I feel the difference is well worth it.

Am I missing anything in my analysis?

Eddie G.

 

Nope. Worth the $150.

Let us know what you think of it once you get it...

 

I've e-mailed Dynamism a few days ago and I pointed out that the configuration that I want from them is $750 more than the price of Conics.net, asking them for a better deal. Hopefully they're just finding out about pricing for me and not ignoring me...

 

Eddie G.

Your config on their site comes out to $3198. How did you negotiate it lower?

 

I just called them and gave them the price from Conics. They wouldn't match it but they did come down in price.


Eddie G.

 

congrats on another successful TZ owner.
to datdude: not sure why your FN isn't working, no one seems to be having that issue. Have you installed ALL the drivers?

 

Would you reccommend calling Dynamism or emailing them for price matching (a better price, not matching)? Also, I noticed that they have a link on their website about Academic Discounts, does anyone have any information regarding that specific program? I'm sure it is for bulk orders, but I am a college student, and any extra cash saved would be great for me.

 

Hi there im getting it to, as Im reading this Im starting to feel luky allready, u see i live in japan, hehe. so ill get the base line product plus core2 duo 1.6, and itll be like 164000 yen meaning bout 1600us hehe.
got some Qs. what would you say is a must to add? 32ssd or battery?
and also I guess ill be getting jap Vista but im no expert so i need to know if i can change it to english without reinstalling since instaling drivers and handling pc problems for me would be like asking a dog to learn greek, I though i read some one said they just changed the language in the vista program by installing some thing (yes im lost)
thaks for your helo guys

 

I have no experience with the R6, so I can't comment on that aspect.
however, I can comment on the hinges on the TZ.

since the lid is so ridiculously thin and light, there's no room for a latch. but, the hinges on the the TZ is one of the strongest I have ever come across for a latchless system. if I were to lift open the lid with just one hand, the entire laptop goes with it. I would need to hold the laptop down, and use the other hand to open the lid.

That was one of my concern as well if the hinges would be weak and the lid wobbly as the only other hatchless laptop I have had was the asus w2, but that was a 17in monster compared to this.

you're safe in the hinge department.

 

SSD or battery really is a personal preference and it comes down to whats more important to you, speed or battery life, so only you can decide.

I'm not sure about changing from japanese to english. Someone mentioned that only vista ultimate has this capability, if thats the case, it means you would have to have them install vista ultimate japanese and you can then change to english down the road if you choose. someone confirm or correct me on this please.

 

rjhellma,

I would recommend calling Dynamism. They told me that they had an educational discount of 2% but after they quoted me their "lowest" price I asked for the educational discount and they said no.

Eddie G.

 

Eddie,

My order form Conics was the same config but with ssd/dvd and it only cost me $2712 delivered (paid by credit card via paypal) so the difference is more like $265. I had done the same thing with Dynamism and they just wouldn't go low enough for me to buy it.

 

I am thinking about ordering from conics is the next few days. A couple questions first.

1) Is it worth the ~$50 to change to the English keyboard from the international one?

2) Does anyone have any real life battery life times for the 3 different batteries. I want to get about 8 hours of battery life. Is the standard one large enough to run this long?

3) Is the memory module on the laptop easily accessible? I can buy a 2 gb stick for cheaper then the $160 dollar upgrade. Has anyone else upgraded the memory in there model?

4) If I get the 160gb hard drive model is it possible for me to add a SSD later on? ie, once prices fall will there be space/a port for me to install one?

5) What cases have people purchased for the laptop? I would like to get a sleeve to keep it in while its in my messenger bag. Any recommendations?

Thanks for your help. Right now i'm really just trying to decide if i should go with the TZ or the new hp 2510p. The hp is a little larger, but it has the newer G965 chipset with better graphics. I am very much on the fence and this information will be very helpful in deciding.

Cheers!

 

Thanks Outrigger but the image below is what I'm concerned about. It's from the latest Sony TX review and is similar to what happened in the beggining with my Fujitsu before it totally disintegrated.

I went to the Sony store here in NYC and checked out their hinged laptops and found them all simliarly weak. I was hoping this wouldn't be the case with the TZ, which of course they did not have for me to check out...

 

Graham - some answers for your questions:
1. That depends on how comfortable you are typing on a differnt keyboard, there are a few extra keys on the japanese keyboard and I believe the lettering has both japanese and english letters.

2. Havn't really tested it but for 8 hours you probably want the large battery

3. Easily upgradeable, just unscrew one scre on the back, slide it out and put the new chip in.

4. The 160 gb HD goes in the bay for the DVD, not the SSD.

5. I am using the sleeve I used with my TR from SF bags, it fits well and has served me well for many years.

 

Avalpert,

Can you tell me what exactly had the box of the TZ from conics? The instruction book and warranty are in english or japanese?

 

Mine came in Japanese.

 

The documentation was all in Japanese - but the important things, like how to switch out ram, had pictures.

 

I just started playing with the TZ90. Can anyone tell me how I can expand the screen? Right now the the display only fills up about 3/4 of the screen?

Thanks.

 

I figured it out.

 

Hands-on with Sony's VAIO TZ superultraportable notebook They say it has Santa Rosa.

 

Engadget had an report today on the Sony unveiling of the U.S. model of the TZ90, and said it was Santa Rosa. Is it possible that the U.S. model would use a different chipset, or did Engadget get it wrong? What gives?

 

If you have Vista Ultimate you can add an English MUI on top of the original language, and the menus will display in English. I have Chinese language version of Vista Ultimate, but with the English language MUI (can use the Vista update function and add the MUI languages you want) all of the menus are displayed in English, although some TZ-specific functions which are based on TZ drivers, retain the Chinese.

 

Obviously we know that its not santa rosa..

 

This topic has been covered before, so before you go off and say something wrong, look it up in one of the TZ threads. The Core 2 Duo chip used in the TZ is part of the Santa Rosa platform. It's up to the manufacturers to decide how much they want to implement of the platform (like the "n" Wi-Fi chip in Japan).

So, in essence, Engadget is right.

 

Besides the c2d chip, the only other santa rosa spec that the tz has is the 802.11n chip. It doesn't have anything else.

Most people who think of santa rosa think of the faster FSB, the 965 "santa rosa" chipset and the x3100 integrated graphics. So its more napa than santa rosa.

 

It has indeed been discussed before, and as far as I know, only one person had believed it was a SR notebook, while everyone else disagreed. Read this for reference.

 

Vaio TZ finally arrived at US Sony website.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=8198552921644507782&parentCategoryId=16154

 

Woot, and Australia as well!

 

Graham - quick note on battery life. Though completely unscientific, I have been using the standard battery today for four hours and sthill have about 15% left (49 min according to the montior) and this is without using any battery friendly settings, pretty standard internet surfing on multiple browsers, word processing and a little multimedia use.

 

And I just have to ask again - how can they charge $600 more than what I get it shipped from Japan, 25% increase for a local warranty?

 

Interesting article in PC World today comparing SSD and traditional hard drives, for those deciding whether or not to fork over the extra money for an SSD. In a nutshell, it found the SSD was faster in some, but not all computing tasks, and that battery savings were minimal. http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,134185/printable.html#

 

What are everyone's thoughts on importing vs. getting it in the U.S.??? How much would I save, is the TZ90 better than the upcoming TZ100 series in the U.S.??? Any thougts would be appreciated, as I am looking to get one soon, either importing within a week or so, or buying it in the U.S. as soon as it becomes available.

 

Hmm.. are there any stores in North America that sells lightweight batteries (not standard) for the TZ?

 

I would agree that the effect on battery life is negligible. One thing not mentioned is you don't have to defragment the SSD drive. I do notice the speed increase overall, but it's not night and day from a 7200rpm drive. If you're used to a 4200rpm drive, it will be like night and day.

One can only hope that the new 64GB ones will come down in price sooner rather than later.

 

Windows XP on TZ - just bought the TZ (actually Celeron version -PCG4L3N). No function keys or fingerprint work. Does anybody know which drivers I can use to get this puppy purring?

 

Unfortunately I cannot help you, but it is not "cool" to post the same message/question in 3 different threads.

 

I would still import it from japan even through it is coming out in the states shortly. What sold me on this laptop was the fact that you can do two drives, one ssd for booting and some apps and one 160 gig (I upgraded to a 7200rpm) for data storage. You can't get that with the US version.

There were talks before about this model being on the sony warranty uppgrade to world service list. If that is in fact true and when it comes out in NA I will probably get that warranty.

 

I have a friend who works as manager in the technical department of Microsoft, and he advised me against trying run Vista on a 4200rpm drive, which is the reason I have got the 160 GB HDD option without the DVD, as it is 5400rpm. I just got a 8 GB SDHC card, so when I want to watch a video I rip it from my desktop computer to the card and play it off that. Also less drain on the battery than using a DVD drive.

 

You don't need a Microsoft friend to understand that a 4200rpm and Vista is catastrophic combination. We read here the problems of the users of the previous models TXN.
About the choice taking the 160 gb without DVD is a question of preference. Me i go with SSD and DVD cause i really use a lot the optical drive and i didn't wanted to use an external one.

 

Just for future potential importers of the TZ, Dynamism gave me a deal for the TZ90.

32GB ssd, DVD, Bordeaux, standard battery, 802.11n, 2gb ram, CKTZ2/B carrying case.

all for $3152 including insured delivery to canada. i'm quite happy with the price, as it's lower than the newly announced TZ price from sonystyle USA, AND it's configured exactly the way i want. I basically got the topend US model TZ190 in the Bordeaux colour (i like this colour very much), along with the leather carrying case made for the TZ for even cheaper. Plus, I've got 3 year dynamism warranty instead of the crapass sonystyle 1 year US warranty.

Very excited Too bad i'll have to wait 2 weeks since it's a special order.

There were actually some delays (since i was so excited) over e-mail. In the end I just called them up and got it taken care of right away. I'd recommend ordering over the phone. Very nice people, by the way I spoke to Jeff.

Oh, in case anyone is interested, it comes with Vista Home Premium. I had originally opted for Vista Business and then decided there were features in Home Premium that aren't available in Business that I would rather have and paying more for Business doesn't justify only using remote desktop. Anyway, they were offering the upgrade to Vista Business for an additional $140.

 

I recently received my TZ90 from Conics, and love it. After fiddling around with it and cleaning it up a bit, I am now having problems with the Infineon Security Platform Solution. It is showing error message that it cannot communicate with the TPM. I did install Kaspersky Internet Security...
I am thinking of uninstalling the Infineon TPM Professional Package 3.0 software and reinstalling it. I don't have a physical copy of the software, however. Does anyone know where I can download this software (I have paid for it)?.
I didn't purchase the recovery disc image dvd from conics, but am now considering it. Any comments about that?

 

When did you ordered it? I'm still waiting mine, i ordered it at 7/4. Read this for your issue:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=130621&page=20
What combi did you choose?

 

I ordered July 1, and received it the 17th.
Thanks for the info, but I have already enabled and initialized TPM, and it seemed to be working before. It is now telling me that it cannot communicate with TPM when I try to access through Infineon Security Platform software. I did "repair" the infineon software in add/remove programs, and I believe that is what prompted the total loss of communication now between TPM and Infineon software.

I want to do fresh install! Anyone have experience with the conics recovery image disc and True image software?

Is it a bad idea for me to just delete the infineon software and driver, and turn TPM off?

 

I had a quick question for all you folks who have experience buying the VGN TZ90 either from conics.net, pricejapan.com or dynamism.com..

If I opt for a 32 GB SSD drive and a 2.5" 5400 rpm 160 gb drive as my configuration. Does this mean that both the drives come affixed in the computer OR one drive would com un-affixed from the computer?

Any thoughts would be appreciated...