Ladies and gents, i present you the VAIO SZ :)

Does anyone have a solution (replacement) for the SONY power brick that is reliable, smaller, and lighter??

Other than the known negatives of: massive software preload and questionable SONY support, the large powerbrick is a deal-killer for me.

Andrew

 

Thanks SVF that makes a whole lotta sense. My plan is to purchase an sv140 with one dimm of 512, sell it to a customer of mine, and purchase one dimm of 1024. So if I follow you correctly and indeed everything you said turns out to be true I would be upgrading to 256 of total graphics memory, right?

aamsel, I intend to use a kennsington universal power adaptor that's less than one inch thick and about 5 or 6 inches long. It came ready for home, auto, and plane use. That one is currently being used by my current laptop but just two weeks ago I found a universal laptop power adaptor at Circuit City for like $17 and it's only 1 1/2" thick and 6 or 7 inches long.

 

With a username of SonyViaoFan how could he be wrong? Why can't we get a Sony Rep on here to confirm or deny, I would even take the word of the guy who scrapes the gum off the floor over at Sony HQ's. I mean we have five or so Asus reps on NBR, you would think Sont could throw us a bone and give us the gum scraper....he has to know the truth.

 

A replacement isn't going to come along for a while, if ever. I could take a look at it once I buy one. I've got a couple EE's in my business, we could take a look at it, but I doubt it'll be possible to make it much smaller. Thing is, the laptop is so small there is hardly any room to put capacitors and other electric "cleaning" and regulating devices into the laptop, so it had to be pushed out to the power brick.

 

this sucks....stupid sony cant even confirm anything...
whats the FE's video card memory... does anyone have that confirmed yet?

 

The URL from my email confirm for a customized SZ140 is still showing Feb 1st as shipping date.

My concern isn't so much the the video memory, as the case. Will it be carbon-fibre or magnesium?

 

Well SZ140 is standard right? so magnesium...
only the premium editions are carbon-fire

 

SZ140 <= magnesium... sz150 >= Carbon-Fiber (not fibre)

 

Notebooks now showing up at PCconnection.com with no tax (in CA) Free Shipping, and 2-10 day delivery time... although thats estimated. I hope Amazon carries the SZ150 as the only main difference between the preconfigured models is the Memory and Hard Drive & WAN card. I dont need the WAN since my Treo 700w can be used as a high speed EVDO modem. I'm using less than half the 80GB on my current S460, and the memory I want to upgrade on my own to the new 667mhz when available.

SZ170
http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=6355072&SourceID=k15506

SZ160
http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=6355064&SourceID=k15506

SZ150
http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=6355056&SourceID=k15506

 

http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=6355072&SourceID=k15506

Video
Video RAM (installed) 256 MB
Internal Resolution (maximum) 1280 x 800
Display Size 13.3 in.
Display Technology LCD
Video Card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Video Card NVidia GeForce Go 7400
Shared Video RAM (maximum) 224 MB
Display Type Widescreen

So I take it the GeForce 7400 Go on the SZ only has 32MB of dedicated video RAM? Wow, that sucks.

edit: This can't possibly be referring to the GMA 950 right? 224 is a strange number. The only possibility is that 32MB is dedicated and we all know GMA 950 wouldn't have any video RAM on-board since it's integrated.

 

If thats true then FE do too..
Indeed, this sucks then

 

Before jumping to conclusions, I will wait until I see some actual benchmarks from the SZ or FE. Even if it is the case that it only has 32mb physical memory that doesn't mean it's necesarily worse. I am just saying compare a P4 with 3.6GHz to a Pentium M with 2GHz.....

 

You know how fast shared memory is right? Em... not to be rude or anything.

 

I have had just abought enough with my current ati radeon 9000 shared stuff...with 32mb ded memory its pretty pointless if u want to game at all... better off with the hp dv4000...

 

I know how fast shared memory is on current cards....I am not saying it might not suck, but before screaming that this card sucks, I would wait till we get some benchmarks...then we can scream.

I mean you would also think that 3.6 GHz is faster than 2.0 GHz. They are claiming that this is a completely new card built up from zero, so lets give them a chance and if it really shucks, we can still complain later...

 

shared memory sucks .... going to keep on ranting on about that...

 

If you see the technical specification PDF file at sonystyle.com, it says 256mb(7400) and 224mb(integrated vidio card 950).
So, I guess FX7400 has more than 32mb memory.

 

Well, that's what I'd think, too. Sony isn't making it easy, though! The PDF for the SZ140 says the color is Black Carbon.

My email URL still says delivery is Feb 1st, but now I notice the website is "pre-ordering for deliver late February".

I wonder how I can squeeze some extras out of them?

 

I really need this confirmed, other wise its the DV4000 or DV5000 HP for me...is it 256 Ded and only the Intel shared?

 

Part of me says why would they have a dual graphics setup with the "performance" card only having 32mb of dedicated ram. The other part of me doesn't see too many other 13" (or really many 14" either) notebooks out there with anything better than that anyways.

Still 50/50 between just getting the SZ140 or getting something cheap that just meets my needs to bridge the gap till later in the year for Merom.

 

Just one point about the Go 7400 is that it will support Windows Vista when it's released.

That ensures that you will be ahead of the technology curve within at least a year out.

That's one of the main concerns you have when buying any new technology, because it's rapidly evolving and there's always going to be something better in the future.

But for thin and light notebooks on the market, the Go 7400 is the best available today.

Nvidia is way ahead of ATI when it comes to mobile graphics technology.

The Sony SZ Premium is like the Bentley of notebook computers, it really doesn't get any better than this.

I'm sure there will be some Acer or Apple people who dissagree though. lol

 

I would not worry too much about the video memory too much. nVidia's turbo cache is very good. The one that was in the geforce 6200 was very good. This one, i'm sure, is even better. The only people who may care about any of this are people who want to play games on these machines. At 1280x800, I am sure this card and turbo cache can handle almost any game thrown at it.

If all you care about is having Windows Vista run on it when it comes out, you shouldn't worry. Vista will even run on the Intel 950 chip. It runs fine on an X300. Besides, having all the fancy graphics in Vista is just a poor man's way of making your Windows experience feel more like a Mac. If that's what you want, get a Mac.

I put in my order last night. I'm a little leery of being one of the first to get one, but I need one now for my work. Plus, the core duo are just transition chips. The real party is with Merom. I'm sure most manufacturers are going to have totally new industrial design for Merom. If you want a new experience with your new laptop, wait till then. If you need a fast machine now that can run Vista later, these will be awesome. 4lbs!!!

So this is what I did. I bought an SZ140 with 512Mb, 1.83, all the gadgets, and regular CDRW-DVD (hardly ever burn dvd so why buy it?). Once I get it, I will buy some nice 667Mhz DDR2 memory (2Gig) and replace the one in the laptop. 2Gigs of 667Mhz memory from 3rd party is almost the same cost as the 1Gig upgrade from Sony. Plus, sony puts 533Mhz memory in by default. The 667Mhz will let the geforce 7400 run as fast as it can. The 2Gig will allow me to never notice any lag from hd access. Then later in the year, when Merom comes out and Photoshop is native on MacIntel and I can run windows (dual boot, DarWine, or VMware) on MacBook Pro, I will get one of the Merom refresh of Macbook pro and sell the Sony.

Trust me on this, the Windows Vista UI experience is bad -- very bad. After using a Mac, Vista still seems lacking. Those guys still don't get it. I write software and have used Vista. They seem to be going in the opposite direction but with the addition of translucent windows. It's difficult to believe MS has been working on Vista for 4-5 years. The progress seems miniscue.

 

I've heard before that the 950 will run vista, but no one says for sure either way if it'll be aero glass, or basic. Do you know?

 

I also want to add that for most people, buying a Vaio is not something done lightly. Most people buying a Vaio are willing to pay a premium for either lightweight or design. I don't think most people equate Vaio with extreme performance.

This machine has 13.3 inch widescreen, dual core, web cam, finger print reader all in a 4lbs package! That's amazing. On top of that, it has good graphics! How many times have any of you gone out in search of a thin and light notebook and have been turned off by being limited to the inclusion of Intel Extreme Graphics? This machine has everything I can ask for right now. I don't expect a 7800 GTX or X1800XTX in a thin and light machine. I wouldn't even expect a X1600 in a thin and light machine. Too much heat. Wouldn't be a thin and light machine with up to 6 hours battery life.

In the thin and light category, it will always be a compromise. Performance, heat, design, weight. SZ is the best balance I've seen thus far.

 

No, I don't know about Aero on the 950. I have not tried it. I have run it on the ATI X200 integrated graphics and the X300 and they run fine. If you ask me, these GPUs are a waste on Vista. The UI is so terrible! They're cluttering up all the windows with a ton of controls. The file explorer has so many options, it's confusing. Vista's UI is very cluttered. Yes, there is translucent windows, but the clutter really takes away from the benefit of eye candy. Plus, for most everything else, it looks just like Win XP but with the translucent theme.

I personally think it's a train wreck waiting to happen unless they change the user interface design again. Now that Vista requires a gpu upgrade and activation, I don't think they will see a lot of people rushing in to upgrade their OS.

 

So X600 with 128mb ded mem and hypermemory or Go 7400 with 32mb ded memory and turbocache? whats better?

 

I would just add that the UI for Vista hasn't officially been released yet so we won't actually know what it looks like until the final release.

 

Erm yes it has. Aero is the final one, and the version of it in beta 2 is the final UI.

 

The versions floating around right now are labeled beta 2, but they actually aren't (don't know why they bothered changing the label, but whatever). Beta 2 will be out February or March.

 

I ordered 256MB RAM, but only because I already have 2 stick of 1GB DDR2 SODIMM for $180 while sony charges more than $500. I had magnesium, carbon fiber, and aluminum notebooks. Carbon fiber weights less than magnesium if you measure it precisely. Premium looks very nice but not any better than Standard version.

What differences does it make for 0.4lbs more if using magnesium alloy material? Premium has thinner screen panel, but it increase screen crack risk. Yes, carbon fiber is stronger than magnesium, but it is still not scratch resistant. If you take care your notebook careful or careless enough, there'll be no difference if it was magnesium, carbon, or plastic. Carbon fiber material can be looking nicer than magnesium but it only depends on hows the manufacturer produce it. I had W3V which is made with aluminum on cover and carbon fiber on base. Carbon fiber on w3v was filmsy, cracked, and looked very alike to plastic. It was worst than Fujitsu's notebook(magnesium). This is one of reason that I don't see carbon fiber is truely better than magnesium. I thing I like is the palm rest on SZ which made out of aluminum, and luckily it is available on Premium and Standard version.

 

Regarding the build quality of the W3V, I appreciate this is slightly off topic, but this is the first major criticism of the build quality of an asus notebook, was it really that bad? or just compared to the sony? i've seen neither notebook "in the flesh" so i'd appreciate any comparison.

Thanks

 

I'm thinking about buying SZ series and upgrading ram memory.
if I buy 1 gb memory with 667MHz speed ram, is it gonna work on 667MHz speed? I'm concerning, because sonystyle said 1GB PC2-4200 533MHz DDR2.

 

Well the chipset should support it...The only reason it wouldn't work is if Sony deliberatley wrote it into the bios not to supprt it...which wouldn't make much sense.

Can you already buy 667MHz RAM? I wasn't able to locate it at any retailer so far.

 

Ok so before I decide finally what to buy, both the SZ and FE geforce card has 32mb ded and upto 256 shared? Is that 100% correct?

Thanks

 

Friend bought one of the new IMacs, put 2 1gb sticks of 667mhz in it. He got them here

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/5300DDR2S1GB/

 

Hi all. I just ordered my SZ 140.

In talking with the guys at Sony on the phone, they said that the SZ 160 will only be offered in one configuration: 1.83 GHz. The premium 'carbon fiber' case is nice, but I needed a faster processor.

I see that there will be an SZ 180 in the future, but you can't even pre-order it for now.

With only a 0.3 pound difference between the SZ 140 and the SZ 160, and the fact that I really wanted the faster processor, and I need it before March 1, I went with the 140.

Just FYI,

- ncdave

 

Nclave, did you get an estimated delivery date? I ordered the SZ160 on 1/24/06 and I've been checking the order status daily but all I get this "out of stock" for estimated time of delivery. Did sony give you an estimated delivery date? Thanks

 

I have an estimated ship date of 2/8.

 

I ordered mine on 1/29. Got a phone call to confirm my order yesterday. Sony's order status page still say "Order placed". It hasn't been scheduled for production yet. Estimated ship date is 2/7. Somehow, I'm not sure I fully trust this order status. It's not like Dell where the online status info is pretty reliable. I suspect there the ship date will get bumped by a week or two.

 

I ordered a 140 on 1/26 and its status is still "In Process" with estimate ship date of 2/3. Has anyone got his/her system already "In Production"?

 

my order status as of today, which was placed on 1/24, still says:

order status: in process
under item description the status is: currently out of stock

The wait is killing me

 

I had ordered the SZ-140 but realized later it wasn't the carbon fiber, lighter version - no matter how I tricked it out. I decided to cancel that order and get the SZ-160 instead because I do want the lighter, sexier version and realize that the difference between 1.83GHz and 2GHz is probably nada mucho (I was ordering the 2GHz because the top of the line processor was a ridiculous $300 more for 2.16).

I'm bummed that its got the smaller processor and smaller hard drive (I wanted 120gb instead of 100gb) and that I'll have pay too much for ram, but I will be happier with the slicker case. The good news is that in the SZ-160, the 1gb ram is 1 chip so I'm upgrading myself to the full 2gb when it comes (I do alot of music production and need as much ram as possible to run big multi-gig software samples, multi-track recordings, etc.)

Interesting point though - when I spoke to the Sony guy, he said the SZ-160 model is the ONLY carbon-fiber model being offered at this time as they have pulled back on the other models like the SZ-170, 180, etc. He couldn't say why but believes that for the immediate future, this will be the only carbon fiber model available. Weird, and intriguing - makes me wonder if there's some problem here. I'll be the guinea pig I guess. Plus if they release a higher spec'ed or customizable model with the carbon fiber case, I'll just return this one and swap it out for the new one...I've got 30 days from delivery.

One last point - he said ALL SZ models will ship out on 2/12 no matter what the order says because that was a glitch in their system (showing this item in stock when it wasn't). The customized models will be a bit later due to the building process. Again, its just what I heard.

I'll report back with a review when I have it because I'm sure you're all as geeky as me and have scoured the googlized web looking for info on this lil' number and found this forum as the best thread on it going .

Best,
~r

 

rezloh : did you buy it from sony guys directly ?

 

How much video memory does the VGN-SZ140 have? i'm quite confused because in www.sonystyle.com its spec says 128mb (from Geforce go 7400). while in http://www.learningcenter.sony.us/assets/Computers/Notebooks/SZ/SZspec_b.html it says that it has 256mb(from Geforce go 7400). So does it have 128mb or 256mb video ram?

 

The sz series is now available on sonystyle europe, ships mid-march. But they also say the geforce supports 128mb on every model.

 

Still not in SonyStyle Canada...

 

I broke down and called Sonystyle up yesterday about my order for a customized SZ140.

Apparently they won't have them in their warehouse until Feb 17th, and it take 5 more business days to customize, so if they ship it out the 24th I should have it March 1st or so -- an entire month past the ship date online.

I'm ticked off, to say the least.

 

Supports? As in dedicated video mem + Turbocache I assume?

 

NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7400 with TurboCache™ supporting 128 MB (NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology combines the size and bandwidth of video memory and dynamically available system memory for optimal system performance)

 

Oh man, I'm not sure what to do now. After seeing the leaked pricing on the coming core duo laptops from Dell, I'm now considering canceling my order with Sony -- especially since it is likely the custom builds may be delayed till end of Feb. Sony always have proprietary equipment that is impossible to install new OS and drivers on, and Dell has rock solid standard PC hardware. Plus, they also have the option of higher resolution lcds, but they have heavier machines and have been known to use the Intel graphics in their lighter machines. I have a feeling we're paying a massive premium for the first run of core duo laptops.