New 11.6" Vaio with AMD Fusion

Engadget link.



1.6GHZ E-350
4GB DDR3
500GB HDD

 

Nice . Once AMD has made it to a sweet looking design like this, you know they have done something right


This is what I like the best:

 

Looks nearly identical to the 11.6" Y-Series.

They just took the I Intel+ATI bits and replaced them with one AMD bit.

Battery usage (according to Engadget) looks to be on par or worse...

 

Looks Great !

 

Hey it's a shrunken Z-series successor. Yay! Now i don't got buyer's remorse! Haha jk .

I agree it looks nice, but like the article said, a lil low on the battery life dont ya think?

 

So much for the "all-day battery life" AMD was touting in yesterday's press release.

 

indeed at 3 hours it is not that great considering my FW does 1.5 hrs, and yes it does look like a Y series with AMD bits inside that doesn't mean it looks bad.

 

For being a model marketed towards untethered use, yes, anything shorter than 8 hours of normal use or 4 hours of heavy use isn't going to cut it.

 

The battery Sony is using is a 3500mah battery. That is TERRIBLE. There are 3 cell batteries with bigger capacity than that. To reference, an average AAA Battery has 2850mah.

 

Yup, with a 6-cell expect at least 6 hours.

 

3500mAh battery running an Internet Explorer benchmark for 3 to 3.5 hours sounds very impressive to me...

 

Sony's standard 6 cell battery size is 5000 mAh. Scaling up, I get 3.1 * 5 / 3.5 = 4.43 hours (4:26). That's still a fair bit worse than the 13.3" Y despite the smaller screen.

 

You guys shouldn't be paying attention to mah. Watt hours is the important #. Remember volts*amps=watts. Since mfrs vary voltage in batteries across models, there is no way to extract anything meaningful from just a mah #.

 

True, but running a benchmark is not a great metric of average battery life...

 

Very true.

 

They also didn't mention screen brightness which is a gigantic factor in battery life.

 

YB has Fusion, the YA has Intel. Nice.

 

Y Series

Sony says 6 hours here (which is just about the AMD model from what I can tell), which seems plausible. It looks great too, if only it weren't in hot pink. It seems to have some competition from MSI, Lenovo, and HP already lined up, however.

 

I believe the starting prices for these is $550, not bad at all.

 

the amd one? what about the intel model?

 

When you compare it to the $399 starting price of the Lenovo X120e and the $449 DM1z from HP... It's pretty bad.

But for Sony, yeah it's a pretty damn good price.

 

Engadget says the i5 model will cost around $750.

 

YB's score on win7, lol

 

Not that good.

 

Ummmm on my first generation Neo dual-core processor @ 1.6ghz I get a 4.2 for Processor and a 3.4 for graphics.

I think this is still a gigantic improvement because of the graphics performance almost doubling and the more than double battery life. But it's still dissappointing the processor is slightly slower.

 

dual core atom gets 3.3, which was it's intended target.

 

It should be better than that. My AMD L625 rates at 4.0 while the graphics come in at 3.4. Although WIE is about as accurate as a broken clock. CPU benchmarks would be a far better measurement of performance.

Anyone know if the bigger battery would stick out of the chassis? I'm assuming the battery shown in the picture only has a 3 cell(Roughly the same size anyway).

 

So should we expect weak processor performance from the vaio yb with the amd apu? I have no idea how such a apu would perform against a low voltage intel cpu (like the u7300), or one of the new atom dual core cpu's like the n550.

 

The CPU performance falls in between the low end Intel ULVs and the high end Atoms. For example, the old Y with SU7300 achieves a WEI processor score of 4.1, the new Y with i3-330UM gets 4.2, laptops with the old SU9600 get about 4.8, and the new Y with i5-430UM gets 5.1-5.4. The Atom Z550 in the VAIO X only gets 2.9.

The processor score of 3.7 shown for this new Fusion chip falls about halfway between the old single core Athlon Neo MV40 and the old dual core Athlon Neo X2 L335. That's pretty disappointing. The graphics scores improved quite a bit over the L335, but they still fall short of the Y with ATI graphics option and the battery life is worse than the Y with ATI + i5.

Like the last several generations of AMD notebook chips, it looks like the only thing Fusion has going for it is price. Given that Intel didn't really improve the ULV line very much when going from Core 2 to Core i, it's a shame that AMD couldn't capitalize on the opportunity to catch up.

 

YA/YB is pretty

 

it is just me or is the bezel on sony laptops growing exponentially

 

In person, the bezel looks to be the same size as on the 13.3" Y, it just looks proportionally bigger when surrounding an 11.6" screen.

 

laptopmag reported that the yb has a backlit keyboard:

Sony Announces YB Series, AMD Fusion-powered 11.6-inch Notebook

can anyone confirm if this is accurate?

also, does anyone know how the speakers and sound are with the y series? previous models seemed to have the speakers right above the keyboard pointing up. with these, i can't tell where they are.

 

I prefer the 11.1 form factor over the 11.6. It would have been nice if this was 11.1. It would help reduce the weight to under 3lbs but also may be possibly it would have caused some limitations with the hardware.

There is no mention of the backlit kb on the Sony Japan website.
http://translate.googleusercontent....&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhh-OWzJY0QP8De1zf0wsIBp1PKvRw

 

ok thanks for the link rachel. any idea how the sound is? i'm not expecting amazing speakers on this, but are they loud enough to watch a movie without being tinny sounding?

 

I've played with the YA. It does not have a backlit keyboard, but that doesn't mean the YB won't. The speakers on the YA are in the same place as the Y and they sound tinny. Then again, all laptop speakers sound tinny to me.

I can't imagine watching a movie using laptop speakers. If you're at home, plug in some normal computer speakers. Away from home, use headphones.

 

What makes you think it will be over 3lbs though? The current Z is at 3.04lbs, if i remember correctly, and the TT that you own is under 3lbs, no? And both have are older thicker designs.

I am curious, do you consider this new Vaio a TT successor? I always found the TT to be the best looking and best constructed Vaio Sony ever made. I secretly wished that both my Zs had just been scaled up versions of the TT.

 

The TT weighed 1.3kg 2.86lbs with a standard 1.8 HD, optical drive and a built in modem.
http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/vaio/vgn_tt36gd_w_e.jsp

With a uSata SSD that i'm using it might get down to as low as 1.25kg 2.75lbs. I don't really consider this a true TT successor. The market has changed and well the YA is more of a budget line.

The weight of the YA/YB series is listed on the Sony website as 1.46kg 3.2lbs with the battery.

 

I doubt there will be a TT successor or even a X series successor, but who knows, maybe 1-2 years down the line Sony will come out with something to compete against the Air and new thing samsung notebook

 

There is a market for thin and light. It'd be a real waste of Sony engineering to not make a TT successor in something like the body of an X... but without that silly anemic trackpad that the X has. The only thin and light that I wouldn't mind seeing go is the P series. I think its pointless, and I hate the fact that it calls my name every now and then to buy as a frivolous toy... especially because it is so god-damned pointless.

 

The TT, the Lenovo U100 and the likes are a dying breed. No one, apart from the few, and the executives, are willing to pay $1800 buck for device with an ULV cpu, a high quality 11.1in(or 11.6in) screen, with an optical drive(or in the case of the U100 included extern OD), when you can get similar spec'ed device for half the cost and they can just get an external optical drive if they need it. It kind of a shame though because I want to upgrade from my TT to something with possible SB, and there is nothing in the 11-11.6in category that comes with a built in optical drive(yes I still use one), and a decent screen.

 

I think the breed was never really alive. Sony has been trying to make something out of the 11.1" form factor for a decade and the X505, TX, TT, and X have all been slow sellers. 12.1" was a sweet spot in the market before displays went widescreen, now it's 13.3". If Sony is going to keep trying in the 11" range, I suppose it makes sense to offer something different.

 

I hate 13.3" machines as travel machines. The lack of 12.1" machines is why I ended up with the 13.1" Z... as it has the same depth of a 12.1, its basically a widescreen 12.1. I would have ended up with the TT, but the salesman kept pushing the Z and gave me a really good deal to go with it.

 

Well Lenovo is starting to move to a newer 12.5in form factor with the U260, E220, and the update to the 12.1in X series with the X220(again 12.5in). I am told that it is a bit larger than the Z size wise.

 

thanks. aren't the speakers on the previous Y model below the display panel above the keyboard (as seen below)? i don't see the speaker grills there on the YB. is it fairly loud at least? i could get by with tinny as long as it has a good volume

 

Is that the 13.3in Y or 11.6in Y that became the YA? BTW how is the screen quality on the 11.6in and 13.3in Y line? Also, why was the 13in Y discontinued(at least I am told it is in the states)?

 

YA Review with Arrandale i3-380UM.

 

Oh no we do need the high-fashion ultra-lightweight Vaio P to be around Ok it's probably not for you and I but the Forever 21 crowd will like it. The Sonystyle website even says the keyboard is "even good for those with long fingernails" ha ha. bye.

 

Hey I just bought a P. LOL I like using it as an ultra lightweight note taking comp. Then I use the Z back at home or if I need Photoshop or other programs in class, then I will bring that. It did not make sense for me, personally, to buy a netbook that weighs more than my Z to take notes in class! It almost, but unfortunately, not quite fits in my pocket.

 

On Amazon for pre-order.

2GB RAM/ 320GB HDD/ Silver
Amazon.com: Sony VAIO VPCYB13KX/S -AMD Dual-Core processor 11.6-Inch LED 2 GB of RAM and 320 GB Serial ATA HDD Notebook - Silver: Computer & Accessories

4GB RAM/ 500GB HDD/ Silver
Amazon.com: Sony VAIO VPCYB15KX/S -AMD Dual-Core processor 11.6-Inch LED 4 GB of RAM and 500 GB Serial ATA HDD Notebook - Silver: Computer & Accessories

Another store called Colamco has them in stock according to the rep Sony VAIO YB Series VPC-YB15KX/S - Fusion E-350 / (VPCYB15KX/S) - AMD Athlon II at Colamco. They have awful reseller ratings though, so I don't recommend ordering with them. Only reason I was speaking with them was to see if the laptops would be hitting more stores soon.

Now I just need to figure out if this is worth the premium over the other E-350 laptops.