New S model with Core i3-330M CPU: Sony Vaio VPC-S11

anyone have links to photos of the new S, besides those awful pics from engadget.

 

On page 3 of this thread there are a few pictures.
And that link was posted, too : http://presscentre.sony.eu/Content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=5461&NewsAreaID=2&ClientID=1

 

If you want real pictures. Pictures from someone who already has an S-serie notebook, then you should go to this link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=450794

 

Interesting, only the black chassis version of the S-Series in the UK comes with lit up keyboard.

 

That's the same that I thought when I saw the pictures of a silver version with back-lit keyboard. I hope Sony has changed her mind, and also put back-lit on the other versions. I prefer silver ! Also I hope that the Silver version will get WIDI, if best buy doesn't has an international exclusive agreement.

 

NewYorker007 at slickdeals posted this weekends best buy ad. It has the dell and sony s laptops.

 

I've just read a topic on this forum, about someone who has purchased a SR for $800+. In the topic they're talking about that the SR is "better" then the S on some points.

Now I'm doubting about what to do. Buy an SR51MF/S or wait for the S serie? I dont' want to spent much money on a notebook. Because the one that I have now has also costs me 1400+euro. Now I'm thinking about 1000/1100 euro max!

 

In which areas a SR could be better than the S apart from maybe price ?
The new S has a lot of things improved, better chassis (IMHO), latest CPU, DDR3, integrated 3G modem, gigabit ethernet.
The only thing not too like is maybe the graphics chip but knowing the targeted audience I don't think it's an issue.

 

Well the S series is better than the SR series with integrated graphics. You have an option to configure wwan and also it comes with a HDMI port. You can also configure a model with a backlit keyboard. The integrated card performs not much worse than the 9300GS card. The processor options are also better.

The S series model with a 310m, i'm yet to see any benchmarks for this card so i won't comment on it. People were drawing conclusions about the 330M before they even saw any benchmarks on it and it performs better than some people were anticipating.

 

This is the topic I'm talking about http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=451026&page=2

About what they said in that topic, I do not fully agree, because in Europe there is an option to buy the S with an Nvidia 310m, which may be better then the 4570HD from the SR?

I'm not sure what to do, because I always have loved the SR-series, and now the S-series came out and they also have great specs which I would like to have, like WIDI, back-lit keyboard, new I5 core, WWAN. But at the moment there isn't an silver version of the S which does has this. So I hope i will make a good choice if I'll skip this range and wait for the second range, where maybe there will be a silver version, which has these options. The problem is that I don't like a black version, because then the only missing spec would be the WIDI.

 

The 310m is expected to perform less, but if the 330m provided a surprise (haven't seen benchmarks yet), then perhaps the 310m will too.

Still, I doubt it will be a noticeable improvement. The 330m has improved core, shader and memory clock speeds compared to the 240m. The 310m only has a rather small improvement in the shader clock speeds compared to the 210m.

 

I'm not expecting the 310M to be better than the 4570 but yes it is helpful to see benchmarks to see where it is exactly.

As for the 330M V 4650 laptop mag tested the F series and Dell Studio with a 4650 and the 330M did a tiny bit better.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/sony-vaio-f-series.aspx
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/dell-studio-17-core-i7.aspx

It would have been better if Sony offered the 330m also no doubt. Hopefully they will offer a better graphics card option in the future.

 

Really, where have you seen this. People expected it to be about the same as a 240m... The only benchmarks I see has it performing nearly identical to the 240M, which is what people expected. Is there some other benchmark I'm not aware of?

3dMark06:
NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M 6524
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 6575

Thats a negligible difference IMO.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/sony-vaio-f-series.aspx?mode=benchmarks

 

It is not important, it was speculation some posts like Sony has put a worse card in the F series than there was before etc etc. Of course there was also those that got it spot on.
Notebookcheck has or at least had the 4650 rated higher than the 330M so some people could have been basing it on that.
Edited to add:
This is what i was referring to such posts like this.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5729294&highlight=4650#post5729294

 

Yes, they still do:

So it probably technically is a bit worse overall... but really they are pretty comperable. People should not sweat the difference between GPU's that are so close. Any differences won't be perceivable.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html

If you check the new 3DMark '06 marks, the 330m actually has a higher score than the 4650 HD.

 

Got in touch with Sony UK re my CTO S-Series.
They told me there is a sales block on anything related to this series and it may still take 3 to 4 weeks before I see the laptop.
Sent them an email to check if the S-Series will end up being released at the same time as the new Z series.

 

Anyone know when this series/model will be released in the US?

I stopped by my local BestBuy today in CA and they had one on display, but are currently sold-out. However, I'd like to get one CTO from the SonyStyle US store if possible with my own preferences. I've been searching around these forums and random Google searches, but nothing's shown up.

Any updates?

 

I think this S Model is a BestBuy Exclusive. You can ONLY find it at Bestbuy.

 

The new S, Y and F series are now up on the Australian sony site. One difference I've found to the UK site is they have added the battery life estimates:


Battery Life*8
Bundled Battery VGP-BPS21A Lithium-ion battery: up to 3 hours of use
Optional Long Battery VGP-BPL21 Lithium-ion battery: up to 4.5 hours of use

Website:
http://www.sony.com.au/product/vpcs117gg


I would be sold on this lappy if they kept the 16:10 screen. I hate small 16:9 screens due to the lack of vertical screen real estate. I'll have to see this one in person before I take the plunge I think...

 

And here's Hong Kong's:-

http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/vaio/index_2_e.jsp

 

I was in touch with Sony UK to chase my order for a CTO S-Series.
They told me the laptop will be first assembled in Japan and then shipped to the UK. I'm a bit surprised about that, I thought they were, for EU market, CTO'd in Netherlands and then shipped over to the UK.

 

From what I can see... it's only out in EU and Asia at the moment. US release is probably exclusive to BestBuy for a few months before it shows up on SonyStyle as CTO.

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