New Sony SZ4XX Release

Sony just start releasing new SZ4XX series laptop with Vista installed and more vdo memory. I recently bought SZ360 and was wondering any major different in performance wise between the 2 laptop. Anyone know any review on the new SZ4XX??? Thks in advance.

 

http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/subcategory/notebooks/sz-series Here is all the info I could find on them

 

Wow this is huge. I was about to buy a SZ360 in a few days. Now I am definetely going to wait for the SZ450. I thought the new one would just have vista but you get alot more:
160gb hard drive
Almost 3 times as much video memory
DVD drive that is twice as fast
There may also be some other improvements that we do not know about. I cant wait to get one of the SZ450's. I just hope when they come out in the begining of Feb you can get them dicounted. I would say that the new model is worth $200 more than SZ360. You dont have to waste your time upgrading.

 

HERE'S a .pdf spec sheet for SZ 450.
I would love to see UMTS/HSDPA integrated modem instead of just plain EDGE.

There aren't many signifact changes, except for more dedicated memory. But how much more, that is the question...

 

oo .. likewise i'm going to wait out .. anyone kno the release date? maybe they've fixed the grounding issue that causes static around the palm rests?

 

The Sz450 does not have the built in wan/edge. Hopefully we will see the new ones the first week of February. They should be released when vista is released on Jan 31st. The question is how long will it take for retailers to get them and for them to start discounting them like they are now. I saw JR sold the SZ360 at full price for a while before they lowered the price. Hopefully they also fixed the ssue with the scratches at the back.

 

The SZ430 has EDGE and so does the SZ470 and SZ491. Besides the upgrade to Vista and video memory, not much else has changed. Still crappy old EDGE instead of HSDPA and I'm guessing Vista is the 32-bit edition. Not the 64-bit edition that takes advantage of the EM64T technology in the Core 2 Duo version of Intel's Core processor line that debuted in the SZ3XX laptops. You'd be buying something that you couldn't use to its full potential.

 

Here's a complete list of Sony SZ 4xx and 3xx line of products. You can compare the spec of any model from this link
http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/subcategory/notebooks/sz-series


And here's a list of differences between the SZ 381P/X and SZ 491N/X. The two are the highest model for SZ 3xx and SZ 4xx respectively.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
.............................. SZ 381 P/X .... SZ491N/X
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video memory size
(Nvidia 7400).................128 MB...........335 MB
(Intel 950).....................128 MB..........224 MB

HD capacity...................160 GB...........200 GB
HD speed.......................5400 RPM.......4200 RPM

DVD-RAM Read...................2x...............5x
CD-RW Write.....................10x..............16x
DVD+R DL Write.................2.4x..............4x
DVD+R Write......................4x................8x
DVD+RW Write...................2.4x..............8x
DVD-R Write......................4x................8x
DVD-RW Write...................4x.................6x

OS.............................. XP Pro........ Vista Business


SZ 4xx HD speed is slower, but the HD capacity is bigger.

The biggest difference is the DVD recording speed.

Looking at this, I may stick my order with SZ 381 P/X. I don't like being forced to use Vista. I bet my application will run slower under Vista due to its demanding system requirement. Not to mention potential compatibility problem. Moreover, they don't upgrade CPU speed at all. Both of them still use Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz, instead of 2.33 GHz or faster.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Wow, sounds really sweet, though I'm surprised they stuck with a 4200 rpm drive.

 

I may be wrong but if you are running Vista on the SZ3 series, wouldn't the video memory size shows the same thing as the spec listed for the SZ4 series? So in that sense, there is no video memory increase in the newer SZ4 series...

 

This is parhaps the latest SZ series as Santa rosa platform will be releasing by April 2007 which would make a huge different performance.

 

You have to choose speed or capacity, you cannot have both, sorry. This is not Sony's fault. I think a 200Gig drive is only available at 4200rpm.

 

jaysn, they are out already but so far it's for business end site not regular consumer end side on Sony site. Here is the link if u want to check it out. http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/subca...yProducts=true&looseFlag=true&navigation=back
Remember this is for business end so far have to buy online only. So far I didn't c it out on regular retail or Sony store yet. Good luck and enjoy the new laptop when u get.

 

Wow definitely not worth waiting for...I just got a SZ330P/B and apart from Vista, I don't see ANY difference with the SZ430P except I paid < $1800 for my new SZ330P/B!

 

I'm running Vista on a European SZ3HP and the total video memory is reported as 335MB.

 

Yes I know that, however I think just about every SZ owner crave performance and would have a smaller hard drive for faster speed.

 

I think the increased video memory is hardly gonna do much for performance. 256mb would be nice. Then they should've put a faster nvidia card in there.

 

The SZ450 has a 5400rpm hard drive. It seems to be the best value for money. I dont understand why anyone would want the slow edge wireless built in. Surely you are better off buying a seperate card that would get you much faster speed. I connect with tmobile using my edge phone for free.

 

Errrr

Why Sony release new model so quickly.

Didn't the SZ3xx release in Sept and there is a new one already... Errrr

 

Since I just bought a sz360, I have to agree with Ch28kid.

 

They have to come out with a new model when vista comes out. no one is going to bu a computer without unless it is at a closeout price.

 

Why are people surprised? Sony released the SZ90/SZ1xx early this year, and the next gen less than 6 months after that, and the 3rd iteration less than 6 months again. So the SZ4xxx should be any different?

 

My guess is that the physical graphics hardware is identical to the existing SZ. Vista always reports more video memory than actually present. Install Vista and see.

 

I assume you're talking about the fine print that is pointed to in footer number 15 of the specification sheet for the new SZ4 that says that it is based on the:

"new" Windows Vista classification of graphics memory, witch is the Dedicated Video Memory, System Video Memory and Shared System Memory.

Can you tell that the spec sheet was written by non-native English speakers? They used the wrong which. LOL. I don't think a wicked witch is actually powering the video cards in Sony's laptops although some believe that Microsoft, the maker of Windows Vista, is a very wicked company.

Do you know what the formula is exactly on how they calculate this? Obviously, the same 128MB of dedicated video memory plus the 2GB of system memory does not equal 335MB when using the GeForce Go 7400 card.

As a side note, I am running Windows Vista Business 64-bit edition on my SZ370P/C and I went into the System Information program. Under Resources -> Display, it says that my SZ370P/C only has 64MB of video memory. Shouldn't it say 128MB? Or maybe, as you suggested, it should say 335MB given the "new" formula under Vista. LOL! I think the formula is a joke made up by the marketing guys to pump up the specs and sell crap.

Speaking of companies doing stuff to sell crap, I'm sorry to the CEO of Seagate for getting brow beaten by the media for saying something so honest (his quote was something to the effect of his company making products to sell crap and download porn which is totally the truth!).

 

Ch28Kid & ronaldheld, both of u r right, Sony release the SZ4XX series very quick becoz they need to catch up with Vista. I knew that they going to release something for Vista but didn't except it to be this soon. I got the hint that they r coming out this Dec becoz Sony is release a new product line the "G" series in Japan this month, the last that I checked. But I had no choice at that time as I need a new laptop as I sold my old Dell to someone else already. So far the major different is the vdo memory and Vista. I tried installing Vista myself on it and so far a lot of things doesn't work right as the new driver isn't out yet. I tried to register online with Sony for the free upgrade to Vista but encountered more problem with registration process and Sony tech support will have to get back to me on that later. I'll tell people to wait for a few month b4 getting the new SZ4XX becoz right now there r no review and test on it yet and Vista that I experience still crashed a lot. Better wait for all the drivers and more support on it b4 getting it.

 

trunksy, I think u might be right about those when reported on Vista. I think it have something to do with sharing memory and driver. I'm waiting for the right driver for Vista b4 I do any more test as I encountered so much crashes with Vista.

 

I don't think that SZ series ever had 128MB dedicated memory. That was 32 MB dedicated + 96 MB shared.



First 3 lines of SZ (SZ1xx, SZ2xx, SZ3xx) had 32 MB dedicated memory, correct ?

I really want to know does SZ4xx come with more dedicated memory or the same amount as previous SZ releases ?

 

That's just plain old magic, Nothing new there. If you query DirectX for the amount of video memory on XP as well, it'll give you some very strange numbers. That's just how it works. The only difference might be that Vista uses DirectX everywhere, so that odd number is propagated out to a lot of places where you wouldn't see it in XP.

But under the hood, they've always operated with some pretty strange values for graphics memory.

 

I hate to tell you folks, but for the money Sony wants, you'll get a far better deal buying the upcoming Asus V2 lappy, plus it comes with a real HSDPA modem, faster memory, more pixels, 14.4″ WXGA+ (1440 x 900 ), and a media bay battery.

http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=5218

 

If you want a laptop that weighs over 5 pounds with probably much worse battery life.

 

Like I told the Asus guys too, whatever floats your boat.

 

I still think if they gonna make it vista ready, they should up the vid card to something faster than the 7400 and have 256mb. Forget about adding in more video ram than that.

 

well

doesn't look that huge of a improvement.

more video ram, thats kinda useless unless you ar playing a lot of gmes.

they should of change 7400 to 7700. that would be crazy..

ch28kid

 

I would not mind a 7700, but under speed mode, would I even get 2 hours of battery life?

 

I believe it's not wise to put 7700 in such a small case like SZ. Laptop weight would be considerably higher (due to heavier heatsink and probably bigger battery) and it would dangerously go close to 14.1" area (2.3-2.5 kg).

I mean, I would like such small laptop with beast inside but that's not possible ATM.

 

Nah, the weight isnt that bad. If you really wanted something small, get the 11in sony. I say put in the 7700. If I got around 1:30min of battery but a speed increase of about 40% I would be happy. If I need it to last longer, thats what stam mode is for.

 

Heh, I've got the original SZ160 and I *still* don't see anything worth upgrading for here!

 

Hopefully this will mean more price drops for the older SZ models (which works out for my benefit). But the electric shock thing still kinda making me rethink about getting a SZ (maybe the SZ4XX fixed it).

 

As someone already mentioned, you should read the fine print on the SONY's brochure regarding the way they now classify the "graphics memory system".

SONY's SZ series have always come with 128MB of dedicated video memory, and the rest being allocated by NVIDIA's TurboCache system and depends on the amount of system memory you have installed. If I remember correctly, it goes something like this:

System Memory Installed | Video Memory visable to the OS (dedicated + TurboCache)
<= 512MB | 128MB
> 512MB | 256MB
And this is under Windows 2000/XP, obviously they changed things a bit under Vista.

Same theory applies for the Intel GMA950 graphics subsystem.

SONY didn't upgrade or change anything with the new SZ-4xx series, they merely reworded the sales brochure and have Vista pre-installed, and apparently that is enough to warrant the creation of an entire new "4xx" series.

F.Y.I., I own a Dell XPS M1210 and have been running Vista (RC2) for the past 3 months, and this is what Vista reports (click on it to get a full sized image):



In my case, it comes with 64MB of Dedicated Video Memory + 271MB of Shared System Memory, thus giving you a grand total of 335MB of Total Avaliable Graphics Memory. Note that I have 2GB of Dual Channel DDR2-667 memory installed.

In the case of the ASUS W7J and the SONY SZ, it will comprise of: 128MB Dedicated + 207MB Shared = 335MB Total.


As for the people saying "you would want at least 256MB of dedicated/real video memory to run Vista with Aero and all the trimmings". Let me blow that myth right off. It runs with no problems, and very smoothly on my XPS M1210 for the past 3 months now, games included, and I "only" have 64MB of dedicated video memory (you could take a look at my thread about running Vista RC2 here). In fact, with each new release of NVIDIA Vista drivers (you can grab them from say, LaptopVideo2Go site), things are being more stable with subtle performance increases.


As for putting in a mid-range graphics chip, say, the GeForce Go 7700 into a 13.3" or smaller chassis, there's a good reason why they couldn't/don't, it's because the small chassis wouldn't be able to handle the thermal dissapation needs, along with the fact that it guzzles up around 20W of power and requires its own active cooling (the Go 7400 and lower only draws upto 10W with passive cooling). Pair a 20W GPU, with a 35W TDP rated Merom, say 10W for the motherboard and memory, and you effectively have a 65W lightbulb.

One could argue that they can "detune" the GPU by undervolting it to run slower but cooler (like what Apple did with the 1st Gen MBP X1600 and Toshiba did with their 6200TE and 6600TE variants), however, there comes a point when it just doesn't make financial sense (as the performance increase wouldn't justify the added cost of paying extra for the GPU). Also, undervolting something that was designed for a higher heat dissipation is still less efficient and will still run hotter than something that was designed to run cooler to begin with.

Lets take the Go 7700 as an example, in stock form it has 12 pixel pipes, runs 450MHz with a 5.4Bp(Billion pixels)/sec fillrate at around 20W. Lets say we manage to downclock it to 200MHz with 2.4Bp/sec at 12-13W (or, close to the thermal envelope of the Go 7400), that isn't that much of an improvement over a Go 7400 with 4 pixel pipes at 450MHz with 1.8Bp/sec at 10W. In fact, overclocking the Go 7400 in this case would be a more worthwhile endevour.

 

For Asus, we are sure that it comes with 128MB dedicated memory because that is written in specs sheet.

But, can you show me where it says that Sony SZ comes also with 128MB dedicated memory ?

I asked this question couple of times but no one knows for sure...

 

There are no less than 3 reviews of the SONY SZ series on this site.

- SZ-1xx Series (SZ-110/B):
" NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 with 128MB Dedicated Memory"

- SZ-2xx Series (SZ-280P/C), (SZ-2VP):
" or the dedicated nVidia GeForce 7400 with 128mb dedicated memory"

Those people have obviously found 128MB of dedicated memory with their respective SZs that they owned, used, tested and written a review for.

I also remember looking at older SZ-1xx and SZ-2xx specification sheet that they used to specifically state and list the amount of dedicated and shared memory used (when I was browsing around for my next possible notebook purchase). However, SONY seemed to have ditched those (even in the fine print) in favour of just listing out the amount of dedicated memory, which is 128MB for the Go 7400 portion in their latest 3xx and 4xx series catalogues.

 

Angrymob, look HERE. It's on german but you'll figure it out. Those are the specs of SZ3XWP (SZ360 in NA). Check the amount of dedicated memory with 7400.


BTW, specs for european versions of SZ4xx are out (courtesy of Notebook Forum Austria):



Courtesy of Notebook Forum Austria

Although it's on german I'm sure you all understand the specs.
I believe it will be available in about 3 weeks...

What do you guys think ? Is it worth to wait ?
I know that I like higher DVD speeds but that's about all that is new on this machine.

 

Matta:
According to the link to the German version you listed:

"NVidia GeForce Go 7400 32MB max.128MB shared memory"

So, wow, IF SONY really did only outfit 32MB of dedicated memory on their 3xx series, it would be cruel and unusual for them to do so. I mean, if they fitted 128MB dedicated memory on the 1xx and 2xx series before, and seeing there are virtually no changes to the internals or chassis design, then there is no good reason why they would/should do that. They'd just be shooting their own feet for doing so!

Then again, SONY has been on-a-roll as of late with shooting themselves and doing rather well at that.... (rootkit, exploding battery cells, PS3 to name a few...)


Honestly, I hope/think that's a typo. I am sure there are SZ-3xx series owners out there that could confirm with us exactly how much dedicated memory there are.

 

(First post here!) I just ordered the VGN-SZ450N/C and am having second thoughts. I didn't receive it yet but I might refuse the shipment when FedEx tries to deliver. I'm usually a Dell guy and like my laptops nice and clean. Sounds like the Sony's are pretty junked up. Plus I didn't even realize that I might not be able to put XP Pro on the system. And it turns out that there is NO Novell client for Vista yet and my work requires it. I'm hosed! I wanted to have images of XP and Vista for the laptop. All of the drivers are for Vista only. Maybe I should have purchased a Dell Latitude D620 or even the smaller but slower D420. Did I just make a $2400 dollar mistake?

 

I just unboxed up my SZ450. The Nvidia card has 64MB dedicated and 271MB shared. I suspect the dedicated memory has been the same for all SZ models and Vista allows/shows a little more shared memory. That's it. THIS IS NOT A DEDICATED 128MB CARD in spite of the NVidia/Sony marketing sleight of hand.

That said, Vista runs perfectly. I'll let you guys know about WoW later.

 

Guys-
I'm refusing the Sony SZ delivery and just ordered a Dell Latitude D620. There were a few reasons behind my decision but the biggest one was the junked-up software load and no XP Pro drivers. I got a Core 2 Duo 2.33 with 100 GB 7200 RPM HD, 2 GIGS of RAM, 256 dedicated video, XP Pro and Vista full CD, wireless, bluetooth, etc...for around $2300. Also, I already have three Dell port replicators all over the place and my business partner uses them, too. Not to say the Sony doesn't look amazing. I just feel better with more control over the system software, hidden partitions, etc....
Jeff

 

I know this is all personal opinion & I'm not cursing anyone or whatever. I apologize if I offended anyone with my following comments.

Yeah, you may think that the Sony doesn't look amazing.... Wait till you received the Dell Latitude D620 & regret that purchase because of the screen.... Again, this is just my personal opinion & things may not be like what I said.

 

My friend, you might be totally right and I might very well regret giving up the Sony. It's got amazing features. I just need to have more flexibility with the software. The Novell thing was a big factor. I understand that the D620 will never live up to the Sony. But the Dell is more of a business system and I can clone it, etc...much more easily.

 

No. You're not totally wrong. IMHO, when I compare both systems that you ordered, the Dell Latitude D620 obviously has got better configs for the same price & I can tell you that Dell Latitudes are pretty tough. However, if you compare the screens that both uses, then the SZ is a lot better although this is my opinion & furthermore this comparison is also not very fair given the fact that the Dell has a matte screen & the Sony has a glossy screen.

You have got a very good system for the price too & given your uses, it is without a doubt that the Dell is a better system for you. Unfortunately, Dell does not use very high quality screens (again this is just my opinion).... although this may have changed.

 

Dell is a junk, I had 3-4 Dell and I think it's a junk.