New Sony VAIO X Series Announced

As I expected, reviews are starting to show the limits of the X. Yes, is beatiful, slim and light but that's all. Overall rating takes 3/6 which is very low. I am starting to beleive that Sony is adressing his last series (like the P series-same specs) to ladies that they don't anything about computers and performance, but they care about the design. In a so expensive notebook, I have to optimize Vista to make it usable? I am leading towards TT as well.

 

@exetlaios,

Exactly what I said few pages before, when we knew that the X is going to be Atom based. Lol about Sony policy towards the ladies! Maybe you're right! I am also dissapointed, what is Sony thinking? And where the hell is the new P "mark 2"? About the price I quite understand that you are paying the brand and the design, if they had put CULV to the X, I would pre-order today!

 

Sony Italy announced the prices of the two models of X series:

Sony VAIO X11S1E / B
Processor: Intel Atom Z540 1.86GHz
Operating system: Windows 7 original Professional (32bit)
Memory: 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 SDRAM
Hard drive: 128GB Serial ATA SSD Flash Drive
Display: 11.1 X-black LCD with LED technology; 16:9 WXGA (1366x768)
Graphics card: Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500
Optical drive: none
Weight and dimensions 780 g (with battery included) 185 x 13.9 x 278 mm (W x H x D)
Others: Everywair Wireless WAN 7.2Mbps (HSDPA / HSUPA), WLAN 802.11b/g/Draft n, Bluetooth, Motion Eye Webcam, chassis in matte charcoal

Sony VAIO X11Z1E / X
Processor: Intel Atom Z550 2GHz
Operating system: Windows 7 original Professional (32bit)
Memory: 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 SDRAM
Hard disk: 256GB SSD Flash drive Serial ATA Hard drive: 256GB Serial ATA SSD Flash Drive
Display: 11.1 X-black LCD with LED technology; 16:9 WXGA (1366x768)
Graphics card: Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500
Optical drive: none
Weight and dimensions 780 g (with battery included) 185 x 13.9 x 278 mm (W x H x D)
Others: Everywair Wireless WAN 7.2Mbps (HSDPA / HSUPA), WLAN 802.11b/g/Draft n, Bluetooth, Motion Eye Webcam, shiny coal-black chassis

Prices: 1499 euros ($2210) for the first one and 1999 euros ($2948) for the second. No comment!

 

at $2200 or so, I can get a TT with 1.4 C2D, built in 3G and possibly an 128GB SSD... so, i think for traveler demanding for more power in their portable the TT is the way to go

I'm currently using a Z570 however there are times in meetings and seminars that goes 6-9hours straight when i wish for more battery live instead of searching for a power plug or shutting-down my notebook just to change battery, I hope that the TT can do just that.

sorry for my ranting, but all in all i think i have to agree with the rest of the forum that the X is more targeted for non-power users and probably as a secondary laptop/netbook for ladies or people who dont seek to do much with their machine. i cannot imagine opening multiple PDF's, words, firefox with 10 or more tab, winmedia player while converting pdf to word with scansoft omnipage with this machine (which i can with my old TZ298).

 

OK, let's try this again . Look at 0:45-0:50 of this video where the person lift the X up from front
http://www.netbooknews.com/834/viao-...nece-ifa-2009/

The entire first half of the bottom, beneath the screen and the card readers and then all the way to the seam line near all the white stickers, IS THE BATTERY PACK!!! The rubber feet are on the battery!

Look at this close-up of the X battery to see all the rubber feet on the battery.
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/img/pcw/docs/319/256/html/09.jpg.html

You can clearly see the latches to hold the battery in place, so there is no question that they are easily removable and replaceable. The thing is there is nothing between the battery and palm rest -- once you take the battery out, you will see the under/opposite side of the palm rest and the exposed bottom of trackpad and card readers.

The Trusted Review pictures is correct because the battery cell is indeed on the sides of the trackpad, it's just the battery pack completely wraps around the trackpad and card reader, with a small recessed area in the middle to fit them.

Hope this explains it, it would be much easier to see if they just have a video of taking the battery out

 

Thanks for your explanation. The fact that Sony is selling batteries has already convinced me

This picture made it seem like the whole laptop needs to be disassembled to remove the battery.

 

Sony's upcoming touchscreen computer is not a laptop or netbook. It's the new VAIO L 24" all-in-one desktop.

 

Since Z550 supports VT, how do you think this fellow will manage the XP mode inside W7?

 

Is this a matte or glossy screen ?

Any numbers on the brightness ? (candela/m^2)


Any tests done on this baby ?

 

The screen is matte, but I haven't seen any technical specification on it.

 

I have been reading on the X configurations, and the X is going to have a very small market, since only the road warrior that was mentioned in previous will probably buy it. I do not know how Sony manages to have a good sell on this sweet little notebook.

 

I'd imagine the profit on this machine is quite considerable (especially the premium Sony charges Europe), so even if they sold 20,000 globally it would be one hell of a money maker...

 

Lol, japanese people will buy this like fresh bread. also price there is so low so its less than half of a normal paycheck there...

 

the aero gui itself already made the notebook struggle.. so... i'll say 50-50 chance to run it smooth lol.

 

but aero needs GPU power, right?

 

thats and ram too.
maybe if its running non aero, it would run well? provided that the xp mode using basic gui too? *thats why i meantion 50-50* i cant sure how not until someone get hold on this machine and review it..

 

Yes - that's the point of Aero.

 

Say what you like about the lack of power in this laptop, but it looks bloody marvellous. As somebody who travels quite a lot and currently uses a SZ, this looks very attractive to me...

 

I still dont know why there is a fan inside, there is no fan in vaio P, right and its the same platform, why did they put a fan inside X? maybe because its thinner and less space for air to move around by itself?

 

Do we know what gestures are possible on the touchpad yet?

 

Likewise. If it runs Office 2007 & Firefox/Chrome without any hassle then it's good enough for me!

 

Exactly, basically there is too little air inside the X to act as heat sink so recirculaton with outside air is needed, according to the designers.

 

L battery is the standard battery in ready-to-ship models in Japan as well, only in CTO you can get S battery. I hope US is the same, but it's not clear from the limited spec information in SonyStyle USA. Technically, L is the standard battery, while S is the light-weight battery designed for bragging right -- its the same size as L and the only thing it improves is the weight.

Also, the 64GB SSD is a special PATA drive by Sandisk so Sony can eliminate the SATA to PATA convertor, again, for weight. The 128GB and 256GB use standard 1.8" SATA SSD, but needs a convertor to the PATA on US15W. Obviously, with US15W limited to PATA, using SATA drives do not make performance improvement. Still, it should make Sony's (and anyone interested in DIY upgrade) life easier if they just simply go for a SATA drive.

 

Just wish the bottom didn't have to be brown. If only it was fully black.

 

So the reviews start coming in:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/352255/sony-vaio-x-series

In a nutshell, I think what the reviewer is trying to say is that it's a stunning looking machine but the performance is poor.

I must admit, having to switch all the graphical features off just to get the machine to run acceptably isn't ideal! Hmm...

 

Hey Steve, do you read the previous posts? Rachel mentioned this review, and they follow comments from post #450 to #455.

Anyway, as we thought that would be this X series. Beautiful design, but as you said if someone must turn the aero off for running a 2k laptop, is unacceptable. I think that this is just the prologue for this model, and the fan is there for a reason. I believe that the refreshes of the X will be much much better. A lot of things to improve for Sony.

 

I totally agree. The new 'Pine View' Atoms would be much better suited, sadly we will have to wait until sometime in early 2010 for these. I don't think it's realistic to expect any CPU other than an Atom inside the machine, the fan can only help cool the machine by so much.

 

Found this overview here

Nice!

 

Is it even possible technically to put a "Pine View" Atom in this machine ?

Do you think it is likely that they will upgrade to a better processor ?

 

Of course. Each revision of the machine will bring a better spec. Although with the X, I think the only 'upgrades' we will see in its life-cycle will be CPU & RAM.

 

http://netbooknews.in/sony-vaio-x-review-price-overview-and-verdict/

 

It depends on what you mean by "better".

In terms of power-consumption and battery life, Pine View will be much better with its integrated GPU and memory controller, and low power chipset.

But unfortunately it will not be any more powerful performance-wise than the Z550/GMA500 combo used in the current chipset. The on-die iGPU of Pine View is actually weaker than the GMA500.

 

Pineview's onboard gpu is a faster clocked GMA500. When have you know a new generation of graphics to be weaker than the old?

 

its not a "new generation" of eveyrthing, it will just be a chipset that will have everything integrated to get lower power consumption and less heat, which means better battery life and less "cooling fans".

I wonder how would win XP run on X, since there are no fancy effect with aero, etc...I think it should run just fine, but I doubt we will ever see a winXP on it, since win7 is here.

 

I think that must rank as one of the worst pieces of I.T. related 'journalism' I've seen this year!

 

Yep Thats why I didnt comment the link

Im also curious about Win XP...its got all what a writer/roadwarrior needs. Win 7 does not add any real funcionality except nice interface. Hope there will be drivers for XP.

 

I think it just highlights that hardware is light-years behind software. Hardware hasn't really changed much in 20 years! Yes, things have got faster and smaller, but look at battery technology as a prime example! So frustrating.

 

I do believe win7 handles SSD better and winXP needs some tunning to run smoothly.

 

I was just doing some googling, and this seems to suggest that the GMA500 can handle HD (720p) playback? Surely then Aero wouldn't be a problem either? It all really depends on the drivers.

Before I would seriously consider buying I would need to play around with an X for a little while to see if the desktop experience is acceptable...

 

i dont know if aero can be hardware accelerated, like video.

 

Aero is GPU accelerated.

 

but why are systems with aero so slow then, and lets movies are smooth...even 1080p movies are smooth on an old machines, which are not capable to run aero smoothly...i doubt its more demanding than a 30 mbps movie?

 

I tcould be down to how its prgorammed or drivers.

But the honest answer is - I don't know
It shouldn't happen.

 

My only frame of reference is my Acer Revo media centre; it has a weedy Atom single core CPU but the graphics card (nvidia ion) is hardware accelerated (DXVA), so even 1080p video is perfectly smooth. Aero in Windows 7 is also smooth. So I'm hoping it's the same for the Intel GMA500?

 

Just did some Binging
http://www.notebookcheck.net/~nbccom/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-950.2177.0.html

May be drivers. (towards the bottom)

 

Sorry bud that link is for the GMA950, not the GMA500 which is in the X. Blame Bing!

I've been doing more reading, and it does seem that the GMA500 accelerates HD video. The driver needs to be right, and the correct media player needs to be used (similar to my Revo). And apparently Adobe are soon to release an update to Flash that takes advantage of GPU hardware acceleration, so HD youtube videos should be good to go aswell.

EDIT: in fact, it seems that the GMA500 is better equipped for HD video / GPU acceleration than the older GMA950. Read here

 

If I click the link, this is the heading/title:

Seems like a GMA 950 to me.

And in the list at the bottom, the X is mentioned as one of the notebook which contain it.

Are you getting a different site from the same link????

 

Just read today in our local newspaper that M$ has given the permission for ALL suppliers (that should include Sony) to start selling their Windows 7 preconfigured systems as of saturday/sunday here in dubai as we have the regions largest computer and IT fair...

So me thinks that the X might just go on sale here first...


so what you want to see/have reviewed first....

 

Nobackup, if it's possible I'd be curious to know how the screen quality compares to the TZ or Z.

Notebooks.com had a hands on for the X that claimed the screen was not that great, with a red shift and bad skin tones, but this was on a prototype and hopefully the production screens are better like the TZ/Z.

 

At the risk of people already knowing this info.

Sony VAIO New Zealand has released the prices for 3 variants of the X series. Rather ridiculous I'd say, but something with an Atom CPU should not be over US$1800 (that is the lowest spec model). The highest spec with Atom Z550 and 128GB SSD goes to about US$2400.........