New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

The S9 was definitely better than the MBA before the recent refresh. I'm pretty sure Samsung's going to release a new iteration of the MBA with enhanced specs to combat the 2011 MBA soon. Still, it's on par with the Air, give and take a little.

Haha. Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. These Mac fans are so proud of their shiny Apple products that they are quite literally blind to the myriad devices in direct competition on the market.

My friend & I once counted the number of iPhones on a trip on the MRT one day. More than half of the people were actually using one. That's pretty astounding. Whatever happened to individuality here?

The same can be said for the computing segment. More and more Macbooks are showing up all over. In some ways, it's really sad.

 

The thing with Apple's products and their success is word of mouth and advertising; people don't care if the CPU is ULV, it says "The new i5 and i7 make the new Macbook Air up to 2.5x faster" and that is all they need to hear. Finite details? Nah, it says i5/i7 so it must be like all others plus it's better than the old one.

Marketing. Apple does it well. Plus it seems they are putting more focus on iTunes and apps -- they have millions of customers as it is and you can only get so many people to buy into Apple until it reaches a peak. Might as well focus on smaller micro-transactions when everyone is on-board.

 

In my opinion, at the moment, seen official prices difference, CPU (with integrated GPU), screen.. MBA 13" is the actual winner, IMHO. Time will tell when Samsung will release its own refresh of 900..

 

any 19.5v that is fit should work, my Z1 powerbrick worked

 

Yup. You've really got to hand it to Apple's marketing team. They can take a mundane feature and make it akin to something earth shattering.

It's all marketing speak, and Apple are the kings of the court.

To give Sony some credit, they're doing well to focus on the SA's good selling points - fast boot times, and the long battery life. It's a page out of Apple's book.

Still, nothing could be more stunning than a huge 3 story banner featuring the VAIO Z with only the worlds "Ultimate Power. No Compromise", or something to that effect. That's what Sony was displaying at the last IT trade show last year.

 

Isn't it amazing how a few letters on the back of your new toy can change your perception of its quality so drastically. Don't you realize that the Sony batteries in all of your products are from China?

 

Apple does have an upper hand especially when you read consumer reviews about the Z2 compared to the Air: Air has a good track record while the Z2 does not. You see reviewers talk about bad speakers on the Z2, the keyboard feeling, and sometimes the trackpad. If you look at Air reviews, very little cons are every brought up.

This gives Apple a major boost in 'on-edge' consumers deciding between products. Look at any Apple review, more power towards marketing.

 

It doesn't help that major tech blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo are oft-biased toward Apple products. I've been following both blogs for a few years now, and the general disposition towards anything Apple is almost always extremely favorable. This firmly entrenches the idea that Jobs & Co. are only capable of delivering magic where others have failed.

Most of the reviews I've read on the Z are somewhat positive, albeit with a few remarks about the aforementioned issues as pointed in your post. Something tells me if it was a Mac they were reviewing, these same flaws would be glossed over.

 

negative,

my current Z1's battery is made in japan and if i remember correctly my old TZ and TT battery is made in japan too

 

Haha,
Obvisouly, u are reading American's reviews.
Apple is american's company
Sony is japanese's company

 

The most terrible con of MBA which NONE of revies ever mentioned, is leaking electricity.
Probably I'm asian, i can clearly feel it shock me everytime......(maybe americans won't fee it because you guys have more resistant?)

 

^is that supposed to be a joke? Or does it actually shock you? Where from?

 

I read Asia and North American reviews plus any kind of forums. I'm speaking from a NA perspective in which Apple has the greatest influence over.

Show me reviews and articles from Japanese (and just Japanese) consumer sites that depict the Air or Apple products in general as "bad".

Any machine with a grounded metal surface can have the leakage effect. It's only remedied by the grounded power cable when plugged in.

 

Hi All,

I ordered a new Z2 a couple of weeks ago to replace my aging SZ series and as I couldn't wait to see it I went to the Sony store on Tottenham Court road today to check one out...

The keyboard is fine, I'm not sure about 1mm of travel, it feels like more than that, typing on it felt natural after the first few words; it has a very good feel. I use the 'Home' and 'End' keys a lot so I was concerned about not having dedicated keys for this but in reality using the function key to activate them is fine.

The touchpad is also good, it's an ok size, not too big that it gets in the way when you're typing but not too small either, the buttons are also perfectly usable.

Apart from that, it seems pretty quiet when idling, it's very light weight The screen was the usual Z series quality (900p on the display model).

I can't wait to get mine!!!

 

I have yet to read a review of the MBA that is painted in a negative picture. In fact, all reviews of Apple products are generally favorable. It's called the Apple Kool-Aid.

 

^or it could be the fact that apple builds excellent products. Nothing is ever perfect, but the positive reviews they receive are usually well-deserved IMO.

 

i 2nd this, apple always use top-notch hardware, high quality material, also revolutionize engineering design.

software part i have no idea tho

 

apple products are well-balanced. they might not always be number one in every ratable aspect, but they're number 1 in enough and they're 2nd or 3rd in every other one....aka balanced; as opposed to the every other PC which focuses on one thing at the expense of everything else. the vaio z being one very rare exception.

 

I just looked at the batteries on my VAIOs and they ALL say "Made in Japan"
They are all extended batteries for the computers listed in my signature.

 

Stupid question... Anyone know how to invoke the sales chat on the Sony website without just waiting for it to pop up a prompt when it feels like it?

 

even AA or AAA battery that made by SANYO (jap) is a lot better than duracell or enigezer let alone the chinese ones,

and you guys know what? most of the hybrid car's battery are made in japan that is included prius.

so battery is very high tech product like a CPU or stuff like that, that you need a very specialize people and factory to produce it.

 

I do not know about MBAs, but I do get slight shocks from my Dell Studio, normally the metal casing in the corner and only sometimes. Also from my Sony DVD player, but that is stronger than the Dell.

I am also in Asia. I always wondered whether it is because we tend to have different flooring than in other types of the world where carpet may be more prelevant.

 

beaups, you aren't drinking the Kool Aid too, are you?

Jokes aside, Apple products are well engineered, yes. There is no doubt about that. My sister's 2 Macbooks are a testament to well implemented design. I just don't feel that they deserve the huge doses of hype regularly afforded to their products.

 

The March earthquake/tsunami combo hit in Japan might have significantly affect Sony's capability of producing the batteries in the VAIO Z2 series in Japan. Maybe this is the reason that Sony moved production of those batteries to their other manufacturing plants in China instead?

 

Maybe China is just getting better at making them

 

Really looking forward for Intel Haswell......
15W TDP Haswell vs 35W TDP Sandybridge

Any notebook can be as thin as current Z2!

 

By then, we will want 35W Haswell, I mean, you could pack a ULV chip in, and compare it to the previous gen C2D


But you know most of us don't care for that

 

I think the new z series also required special ATI drivers, same as the special nvidia inf on the "old" z.

What do you think about this?

 

Hmm I'll have to stand corrected on the battery issue then. But I still won't retract what I said about China not being able to make quality products.

Like I've said earlier, it doesn't matter where something is made, as long as the factory has high standards/ good quality control. I've got more issues in terms of build quality with my Japanese made gen 1 P than my Chinese made gen 2 P. It all goes to how the item is designed in the first place.

But to bring it back to the battery, I wouldn't worry about it at all- unless we think it'll be an exploding Sony battery.

 

Sorry, but WHAT is this battery for?

 

Slice external battery.

 

Idle power usage is about the same when you compare lower voltage cpu with regular voltage cpu, so I'm not really expecting much. Even if anyone can make a notebook thin as Z, just imagine how acer aspire series and dell inspirons and any other brand's lower end models will look like. Cheap and ugly.

 

ASUS has a chance on hell of making it look good. HP, I don't give much credit to, and I think for good reason, too

 

Buy why are u comparing idle power usage?
U don't switch on the computer and let it idle most of the time, do u?

But anyway, intel's new 3D tri gate transistor will have less leakage at idle


AnandTech - Intel Announces first 22nm 3D Tri-Gate Transistors, Shipping in 2H 2011

At least it is the new sandy bridge which enables sony to create z2

 

Not sure if it's already been noticed but it looks like the new ship date is 8/12, and that is shown in the cart.

for US

 

seeing that sony usa usually predicts 7 business days to ship a cto, it would suggest that as long as you order before August 4 that it will have the 8/12 shipping date

 

Well it looks like I placed my order at just the right time.

The sheet battery has now increased in price from €60 to €150 in the CTO options on the Irish sonystyle website (an amazing 150% increase), and from £60 (I think) to £129 on the UK website.

The long life battery was always suspiciously cheap in the EU, compared to everywhere else, so it looks like they've corrected that. Hopefully though they won't be trying to alter my order now that it's gone through (my order is fully paid however so I don't think they can).

Backlit keyboard is still just €15 / £15, and Carbon Fibre finish is still €20 / £20

 

Today I cancelled my Vaio Z order and ordered a full bore 13 inch Apple Air. It will suit my limited needs very well. My W700 is already sold.

The Sony phone rep asked me why I was cancelling the order and I only said: "the Z is badly overpriced". She put me on hold for about 5 minutes but when she returned she just said "your order is cancelled". She did not offer me any discount.

 

it's not overpriced, you're just under funded nothing that compares with the Z's quality is much cheaper. A "full bore" Air is still just an Air, have fun with your glorifed netbook

 

^ in America is at a good price, it's not overpriced. You get at 1999$ 128 GB..ok low. But you have more powerful CPU and GPU, it's lighter, raid 0 and PMD included (so additional GPU and ODD). It's a good price.

BUT in Europe is REALLY OVERPRICED. Here PMD is not included, and a 256GB costs 2250€ against a similar MBA 13" 256 GB at 1650€ ... 600€ to have a better screen (but difference between screens' not huge) better CPU and integrated GPU (nearly + 25% performance overall) and slightly lighter laptop??? The engineering to put a Normale CPU it costs a lot but, not the CPU itself. A i5 2540m it's cheaper then those i5 or i7 in MBA.
So Z it's a little overpriced here.

If you talk about "limited needs" .. you made the right decision.
I mean, MBA lacks a little in resolution, lacks quite in CPU and GPU power, no option to higher display, + thunderbolt - USB 3.0 + double ssd space - raid0 (it depends, not always a minus) - no ddr expansible. But if this is not a problem, you would have no reason to spend at least 500$ more then MBA

 

For $1699 of the "full bore" 13" MBA, you could also grab a Z133GX/B that's on clearance at Microcenter...

 

Still sitting on the fence and my butt is starting to hurt. I have the money, but damn I just can't justify spending $3K on this thing. I'd find it easier to justify buying another automatic watch that I also don't need, at least the watch will last longer.

Maybe I'll wait around a bit and see if US models go Gold on the Z22 refresh. The Japanese model from Conics is supposedly WWAN locked, the Canadian model is well priced but lacks WWAN (no expresscard slot either so I can't use my Option card), the US model is well priced but no gold. I just can't win.

 

If the MBA was on a par with the Z, it would be a reasonable purchase. However, the Z beats the Air on too many fronts to be considered badly overpriced.

Oh well, at least you've got yourself a solid ultraportable, just one that I'd never consider purchasing for myself.

 

Come on bro, we're all in this together.. the VAIO Z owners' club!

 

Why don't you just paint it gold if you're so inclined?

 

I've been thinking for qite a while about trying an Apple and I simply decided to pull the trigger. If I discover I love Apple I'll replace my Alienware M17x with the next iteration of the MacBook Pro. If not, I'll get a Vaio Z and probably for considerably less than the introductory price.

 

Please keep in mind that displayed US price do not include sale taxe while displayed Euro prices include VAT (about 20% usualy)

There was a 15% discount coupon last week in France, (you could ask for an US keyboard and windows for free) I almost ordered one , but the noise issue is a deal breaker for me.. and latest Korean preview also pointed out the noise of the twin fan

 

Ah but you see:

1) resolution: the MBA allows for 1440x900, that is good enough. For most people, 1600x900 is the best they can handle in a Z.
2) CPU: It uses Sandy Bridge processors. Not Atoms.
3) GPU: Within the laptop itself (without the PMD), it's the same HD3000 as the VPC-Z2
4) MBA has a thunderbolt port. Between Apple and Sony, I'm thinking Apple has a better chance of convincing vendors to implement their version of LightPeak.
5) Raid0: for most applications, this won't make that much of a difference. On the other hand, having multiple SSDs in RAID0 makes the entire virtual drive more prone to failures: the chance of the RAID0 drive failing is the union of either failing.
6) MBA's max memory is 4GB. For me, unless I use VMs, 4GB is enough. Most people don't use VMs.

Without the option to upgrade RAM, SSDs in the VPC-Z2, it falls into the category of 'more disposable' to me. More disposable electronics make sense to me if they are cheap: I buy them more frequently, at a lower price each time, so the total amount I spend remains about the same. Hence, the MBA makes more sense for me.

 

Order a US model with all the fittings you want, then order the gold chassis and other exterior pieces separately and do a transplant!

 

(c) notegear full preview here http://www.notegear.com/Content/con...opage=&TNum=1246&kind=2&SearchString=&Search=