New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Good point. That may well be the case. Thanks.

 

Nah, there really isnt, look at the macbook efi boot sequence for example. exhaustive hardware checks aren't necessary on every startup.

From the reviewers standpoint, they test default settings. The real question is why oems don't change the default.

 

yeah, who needs hardware checks... it either boots (fine) or doesnt (hardware isnt fine)... THEN you can enable slow boot and find what's wrong

 

Hmmm, no support for the 5GHz band in wireless networing for the US models. The specs on the Sony Web Site say that this is an 802.11b/g/n adapter and from the User Guide:

On models compliant with the IEEE 802.11b/g/n standard, only the 2.4 GHz band can be used.

 

^ That can't be true... the 6230 is a 5Ghz capable card.
You will want the latest Intel drivers for the 6230 anyhow, especially for the BT part. With the latest release of the 6230 drivers WiFi and Bluetooth work well.

 

Great Job! Definitely more impressive with a thinner bezel. You should send this to Sony, maybe, they can trash what they have now and revamp the bezel in due time for the Z22 refresh.

 

I have a potentially super ridiculous question.

I've sometimes seen guides on forums about how to do a clean install on various Sony laptops. Which makes me wonder.. will a laptop like the Z2 really require something special for a clean install? Doesn't Sony just provide the drivers online or something? For me, that's the very first thing I do whenever I buy a new machine. Despite how ridiculous it sounds, it would kind of be a deal breaker if I need to "hack my way around" for doing a clean install!

 

I find that the clean install comes down to getting the VAIO controls, event manager and related utilities done in the correct order. I always use Universal Extractor to unpack the Sony stuff first so that I can uninstall if I mess it up.

 

Okay, good to know. I wasn't sure which model adapter it had.

 

I do the same thing. I prefer a good clean install. I noticed as I was downloading all the drivers tonight that some of the drivers specifically had notes saying something to the effect of if you are doing a clean install from retail media of Windows, then before you install this program you must first install x, y, and z.

That was really nice to see. I haven't had a Sony in a while and they didn't do that when I did.

 

"dun worked" means? Sony doesn't accept your CC? or won't deliver to those addresses? or the concierge service doesn't work with Sony website?

 

I'm sorry, but what do you mean by that? Could you kindly elaborate? I'm highly interested in purchasing my Z from the States, so any information you are able to provide would prove most helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Yeah. Other reviews have been able to boot the Z in about 30s, way off the sub-14s Sony was able to demonstrate. If the boot time was so relevant to the product, why did Sony not enable it in the finished product?

 

because stability > everything else

 

damn it, i thought i was being smart by waiting since i thought the shipping date would be the same... guess not.

and the S series has a promotion.. you DO get a free PS3! so i wouldn't be surprised if the Z had a similar promotion.. perhaps later on

i bet they have mountains of ps3's and they don't know what to do with them all

 

link to promotion please?

 

Including a PS3 would be nice. My current console's Blueray drive took a dirt nap several weeks back

 

sorry, turns out it's only in canada

but in the usa, there's multiple smaller promotions for the s series (50% off sheet battery, student discount, back-to-school deal, 300$ savings on upgrades, and $100 discount thru Aug 9)
Weekly Deals

note that if you purchase the L desktop system with a 3 year warranty + ps3, you get 299$ off.. which means you get a free ps3

here's the canada PS3 deal:
Sony Canada | Sony VAIO Computers | Reader Digital eBooks | BRAVIA LCD TV | Digital SLR Cameras | Cyber-shot Digital Cameras | Blu-ray Disc | Handycam Camcorders

i wouldn't be surprised if the deal comes to the US

for me, i'm waiting for any kind of promotion at all for the z, i can't believe that they could offer deals for every other computer but the z

 

Haha, welcome to the world of "Singlish", I would assume he is Singaporean.

We can wait for his explanation, but I do know that DHL has maximum price limits for items shipped from some locations (such as UK), although I don't believe this applies from the US.

Another possibility is the lack of a U.S. credit card since some vendors only accept those, but if I am not mistaken the concierge services usually offer the ability to pay on your behalf (for a fee, of course). I have U.S. credit cards, so I have no direct experience with this approach.

Finally, I believe a few selected vendors will refuse to ship to addresses known to be used by these forwarding services (I believe Comgateway and VPost both use Portland warehouses because of no sales tax), but most will. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony refused to ship to these addresses (they want to protect their discriminatory price practices), but the likes of Amazon certainly do.

There is also a prohibition for shipping batteries, but I checked this previously with VPost and they indicated a laptop with enclosed battery is fine. I'm not sure if they would prohibit shipment of the sheet battery, however.

 

I spend a fair portion of my year in Singapore, so I've used these services before (Borderlinx is my preferred option). I'd like to know the actual problem Wanwei ran into, so as to see if there's a way around it.

 

You forgot to photoshop in the fact that the lcd is shattered.

I'm not a huge fan of the bezel, but it's about strength. Tradeoff for being thin.

 

Does the Z1 have fast boot?

If so, can anyone tell me how to activate it?

 

^
The VPC-Z1 doesn't have that feature.

 

The Estimated ship date in US for CTO says 8/12 now but the preconfig still says 8/17. Does this hint at an earlier ship date!?

Thats only if you add it in the cart now. My first day preorder still says 8/17

 

For me its more about design constraints. They didn't want to develop a new LCD, they just fitted the one developed for the Z1 in. And then they had to make the laptop wider in order to fit the batteries and whatever else. So the easy solution was to make the bezel wider. The Z1 screen is pretty solid and strong.

 

i don't think it would have been too hard to cut larger slabs of lcd

i bet they just had too many z1 screens lying around and didnt want to waste them!

sony, always thinking about the environment, arent they wonderful?

 

^ don't forget the form factor.. The maximum range available in such dimensions would be a 14.1" display... but .. is there available any 14.1" panel with similar specs?? I don't think so.. best panels are in 13/15/17 and sometimes 16... I don't remember of any good panel at 14.1" or 14.5" ... I mean, M14x and moreover Envy 14 had good panels, but they lack in brightness and most of all color coverage which is very far away from Z's panel... Probably this has been the main factor.

 

Z2 = too many compromises just to make it thin
they should have figured out how to keep the same footprint as the Z1, then they wouldn't have to worry about the bezel or a different screen

 

Wait for Z3.....Ivybridge

 

Although the ship date has slipped a bit for all orders, it doesn't seem to be as bad as we initially thought.

Got a confirmation email last night that my VAIO had started actual production and was expected to be shipped 01/08 to 06/08 (Monday to Saturday) sometime. Had been expecting a week or two later at this stage, so this is good news!

Sony initially estimated a shipping date for the week 25th July to 29th July, so the order has slipped one week.

Any other Europeans getting notifications in the last few days? Any business customers specifically?

 

itll be haswell by then

 

^There was one european poster that got an email notification very early on, and then the date got pushed back twice, to around the date your saying. You guys are lucky though! No email here in the US yet.

 

----see next post....

 

Your point may be well taken in certain respects, but the HP Envy 14 Radiance, which was a 14.5" screen, was very nearly as bright and had virtually the same color bandwidth as either of the Sony Z screens. That said, there was apparently only one source for that screen and that company failed and, for some reason, HP did not apparently own rights to the designs and/or the ability to contract their continued production by another screen maker. Never made sense to me, except that the 14.5" size was used only by HP, and only on two of it's computers: the Envy 14 and the virtually DOA DV5. Even so, it's what's in the LCD that makes the difference. I'm not aware of a reason why cutting it to an unusual size blows the cost out of the water. Too bad; it was an awesome screen, and they also made it in 13.3" in the Envy 13.

 

You already got your Vidock? Sorry i I missed the post. Did you by any chance run a 3DMark06 benchmark? Any issues or disappointments, or is it "all good?"

Sounds like you may have struck the definitive death knell in the Z21.

 

because you have to redesign the screen...

1080p on a 13.1" screen means a pixel is __ mm...

1080p on a 13.3" screen means a pixel is __ mm...

and so on. If you just cut the lcd at a different size... then you get 2011x1131.19 pixels... or some weird number like that...

 

I agree it will add strength, but look at this photo of the LG "Blade" series laptop, a 14.1 inch screen in a 13" laptop footprint, they've obviously found a solution.

Also, the Z1 was a bit too thick for my tastes, but the Z2 seems a bit thin. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying if it was 5mm thicker it could rest flat with ports being used, have more key travel and maybee had a narrower bezel.

 

Are you sure??

Review HP Envy 14-1010eg Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Black is better, yeah, but brightness is at least 70 cd/m^2 lower than Z2 (which is around 360 cd/m^2), contrast is quite the same but the color coverage as you can see it's not the same. It's good but quite far away from Z2

 

I don't know... if the new Z's screen is as thin as the current Z, then there's no excuse seeing that the current Z seems to have a smaller bezel than the new Z... If they're the same thickness, than it's just Sony engineers added a larger bezel because they couldn't fit everything inside the footprint of the old Z while keeping it thinner.

the short travel of the keyboard is just the new macbook-esque design of the new Z (and S) series where the case has to absolutely close and insulate the keyboard... by doing that, they wasted space in sloping the keyboard tray downwards so that it's below the level of the palmrest and so they have less space for the keyboard...

 

^
If the Z2's top panel is anything like my X, then that's very thin -- less than 4mm in thickness. Making the bezel wider for strength makes sense. And personally I don't mind; it gives my fingers a surface to hold when opening the display, rather than getting my fingerprints all over the LCD surface.

 

Also keep in mind that the LG picture posted, not all of that glass is screen. Near the top (and maybe other areas im not sure) Its literally just glass (notice the webcam) os its a cool looking optical illusion but a little misleading.

 

that's hella thin! 4mm is like 2.5 pennies thick! the Z1 is about 3.5 pennies thick (1.55mm thick according to the US Mint) which would make it 5.425 mm thick

 

Yea I got my ViDock. No I have not run any bench marks
there is one main issue, the Z won't boot with the dock attached, you have to connect it just after the laptop LCD screen comes on to get it to work correctly. I am thinking that since I have the BIOS hack I might be able to find an advanced setting that will allow it to boot with the ViDock attached.

The boot issue is a minor annoyance, once you get it going it is great. I'm loving this DELL U3011 WQXGA monitor @ full res with my FHD laptop screen at full res right under it. It just so much workspace.

 

LG is thicker due to the glass they use for strength and appearance. The panel assembly is also heavier.

 

I believe the Z2 lcd is a decent amount thinner.

Either way there were a LOT of complaints here on the forum about how "flimsy" the Z1 LCD was.

 

Logical reasoning does not work here beaups. Please understand that the Z owners expect the impossible. And we want it done yesterday. Why doesn't sony just build a time machine and sell us Z's from 2020? Actually, If they actually managed to, the forum members would still find something to be nitpick

"it's TOO thin and light, i forgot i was carrying it when i jumped in the pool",
"where am i going to stick my post-it notes without a bezel?"
"if there is no fan noise, how am i supposed to know it's working?"
"i can ONLY connect 10 monitors to my laptop? how am I going to get any work done?"
"what do you mean it doesn't come in gold? i'm going to have to import yet another Z?"

 

I got the same e-mail two days ago:

I remember when I pre-ordered VPC-Z last year they also gave me an ETA period and, if I recall correctly, they actually shipped it on the first estimated day.

Let's see if they will be as fast this time

 

For all the Singaporeans out there, the Sony SG website has finally included the VAIO Z, but only as a teaser preview -

VAIO Z Series

What's really telling though, is that the Sony employee was right on the mark. Only one configuration will be available, and that's the highest specced model (Core i7, 8 GB, 1080p, 256 GB SSD, Blu-Ray). I'm sure this is going to be expensive as hell, and we're probably looking at something in the region of $4000, similar to Sony Australia's pricing.

The only good thing to note is that Gold will be one of the 2 color options available.

 

I spec'd out that configuration on the US site, and it comes to around US$3000...so add in shipping/insurance (say $150), 7% GST and it comes in just under SG$4000. In other words, it definitely wouldn't make sense to import a top end model (assuming its priced around SG$4k), but perhaps it would if you want a one with lesser specs.

Hmmm, so if I get the top-end model I'll probably just buy it in S'pore, or maybe CTO a lower-end gold version in the UK...I am really on the fence with the PMD, but am pretty certain I wouldn't cough up the GBP400+ (US$650+) for it in the UK CTO versions.

Too bad gold is an "online only" color, else it would be possible to get most of the 20% UK VAT refunded as well, which would make it a pretty good deal

 

Good evening from germany, the confirmation about the production is very nice to read! so i´ll place my order tomorrow

Is there anything new about the ati driver for the dock? i´m sure there must be some changings in the standard driver?

And is it now official confirmed what type of wlan card & bluetooth card is build in european models?