New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Believe me... sequential writing and reading is not so important... what is important is 4k random and queue reading and writing as iops at various type..

Every news that we have seen till now, speak about dual core with maximum TDP of 35W and quad core with a minimum TDP of 45W

 

I'm confused with this gen. ssd thing. Are the gen. ssd's classified this way?

VGN-Z 1st gen. ssd
VPC-Z1 2nd. gen. ssd
VPC-Z2 CTO 3rd gen. ssd
VPC-Z2 Pre-Config. 2nd gen. ssd

 

^
I think the VGNZ and VPCZ1 both came with gen 1 SSD just that the VPCZ SSD is in RAID.

 

Wow.. those gaming numbers are really far off from what i expected. The SA killed it and it seems to be on par with the 330m

 

Concerning the Z2 that's not the case (at least not here in Austria). I can choose between 128/256/512GB "SATA Flash SSD" (I suppose that's 2nd gen) and 128/256/512GB "SATA Gen3 Flash SSD".

Another user mentioned once, it may have to do something with SATA3gpbs (SATA "2") and SATA6gps (SATA "3"), which still isn't confirmed yet afaik. But if that would be the case, should the Gen3 SSDs be twice as fast as the Gen2 SSDs? Benchmarks show that they are not quite as fast as double the speed.

 

So Z2 is louder than Z1 even though it doesn't have the dedicated GPU?

 

What do you mean? The new z´s gpu performance?

 

I'm about to place my order for the Z2 and I had some questions about a couple options that are available.

Do you think the sheet battery is worth it? Would this also be something I can pick up later?

Are the noise cancelling earphones anything different from the ones Sony sells on the shelf?

Also, is the backlight for the keyboard really green? I've seen pamphlets at the store for the new Z and it shows as green. Why not keep it white or have changeable colors, why green? This was one of the things I hated about my Z11/Z14 was the huge green power button. I was so tempted to change the LED and solder on a white or blue or black one.

Maybe there will be some kind of cellophane trick to get it to change colors.

 

^
You can buy the sheet battery later but it will probably be more expensive not bundled with the laptop. If battery life is important to you then you should get it.

The bundled noise cancelling earphones are similar to the regular ones Sony sells...not the expensive high end ones that block out way more noise.

From what I understood the backlit green on the keyboard should be very subtle...not like the green power button on the previous Z's....and only the letters glow and not around the keys too.

 

No, it's not louder.. it makes less noise but you must remember that laptop is really THIN, so it doesn't matter if there's no discrete gpu.. put a normal CPU in such a thin notebook it's always difficult.

 

In Europe there are no noise cancelling earphones in the package i think but that´s no problem

After reading this thread i think we get gen 2 SSDs in the pre-build z´s, that is ok.

What about the graphic driver? Has someone checked the driver released on the usa site for special entries? I think we can not update with standard ati driver?

 

In Germany you get the 3rd Gen SSD. The extended battery is 149€ if you dont buy it in boundle. If you buy it in boundle you can get is 20€ cheaper, but its only now.

I have a question about the extended battery. Anyone knows whats the weight is?

 

Graphic driver for z2 should be "Intel/AMD hybrid graphic driver", no confirmation yet, but someone on other forum made it.

 

You geht 3rd Gen SSD only on self-configured machines, not on the 3 pre-configured models here in germany

Maybe it´s possible to change it later?

 

Normaly i would be a self-configured z. It isnt more expensive and you can get the cool golden/brown look
Have here the Z11 so thinking about to buy a new one but still waiting for more review/details.

 

Yeah, some users described it like those "glowing-in-the-dark"-items. So it should be like a white light with a greenish touch, but not really GREEN.

 

Lotta talk about SSDs and 2nd vs3rd gen, so I thought the detailed review of the SA w/1 TB SSD would shed some light. In virtually every benchmark, the 3rd gen RAID0 SSD array trounces every previous SSD they have tested (869/633 sequential read/write), but the 4k read/writes (13/39) put them mid-pack second gen.

In any event, with so much speculation, I thought these details would be revealing.

Review Sony Vaio VPC-SA2Z9E/B (i7, SSD, HD 6630M) Subotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

The SA with 1TB (4X26GB) RAID0 array is the fastest SSD ever tested by notebookcheck.net:

The throughput rates in the "hard disk" tests are gigantic: 869/633 MB/s (read/write AS SSD) or even 708 MB/s in HDTune (read). The previous read/write leader, the Samsung 900X3A, is defeated with 467/306MB/s (AS SSD).
However, this doesn't apply to very small files. The Crucial Real SSD C300 (CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1) in the XMG A501 (47 MB/s write) or the Samsung SSD PM810 in the Alienware M14x (38 MB/s write) is clearly in the lead in 4K write/read (instead of 32 MB/s in the Vaio). However, the Vaio again takes the lead in 512K write/read: A501 - 160MB/s; M14x - 231 MB/s instead of 413 MB/s in the test device. The read throughputs turn out similar in the mentioned devices.

<dl class='csc-textpic-image csc-textpic-firstcol' style='width:127px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>Samsung MZRPA128HMCD 256GB
</dd></dl><dl class='csc-textpic-image' style='width:126px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>of 4x SAMSUNG 128 GB in RAID0
</dd></dl><dl class='csc-textpic-image csc-textpic-lastcol' style='width:127px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>connected via SATA
</dd></dl>
<dl class='csc-textpic-image csc-textpic-firstcol' style='width:135px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
</dd></dl><dl class='csc-textpic-image' style='width:123px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>AS SSD test
</dd></dl><dl class='csc-textpic-image csc-textpic-lastcol' style='width:122px;'><dt> </dt><dd class='csc-textpic-caption'>ATTO Disk benchmark</dd></dl>



HD Tune
CrystalDiskMark 3.0
AS SSD


Samsung MZRPA128HMCD 256GB
Sequential Read: 868.31 MB/s


Sequential Write: 632.68 MB/s


4K Read: 11.69 MB/s


4K Write: 29.11 MB/s


4K-64 Read: 323.07 MB/s


4K-64 Write: 88.16 MB/s


Access Time Read: 0.252 ms


Access Time Write: 0.116 ms


Copy ISO: 422 MB/s


Copy Program: 181 MB/s


Copy Game: 807 MB/s

 

Thank you for the benchmarks!

One other question about the following "cons" of the engadget review:

Trackpad can be frustrating to use


How do the people who had the chance to "test" the z in a store about that?
Is the fingerprint sensor also a problem?

 

I may be the only, but I really liked the Big Round Green Power On Button on the Z1. I wish Sony had adopted this green backlit hue for the Z1 to match. Ota-Con best answered your question. I don't think it will be as fluorescent or bright as the Green Power Button.

 

i think my vgn-z trackpad is pretty crappy compared to dell's 2006 xps models

it just doesn't seem very responsive

if the new trackpad is worse, wow, i cannot imagine

but hey, not worse than my sister's asus ultraportable's hard plastic trackpad with these strange holes in it

 

The laptopmag and engadget review show poor numbers. I hope its overclockable...

 

IMHO some people will continue to want the idealistically best notion whether its obtainable or not. Not a bad thing.


FUNNY STORY

At the Sony Store in NYC a customer was asking about the Z2's graphics.

Rep: The ATI card is housed in the PMD.
Cust: OK what powers the laptop's graphics when the absence of the PMD?
Rep: Nobody knows, its a mystery of what's inside the machine because it's only a prototype.
Cust: So the intel chip powers the laptop's graphics then?
Rep: No that's the processor sir, you would need a graphics card for the screen.

I was nice enough to let the guy know about the HD3000.

 

IDK about the fingerprint sensor but the track-pad seemed pretty legit. Even better than expected since it has a textured surface, gives a nice tactile feedback to your input.

Then again I also don't usually use track-pads. I tend to stick to the little nubs on business notebooks or preferably a mouse.

 

Hm, i´ve seen the 3dmark and other benchmarks and i must say they are very good - what exactly do you mean?

 

engadget review shows that z2's external gpu is 1.2845 times faster than the z1's dedicated gpu, measured by 3dmark06

you may have mistaken the internal gpu's score for the external gpu

 

The engadget and laptopmag reviews seems to match (or be slightly higher than) the values in the notebookcheck ATI 6650 page:
AMD Radeon HD 6650M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

 

I see the CTO Z21 has discounts at Sony US today so I went ahead and ordered mine.

It seems like it's been a long journey since March but this thread definitely kept things fun in the interim.

 

What the fan noise on this Z series like?

My last ultraportable sony laptop I bought in 2006 was very, very noise and hot.

 

I for one was encouraged by the 3dmark06 scores for the integrated graphics. At about 4000, it should allow playing all but the most recent games, even without the PMD. Certainly most games pre 2008 or so should play fine. And 8k with the PMD was better than I was expecting.

 

the z/ps3 deal is up:

Back to School VAIO PC Upgrades + PS3

and very good discount for z available right now

 

Woah. The Z is actually a really good deal now. For $2.6k, you can get i7, 6gb ram, 256 ssd.......andddd a 160gb PS3!!

Too bad I already ordered.

 

well you can cancel and reorder, that is what i'm going to do right now

 

Hey look at that...who woulda thunk it?

 

okay here is an info for you guys,

i just hang up with sony. they said you order the pre-config, you could call in and get the ps3 for a discount but if you order the CTO you have to cancel and reorder which is i already did : )

now i might just have wait for LTE to order the Z again.

do you guys know when this discount deal is up?

 

Be sure to check the new discounts against anything you previously ordered. My initial order is still $7 cheaper than the new discounts (academic discount on the initial order). This is excluding the value of the PS3 deal obviously.

The current discounts expire on August 13th.

 

Looks like this deal is not available in Canada. They are only offering the free PS3 on the S series, and no new discounts on the Z. Grrrr....

 

^and it's not free, it's $200 off.

 

Oh, but in Canada, it's a free PS3 if you buy a CTO Vaio S. But no deal at all on the Z.

Funny story: I was just in the US and dropped by a Sony store. The dude at the door asked if he could help, and without thinking, I asked if they had a "Zed" (which is how we say it.) After about three rounds of "A what?" "A Zed!", finally the penny dropped. "A Zee!"

 

Hey Guys i just got back from Sony NYC and I wanted to post some of my thoughts and impressions. (I saw the $2000 preconfig)

I liked the keyboard. ALOT. Despite the 1mm travel, it was very easy to type on. It felt good and it felt fast. The spacing is great, and the keys have a grippy texture, unlike the macbooks and imac keyboards. I typed a few sentences and made absolutely no errors when i usually would have made a few i feel. This is coming from someone who has never extensively used a chiclet keyboard. imo, keyboard is AWESOME.

I blocked out the light sensor to see the backlit keyboard. You could only tell its on if you cupped ur hands and looks through a hole. The light only outlines the letters, not the keys. Its a very subtle green, very similar to the "glow in the dark" green color. I like because sometimes I find white led backlights a little too bright. Its also probably very light on battery life. (When you block out the light sensor, the screen also gradually dimmed, which was nice)

Everyone shutup about flex. There was only noticeable flex when I applied MASSIVE pressure to the keyboard. Regular typing showed NO FLEX AT ALL.

I actually enjoyed the trackpad alot. Im not generally a fan of trackpads and will be sustaining an orochi with my Z, but the trackpad worked well. 2 finger scrolling worked well too. texture is nice, very frictionless feel. Buttons work well. Also i noticed that when ur hand are in the default typing position, ur thumb is exactly in the middle of the touchpad, so you can type and move mouse without moving ur hands. cool!

I was able to achieve a 14 second cold boot time to the windows login screen when i activated fast bios. This is with an i5 and 128, so if u get like a i7 and 256 it should be marginally shorter. See my attached picture for the disadvantages of fast bios (pretty minimal). So like if u had a wireless mouse, you wouldn't be able to use it until you logged in....nbd.
http://imgur.com/5uuWC

Tried out the booting into the web browser alone (see attached pictures as well). It kind of took a while and I couldn't connect to wifi at the store. the general experience was kind of bleh. I honestly think it might have been faster just to boot into windows. Something I won't probably use.
http://i.imgur.com/de92T.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/94l6D.jpg

Tested a bunch of pmd improper disconnects. I unplugged it with no program open. It continued to work for maybe 5 seconds and then the screen just froze. I had to hold down the power button. No BSOD though. I played a youtube video and then disconnected it. The screen froze immediately, but the audio continued play for maybe 15 secs and then stopped. Had to hold down power button. Im guessing similar things would have if the pmd lost power. I forgot to test unplugging in sleep mode. (sorry)
http://i.imgur.com/bNfi4.jpg

It wasn't quiet enough to test out the speakers fully, but i could tell that they were pretty bad. I would call them useable though if you really needed to, but i'll be using external speakers or earphones. When the volume was cranked all the way up and the windows boot chime sounded, the speakers had this like really distorted sound like the speakers were being blown out. (Like if you crank a bad cellphone speaker all the way up)

It wasn't quiet enough to see fan noise either, but i was just doing soem light browsing and 1080p youtube videos and it was dead silent as well as i could tell. Put my hands everywhere and on the side vent and its cold to the touch.

The red tint that engadget talked about is EXTREMELY subtle and only at ridiculous viewing angles. If you can see the red tint, your doing it wrong.

Screen was generally awesome. 900p very useable at 100% scaling (although the store had it on 125)

Everything was of course very fast. acrobat (the most intensive program i could find lol) opened instantly.

It was very light, especially when holding a nearby SA in the other hand. it didn't strike me as EXTREMELY light, but thats probably because i was expecting too much. Adding the sheet battery does add significant heft. And yes, its hot swappable and windows recognized it immediately. The PMD is also very thin, about the same as the main unit. And yes, its ridiculously thin.

Someone had asked me to check how far back the screen can go (see picture)
http://imgur.com/XkLgS

I think thats it. My visit pretty much reaffirmed everything that was awesome about the Z and washed away any doubts about it. It was a good day. If anyone has questions feel free to ask. Sorry for long post and shoddy cam shots, but i hope its helpful info

Also, I thought I'd contribute to the SSD discussion and say that I talked with a sony NYC rep a few weeks back and he spent a while finding the answer but he confirmed at all US Z models have gen 3 SSDs.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the Assist, web, and vaio buttons seem to be capacitive. They are activated if you gently tap it. Its not a real button. I don't think i'd accidentally brush up against them though cuz its all the way up there, so its probably not a problem.

 

^ Nice post, I had many of the same impressions when I played with it.

 

Is the PS3 offer also with the Z CTO in the US?

I've added both to my cart but I don't see a -$200 for the PS3; is it a rebate after ordering?

 

Just before the checkout screen the $200 discount is applied.

 

Anybody got it to work in US educational store?

 

@goldentreesang: Thank you for your post and the informations about the machine - and the photos

 

Not working for me.

It says "Bundled savings reflected in order total" but there's definitely no discount being applied in the educational store.

 

I read about the greenish backlight even seen the pictures on the sony.jp site.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/26/90929//sony_vaio_z21_backlight_keyboard_green.jpg

Then I go to sony.com and to compare and see this

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/26/90929//sony_vaio_z21_backlight_keyboard.jpg

Is the backlight for the US model white?

 

For the Z1 and SA/SB/SC/SD, yes. They are white. Also white in Taiwan. Z2, I haven't seen in person

 

No it's not. I guess Photoshop accidentially turned the backlit white or something like that

Do you know if the light sensor can be turned off? I don't care much for the automatic dimming of the display.

Would be really cool if someone could find out more about the noise level. I hate loud PCs/notebooks -.-

Thanks a lot for the nice "review" of yours! +rep to you my friend!
(edit: damnit, seems like I'm not allowed to give you rep edit2: ah, I must have already given you rep recently. Stop posting so productive posts )

 

The auto-dimming of the display was software controlled in the Z1 (in the Vaio Control Centre). So, if the Z2 is using the same software, you can disable this particular functionality

 

Thanks for the rep noap!

Anonymous, if you disable autodimming does the backlit keyboard still work with the light sensor?