New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Yeah, I'm currently running 3 1920x1200 monitors off of my Z1, but I like the cool factor of the 27" units.

 

I don't have a picture now, but the backlight is more white than green. It isn't a sharp, bright white, though, but more of the muted variety. At best, you could describe it as whitish pale-green.

Yup. According to the CTO options for the US Sony Store, the SDD spaces are in multiples of 2 arrange in a RAID 0 configuration.

Out of curiosity, where are you purchasing it from, and what current discount are we talking about? Have you also factored in shipping and the GST cost?

 

I know I'm just being impatient... but I just don't understand how it can take days to assemble a laptop. I know all the laptop manufacturers do the same thing, taking days from start to finish of the actual laptop build, but I wish I understood what they were doing during this time.

 

1. you not only one who place an order on the Z21 (let alone the whole sony's gadget)
2. factory worker likely work 8hrs/day 5days/week (it is japan not china)
3. they have to do few QCs

 

How can you run 3 monitors on Z1? I've a Dell U2709, a 27" monitor with 1920x1200 native res.looks pretty good

 

its called backlog.

if the # of orders > the number of bottlenecked producers(individual machines, number of employees, etc.), then each product takes longer to complete than the time it takes to build.

basically, an order doesn't start being filled until some significant time after it has been placed(this INCLUDES the time it takes the financial guys to verify the order). There's also the issue of waiting for parts.

if you've never been inside a production factory before, its quite enlightening to learn how everything works.

and yes, like the guy above me said, depending on the industry and the company, QC time can take LONGER than it took to build the product.

 

That sounds like an option, but what exactly does the Recovery facility offer? If it's just a facility to revert to factory defaults (ie restores the original factory image on the Z21) then it's not exactly ideal. However, since the VAIO recovery assistant gets you to backup to a 16GB USB key, then the VAIO assist button must somehow allow you to boot from this USB key (and I would therefore assume allows you to boot from any other USB device). Could be problem solved, but of course will want to confirm this before enabling fast boot on my new machine.

Checked with my courier and the Z21 will be out for delivery on Tuesday. Sony are using TNT for the UK and Ireland.

 

Folks

Yes, my first post.

Last week I ordered a fully loaded custom Z, inc BD PMD, 8GB/512GB, etc. £3.2k + VAT all in. However I just noticed on Amazon for £2,268 direct from Sony:

Sony VAIO VPC-Z21C5E 33.2 cm (13,1 inches) Notebook [Intel CoreTM i7-2620M, 2.70GHz processor, 8 GB SDRAM, 512 GB Flash SSD, Blu-ray DiscTM Player, Windows 7 Professional] Premium Black - special edition

It looks like there may be a pricing anomaly looking at the options in the combo box, that's over a grand cheaper than I'd expect. 1920x1080 but not Gen3 SSD. Might be well worth a punt though, a relative bargain if it works out.

edit: Printscreen here... http://www.funcubedongle.com/MyImages/sonyz.png

Cheers, Howard

 

So what colour would a model VPCZ21L9E/B.EC1 be?

 

^
It's regular black without the brushed finish.

 

As ota-con said - that's just black.

The thing to note is.. " /B".

 

Ah, thank you. I'm not too fuzzed. Atleast then the PMD and laptop will match.

 

You can do this ->
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/598920-z1-vidock-gtx-570-ftw-z2-pmd-killer.html

I have also thought that the Matrox TripleHead2Go might work but I never tried it. Also DisplayLink/USB is always an option

 

wow that is even cheaper than US version you might wanna try to call sony, also can you paste the link to us please

thanks

edit. found the link seem like an price error to me, not sure if sony will honor tho.. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005AV1ZA8/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&s=computers&psc=1

 

The Z217GG is out of stock in Hong Kong.

 

looks legitimate to me, and it seems to have SSD3 too. (if you scroll down, there is a comparison between HDD, SSD, and SSD3, and it mentions above the comparison that it uses the latest SSD)

 

Yea I certainly know about your ViDock setup it's awesome .
And although I really wanna be able to use U3011 @ native resolution, I simply can't resist the temptation and ordered a Z2 already...so I guess my best bet is to wait for a LightPeak ViDock...

 

Yup, Ota-Con is correct.

These are the color codes -

B - Black
X - Carbon Black
L - Blue
N - Gold

Btw, can anybody confirm that this for me? I ran the Windows Experience test and received a 7.9 for my hard disk transfer speed rating. This should confirm that the model I have is running a gen 3 SSD, right? Thanks in advance.

 

^
That would be awesome if it was gen 3.
Could you please try Crystal Mark?
CrystalDiskMark - Software - Crystal Dew World

 

How can it be gen3 when the 256gb gen 3 in the drop down menu cost much more. Sony will just respond with a kind email stating the error mid way giving you the option to cancel or proceed with the correct price.

 

I understand backlog, part shortages, QC, limited time and all that. I understand that it just takes time. Like I said, I'm just being impatient, not really complaining.

Although... For backlog in particular, I would think they wouldn't send you the email saying the laptop is being built until the laptop is actually being built. The same with part shortages, they would also know of the shortage in advance (thus why the estimated ship date changes when you select WWAN).

I would just be curious to see the inside of a laptop assembly facility (particularly one in Japan) and what exactly does happen during the week or so between the time they send out the email that they're building the laptop and the time they ship it.

 

It doesn't use SSD3 unless you choose that option. If you click the drop-down near the top, it has an option for Gen3 that is £3417.99. That's £1150 more for the upgrade to from 512GB SSD to 512GB Gen3 SSD. Ouch.

 

depends on how that particular company operates(especially if production is being outsourced). remember that sales and manufacturing are two separate departments - that email most definitely comes from someone in a head office environment(well...it actually comes from a server machine, but you get my point), not someone in the office room overlooking the production line. there is no 'live feed' of any sort between the factory and the offices.

if the shipment comes in a day late, your entire(or large portion) production schedule is now off by a day. THAT is the problem with JIT manufacturing...when you don't control the entire top-down process(and even if you do), little things make a big difference.

 

There should be a "live feed" of sorts. That email would be triggered to go out once they're ready to begin production on a specific order. It's easy enough to integrate an email notification into a specific point in the process and there's no reason to believe there are departmental separations between manufacturing and email notification processes. I can't imagine this process is anything less than completely automated.

I agree, but delays shouldn't be the norm. I'd certainly allow time for this type of thing, I can't imagine these type of delays amount to the majority of the time between the start of the build and the shipping date.

My guess is with the new Z, build times are longer because they are less modular and more of the components are fixed to the boards versus another laptop in which each individual component can be easily replaced.

It's all academic really, I'd just be interested to see what goes on behind the scenes.

 

I'm happy to announce that we reached the first stage for ViDock for Light Peak:

Village Tronic made an Open Letter to see how many people want ViDock for new Z and want to know what kind of specification would love.
We have to reach 50 people who would buy it (or at least the module I think), and write our preferences HERE -> https://www.facebook.com/topic.php?u...34&topic=17792

 

lol, of course, those little things are obvious improvements. but again, this is real-life, so you know it doesn't exist, and won't for at least another decade

but ya, from what Dell marketing used to tell us(or at least my impression of it), they actually tracked individual orders through the system.


ugh, failed to find a video i saw a little back. but ya, the assembly line was nothing fancy. lots of components being unpacked relatively carefully(it was a shot of mobos), put into special holding trays and moved over to a worker on the line. the worker would get a chassis off the belt and bring it onto her table and then use an electric screwdriver to seat the mobo into chassis. yada, yada later, someone would boot up the pc, check for scratches and hinge functionality, etc.

although, that was with a standard laptop, not one of those ultrathins, so yes, i would be interested in seeing how they assemble those particular lappies too.

 

Thats awesome. Link didn't work for me though had to find it on my own. Hopefully this will work. Open Letter: Do you want a ViDock for Sony Vaio Light Peak? | Facebook

GET THAT LINK EVERYWHERE!!!

Crystal make a thread too!

 

There is a thread already! --> http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/600942-vidock-4g-light-peak-z21-possible.html

 

My Z1 has 7.9 for Disk Transfer rate, and that would only be SATA2

 

Can somebody confirm that battery in retail units can be removed by user?

 

Yes it can. There are 8 screws that hold it in place so it's designed to be swapped daily, but still very easy to do. You can download the User Guide from Sony which has full instructions.

 

Home setup: 3 1920x1200 monitors, 1 off of the docking station DVI port and 2 off of USB->DVI adapters (plus the laptop screen itself).

Office setup: 4 1920x1080 monitors, 1 off of the docking station DVI port and 3 off of USB->DVI adapters (plus the laptop screen itself).

These are not used for gaming (although that actually works), so the lag on the USB monitors is not an issue for me.

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Since the -native- resolution of a 27" monitor is greater than 1920x1200, surely there must be some scaling going on, yes?

 

Those who are interested in purchasing this laptop, those waiting to receive their laptop and current owners' please continue to use the Z2 owners' thread. This laptop has started shipping and more people will recieve their notebook this week and this thread can now be closed.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-vpc-z2-vaio-z-2011-series-owners-thread.html