New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

well looking at the new Z series photo, there is no vent on the right, and from what Beaups said then the vent will be like the new SA/SB similar to macs so any heat will be dissipated there.

looking at the asus, there seems to be no vents at the bottom or sides so I assume the only vent is near the hinge so not sure how that could effect the heat around the palmrest and keys.

 

The Asus looks really great and a Core i7 in 2.4 pounds with aluminum? I hope it reinvigorates the market and competition in this space. I've never bought an Asus before but that model will be in the running for a notebook update this year. I like that they are putting the info out there now before launching it in September. I prefer that approach over tight secrecy.

I was at the Apple Store yesterday talking with a rep that was speculating on what Apple will announce next week. He, of course, didn't know anything concrete. I do like the MacBook Air but the resolution is a non-starter. HD or better resolution is a big deal to me.

 

omg this looks so much like an MBA (check the pic on engadget where you can see both in one pic), they almost just copied the thing.
metal case, huge bezel, low res screen (at least on the pics) are big dealbreakers for me.

 

For some reason, it seems similar to a cheap Chinese knock-off you would find on the streets, only this time its been done by an established company. ASUS should be embarrassed to publicly compare this to the Macbook Air. Also, ram is set at 2 gb. Probably won't be user upgradeable so we'll see whether they release 4 or 8gb versions.

I see Apple legally all over this so it might not make it to the market.

 

Ugh, why don't notebooks in 2011 have thinner bezels than they used to in 2001. You'd imagine things should improve with time. So ugly.

 

On what grounds?

 

Maybe huge bezels are the new "IN" things this year (2011)?

Probably similar to Apple's lawsuit with Samsung on their Galaxy S cellphone line being "similar" to the iPhone 3G(S)?

 

Apple has pretty large bezels and now everybody just pretty much follows apple (with some exceptions like sony), therefore big bezels. I can bet that if apple starts making computers with tiny bezels, 6 months later everyone will follow.

 

Exactly, the metal is a better conductor, turning it into a so-called "secondary heatsink" after the CPU's first heatsink, and because of that, it turns your lap into a so-called "tertiary heatsink" (same as MBPs and new HPs). In any case, sure, the metal casing would be good to remove heat from your CPU, but then transfer it straight into your lap

 

Does anyone know why the bezel needs to be so big? It is to include the webcam or protect the screen - i.e. prevent bending / breaking?

 

Design, which is intellectual property.. It would be like hyundai designing something very similar body design-wise to a BMW and then just sticking in different internals.

 

That thing has a very big trackpad too like the Apple notebooks. I think that many companies have figured that they can't compete with their own designs so they are just copying Apple. From my perspective, it provides competition, even if the competition is basically in the form of knockoffs.

Yeah, the bezel is huge - to the point of being ugly. No clue why it's so big. On my three-year-old MBP, the bezel is 1/2 inch.

I wonder why the Dell XPS 15z is your typical 5 pounds while the Asus (or Acer) is 2.4 pounds. It seems like everyone could make much lighter notebooks. Of course putting it altogether with the options 8GB, 512 GB, HD, etc. would be nice but it seems most aren't going there. At least not yet.

 

Yeah this is a senseless discussion. its like saying the mba and the samsung 9 compete with the x220 and the thinkpad x1, or that it will compete with the Z.

they are targeted at different niches.

bezel is something due to the screen technology that is used. I have a CCFL screen in my notebook and the bezel is a mere 1cm. Moreover its up to the internals of the notebook. There are some compromises that must be made for the TDP to be right.

 

anybody go to computex

 

To have more room for those obv

 

any pics out?

 

LOL! That made me laugh so hard... But it's true, i do that to my external monitor, although not on my Z

edit: after some further scrutiny, I'm assuming some poor fellow named Ed was away and got his monitor attacked by some post-it wielding girl by the name of Candace

 

It's so that they can fit a bigger keyboard on the below panel. This is typically the biggest knock on netbooks and even the older 10.6" TZs. Bigger bezels mean you have more space on that lower side to put in better spacing between the keys or bigger keys if you want to. I think that's a fairly defendable design choice (YMMV). Also, I'm a sucker for good build quality, and this guy with it' all metal build (and keys!) had me do a double take.

 

The bezel on the VPC/VGN-Z is probably only 10-12mm, and it's not CCFL, so I don't think it has to do with the screen so much. I think that they typically put the radio antennae around the bezel, which takes up a little space. You can see it here in this torn up VGN-Z:


Looking at the one leaked pic of the Z2, there is a large space either side of the keyboard, and I don't think the keyboard width has changed, so unfortunately I think we have to expect a slightly larger bezel on the upcoming Z2. This may be slightly mitigated if it goes from 13.1 to13.3".

 

I don't like the sound of that

 

well good thing u already have a Z1 then.

 

not saying that its limited to only CCFL, Im only saying that its limited to the tech employed, and that I have a CCFL one that is pretty thin, and my bezel is still thinner than the Z, not that it matters, not that most of the time is worth the thinness, not that its a great aesthetic decision, not that for most people it matters, not that having a smaller bezel would make the laptop any better....

 

I guess huge bezels are the "hot" thing right now (2011 fashion), which is probably why a lot of companies recently offer notebooks with "ginormous" screen bezels!

 

I have only one word, bootlicious!

 

THIS is booty-licious:

 

indeed! indeed!

+rep

 

as in taking up the entire boot of your car?

 

If that would be the reason, why don't put in a bigger screen without increasing the dimension of the notebook?

*rawr* this makes me sweat...

 

Big bezels are from apple. They wanted to taper the edge of the display to make the notebook look thinner, in order to do that they had to increase the bezel otherwise the display components wouldn't fit. If you look at the pre-unibody macbook pros, they had small bezels.

After apple did it, everybody else just assumed it was ok so hence we have large bezels on notebooks like the VAIO S.

 

I understand the top needs to be a bit ticker due to the webcam, but the sides no doubt can be thinner, max 1 cm, and I think my FWs side bezels are not even 1 cm, 8-9 mm max.

did beaups mention how the bezel on the new Z will be?

 

Here's the link:
Sonnet - New Product Announcement at NAB 2011
Check out the Echo Express towards the bottom of the page. It looks like it could take a double width full length card, no greater power draw than 150w. It has one 6 pin power connector. As far as I can tell that would mean a desktop HD 6770.

I was more thinking of linking it to the external unit that comes with the new vaio and then somehow running it in crossfire mode via an external screen. Probably just a pipedream though!

 

Totally makes sense. I think that answers the "why the hell are the 2011 bezels so big" question pretty well.

 

yes he said its going to be nori thin!

algae of the world unite!

 

Thanks +rep!! I'm wondering just how transparent the Thunderbolt protocol is. If PCI-E signals can be carried completely seamlessly, it would mean we can boot from an external enclosure. It should also mean that the crossfire mode is possible

 

that depends on the bios

 

Bezel, shemzel. I'm interested in the capabilities, quailty and specs of a machine. The size of the bezel is about a 12th order concern.

 

The problem is latency. The first generation Light Peak transforms Display Port and PCIe data into Light Peak data streams, and then unpacks it again at the end. This gains compatibility, but adds latency. For now, Displayport has an advantage not only in real life bandwidth, but also in latency, but that will likely change once 100% native Thunderbolt devices without a compatibility layer come out. But that won't be the Z2.

 

Do you have links to the expected % increase in latency over say just Display Port? I guess that might limit the number of devices, together with bandwidth requirements... They should also be doing this in hardware / firmware.

 

so anyone saw that ivy bridge will bring thunderbolt integrated

 

Are you saying that the external GPU on the Z2 won't work well? If so, I may not get it. I'll at least wait for the reviews.

Does Beaups have any comment on Z2's GPU performance?

 

if latency was a serious problem external attachments werent made, like express cards, vidocks, and so forth. not saying that latency is not an issue, its just that in this case it wont matter much

 

Do express cards, vidocks etc. use Thunderbolt? Do you have real-world measurements for Thunderbolt? If so, would you mind pointing me to the data, please? Thanks!

 

On one hand, I find it hard to believe that Sony would introduce a new technology on their most expensive/flagship notebook that didn't work really well.

On the other hand, I don't find it unbelievable.

 

I think it is the same thing that happened to USB3.0. There was no low-level native chipset support, so all vendors implemented 3rd party chips (NEC, Fresco Logic...) via PCIe. They were not as fast as a true USB3.0 interface from the southbridge but it was a reaction on the market (even USB3.0 did not have a big break through yet). Its the same thing for Sony I guess - they want to keep up with apples Thunderbolt implementation and show some innovative GPU thing. Like always, this stuff all depends on Intel's chips.

 

what measurements do you want? you do know that this is basically a pcie x4 interface, so you can get those from anywhere, wikipedia is a good source for hardware related knowledge, incredible as it is.

the good thing is that ivy bridge will bring the thunderbolt to the chipset, I want to see some schematics of how they would do that, but my bet is that they would use the same thing as they did on the imac, a southbridge supported thingy, however this would limit the bandwidth of the port.

yeah ivy is all about the chipset

 

OK, it's now early JUNE (at least here in Australia).

I want some juicy info now Sony!!!

 

Yeah, who doesn't like looking at their nice bezel instead of what could've been more screen real estate, bigger resolution, useful information, etc. while keeping the laptop size/weight the same.

Pretty much. Apple is the only one that can push innovation. If someone's gonna put a retina display into laptops, it will be them. Not Asus or Sony.

 

I am concerned with the features but the size and design are weighted just as heavily for me. I like most things big: Automatic watches, crew cab trucks, TVs, Jacuzzis, king sized beds, those are big and those are good. Women and bezels on the other hand the thinner the better.

 

yeah you are a US citie to the core

 

Too thin is not good too; I hate Kate Moss