New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Nice. At least, that sounds good to me.

 

I for one love the idea of an external GPU.

I only ever use the GPU when I play a game (like once a week) or when I get back from a trip and want to take my pictures through photoshop anyhow but it's nice to have the option.

Also, I can pack the Z in my shoulder bag while I travel and have the option of putting the GPU in the 2nd bag should I think I need it, thus saving weight.

For me it is all about weight, battery life and style... we'll see if this new Z can deliver but I think it will.

 

You know this?

 

Depends what your definition of what running the current Z on dedicated GPU on battery really means. Gaming? you get like 45-60 minutes run time from full charge. IMO that means you can't really run it on battery.

 

I don't. Does the external ODD/GPU, or at least the ODD, run on battery? I don't care much about GPUs but if I can't watch a movie in flight, that would lower the utility of the machine.

 

^not sure.

You watch movies from an actual disc still?

 

For the upcoming VAIO Z series notebook, I think the "best" way is probably to rip whatever movie discs (DVDs/Blu-ray discs) you want onto the SSD in advance before going on your flight. I mean carrying the notebook plus the external box thingy is not going to be as portable, which is the main reason for buying the VAIO Z notebook, is it?

 

How long does it take to rip a blue-ray these days?

 

You're a bit behind the times now arth1. Even the corporate standard HP Elitebooks and BlackBerrys come with cameras. Corporate IT departments have moved on to disabling them in firmware or software.

 

Beaups, what can I say? I'm old school. I watch very few movies, probably only a couple a month (one reason why the external ODD is not a problem). NetFlex by mail works well for that.

 

has anyone mentioned how thick the z will be with its battery slice?

 

That doesn't work when you visit a business and have to present your laptop and phone to security before they let you in. Yes, there are places like that. It's where the big contracts are.

 

how does one get away with taking photos with their laptop?

 

Does anyone know what the external GPU will be?

Did I read a 6630 correctly? Surely they they would give us a better option.

 

indeed thats why business models still comes with the option

 

depends on the drive and the disc. Usually 30-40 mins for most of the discs I do.

I like internal nvidia graphics because I can bring my LT into the livingroom and just plug it into the projector and watch 3D stuff. If I wanted to do that with the new Z I would first have to buy AMDs 3D system then bring the external unit with me.

I don't think saving .5 lbs is worth putting the GPU outboard.
I can live without the ODD, I am replacing the Blu-ray drive in my Z with a 600GB SSD when I have some extra cash.

AMD sucks also.

I am going to get a ViDock and the best nVidia GPU I can fit in it.

I am NOT saying that I won't buy the new Z, it may serve a different purpose for me. I don't know. The current Z is good for everything without any external crap. If I need something to just grab and go I grab the P. When I don't need graphics I also don't need a lot of horsepower.

 

I'd like to know too. A friend gave me this program called, "123 DVD Copy Platinum", purchased at Office Max. I recall some years ago Best Buy had to take all these Burning Program off the shelves due to some copy rights. Anyway, it appears these programs are back. Was reading through what this program can do and it mentions it can rip BR Discs to BR Discs or Blu-Ray Discs to Regular DVD's, or simply converts BR/DVD's and rip them to your hard drive. It can convert movies to MP4 for iPad, iPhone or Android viewing, etc. etc. Does music too. I question if the manufacturer provides updates for these programs to work year after year. Probably won't last a year if they don't.

Is this what you guys recommend for the New Z if you want to load a bunch of movies when traveling for an extensive period of time?

Also, the design of the Z2 is very bland. Resembles the S/ABC too much. No differentiation. I had hope Sony maintained the barrel design with its Z2 Series and improve from it.

 

I don't think it's been officially confirmed what the GPU will be. A lot of people seem to be getting worked up about it being a 6630 without confirmation yet.

 

You definitely don't need a good GPU for Photoshop unless you're doing 3D stuff (I think it's possible in CS5?). You need good GPU only for 3D stuff (e.g. 3D modelling, gaming, etc). Exceptions are very few and I can't of any at the moment.

I think good GPUs are way overrated in non-3D fields of use.

 

Sony VAIO Z21 Series mentioned on various European sites, isn't actually for sale yet -- Engadget
Is that rumour really true, or is the new z really going to come in 2 parts?
cause that sucks

 

It's always more energy efficient to play the ripped movie than actually spinning an optical. However, a BD can hold 50GB, and a vanilla Z only has 128GB SSD, so most likely you have to reduce quality to hold lots of them.

 

Using optical disks for movies is far better than SSDs, I wouldn't ever use SSDs for storage (just temporary for working files). But optical disks aren't that great either, you won't watch those movies forever. I suggest using external HDD, they are really cheap and you can delete movies after you're done watching them. It's also more convenient to carry 2.5" external HDD than a bunch of optical disks (and you have to have unused ones available to burn new stuff).

 

Ok. It's gone a little quiet, which concerns me a little.

Do we have a release date for the new Z? Is this confirmed?

cheers

 

Thsi thread has been active as hell lately, and beaups has been posting more than usual. A sign?

Beaups has previously stated that "A little earlier than july 27th" will be the shipping/in-store availability date

 

Really late June - Early July.

Honestly, these are the kind of specs I would buy if the Z comes out:

$1999:

-Core i5 2520m
-4 GBs of RAM
-128 GB SSD - possibly 256 GBs for the price
-Less than one inch thick, about 2.5 lbs
-1600x900 LCD Display - not sure if 1080p will put a strain on my eyes or not
-External Slice Battery - 12 Hours of realistic runtime

External GPU unit:

-Blu-Ray disc player
-AMD Radeon 6770 or better Desktop card

Otherwise I am most likely going Mac, since I am going into industrial design next year and all my instructors use them, it will just make things easier.

 

"Really late June - Early July."

Is that a guess or do you have some inside info?

 

Well, some of us are looking forward to a powerful i7 and ssd based, 2.5 lb laptop with a decent screen where, if you need to carry around a portable odd and gpu, it only adds 1.5 lb to your load.

 

No inside info, but beaups stated it and several sources are saying that's when it's most likely going to happen.

 

beaups said a tad earlier than July 27th for the date at which it's in stores available for sale. I would interpret a "tad" as between July 20th to 25th.

I thought maybe you had some info that it would be announced "Really late June - Early July." which would be great because I really don't want to go through another whole month with no new information. Oh well, I'll live.

 

At one point, it was late June....now it's a tad early than July 27.

 

Any chance we will get an announcement with some new pictures early july?

 

Time will tell.

 

niccccccccce

 

Dang.....Those SA prices at ABT are so expensive. The price points are similar to when the VPC-Z was first introduced. Now, I'm speculating the Z2 will be in high $2000 to $4000 range. That's just crazy.

 

There's no way that this will have a base price starting at more than $1999. I'm speculating $1399 to $1799 starting price in the US. Of course an i7 CPU, 1080p display, 256GB+ SSD and 8GB RAM could push it close to $3000

 

why people hype so much about thunderbolt? it is not that fast for GPU, i believed it is like PCI-E 2.0 4x, that is way too slow for modern GPU isn't it?

 

lol...There's just no way. Okay, for the sake of argument, stick around, I'll give you "rep points", if they mean anything to you, should the basic Z2 fall under your speculated range of $1399-$1799.

 

maybe like 1399 bitcoins...

 

so here's something new perhaps...

it appears a new filling on the FCC website for the new Z series, the previous model, PCG-41311L comes with the Gobi3000 WAN while the PCG-41313L ships with no WAN. One can google gobi3000, to get more info.

Now a third model of the new Z has appeared on the FCC, the PCG-41312L, this model ships with the LTE M7750 WAN, the tests were submitted back in may, on the 17th, but it appears the tests were done in early april. this is the text in the filling "850/1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSPA/CDMA/EvDO and Band 13 LTE Laptop with bluetooth and WLAN", pre-production was noted in the papers

specs here
Sierra Wireless - MC7750 LTE, EVDO and HSPA+ wireless module

 

ascariss, thanks. This means that european market will get machines with Gobi3000. Would you give us direct links to FCC? LTE is a great step forward, though it accustomed only to one particular US provider that works with the 700 MHz range.

 

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...N&application_id=300109&fcc_id='AK8PCG41312L'

summary
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...0&application_id=300109&fcc_id='AK8PCG41312L'

 

^ dziękuję bardzo!

 

Point is, you can sell corporate laptops and phones with cameras now as long as you provide administrative tools to disable them. HP, Dell, and BlackBerry all do it.

And I don't deny your experience and may not travel as frequently as you, but it's been a while since I've been somewhere that allowed personal phones & laptops without cameras but not with. 3-5 years ago that seemed to be much more common.

 

I wonder if it's possible to get an unlimited data plan with the LTE, I got mine with the Droid Charge (and I'm totally abusing that ). Someone should try...

 

in indeed is a pcie 2.0 x4, and most modern gpus cant fill the x8.

the point is that I can get a desktop gpu and put it in there and achieve incredible results, even with a pcie x1 people are getting great fps from the gtx 460, rivaling the performance of the gtx 460m that can only fit much larger laptops, and yes as you can see by the results, I said, that the bandwidth is quite a bottleneck here, since the gtx 480m should be the aim, since the gtx 460 is the base card for that.

So to get a pettit laptop, and to game like a 17'' monster is still quite a feat

 

I wonder if this external device will combine optical drive, discrete GPU AND AC adapter?

 

If the new Z has an option for integrated LTE support in the US, that would be a big plus for me -- more than enough to make up for a relatively weak GPU.

In that the GPU is intended to be used with AC power (even if limited battery-only time is possible) it seems suprising that the Z won't come with a faster card. I wonder, without any support, if the thunderbolt connection is the reason why the GPU isn't faster.

 

I don't know what the reason is, but I was expecting a relatively good GPU in the external unit. That would make up for the missing dedicated GPU in the laptop and justify the decision to put the GPU outside (due to heat and battery life).

But if the external unit actually has just a 6630M or similar, it would make no sense to me, would be very disappointing and then I really would prefer to have this "weaker" GPU inside the laptop.

 

It may be possible that one reason for the external GPU is to show off aka market the capabilities of Thunderbolt. On the other hand, Sony may have gone external to have the lightest (and most powerful) 13" notebook, not that those goals are mutually exclusive.

 

a lot of ppl already bought x220 I guess this thread is maybe only for z super fans now