New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Well I have an SA.

I wanted a Z for work and an SA for more "party & friends" house situations.

 

from an engineering standpoint, does the lid/feet design mean that u have to lift the back end of your laptop to open it?

 

Good point. Would be stupid if you'd have to do that.

 

I assume opening would push the feet/hinge under the laptop and lift it up. I'm more curious that if you push down on the keyboard, will the screen try to close on you. But i'm sure sony engineers thought of this stuff.

 

I think the feet are angled in such a way that will not happen.. But the other thing is if you apply too much force while typing (wrists on palmrest), will it bring stress to the hinge and eventually cause it to break?

 

If dell can get away with this

then sony can pull this off without the issues you are talking about. I've seen the adamo open up without having to life the rear

 

omg that dell computer is so stupid

 

DULL's design always cracks me up, that thing looks hideous.

 

haha i remember this.. too bad it got canned so quickly.. hope those dell engineers aren't working for sony now..

 

wiat... please tell me that there are left and right button on trackpad

 

See the 2 tone gray on the trackpad? The darker gray at the bottom of the trackpad are the buttons. They are glossy like the trackpad itself.

 

God that is fugly and useless. It's 2011, not 1996. Get display port and carry an adapter.

 

A few observations:

One of the reasons the [bottom part of the] bezel appears so thin in the VPC Z is that on the bottom, the screen rotates behind the barrel hinge which gives the illusion that the bottom part of the bezel is so thin. But it does appear that the other three edges are slightly wider.

We finally have a centered trackpad on a Sony computer.

That side image of the Sony Z from the Chinese site: ¡¾È«ÇòÊ×·¢£ºË÷ÄáÆì½¢ÐÂZ¹Ù·½ÕÕ£¬ÊÀ½ç×îÇá13´ç±Ê¼Ç±¾¡¿Ë÷Äá±Ê¼Ç±¾ÂÛ̳_IT168±¾ÓÑ»á

What is up with the hinge? It looks so fragile coming down from the computer like that.

Although the external dock thingy is thin, it's probably longer to accommodate the graphics card.

It's interesting that the VAIO indentation on the palmrest is not chromed like the Vaio SA. Instead it appears to be indented like the less expensive Vaios in Sony's current line. (I realize that's how it is on the VPC Z but they seemed to have moved upmarket by making it a separate chrome piece on the SA and leaving it a silkscreened image on the SB.)

Trackpad is small, and the clicker buttons are glossy. This raises the question of is it a one piece glass trackpad with software touch buttons instead of a physical button?

Matte carbon fiber lid appears to be an option.

What's up with the slit for the vent on the side on the keyboard plane. There's a small slit between the edge of the keyboard plane where the computer makes a 90 degree bend.

Overall, I am glad I got my Z13 when I did. This computer seems to lack style and function.

 

So we're only supposed to use this laptop on a flat table then? That limits it quite a bit.

 

Probably the speakers

 

Prob not as comfortable to use on one's lap..

 

Finally? That was the case even for the old Z.

You seem to be assuming it takes a standard graphics card. This is Sony; it is safe to assume that it will have a custom solution that can't be replaced - you have to buy a new model of both laptop and accessories to upgrade. It's the Sony way.

Touch buttons would be a deal breaker.

I hope the glass plate doesn't mean it's capacitive like many phones today. That would make it unusable for people with dry skin or cold hands (like people above 40, who happen to be those who can best afford this notebook), or people who use a fingernail for precision navigation.

As it is, I may get it by the end of the year, but only because I need a replacement which is a small laptop with at least 1600x900, and there aren't a lot to choose from. But it's gone downhill, IMO.

 

The Z has clearly been re-designed for the long term. ODDs are becoming a legacy item so are stand-alone GPUs for most applications. This trend will only accelerate when Ivy Bridge comes out. Ivy Bridge will mean a simple refresh for the Z instead of a new design. In the next year or so more and more laptops will come on the market that use/borrow/adapt various design elements from the new Z.

I kinda like the new Z. In some regards, it's come a long way from the Osborne 1.

 

Everything seems pretty great to me, although I'm still waiting to see what the external GPU will be.

The only thing I wish was different is if they put an extra USB port on the left.

 

The current Z's trackpad, as with most of Sony's trackpads are left justified. The one has the same distance between the edges on the left and the right.

 

Overall I think I like how new Z turned out but I have 2 reservations.

1. That screen stand is a great idea for table use but not sure about lap top use. Although laptop itself will be fairly light, it may still get uncomfortable.

2. Do we know anything regarding battery capacity ? This looks thinner than SA/SB and even those have only 50whr battery. Hopefully Z will have the same capacity or more.

 

Keep in mind it doesn't have an optical drive inbuilt so the battery could be larger than the SA

 

Very excited about the return of right FN key, but really not impressed with anything else so far...

 

Just noticed, no microphone jack..? Whats up with that?

 

I may be very wrong but most likely, that is going to be a headphone/microphone combo jack.

 

Aren't all touchpads capacitive? (hint, the answer is "yes")

 

Never bought a headset with a combo before probably because I've never seen them.

Here's the adapter if anyone is interested.

 

This is actually true for VGN-Z, and anyone in the VGN-S/SZ/SR and then VPC-S family. I am not sure having a raised chrome characters there that could scratch the screen is a good idea, to tell you the truth.

 

I know it's been like this forever [regarding the chrome VAIO logo]. But on the SA it's essentially a chrome VAIO logo that is put into the indented VAIO logo. Thus, it's flush.

 

No, some are resistive. And of the capacitive, most aren't surface capacitive, like most mobile phone screens are, but field capacitive and can detect your finger even through dry skin.
The mobile phones are surface capacitive because you don't want a phone in your shirt pocket to react to your nipple through the shirt fabric. On a laptop, there's no such concern, so it would be foolish to make it that way.

 

You should explain the surface capacitive to my girlfriend, it seems her butt always presses random buttons and texts. Same thing goes with my phone, I can leave the screen on by accident and put it in my pocket yet somehow I can access Facebook and almost post on my wall with some random letters.

Can you also name 3 laptops that have resistive trackpads? Haven't been able to find any.

 

^Really.

What laptops use a resistive touchpad?

No laptop I have ever owned, including the VPC-Z I'm typing this on, is/was resistive.

Try scribbling on your Z touchpad with the backside of a pen.

 

That won't work if you only want to use an external mic and not headphones at the same time. Insert that adapter, and the speakers will switch off.
External mic + speakers is, incidentally, is how I do internet voice - a directional mic allows me the freedom of not using headphones, without causing feedback.

 

That's why you attach speakers to the Headset end of the adapter? I don't see the problem. Yes, attaching the adapter will disable the laptop speakers but the combo jack is mostly used with headphones.

 

Regarding GPU, on the chinese site someone mention here:
¡¾È«ÇòÊ×·¢£ºË÷ÄáÆì½¢ÐÂZ¹Ù·½ÕÕ£¬ÊÀ½ç×îÇá13´ç±Ê¼Ç±¾¡¿Ë÷Äá±Ê¼Ç±¾ÂÛ̳_IT168±¾ÓÑ»á

Translated with google translate:

(I dont know whether it is stated as a fact or just a guess/speculation...)

 

I reckon some of the toughbooks might have resistive touchpads

 

6550, what a disappointment

 

Touchscreens are resistive but I don't see any info about the trackpads being as well.

Could be worse. Decent GPU.

 

^Don't think it's a 6550.....

 

Okay, 6550 M.

 

Many if not most of the Panasonic Toughbooks do, and I'm pretty sure my old IBM/Lenovo (Yamamoto class) had one too.

If it's a pencil with the right type of rubber on the end, it might work

The VPC-Z is quite forgiving, while the VGN-Z is slightly less so. Yes, they're both capacitive, but they also have a large field and are coated with a depressable membrane, which both means they work with dry skin, and resists accidental brushing. With glossy hard touchpads, you don't have that advantage, and they tend to work really badly with cold and dry fingers, and detects phantom presses if you accidentally touch them.

The Nook e-reader and Motorola Drois are good examples of surface capacitive glossy pads that a great many people just can't use, because their fingers aren't capacitive enough to register.

 

6550M is pretty much the same as the 6630M in the SA isn't it? I was hoping for something a little better like the rumored 6770M

I kinda doubt its the 6550 tho. Why use a graphics card so close in performance to the 6630 when you could just use the 6630? Wouldn't it make more sense from a manufacturing standpoint?

I wish they would just put a ing 6970 in the .

 

usually just rumors, "据说"

 

Essentially. It's only better in benchmarks because it's a higher performance 500 series while the 600 series (6630) is the weakest performance in it's series.

 

The weights are in line with what we've been hearing tho. 2.5lb and 1.5lb. So maybe there is some truth to that post.

 

Nah I still don't believe there are resistive touchpads out there, sorry...I want to see proof

Besides, how awful would it be to have to push down on a touchpad. It'd really be unusable IMO.

Back to Z.....

 

People on the chinese thread keep saying "LZ". What is the LZ?

 

it's the chinese equivalent of OP.

 

Ok guys i found the video review of the sony vaio z21 , the video review shows the z21 laptop made and the GPU is nvidia geoforce 9300M GS. Check it out for yourrself :

IT PRO | Sony VAIO Z21