New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Z Series : VAIO & computing : Overview : Sony

 

here's a thread by engadget: Sony's ultraslim 13-inch VAIO Z laptop revealed in Europe, packs external GPU for power on demand -- Engadget

Also, for those that are just arriving... and complaining about the price... this is NOT the laptop for you. Whew this brings back memories of last year when the VPC-Z1 was announced and people flooded this forum to look at the specs and pics and as soon as they saw the price and got their bubble bursted they started bashing on the price...

You pay for the small package and the engineering that goes into this. Anyone can carve a plastic box and shove tons of components inside... that's not the point of a Z...

 

Awesome, look what is on the MacRumors forums' front page currently:

Example of an External Dock and GPU Over Thunderbolt Technology - Mac Rumors

 

Well said. I am looking forward to the release in US very much! The idea of being able to have a 2.7 lbs ultramobile laptop with you is awesome. If going on a long trip, slap on the power sheet. I believe this is what most of us have been waiting for.

Still not really sure about the Power Media Dock. I guess it's really up to what you need the laptop for. For me, business only means tons of spreadsheet and powerpoints, so the Power Media Dock is a good-to-have, but not a necessity.

Anyone has input on the Intel HD 3000 graphic? How well does it do 1080p?

 

Thank you guys.

I see that its shape changed!!! Or that the same form as the old??

What about the graphics card??

Is Sandy Bridge processor????

 

yes it is sandy i7-dualcore 2620m

gfx is 6650m by AMD thou, it is optional.

and for me i love the idea of dock is optional, since i have no need of it what so ever.

 

so does it have thunderbolt or not?
can i not buy the dock and use other egpu options like echoexpress?

 

Actually, the price isn't that bad, especially considering the top of the line i7 and the 2 256gb SSDs in RAID0. There really is nothing in its performance class, especially at 2.6lbs.

 

It is a new slimmer design, the graphics card is located in a doc that it attar he's to via some type of usb3.0? Yes it is a sandyvridges processor starting at the i5 prob.

Also I'm not QQing over this vein out of my price range I know I don't want to spend more then 2 grand for a laptop. People are not aloud to hope for lower prices? If you decide yeah I'm just gonna buy whatever comes out and is most expensive then your no different then the guy who says he wants the best Mac he can find.

If people want to pick up this beautiful notebook I won't judge them. I just hope most people know what they are getting (I would say most do). I have always loved Japanese construction and lines. It would go to reason that to get an i7 and atleast a 256Gb ssd it is gonna run you 3.5 grand min.

 

dock is optional, it has proprietaries thunderbolt

 

I really don't understand why people are upset about the price. If you think it's too expensive, don't buy it?

I am still extremely happy with my z13 even with the huge cost associated with it initially, there was no other machine that could rival it in terms of performance at it's form factor at the time, and even now, you would be hard pressed to find something similar.

13 inch ultra portable gaming capable machine that hopefully will be as cool running as the z13? GIMME!

If the question was posed: What is the smallest most powerful laptop you could get, cost is not a factor, the proposed new z is the perfect answer.

 

To those who complain about the price, please don't buy it.

 

They are saying everywhere it has a Radeon 6650M but the UK Sony site shows an NVIDIA logo beside the external unit.


They also mentioned in the engadget article that it comes with an optical Thunderbolt implementation which I suspect to be not the case here.

 

You see the cable to the right of the dock in the photo? I may be wrong, but I think that may be the optical cable connection that the article is talking about.

On 2nd thoughts, that cable seems to be fixed to the dock. I wonder if that cable physically broke through wear & tear or something, are owners of this dock "screwed" as in have to buy a whole new dock to replace the one with a broken cable?

 

This means that there is no slot cedi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but why ?????????????

 

May be it is a power source to charge the main unit?

 

33525.58 Hong Kong Dollars!!!!

 

Looks like £ 1,434.00 base price
Z Series : VAIO & computing : Models : Sony

 

From UK CTO site [works for me only in IE]: http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-z-series/tab/models

4 colors - Black, Blue, Gold + 20£ Carbon premium

I7-2620M - 180£
W7-Ultimate - 100£
SSD - standard 128. 256 - 430£, 512GB - 1170£
memory - 8GB - 110£
DOCK - Blu-ray writer - 525£, BD reader - 450£, DVD supermulti - 400£
1920x1080 - 40£ (damn cheap)
WWAN 3G - 100£
Sheet battery - 60£
backlit keyboard - 15£

As I would take it 3100£ - well, I'm definitely taking it

 

can configure it here
https://shop.sony.co.uk/shop/VAIO-Laptop-PCs/Z-Series-13-1?CSRT=16874061717351801799

 

pictures :

 

2 pre configured models on Sony-asia.com
no pricing

VPCZ217GH/X
VPCZ217GH : Z Series : VAIO Notebook : Sony Asia Pacific

VPCZ217GG/X
VPCZ217GG : Z Series : VAIO Notebook : Sony Asia Pacific

Just did a comparison and cant seem to find the difference between the two apart from the OS language pack...lol
http://www.sony-asia.com/product/Co...=hp_en_AP_i&models=VPCZ217GG&models=VPCZ217GH

 

why ?????

iLove 2010 more >

 

Crazy that my total on the 2540 i5, 256 SSD, 1080p with PMD through conversion is 3200+ tax. I hope we get a little different pricing here in the states.

So what chip to get? 2540 i5 or 2620 i7?

 

Ok so far the pricing is actually looking quite good, mostly because the power dock is optional!

A configured base model with the basic i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, standard display, WWAN, backlit keyboard, no Powerdock, and sheet battery included is £1609 inc vat. That's not bad for a thin and light premium Sony (I'm just thinking back to what I paid for my Sony X)

However what I feared is that SSD capacity upgrades would be disproportionately expensive as per normal Sony markups, and here is no exception; an extra £410 to bump to 256GB from 128GB. Looks like there'll have to be an external storage solution!

I've not seen specific mention of it yet (I think), but I assume there's both an SD slot and MS Duo slot somewhere?

 

Someone explain to me the advantage of the Gen 3 flash and is the ram user upgradeable.

 

OK What about i5 ?????????????

 

Question to the hardware gurus, please.

I'm a photographer using Photoshop CS5 for 2d photography and no 3d design or gaming. I need a new laptop and am torn between dell M4600 "mobile" workstation which is damned powerful but heavy with a large power supply and effectively needs mains electricity, and the new z2. I know they are entirely different beasts and fulfill different roles, but both roles are useful to me on different occasions. I can't afford both, so have to make a choice of one or other... I have (had!) an early z1 but somewhere along the line my student daughter turned a brief loan into a longer loan into what now appears to be a permanent thing... How much of an improvement will the external dock video solution give me over the integrated intel graphics? In other words how much of a photoshop performance hit to carry only the new z "body" without the additional dock. Do I lose CS5 features with the intel graphics??
Thanks guys.

 

Is there any better option that i7 2620??
I meas is there any quad core option at all?? I'm sorry but the link does not work for me
I'm looking for a light notebook, and I have a vaio sz and a pimped out overpriced 2010 mbp 17. Obviously, the sz (from more than 5years ago) is way too outdated and it wasn't switched on for long time now. While the build quality on the sz was ok untill the fan broke but the driver support from sony was the worst I've experienced so far.
So, I'm just wondering if sony ever improved with there softwares support over the years?? and how is the build quality of the last years Z series???
Would you recommend Vaio Z??

 

should be on US tomorrow?

 

really no need for i7, it is not necessary at best

 

sony uk site worked for me in Internet explorer but not in chrome??????

 

does anybody know whether the New Z has same SSD set up as the Z13? I mean, 2 mSATA drives

 

Yeh sony EU sites don't work well with chrome.

 

Have you looked at hp 8560w with dreamcolor display??
I've never seen the display but people say its the best, and sue your daughter. I kid

 

I would love quad core though, and that i7 2620 isn't that much better than i5 2520 which is priced much less. So, I was wondering if there's an actual i7 quad option available???

 

No there isn't.

Quad core in a design that thin would generate too much heat.

 

So it's official on both Sony Europe and Sony Asia. When will it be on the America site...

 

two fans at bottom?

 

Oh yea, that makes sense, they ar 35w cpus : )

 

Haven't looked that that one- will do some research. Thanks

 

Hello board,

Do you have any clue about a chance we get this beauty working in Linux?

I guess the bare laptop (without the dock) may somewhat work out of the box. I'm not sure about the Lightpeak link though...

So I might as well take a two step approach:
- first the laptop
- later the dock, once it's supported...

Or maybe the lightpeak behaves just like a standard PCI-E port and would then be working OOTB as well?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn9hDnRCu00

Njoy

 

Probably 35w processors in a tight space needs two fans??
I was looking at it too and wondered about how the fan noise would be : )

 

I guess we'll have to wait for those fancy Vaio Z designer stories....

 

the larger the surface area of the fan, the less noise

because there are 2 fans rather than 1, the surface area is larger, meaning it will be more quiet

 

Well surprisingly the new Z is on the polish sony website

VPCZ21V9E
VPCZ21M9E

Only difference I see is the SSD drive capacity, no price of course, but I can easily imagine the price now

 

I own the "old" Z with an I7 620, 8GB Ram, 256 SSD, FullHD and dicrete GPU.

Some days ago I thought about selling my Z and getting the new Z. But for me the new one has no real benefits.
It is only 300g lighter than my Z, I think it will not be so much faster compared to first gen I7 and the old Design is really cool with the cylindrig hinges

The Z was alway a powerhorse for me. Really great screen (FHD), fast processors, "powerful" GPU and an internal optical drive (When I am on the move with the netbook of my girlfriend I often miss the ODD!).

Another !NO! for me is the price of the new Z. 1760 Euro for the basic unit. With the Dock it will cost ~2160 Euro! When I want to have the I7, more SSD capacity, more Ram, FHD, Backlit keyboard I nearly reach prices over 3000 Euro. For an ultraslim designnotebook this price is over the top and I think in the near future there will be ultraslim designed notebooks with equal power, equal build quality but a much lower price.

 

hope the display is really premium :|

 

Hi,
I've been lurking at this thread for a while now, but wanted the specs to be finalized before making my mind.

As a current Z1 ci7 FHD owner I am a bit confused by the new Z. On the pro side I find:

* Interesting concept of dividing the laptop for tethered/mobile work. Can't say my Vaio's been usable with the Nvidia card while running on battery, battery times have been dismal at best
* Light-weight, Sandy bridge, updated graphics and sheet battery - once again interesting.

On the cons side I find:
* My experience of previous two-part solutions (my old Thinkpad x30 with a detachable ODD) is that one never seems to carry the add-on unit when needed. Also, it's not like I'm bothered by the bulk and weight of my current Vaio-Z; like having an all-in-one solution.
* Looks frail, waay too thin, that hinge looks like a design gimmick waiting to turn into a catastrophe
* pricing
* performance of the 6650 compared to the current Nvidia 330M
* Proprietary connectors, proprietary drivers? If so, that means I've just about had it with Sony and their CRAPPY DRIVER SUPPORT!!

One thing that baffles me is the choice of video-ports. Fine with HDMI on the cpu-unit, by why HDMI & VGA (!!!) on the dock?! AFAIU the only way to connect a monitor with higher than 1920x1080 resolution is through the VGA port!?

Shame on you Sony, if that's the case. It's anno 2011, I'd like support for a 2560x monitor, preferrably dual.
my 2c