New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Surely you know that European models have a large Carriage Return key?
I'm less pleased with the tiny shift key - that is, perhaps, a deal breaker for me, as I touch type. This new Z doesn't seem to be made for pros -- everything screams casual consumer.

 

I completely agree with you.

Dedicated column for page down, page up keys has been always convenient for me especially when coding or navigating web.

However, at the same time, I am delighted that sony decided put full size directional key with an extra "FN" key on the right side. I hope I can use page down, page up keys with one hand easily, so I won't miss that extra column of navigating keys.

As far as tiny right shift key is concerned, I rather have full-size directional keys + extra FN key than a full size shift key (that I never seemed to fully utilize it), although I understand that it can be a deal breaker for some people.

 

A directional mic is quite nice to have when doing conferencing - it means you don't have to wear a silly headset, and can leave the speakers on without having to non-stop mute/unmute, or have the first word of every sentence eaten by automated muting software.

This won't be an option with the new Z, because plugging in a mic in the combined port will mute the speakers. It's just another sign that this is a consumer laptop.

 

LG's quality is above the average, I would say. I am still using my 6 years old LG laptop and it's still running great.

 

yea 2.6lbs full voltage i7 1080p gen3ssd and bat expensive pricetag TOTALLY screams "casual consumer"

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It looks a bit like just a show-off: "Hey look at this dock, isn't it cool? Well you can't use it on battery mode, but hey isn't it cool?"

You could be right about the lack of charging power through thunderbold. It could also be due to the optical cable. But even if they didn't manage to put enough power through the dock to power up the GPU it would have been nice to power the ODD nonetheless. That would be way inside the usual USB-Power specs

But concerning a desktop replacement I must say that if I wanted to replace my desktop the GPU power of the external unit would be way to low! You can't compare that AMD Mobile GPU to any decent and recent full size Graphics card. Also for me a desktop replacement would definetely be more in the 17' notebook category.

 

You know this?

 

I wouldn't count on it. This keyboard seems to have keys with extremely short travel - less than the old Z. That's not good for gaming.

 

If it's anything like any other combined mic/headphone port, yes, it will mute the speakers when anything is plugged into it. Of course, this is Sony, so it could be Like.N ther., but then you'd be jarateed if you wanted to get an adapter, so that alternative isn't any better...

 

Well according to the Sony webpage you should be able to use the VAIO IRSP in Canada no matter if you bought your Vaio in the US or in Europe or Asia during the first year after purchase.

 

I am still a little bit worried about hinge and a rubber sticking out to the bottom when lid is open.

Does it mean that when the laptop is placed on a desk, we can only open the lid at certain angles?

 

No.

10char

 

Thanks a lot for the confirmation.

 

I guess we'll have to wait and see. I thought modern sound card drivers gave you more control than this, but I certainly could be wrong. You could also use a USB mic or USB to line in adapter, if that's a particular need of yours...as rare as that may be. BTW Who else is (Windows) combining line in/out ports?

I value your opinion on a lot of things, but it seems your posts are borderline trolling in this thread lately.

 

Many prefer a shorter throw keyboard for gaming (me included)...technically less travel = faster.

 

If you notice, the rubber feet are angled, but in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION. If the feet are flat on the table, the screen would only open up to about 60 degrees. When the screen is open 90degress or more, the rubber are being rested on its point, thus allowing it to be opened at any angle.

 

About the SSD:

The old Z the SSD's were NOT replaceable with a standard 2.5" Newegg drive (thinking cheap upgrades), but the RAM was.

Looks like the new Z the Ram is proprietary BUT the SSD looks allot closer to a bare 2.5" form factor. Any ideas on the likely hood of replacing the SSD with a Newegg model (even if a special interconnect is needed)?

 

Agreed

10c

 

Indeed it does. The same crowd that buys cameras based on megapixels or cars based on engine size, and think that a high price means high quality and not just high bling factor.

A fast CPU is good, as long as it doesn't lead to overheating, like in previous Zs. When the CPU throttles due to heat, or the machine abruptly turns off, it's not worth it.

1080p, sure, but it's a TN screen, not an IPS, like in the old TT. Bad viewing angles, 6-bit colour -- certainly not pro class.

Generation 3 SSD? Quality hasn't improved - it's the manufacturing costs that went down, and capacity up. But they have higher fault rate / lower reliability (thus a higher percentage has to be set aside for bad block mapping). Thus consumer, not pro, who would go with SLC drives any day.

2.6 lb? That's with a 45 Wh battery, and no discrete graphics acceleration. With that small a battery, you either have to carry with you a power brick, or use the sheet battery, in which case it's not nearly as light anymore. And still no discrete 3d graphics.

This laptop is clearly meant to woo the Apple crowd. Form over function, and impressive numbers instead of quality.

I was contemplating getting it, as I need a new laptop this year, but after what I've read and seen so far, no way. It's just not business class, and that's what I need.

 

im not even gonna bother. just stop complaining and don't buy it. Good luck finding an alternative.

 

I am looking forward to the benchmark tests and hope that they compare the z1 against the z2 with dock and without dock. I do a lot of HD video editing and need the processing power when I travel but am not sure if I want to carry a dock and an extra power brick along with everything else.

 

If you prefer it, all the more power to you. I prefer long travel.
Short travel also tends to imply no tactile response. The top gaming keyboards are long travel with Cherry MX mechanical switches with a light positive feedback (i.e. you can feel when it engages and disengages).

 

There is a thread on this forum about replacing the Vaio Z's (VPC-Z1) SSDs with 1.8" SSDs which you can buy from Newegg or whatever (works with both the C300's and the intel ones)

 

Sony VAIO Z components - Engadget Galleries

 

Thanks a bunch +1

 

Thanks goldentreesang. Just hope they do one without the docking station to see how it compares to the z1. I have enough in my travel bag but need the power.

 

Macbook Pro (which also runs Windows, btw.) And some Asus models.

USB is an option, true. Or an Expresscard sound card.

Not trolling - just disillusioned. I really wanted to get a new Z, but feel let down, because the changes are pretty much all negative for the way I use my laptop. I'm glad if others like it, but I have now decided that it's just not going to work for me.
So I'm actually hunting around to see whether some place still has an unopened 2nd gen Z for sale. If not, I may have to go with a Panasonic, even though the resolution sucks, and I have to order from Dynamism or someone to get other models than the battleships (which is all they sell in the US).

 

Do you live near Philadelphia or Rehobeth Beach? I know those 2 locations still have the vpc-z13 and vpc-z11 (repectively) in stock.

 

No, up in New England, where we don't have any Sony stores, just maple syrup and moose...

Are these Sony outlet stores? If so, I can call them (and if so, thanks!)

 

The rehobeth one is an outlet store. The philly one i believe is a normal sony style store, but i just called today and they said they had a z13, which i found odd cuz usually only the outlet stores carry the older models.

 

Fair enough. I think maybe you WANT to hate it though. I said early on it isn't for everyone.

You bring up good point about many items, but miss a few.

While it's not IPS, it's the best 13" laptop display on the market
It's the lightest full-voltage CPU laptop on the market. Hell, it might be the lightest 13" regardless of voltage

The battery life will be good, not great. You know as well as I do that engineering plays a big role in battery life, it's not all about WH. When I was doing light browsing, windows consistently seemed to think it could get between 5-6 hours. Good, maybe even very good, but not "great" I agree.

I certainly wouldn't call it a "consumer" laptop. I'm not sure how you qualify a "business" laptop, but I'll be using this for business. Maybe I'm the only business user that doesn't need a standalone direction mic out there?

But I agree this isn't the laptop a company buys 500 of to hand out to their field reps. It's the laptop the executives get (the same execs pushing their IT guys to get them MBA's). The field reps get the old D530's

There's a lot I don't like. I don't like the small touchpad. I'm on the fence about the eGPU setup (although I VERY rarely use the gpu). But once you pick one of these things up, it just might change you. It's pretty amazing.

 

Thanks, Stormblade. I still don't see where it says that on the web site, but I'll take your word for it.

 

look here under "countries in which IRSP applies":
Info doc

 

Maybe I'm not understanding this right... but Sony implemented light peak with the optical and USB 3 reference design and Apple ditched the optical and used Mini DisplayPort (which no one else uses). Sony's port is also a fully functional and backwards compatible USB 3 interface.


Ok, maybe it works out that for some reason Sony's implementation ONLY works with the Sony accessories- if true, this is stupid indeed, but IMHO I'd take the USB 3 port with copper and optical over a rarely-seen mini DisplayPort with copper only. You can't just say they should have made it copper and MiniDP just because Apple did it that way first.

Also, from a link posted by someone earlier, read this excerpt:
Intel Also Launching 'Light Peak' Thursday - Mac Rumors

 

On my Z1, I simply remapped the Application key and right CTRL keys as PGUP and PGDN using SharpKeys. It's more inconvenient for me not to have PGUP/DN than it is not to have a right CTRL key.

 

So does this mean that we would be able to use 3rd party accessories (like a better external gpu) with the Z?

 

I seriously think "no", since Sony are constantly mentioning that their plug is "propriety" and "based on lightpeak"

It's a big missed opportunity.

 

Either that or it's a bluff to keep you from trying

 

Maybe we'll be able to swap the gpu in Sony's dock with something better .

 

^This. I used sharp keys to remap the right alt as home and the right click application key (don't know what it's called but it's the one to the right of the right alt) to end. F11 and F12 are my page up and page down keys.

 

Am I correct in asserting that the HDMI connector will be limited to 1920x1200 resolution?
It's important in terms of assessing what size monitor(s) might be connected.

 

Are we going to be able to upgrade ram by ourselves?
(if not, I guess I have to get 8gb ram for sure).

By pictures I have seen, there seem to be no custom slots whatsoever,

and sony seems to use its proprietary memory module...

 

Can anyone please tell me if brand new Vaio VPC Z13ECX/B is available for purchase somewhere in the US ? Thanks.

 

Overall I quite like the new Z. The design is sexy but I am not sure if it is as good as the last Z. Power Media Dock is fine, but I too was expecting a more powerful offering.
And the price is the same as the previous Z at least here in the Asia Pacific region. 3555$ for the Z217 with Full HD 96% Adobe RGB/100% NTSC screen, i7 2620M, 8 gb ram, 256gb ssd and power media dock

But what disappoints me is that this new Z is no longer the superhero of laptops as the last Z was. I do not know about you all, but at least for me what drew me to the Z was that it was one of fastest laptops in the market last year with the i7 640m and its super fast Quad SSD. This year, though we pay the same premium we don't get the world beating performance.
The i7 2620M just cannot match up to the quad core i7 processors in performance. Even with the gen 3 SSD I am guessing even laptops costing half the price of the new Z will outperform it.

I'd still get it, but not for myself And p.s. I am not trolling, a sony fanboy wouldn't troll on a sony forum

 

Agree. The weight becomes less important if you have to pack and lug around more hardware/devices. On the other hand, if you don't need them, then this is by far the best thing Sony has created, in terms of weight.

Not sure what specs. your looking for in a Z1, but there still new Z's for sale at MicroCenter - specifically, Z135 (silver) and Z133 (black).

Yeah, my local SonyStyle Store had Z13's in the back room. You wouldn't even know unless you ask. Possibly on there way to the Outlets.

 

Sonystyle.com seems to be down. A sign of the new Z ?

 

again... IPS does not necessarily mean better.
the z will have an 8-bit panel.

If you do want to compare:
x220 gamut against sRGB (67%)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/99bbc2a04c.jpg

vaio z (vpc) gamut against sRGB (100+%)
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/7fba21f0e8.jpg

also, to all in the room. I feel like we've all been trolling a while? no? it bothers me yes, but, shrug what do you do?

 

Connecting to 2 seperate monitor can only be done via the dock?Does anyone know if it is possible to use the notebook hdmi and vga to connect to 2 monitor?

 

Source? Unless this is verified, you can safely assume it will be 6-bit like all TN screens are. Some of them have 8-bit (or even higher) firmware, but the displays themselves can only do 6-bit per colour.

The size of the gamut isn't everything - if you only can display 262000 colors from within a large gamut, you will have visible differences between colours.
I have five monitors - two IPS, one MVA, one TN and one high-end CRT. For colour correctness, the CRT wins hands down, followed by the MVA and IPSes. The TN is horrible in comparison, and it's not a cheap one either.
Add that you have to sit far away from a TN display in order to see the same colour on the top of the screen as on the bottom, otherwise the different angle between your eye and the top and bottom of the screen causes differences. (This TN effect can easily be seen in my avatar - is it more green than red, or more red than green? Does this change if you view the avatar at the top of the screen compared to the bottom?)
What TN displays have going for them are price, fast response times and "vividness" (which sometimes is a plus, and sometimes isn't). The MVA is completely unusable for gaming or video, with heavy ghosting. But for Lightroom, it wins hands down for the flat panels, with darker blacks and truer colours than any of the others. The IPAs are absolutely best for "business use", because of the wide viewing angles both horisontally and vertically, combined with 8-bit graphics.

I love the resolution and contrast of the Z screens. It's great for DTP work, for example. Or watching videos where you want the picture to be vivid. But it's quite frankly no good for photoshop work. For that, you want something less vivid but with more colours.

 

Well, the UX is surely lighter