New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

that screen is so gorgeous. I dont think I'll be getting the dock but win definitely be getting the main unit for sure now.

 

difference between black and premium carbon finish:

 

is anyone else interested in the gold lid? it looks like very 'rustic'. maybe thats not the best word for it. It is to gold as dirty blonde hair is to blonde hair.

 

you mean like it has some copper inside (redish tint) - old gold (a bit rusty)

 

Yes I know that, we have discussed this several times, but if you need market penetration in a closed market scenario, is better to thrust one spear than several, to diminish the value of the port by offering more and more connectors, is suicide.

I also said that sony and apple helped in the development, but it end it doesnt matter, product availability is what matters, the release of products for thunderbolt was scheduled to summer, and right now we have some releases

sorry reading comprehension was lacking there

 

YouTube - ‪?VAIO Z?SA??Z?OS??????‬‏
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo32wetIOVY (check from 04:35 nice "raise" action)

I really hope those feet are quite durable, and it won't fall off easily.

Cheers,
Miki

 

Look at the grease on the VPC-Z1's keyboard lol

 

Grease marks can be wiped off. More concerning are the scruff marks and scratches on the front edge of the new Z.

 

This may sound stupid but how do you wipe them off? I've tried to rub my cloth with rubbing alcohol on the keyboard but the problem still persists.

I wonder if the new Z will still suffer from the dead pixel/cracked LCD issue just like the old Z, since apparently they share the same panel.

 

Unfortunately that's not grease, but keypad wear off, so instead of "sandpaper feel" buttons, they are slick, worn out, shiny plastic... not so premium materials.

Had the same issue with my VGN-Z, and as I can see new Z have slick buttons, so hopefully they won't wear off easily.



As you can see in first pic, spacebar is completely slick toward right side, while toward left is still ok, also some buttons are more worn out than others (having this shiny/greasy look).

I have replaced the keypad, but even new one shows signs of wear.....I guess this wasn't improved over almost 3 years!

Cheers,
Miki

 

Yes, if I end up getting the Z that is the one I will get. I have been thinking about ordering the Z2 no matter what, if I don't like it, I'll return it.

 

Sony Vaio Z (2011) VPCZ21M9E review | IT PRO Reviews

 

I thought I might like the blue, but they didn't change the keyboard to match the colour scheme and (imho) it looks odd. Same problem with the gold... Premium carbon for me.

 

46°C degrees

 

premium carbon looks HOT! Hope its availble on a preconfig

 

guess the sheet battery would help the hot bottom issue, plus the bottom fans are redirected to the sides

19 more days to go

does anyone know if the 128, 256, and 512 gb options all come with 2 ssd drives, or all 1 drive?

 

Premium carbon is available in CTO in Germany, UK and France..

 

Under load? That's not much at all.

 

Yes but if it gets that hot it won't be very good for your sheet battery. Batteries don't like heat very much.
And I'd say 46 degrees on the outside is quite hot... normal is between 28 and 35 with good laptops.

 

Yes, that's the temperature of the hottest part of the laptop under full load. That's in a review of some pages ago... but now, thinking about it.. I wonder which cpu was there... I'll check in a minute.

EDIT: i5 2410M ... uhm... It may get 50°C with i7..

 

RAID 0, so 2 drives

Every laptop can be expected to be hot under load, especially this Z. The important thing is that it remains cool and quiet during normal operation. If ur doing something intense, you'd probably be at a desk anyway.

 

I'm not of the same opinion.. for example macbook pro 13" reach 45°C with the same CPU.. in addition, a laptop which is not at least 3cm thick, with that CPU an most of all 13" .. to reach a temperature of only 35°C would mean isolation of the chassis in respect of motherboard and cool system..which is not good IMHO.

 

From the IT Pro article:

Seems like they've optimized the hell out of the new Z21; that's superb battery life considering the size of the battery.

 

Yeah but.. how's their test?? Brightness?

 

Wow, thats ing awesome.

 

i have alot of trouble believing that. another review said it lasted 7:30hrs on a web test with wifi off.

 

Thanks for posting these photos. I really like the footprint of this Z2 for some odd reason - thinner, but a small bit larger than the Z1.

I'm contemplating on this too. I need to see specs for USA w/o the PMD. And read reviews from owners here to see if any issues will be discovered. I still have 1 week to make a decision on my Z13. I'm hoping to get it extended for another 30 days to actual see this Z2 when it hits SonyStyle Store in August.

Didn't someone post a photo or link about those rubber feet not even touching the desktop table? It does appear narrow enough to not be too noticeable. Initially, the original photo leaks made them look larger than what they normally are.

I agree. I hope Sony would do something about the materials they use on these keys. Z13 is only 3 weeks old and I have to wipe it daily. I even willing to "possible" forgo my Z13, because like my original Z11, those keys wore off fairly quickly. And aged the appearance even more so.

 

Sonystyle.ie amazingly have the new Z21 up, and I believe it's the first VAIO to offer a custom configuration option for Ireland.

However the exact same configured Z21 has a difference of almost €200 between the Irish and German version (the Irish one being more expensive, naturally). And this is the price before VAT / tax (VAT in Ireland is 21% versus 19% in Germany).

Looks like I'll be ordering from the German website, just with an English keyboard (no additional charge).

 

Legggo Usa! Usa!

 

What do you mean?

 

I'm rooting for the Z to be put up on SONYUSA....

 

Sony online shops are country based. If you order it from the German site it can only be sent to a German address.

 

Yeah I know, I've tried ordering from sony.co.uk over the years when the exchange rates were good and it wasn't possible. But I have family in Germany so it can be shipped to them. Lucky!

 

2 or more.
The old Z had 2, 3 or 4, depending on configuration.
I think the new Z will only have 2, but there's no certainty.

 

hhm according to notebookcheck.com the Sony Vaio SB has an average temperature of 31,5°C (hottest part 40°C) on the bottom side... the old Z is about 29,4°C (hottest part 39°C) so to me 45°C seems quite hot even for Sony. A toshiba portege R830 will only have 34°C on the hottest spot so other companies manage to get lower temps on their 13inch laptops.

 

Are those temperatures under load?

 

The model VPCZ21C5E was added to the European Sony Vaio support page. No downloads or manuals yet.

 

I think you guys maybe talking about different things: Storm, I think you are speaking about the heat in degrees on the case (feel) while Crystal1988 is speaking about the actual CPU temp.

I think.

 

Lucky you. Have to order through the Dutch site which is 100 euro's more expensive then the German site. Still find it weird that with the same VAT in most european countries the prices for the base systems differ so much.

 

I'm likely to get the preconfig VPCZ21L9E (i5/4GB/128GB SSD) model. Should have more than enough performance for me.

The more and more I read about it through this forum, the more I want one.

I'm not worried about the cooling - it can't be any worse than my current Macbook Pro, which gets incredibly hot when it runs a video call in Skype (for example). The battery time seems to be a non-issue aswell.

The lack of a powerful graphics card inside is no big deal to make. If it moved the weight down, then I'm all for it.

Having a 1.2kg, powerful laptop as a student sounds like a mouth-watering prospect. Can't wait!

 

Im digging the i7/900p/8gb/256gb/DVD PMD model on sony uk right now. My only concerns are im not sure if its gen3 ssd and it lists carbon black as the color and im not sure if its the premium carbon.

Anyone know? And anyone know if this model will appear in US?

 

dont know about the gen3 ssd, but carbon black is definitely not premium carbon

 

Waiting till the Macbook Air refresh for my final choice. It's between the Macbook Air 13 inch or the Z2/i7/8GB/128GB 3rd gen SSD/Win7Prof/Premium Carbon/No PMD/WWAN/BL KB which is going to replace my TT.

 

i can almost guarantee the mba will have a ulv sb processor and integrated graphics. The Z will be alot more expensive, but will also be a completely different machine apart from footprint.

I'd go for the Z if money isnt too much of a concern.

 

Sony must have invested a non-trivial sum to develop their USB/optical version of Light Peak and spent more to build it into the new Z. All so that it could attach to an AC-bound 6550M GPU (they sure didn't need LP for an external ODD). Very odd. It seems that Sony/Intel must be some additional reason/plan for the Z's LP port.

 

notebookcheck ALWAYS measure temperature of the housing (top and bottom), not actual CPU temp.

The way I understood it, Crystal1988 was referring to CPU temp, not housing/chassis.

Cheers,
Miki

 

Sorry for the noob question but I am very new to the laptop scene.
Would the new Z (core i7 with 8gb ram) be able to handle simple video editing/re-encoding without using the dock?

Thanks

 

I think you're reading more into it than necessary. There's only 2 methods to get external GPU to run at a decent speed externally. Expresscard and lightpeak. What would you choose?

 

express card 2.0 and connect it to ATI XGP

Although, HD3000 is quite capable card for majority of my work... but some people would like/need stronger GPU than 6650m.

Cheers,
Miki

 

What type of video editing, and what programs?

I commonly work on 720p video files in adobe after effects on a machine with core 2 duo and intel 4500mhd graphics. Everything runs fine, of course rendering and RAM preview could always be faster. The hd3000 graphics in the Z should be significantly faster.

So the short answer is: YES