New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

I would give it a few weeks after this seller runs out and I'm sure the price will bounce back up.

I just bought one as well...I just bought a z12 around a month ago that I love...I figure for $900 a backup machine is never a bad idea, especially since I'm selling my desktop (too big :-( )

 

Z11, Z12, Z13 and Z14 combined have definitely sold in the millions of units worldwide over the last 2 years.

I see the Z regularly in offices, airports and offices. Whether people bought them new, used or refurbished, I have no idea.

What I do know is the $900 Z13 on EBay is an absolutely steal and is still available. Seller must have a truckload.

 

Last Z = VPCZ1 (= Z11+Z12+Z13+Z14)

 

Indeed.

The EBay seller in question has a 100% rating based on 61,447 reviews.

 

here i put videos that i find in youtube and pages that review the z2,it in japanese,so you should use google.translator!
enjoy!

YouTube - ‪?VAIO Z?SA??Z?OS??????‬‏
YouTube - ‪Tinhte.vn - Tre?n tay Sony VAIO Z 2011‬‏

YouTube - ‪Sony Vaio Z notebook magyar nyelv? bemutató videó- IFA 2011 - mobilx‬‏


VAIO Z??????????????

????????????VAIO Z?????????????????????

???????VAIO??????13??????????????? you can see here the propietary ram and the Power media dock internals

GPU???????????????????????????????????????VAIO Z?

Power Media Dock?????VAIO Z??????????????????? benchmarks between the z1,z2 ans SA

 

Looking at the last link, it looks like sometimes the SA outperforms the new Z when using dedicated GPU?

 

I found something here:
http://srl.gatech.edu/Members/ashah/laptop_industry_analysis_aditya_abhinav.pdf

Alternatively, this link:
Powered by Google Docs

While not exactly a sales figure of sony vaio z, we can use some common sense to establish an upper bound on the units shipped for each manufacturer, and subsequently an upper bound on vaio z's line. at best this is just a guesstimate.

Total units of PC shipped forecasted for 2010 is about 400 million. Of that, about 40% (a good guess based on the numbers for 2008) is produced by manufacturers not named in the chart. Let's say Sony takes about one twentieth of that number (assumption #1), that's about 2%. So Sony sells about 8 million units in 2011 alone.

Sony has many lines of computers. Suppose top of the lines (the Z's and the likes) take about one tenth of that number (assumption #2). Sony sells about 0.8 mil top of the lines per year. VPCZ11 was introduced in mid 2010 I think. If we hand wave the numbers sold in first two quarters of 2011, the Z's (Z11-Z14) MIGHT or MIGHT NOT reach a million units.

As you can see, my numbers depend heavily on my assumptions.

So in conclusion, unless we have official numbers, we can't say for sure

 

I have never been able to figure out how to mine eBay for historical auction/sales data. Would you (or anyone) be so kind as to tell me how you find out things like: the seller sold 91 units over the past 2 days (I could only find 29 today and 2 yesterday when I searched) and who bought them (eg, Boston Consulting Group)?

 

Can anyone compare the Z13 screen with the lenovo x220 ips screen, besides resolution? Would the Z be brighter and/or have better color gamut. I know the x220 has around 67% gamut. Thanks

 

My friend wants to get the z13 on ebay but is having a hard time convincing his dad that ebay is safe? Any ideas anyone?

 

I believe the Z panel has 96%.

Is it safe to say the Z screen is one of the best, if not the best, 13inch laptop display on the market?

 

If you search for the completed listings on ebay and add up the number of units sold for each listing, i beleive you will get 91 (i didnt count, i beleive tehsupermeowmeow did that). eg. sony vaio z | eBay

If you look at the feedback this seller leaves, you will see who bought it. eBay Feedback Profile for service-and-sales

You can do some visual scanning to identify trends. Tehsupermeowmeow was able to find that bostonconsulting group have been left many feedback recently by this seller. Also, if you open the feedback for bostonconsultinggroup, you will see that they have been selling a lot of Zs the last few months and have started buying them in the last few days from this seller. eBay Feedback Profile for service-and-sales

Hope this helps... This is how I do it... all - let me know if there is a better way.

 

you should have based your assumptions on the market niche for thin and light 2000+ laptops, see the slice of that market, see the offerings of other companies, cross the data.

Get the numbers for total shipments from sony and the other OEMS, then cross that data again with the previous.

you could do a correlation curve between the 2 sets of data, it should be fairly accurate (I think a deviation of 10-15%), however the most problematic part is to get the market data for the thin and light buyers of the 2000+ laptops. this is fairly difficult to find in the web, and that data set should spread around the world, thus making it more difficult, due to the location and the variation in the price, for example the Z costed 2000+ in the US, while in Brazil it costed 5000+


to think that such a niche product sold millions of units is hard to believe. the flagship model is not supposed to sell that well, its supposed to carry the brand name to newer heights.

For example the best selling macs are the mb white, and the mbp 13, mainly because in the apple environment they are the cheapest way to get a bite. The mbp 15 and the 17 sell very little compared to its smaller brothers. and the mainstream market is the 15'' size.

 

Comparing x220 on notebookcheck and new Z on a review posted pages ago we see:

Brightness: 256 cd/m^2 (x220) against 352 cd/m^2 (Z)
Contrast: 842:1/center - 826:1/average (x220) against 860:1 (Z)
Black: 0.31 cd/m^2 (x220) - 0.41 cd/m^2 (Z)
Color Gamut: 67% sRGB (x220) against 100% sRGB and 90% adobeRGB (Z)
Delta E: 4.1 average for Z.. don't know about x220

 

Officially it's 96% of adobeRGB and 100% of sRGB but, in review we saw 100% RGB and 90, not 96% of adobeRGB.

Even that, it's without any doubt the best 13" display.. and very good since a low delta E (for laptop) without calibration.

 

Ah thanks, does that include all Z13's with the 1600x900 screen? I was thinking about purchasing the ebay VPCZ134GX/B, of course now he doesn't have any listed. Hope he puts more of them up.

 

Thanks for doing the research. I find it ridiculous that SONY would saddle this ultra-premium product with VGA ports yet now DisplayPort or DVI... and no plans to release a dock with such either? Count me out on the new Z in that case, which is too bad because I have $5k burning a hole in my pocket for a new laptop that could have gone to SONY if not for this issue.

The other laptops you suggested are indeed alternatives but neither gets me at all excited the way the Z would. Let's hope enough people complain about this that SONY wises up and puts out a version of the dock that can drive high-res monitors.

 

I just had a thought.... Supposedly HDMI has supported up to 2560x1600 resolutions since version 1.3 (see: HDMI - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. With this in mind, would the video card of the new Z (docked or undocked) be capable of outputting that resolution via HDMI. If so, this little Dual Link DVI to HDMI adapater ( Amazon.com: DVI-D Dual Link Male to HDMI Female Adapter - Adapts DVI to HDMI - Vice Versa: Electronics) could be a the "missing link" we've all been hoping for to have the Z drive our 30" monitors. Thoughts?


***EDIT: Upon further research it doesn't look like many folks have had luck converting HDMI to Dual-Link DVI. Too bad, I was hoping this could have been a workaround***

 

It helps tremendously! It truly unlocks some of the "mystery" behind these transactions. In the case of this sale of Z13s, the seller was very cagey and all day today (Sat) he/they made 5-10 units available for sale, then shut it down, sometimes in the middle of a transaction, and then if you came back to the listing and reloaded the page, it would be back with a "Purchase" icon. I'm making a formal complaint because as a result of their games I was able to purchase only one, and knowing that some, such as BCG, a huge and prestigious consulting firm, were able to buy perhaps dozens makes me quite irritated.

EDIT: Actually, now seeing that BCG bought and sold dozens and dozens of these from Jan-May, I am finding it highly unlikely that the famous firm by that name would be buying and selling computers on eBay. The "real" BCG would never be in the business of hawking computers to make a few thousand bucks; they are an ultra prestigious consultancy that do multimillion dollar contracts with the likes of General Electric and Proctor and Gamble to help them with corporate strategy. This must be someone who hijacked a blue chip corporate name to buy and sell electronics on eBay. In any event, it looks like we'll see these being sold soon by this group for around $1,400 once Service-and-Sales sells out, if past is prologue. I guess it's an honest living, if speculating in manufacturer's close out computers is your business.

What I'm wondering now is, where are these coming from: Sony, Microsoft? And when will the supply of new Z1's be exhausted? Will prices go lower before they go higher again? I am quite certain there will be plenty of demand for Z1s for at least the next 6 months given the alternatives, including the Z21. Probably will be a big premium for 256GB SSD versions, though. Ok, I'm just rambling now... sorry all.

 

That's exactly it! I took extra care not to double count, but feel free to correct my number (I know...I must have had nothing better to do to count the units sold...evidently it's a tedious process -___-)
Also, they just sold out. I can't be bothered to count anymore, so it has to be greater than 91 by now. They relisted at least once more since I counted, so put that number close to 100, or greater.

Mr. MM! Stats is the one class I hated the most in college But I agree, I do find it hard to believe the Z's sold millions. My conclusion was basically 'nope, I can't say for sure without hard figures.'

 

Generally, those who makes an outrageous claim should be the one to back the claim up too. With a dearth of available data, that might be hard to do.
One pointer is to look at recall figures. When the TZs got recalled, the series had been through three iterations, and 19 different TZ models (all of them, up to when the flaw was corrected) were recalled -- a total of ~440,000 produced units, and ~100,000 sold units, produced over 14 months. Did the Z really sell that much more?

 

Percentages are not as useful as you think when it comes to gamut comparisons. The percentage might be "perceptual", comparing the sizes of the gamut projected area, which can give 100% even if the area is severely skewed one way, and a boatload of colours can't be displayed. Or it might be colometric, comparing distance from different white balances. Or it might be absolute, discarding any colours that fall outside the gamut you compare with.

But most of all, a percentage is inaccurate because it doesn't take into effect how many colours can be displayed. A 6-bit-per-colour (262,000 distinct colours) TN display can have a higher percentage coverage of sRGB, NTSC or Adobe RGB than an 8-bit-per-colour (16.7 million distinct colours) IPA display, but still look worse because of all the colours within that gamut that it cannot display.

It's certainly a very good display for resolution and colour vividness, but the colour correctness is, unfortunately, not so good.
This is, in part because the colour changes with viewing angle, and unless you sit infinitely far away from the display, the viewing angle of the top of the screen won't be the same as for the bottom of the screen. A colour meter clamped onto the screen won't add that problem to the delta-E values, unfortunately.
And, in part because certain colours give visible dithering or banding. The dithering is most easily seen for some colours at around 1/3 intensity, and the banding for really dark colours. A colour meter won't catch the dithering, but will catch the banding (but cheap ones won't check the really dark shades, and only a small number of bright and semi-bright pre-defined colours).
So even if it's an excellent screen with a large gamut, some might prefer an IPS display with a smaller gamut, but more dependable colours, or an MVA display with better blacks.

 

the cheap brand new z13's are gone on ebay. The seller in question doesn't replenish it anymore. So does your friend want a lightly used silver refurb z1390x?

I bought it from sonystyle (got it mid June, so it's like 3 weeks old) and paid 1100+ for it (tax included) and I'm willing to sell it at the same price and possibly less. I have two laptops and I primarily use the other one, so this Z is still in like-new condition (I added a skinguard set tho) If your friend is interested, let me know (PM me)!

I'm selling this because I ordered another one from this seller we been talking about

Needless to say, 'no one knows if you're a dog on the Internet', so to speak. If his/her dad isn't convinced...um that's okay.

 

Hi HLdan. I think your first question is answered in this well written article: How Sony accidentally did the right thing with Light Peak | This is my next... ... to summarise: when Sony first began developing the PMD concept they worked with Intel to utilize LightPeak for the high bandwidth required. At the time, Intel hadn't yet settled on USB or Mini DP, optic fiber or copper, and by the time the latter of each became the standard, Sony were already too far down the development cycle to change. Furthermore, Sony, we believe, were forced to call the port "propriety" since it breaks the written standards for both LightPeak and USB3. We already know it's a perfectly good USB3 port, just that they aren't allowed to call it that. It may be that the LightPeak part works fine as well.

Really, if you think of it like a docking port that's normally on the underside of a laptop (and normally proprietary for all manufacturers), but is now on the side instead and happens to also be a USB3 port, well I just can see the big complaint.

Your second comments are also a bit biased. Just to throw a few ideas on the other side of the argument, it is good to note that Sony developed or co-developed a number of widely used standards, such as the 3.5" floppy disk, the CD, the DVD and Bluray.

 

This isn't exactly US price (as in the price sonystyle usa would sell), but I just checked conics, and a base configuration starts out at $2232 (excluding the Dock), presumably shipped straight from Japan? They do sell things at a higher price though because of that.

 

When people say the US price is going to be around $1999, does that figure include sales tax? What would the average sales tax be?

Europe tends to include sales tax when mentioning prices, US doesn't?

 

sorry if double post.

what you need to know about z2

os:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

color:
Black top, Black inside
Carbon top, Black inside (more expensive)
Black top, Blue inside
Gold top, Brown inside

Power Media Dock (optional):
DVD Multi Drive in the Dock
Blu-Ray Multi Drive in the Dock

processor:
Core i3-2310M
Core i5-2410M
Core i5-2520M
Core i5-2540M
Core i7-2620M

display:
13.1" 1600 x 900
13.1" 1920 x 1080

Ram:
4GB DDR3
8GB DDR3

Storage choice:
SSD 128GB raid 0
SSD 256GB raid 0
SSD 512GB raid 0

Wifi:
Intel Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250
Intel Advanced-N 6205
Intel Ultimate-N 6300

additional:
LTE / 3G / WWAN
Noise Canceling headphone
Webcam
backlit keyboard
battery sheet

security(optional):
FingerPrint Reader
TPM Chip
FingerPrint Reader + TPM Chip

 

Really? 5 different CPU options!

 

Only 3 with the CTO in Europe

Core i5-2410M
Core i5-2540M
Core i7-2620M

 

Thanks for the links!

Has someone, who speaks Japanese read this interview? Part1 Part2

It seems that there may be some interesting details in it, but the google translation is not really understable.

 

I talk about gamut coverage cuz' it's the only parameter that we can find on review.. on review they even not mention what kind of panel is. My question is, in which way a a colorimeter can give false values about gamut coverage?

In addition, are you sure that this Z is a TN display?? Cuz somebody stated that the previous one was 6-bit, others 6-bit driven 8-bit and other 8-bit (claiming Sony said it)..

The only thing I wanted to say about Delta E is that, it's low for a laptop without any kind of calibration in respect to colorimeter. That TN have the problems you mentioned, we know.

 

For tax included or not included, ask Beaups, but I think it's excluded, cuz every state in US have different taxation.

In addition, prices in US and Europe about Z are not comparable. In Europe, we don't know why, the prices has been and will be increased in respect to US of a lot of hundreds dollars/euros, including taxation. This happens only with Z, not for other laptops.

 

Most laptops are more expensive in Europe. Lenovo for example charge around double in the Netherlands for the x220 series compared to the US

 

It sounds crazy. For Sony, this happens only with Z. For example SB and SA are quite similar in Germany and cheaper in Italy.

 

and that was one of my favorite classes, I had stats all the 4 years of college

 

I thought I heard somewhere a while back that Sony was going to use the 6230 WiFi/BT card on the Z2. What will the Bluetooth be in the new Z if we are not getting the Intel combo card? Will we get BT 3.0?

I have been using the Intel 6230 in my Z1 for a few weeks now and it is pretty great... but I am working on interfacing the 8pin internal USB port with the new Broadcom BT 3.0 card so that I can put the 6300 WiFi card back in.

The 6300 was never available in the US CTO models on the Z1 will it be available on the Z2?

I will probably buy a new Z2, Gold & Brown/Blu-ray PMD/1080P/8GB/256GB/WWAN/6300/Sheet battery
The thing that really bothers me about the Z2 is that it won't have the kind of modding possibilities that the Z1 offers.

I am still undecided... but I can always return it.

 

what is the difference between the advanced n 6205 and the ultimate n 6300 anyway?

i had 2 dell m1210 laptops, one with the stock wifi card and the other with an optional wifi card for a little higher price. the optional wifi card detected networks and stayed connected more often than the stock card. i guess, in essence, it had better reception

would this be the difference between the advanced n and ultimate n?

 

6300 is a 3X3 card, three radios and three antennas
6200, 6205 and 6230 are 2X2 cards, two radios and two antennas

The 3X3 cards are capable of either a 450Mbps N link or greater range where signal strength is poor, the 2X2 cards max out at 300Mbps N


Advanced N = 2x2
Ultimate N = 3x3

 

Wow, that's a lot of CPU options for the Z. I'm hoping my preferred configuration isn't going to hit the roof, although I'm sure Sony will not disappoint when it comes to the pricing tagged to the Z.

Does anyone know why 3 different i5 processors are included? Seems a little redundant to me.

 

andrew08, where did you get this information?

The i5/900p/4gb/128gb/dvd pmd is going to be $1999 in the US according to beaups. Thats def without tax since prices are always advertised like that. I live in DE and we don't have sales tax

 

It seems that the i7-2620M version runs significantly hotter than the i5-2410M (+ 3-7 °C). Maybe it makes more sense to buy the i5 version, when the extra CPU power is not so important.

I think Conics.

 

So what are the chances we'll see a config including an i7/1080p/8gb/without PMD? Methinks it'll cost something like $2500.

 

QFT. Those claims still haven't been proven by the person that made those outrageous claims. Since this is suppose to be informative forum people should back up claims they make so they can support their argument. I find it hard to believe the Z lines "combined" even sold millions. Is it possible? Sure. But the original claim from a poster here was that the last version Z sold millions to deep-pocketed business users and that simply can't be true.

I never see Sony Z's with anyone and my business involves being around the corporate world. In fact I hardly see anyone with a Sony Vaio. It's usually HP, Dell or a Thinkpad and some MacBooks.

I actually like the form factor of the Sony Z but the fact remains that it's considered a niche "boutique" product because it's positioned by Sony as a premium machine so it's not ideal for even the most astute business person.
I'm hoping that Sony sees a market for the new Z to make it financially more available for other customers. The lower-end Sony's just aren't the Z.

 

There is a i7/900p/8gb/256gb/with pmd on UK site right now for $2700. Taking out the pmd it'll probably knock it down to like $2200.

Keep on in mind though that all US retail preconfigs will come with the PMD.

I'm pretty sure those numbers are under heavy load. During normal operation, the temperatures should be the same, and very cool.

I would agree that buying the i5 might make more sense. But I want a preconfig and 8gb/256gb are MUSTS and I'm pretty sure that model will come with the i7 =/

 

I must admit, I admire your consistency and persistence.

My source is a close friend who is VP of business development for the VAIO & Mobile business group. Since Sony does not break down individual VAIO model sales in its quarterly or annual reports, the information is not publicly available. Feel free to tear this to shreds in your own compelling manner but I'll stand by the statement.

For anyone who ordered the $900 Z off EBay, please post when you receive yours and let us know your thoughts.

 

There were some previews saying that even while idle, the laptop was pretty warm.

I am looking for exactly the same, but I'll wait for the Z22 (and for the reviews).
Would be good to have such a preconfigured model: i5/i7, 8GB, 256GB 3rd gen SSD, 900p screen, Black, PMD with BluRay player.

 

The lack of an RJ11 is a deal-breaker for me. No way I'm spending that much on a computer and have to hook it up to the internet with an acoustic coupler.

 

It's possible to have these sorts of sales.

Sony held 3% of the PC ownership in the US (as of January 2011)
US average aggregate ownership @ ~ 1.9 machines/person
US average Laptop ownership @ 50%
US population ~ 313 Million

Pits Sony's overall laptop sales @ ~ 8,920,500 in the U.S. alone. This assumes Sony sells 1/2 laptops 1/2 desktop, I''m pretty sure they sell proportionately more laptops than desktops (don't cite me on that one just yet).

Remember Sony is more popular in Europe/ Asia; I don't have intel on their markets off hand. I sourced Mintel Oxygen.

 

Does anyone seen a good video of someone handling the new Z with the battery sheet mounted?

And also any good video that shows the carbon lid? as far as i can tell i've only seen ones with the black lid.

 

Fully configured (except for warranty), Conic's price is ~$4900. If Conic's overhead is around 10%, that would mean the fully configured machine might cost around $4500.