New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Weird, just checked it myself. Normally the US is much cheaper with electronics but you're correct the SA/SB are for once priced normally with the current exchange rate

 

I don't really see why. The price jump from 128GB -> 256GB is ludicrous. Most stuff can be stored in the cloud these days. If someone is gonna drag their dock along, then it would make no difference if they dragged a 1TB external hdd along aswell.

When it comes to the RAM I'm kinda torn. It's convenient but I'm not sure you really need it for generic 'desktop' use. I'm sure the base config can run most stuff just fine. A lot of RAM is good if you're gonna do very heavy image or video editing, but otherwise? Meh. If I COULD make a change to the base config (atleast here), I would change 4GB -> 8GB, but that's another matter.

Ofc, if you roll around in money or have parents that spoil you, you will pay no attention to what I'm writing here.

 

There are pictures for th sheet battery and the carbon lid. Im not sure you'd learn that much more from a video.

 

how much is the ram upgrade expected to cost?

IRT to ahp

8GB of ram is effectively needed for photoshop and VMs. Those two use-cases are going to be the most common for the Z.

 

It is an extra $80 at conics, it will probably be around the same on the USA CTO
Seems about par, 2x the actual cost of that amount of RAM

 

Well I will definitely NOT be dragging along the pmd, so therefore will not be carrying around my external hdd either. I do use cloud storage for my music, but i don't want to be actively managing the space on my ssd. a 128gb ssd will probably give you less than 100gb of actual useable space. And the emptier it is, the better the performance. This is why I choose 256gb. The price is worth it imo.

And the main reason i want 8gb is for futureproofing seeing that its proprietary. I plan to keep this laptop for quite a while. And it'll allow for longer RAM previews in after effects

And i wouldn't exactly say I'm spoiled. My parents are giving me about a $3000 budget for the laptop since I saved them like $250,000 with my merit scholarship

EDIT: WHAT THE HELL IS CONICS?! Can someone link me?

EDIT: nvm i found it

 

Now this is interesting. I just checked my ebay purchase history and the vaio z I just bought from this seller has disappeared. The page that lists the item is also gone. In fact if you search for all completed listings of vaio z from this seller (service-and-sales), all of them have been wiped out. I do not get refund yet either.

I don't think this is normal. Can someone else verify my observations?

 

holy , what school costs $250 000 to attend?

 

Ownership and annual sales are 2 different things. US retail + ecomm combined last year = 23MM units. 3% of 23MM = 690K. Now how many of that 690K do you think were the Z? Likely less than 5%. 5% of 690K = 35K. Granted this is just the USA.

 

Pretty much any private college nowadays actually when you factor in ALL the costs.

But to further explain, I didn't get a 250,000 scholarship. Just a full scholarship to my state school, which I chose instead of full tuition NYU >.>

 

PMD doesn't have a MXM slot.......

 

hey guys, will conics ship to countries other than usa?!

 

After all, the seller didnt seem to have any in stock. The listings are gone. I see the same thing. I talked to ebay and since the listings are gone, it seems I cant even leave a negative feedback for the seller. Apparently this is how this seller has been able to maintain his 100% positive feedback, by removing all listings with potential negative transactions.

It sucks. I've opened a case with the ebay resolution center and have reported this to my credit card as a fraudulent transaction.

 

The conics website look slike it was designed by a 4-year old. Looks completely unsafe imo. Would never buy anything from there.

 

I think the issue here is that nothing else but the PMD (or proprietary Sony peripherals) will be able to take advantage of the lightpeak option on the new Z. It's hard to believe that Sony does these things unintentionally. Sony has been notorious for proprietary this and proprietary that and it ends up hurting the customer at the end for trusting them.
I've liked the Z's in the past but IMO this new one may not be the end all and could possibly be way before it's time or just a small failure.

 

^You are stating your speculation as fact. You don't know whether or not other companies will develop accessories for it or not. You also don't know if Sony plans on shipping additional peripherals.

If you are correct (and you may be), the port is still a perfectly functioning USB 3.0 port.

 

I really wanted a black Z! That really sucks. Too good to be true I guess. Even long time Z ebay-sellers (yobang, bostonconsultinggroup and the likes) who bought from this seller got duped. I've also opened a case with ebay resolution center and hopefully this matter gets resolved.

I guess I'm not selling my silver Z anymore.

 

Yes, that is the whole point of their existence, they are a gray market re-seller

Conics and Dynamism are reputable gray market sellers, they have been around forever and I've bought stuff from both of them.

 

I like how you're telling me what I'm doing rather than asking me where I got my information? Thanks. I didn't just dream it up. I didn't see you correcting the poster who stated it as fact that last year's Z sold millions. I'm not wrong that Sony has been notorious for being proprietary with their equipment and that takes away some of the customer's options and control, and that is a fact. Right now their implementation of the USB3/Lightpeak port has been getting a large amount of criticism. This might be hard for you to swallow but there are some things Sony doesn't do right which has led them to fail. BTW, rather than using ⥣ to point up to me, try using multi-quote.

 

I just reported the same thing to PayPal and they have opened a case against the seller. Should I report it to EBay as well or just let PayPal handle?

 

I don't think you need to. Try anyway. eBay should tell you that you have opened the same case in Paypal.

I opened a case in eBay first, and then I tried to do the same in Paypal. Paypal reported that I have already opened a case...so I guess the transaction is linked to the item in eBay.

 

I knew that Z deal on Ebay was too good to be true. Hopefully not many people here listened to the poster evangelizing it as the end-all deal and went for it. Sorry for the all the people that got burned.

 

You should. However what pisses me off is that ebay says we can leave a feedback to warn potential future buyers (since the listing is removed) and hence this guy gets to maintain his 100% positive feedback. Any ideas to even things out? I am thinking of buying the lowest cost item from him ($17) and leaving a negativefeedback... what says?

 

As soon as you open a case with PayPal, it opens a case with EBay and vice versa. The seller has 10 days to respond with a tracking number or the funds get reversed. Who was it that was saying this guy had been selling dozens of these Zs previously??

 

I did, based on the records I gleaned from eBay. It's true they sold many Z's the past two days. Whether they actually delivered is a different question

How can eBay not have some sort of protective measure against this sort of abuse?

You can leave a negative feedback only if you have a valid reason for doing so...otherwise it's just stooping down to the seller's level. It's a pain dealing with an arbitrator (eBay), but that's the legit way to get things done. Whether eBay will do anything about it, I don't know. If I don't hear from eBay a good explanation for this, and the steps they'll take to prevent such abuse, I'm taking my business elsewhere. I as a puny buyer may not mean much, my action may not send a message, but at least I'm protecting myself.

 

I am disappointed with ebay that they are letting this happen and arent allowing us to provide a -ve feedback to this seller. I guess we have to get creative.... thinking about options.

 

Do I have to report it to credit card as fraudulent transaction or ebay will handle it? In similar situation before ebay advised me to wait for money to be returned by paypal

 

they sorta do. thats what the reporting system is for and why you generally get 30 days to report fraud. Once a seller goes into bad standing they can be banned or have their listings require approval and be moderated.

sibling of mine works at ebay support...

IRT HDTV4me

you probably should....from stories i've heard, credit card companies(especially in the states) will offer you much better support. just call the CC, tell them your story, give them all your paypal reference numbers, and follow THEIR advice.

 

Glad you like it. Don't really care where you would claim to get your information, considering nobody knows what the future will bring. But again, you could very well be right. Either way it's speculation, and comments like that should be qualified as such.

Not sure why you think it would be "hard for me to swallow", either. Sony, like all mfr's, screw plenty up. I could care less.

By the way "^" is considerate when responding directly below another post. It keeps the pages much smaller. You, however, are welcome to post in any way you see fit. It certainly isn't my place to instruct you how to use the internet.

 

This is true, I wanted to cover mutli-year sales quickly so I went with ownership instead of aggregating various years of sales percentages. I figured that the Z sales were a real low % but didn't have any numbers to play with so left it up to everyone to make their own estimates from the basis point.

Thanks for the info though, interesting to say the least

 

I also bought one of the $900 Z13 laptops yesterday from Titanic Sales on e-bay. After reading some of the recent posts I called PayPal and filed a complaint. The person I talked to said that the listings violated some e-bay rule but could not tell me what it was.

It apparently is uncommon but not unheard of that listings get removed for description errors that violate e-bay's TOS, and then the products are delivered without incident.The person I talked to did say that if the seller does not respond within 10 days with a valid tracking number for the shipment of the computer that my money will be refunded.

This should be interesting. Thanks to tehsupermeowmeow for bringing this to my attention.

 

So as not to distract the topic on this thread, I have started another thread on the ebay seller fraud. Lets continue any discussion related to the ebay seller fraud on that thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/593563-ebay-seller-service-sales-defrauded-many-nbr-users.html

 

This may not be my place to say anything (I don't teach people how to use internets...), but he/she did prefix his/her statement with 'I think', and used 'IMHO'...so he/she wasn't really stating a speculation as fact? Maybe I'm missing something if so please correct me.

I'm just an external observer and I do not wish to get involved, but I do read many of the posts here and I have to say beaups, you've been very helpful and we all appreciate it but sometimes your tone can be a bit too much

Correcting people is one thing, but correcting people in a way that does not offend has been pretty elusive. I hope I have not offended anyone here

 

I'm disappointed the Z isn't rated to 16GB of memory. I already don't have enough with 8GB. I was somewhat hoping the Z would bring me back Sony's way, but it looks like I'll most likely replace my Panasonic CF-J9 with another Panasonic - the J10 which can go to 16GB of memory

Oh, and a single 8GB SODIMM here is like $650.

BTW, I've always found when buying laptops from Conics (or Dynamism) cost-wise, it's easier to max out memory direct from them (i.e. direct from Sony or Panasonic). There are few times that the price is outrageously different than if you did it yourself.

Same thing could be saif for batteries. Get the bigger battery up front if you can (which is one nice thing about ordering it CTO).

With Sony machines from Japan, I always go the wide warranty and Sony Japan fixed any problem if I needed to sent it back (via Conics or Dynamism). Worth the $ if you ask me.

For fun, I just spec'd out the Z vs. a new J10, and the J10 is more with what I want, but better spec'd. Sure, no ODD, but who cares. It's a 10.1" beast.

I'll be honest - my past two machines have been Let's Note (the S9 and the J9). Sony may look a bit better, but I can tell you the Panasonic ones are built like tanks. The only Sony I felt ever came up to that standard was the G, which was never available for sale via Sony USA. Only in Europe and Japan.

 

I think you need to read his post again.

Anyhow, I wasn't trying to attack him (or anyone). Sorry if my "tone is a bit too much"...I didn't know my typing had a tone

 

+1000 BUT the difference is the service. Conversion to English, send it to them if you have warranty issues, etc. Other middle men can't/won't do that (example: pricejapan.com).

 

Sorry! Evidently typing does not have a tone but a rephrase of the same sentence could have achieved a different effect, i.e. making people realize what you were saying without offending said person in any way (if ever).

I get worried now because some NBR users have been saying some of us are detracting from the thread, so I'll say something about the new Z now

FenderP! I didn't know there were 8GB modules! I tried searching once on Amazon but I couldn't find any. What are you planning to do on the new Z that you need 16 GB on the go?

 

^Yes, I also wish you could go beyond 8GB.... I'm a phototographer and take my laptop out quite a bit.... and sometimes when I am batch processing.....8GB just doesn't do the job....

 

More than 8GB may work unless Sony locks it in BIOS or has a motherboard limitation. In my CF-J9, the motherboard recognizes that I've got 12GBin there (4GB + 8GB), but won't boot so something else is preventing it. With 8GB (4 + 4), it works just fine.

 

How much are you batch processing? I mean when storage is pretty limited compared to an HDD I would assume the new Z will have limits beyond RAM for your case (obviously you can use an external but the I/O will create a greater bottle neck more than the RAM will).

I'm assuming like most other current machines even if the BIOS is locked down there will be a work around to expand the software constraints on the RAM. The problem is it looks like Sony made the RAM chips in a pretty proprietary - meaning unless they make an official upgrade possible we might be stuck with 8 GB.

I hear you on the problems with your batch processing, but I don't understand how 8 GB can't handle your load when it can handle multiple VM's, a few applications in each and a data base interface fairly well for myself. Is it a windows issue with page filing or a software issue or...? (IDK what software you're using but some older versions have memory limits built in)

 

I come close to running out of memory all the time. I regularly run anywhere from 4 - 6 VMs (plus stuff like Outlook and such) at the same time. To do some of my advanced demos in talks I really need more like 8 VMs up and running all at once.

I also dual boot all my laptops with Windows Server 2008 (R2 now, not the original) and Windows 7.

This is nothing new. I always outgrow laptops due to this.

 

OMG.. So sorry to hear that.. Pls let us know the outcome of your reporting.. TIA

 

^Not sure but the amount I am processing is hundreds of photos (I am a professional photog.) that are huge in size w/both Photoshop and Lightroom. The CPU/RAM meter pretty much displays that all the RAM is being used and then shuts down.... so it's a huge bottleneck in my workflow when I am using the laptop. With memory intensive programs running, it's not hard to run out of memory.

 

You may want to consider either the Panasonic S10 or N10 (possibly something bigger screen-wise like the B, since the J is only 10.1"). They're more business laptops so you're not going to get the screen like you do on the Sony, but you'll get the computing power you need. I do Photoshop and Lightroom on the screen, but I'm not a professional.

 

@hieu1004 - I would have a similar problem (on my Z1 - tops spec) with rendering large HD videos, especially those with lots of transitions or other.

My only workaround it was to close everything else including the Gate and most importantly my AV software. Once I did both of those things it worked.

Obviously not ideal, so I too would have preferred a 16GB RAM option. But as already mentioned, if you take plenty of pics and/or video then I wonder if the Z2 is ideal because you/we already have so many lenses and other things to carry around if travelling.

 

Thanks for the suggestion! Yeah, I am actually in the market for a new laptop. I have a pretty nice desktop for heavy jobs, but I am on the go a lot and that was one of the reasons I went with the Z...but it is just not cutting it. I may just sacrifice some portability for more power but I will def. take a look at the Panasonics...thanks again!

 

I think what you need is a server farm, instead of an all powerful, memory-galore mobile laptop. Try renting amazon VMs?

Also, from my limited understanding of image analysis, processing of image is typically localized (they don't depend on global features). This basically means you can cut up a single image into multiple images and process each one sequentially (not in parallel), then recombine.

If you attempt to process an entire image, or multiple images at once, it basically destroys the cache locality (the cached entries get pushed out before they get re-used, which is where a cache derives its usefulness), not to mention page-faulting a lot.

 

This case has been resolved by EBay and PayPal and all accounts have been refunded. See the thread above for details.

 

Not entirely accurate - I am still waiting for my refund. However, the seller has contacted me and it seems like this was a genuine freak accident. We'll see.

 

hey,
I'm considering conics for the z2, are they reliabale?
thanks