New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

Hey Beaups,

Given your retail view, any idea if the gold or premium carbon color option will be hitting the states? (retail or online)

Thanks again for all your help thus far

 

They are doing that to make me mad... Now I have to decide... I am either not going to buy it at all or spend a ton of money to get it from conics.

 

Why not get the Canadian one and add WWAN?

 

It is a real pain in the butt to add WWAN after the fact. The parts are hard to find and expensive.

 

Seems hard to believe the US won't end up with all the same options as Canada. I'm waiting till the end of July.

 

That is an excellent point, could just be a big mistake.

 

Deleted.

/10

 

^what Country!??!

Still has 8/17 over here in amurrica.

 

7/29 for U.S, 7/26 for Canada.

edit: hmm thats weird, it changes to 8/17 at check out. My bad! Canada ships it earlier at 8/8 though.

 

I still has 8/17 both on my order and a random Z i put in the cart for me. Where are you seeing this? SS?

EDIT: Ok i see 7/29 inside the CTO page now.

EDIT: When you add the CTO to cart it says 8/17 again. #hugedisappointments

 

Well, when the Z11's came out, they had about 4 months of you could get 15% off your Z if u add 2 accessories + a warranty... I just returned the warranty after the fact and i kept my accessories (maybe you could return those too!)

but when the Z12's came out, some options were cheaper and they had fullHD as option... (still beating myself over the head)

 

Nice....thanks for the head's up!

Think I know what I'm doing tomorrow afternoon....

 

How exactly do you return a warranty? Does Sony just void out the extended warranty based on the serial number of your laptop on file or do they send you a warranty card with your laptop which you then send back to them to receive a refund?

 

Not to have your hopes up but my preordered CTO L shipped roughly a week before the estimated ship date on the CTO page. My situation was a little different, though, because the CTO preorder for the computer was put up a month before the ship date, whereas the Z is up just a few weeks before.

 

you just did.

 

So the gold/brown color is offered in Canada. I hope US gets that color too.

I spent some time looking at the SA in a sony store, and the lid had a thick enamel like paint which made it feel like plastic (finger print magnet?) while the black SA felt more like matte metal cool touch to it. Does anyone know if the gold/brown Z's lid will also be like the SA's? If this is the case, I might just get the black.

 

^
I think the gold one is matte like the black.

 

Hi guys, forum newbie here. I've been reading this thread for the past couple of weeks. One critical question is still unclear to me:

It appears that the HDMI out only supports external displays with up to Full-HD (1920x1080) resolution. What about "old fashioned" (sigh) 1920x1200? I'm running this resolution on a 4yo Dell XPS m1330 via HDMI out without problems. I didn't expect that I would have to worry about this ever again.

Any definite statement to this would be appreciated. If 1920x1200 resolution is not supported I can save at least an hour per week in reading time if I stop reading this thread.

 

HDMI would no doubt support 1920x1200. I have never seen a computer with HDMI out that could not support that resolution. The real problem is that you may not be able to run super high resolution like 2560x1600, which is what I want to run.

I will personally guarantee you that you can run 1920x1200 no problem with this new Z.

 

Doesn't the newer HDMI spec support much higher bandwidth?

 

^ Yes but who knows what the drivers will allow...
With the Z1 the nVidia drivers can be hacked to make just about any resolution work. I have not had nearly the same experience when it comes to ATI drivers. To be fair I have not used ATI products in many years, probably because nVidia just dominates graphics.

 

Does anybody know where I can purchase the Signature Collection Series (VPCZ21SHX/X) other than the sonystyle website?

my gov lab can't seem to get tax exemption from their site so i need to find a retailer/reseller that can...

 

^
Unfortunately, I think only Sony themselves sell the signature editions...

 

Tell me about warranties!

I'm figuring the Z2 is going to be expensive to repair, so ideally I'd like at least two years warranty. On the Canadian site, the two year warranty costs $399. Yikes!

Opinions? Is this worth it,or should I just suck it up and pay for repairs as they come up?

(Also, the sonystyle.ca site seems to be broken; I can't get the details about what the default warranty covers versus the extended. I can get that info from Sony directly, though.)

Thanks!

 

^
I would get the extended warranty if you intend to keep it for the whole two years. Like you said, it will be expensive to repair.

 

A warranty is not worth the paper it is not printed on. Extended warranties are always a rip off IMHO but YMMV

 

Only Dell business support and AppleCare have ever been worth it for me (because they are the only warranties in my experience that are actually honored, and honored easily and well ).

 

I purchased a 2 year extended warranty for my Z1 for about 130 US dollars. A fellow NBR member here had nice experiences with Sony service in Hong Kong so I just figured that I might as well get the extended warranty . It's the same price for a $2600 Z and a $600 dollar Y anyway so I believe it's quite a good deal for my Z. My warranty will expire in March 2014.

 

^
So you got the extended warranty in the end?

 

dell support has my respect!

sony support DOES NOT. they wasted a lot of my time and in the end did not honor their 1st month warranty for me, it was a '1st month nothing'. i cant even imagine getting an EXTENDED warranty, that would be like getting an 'extended nothing'

 

That's a shame... then is there a place that I can configure the laptop to the max other than the CTO on sonystyle? I've see dynamism being thrown around and saw that they support government agencies, but don't see the Z on their site yet. Will they have it up soon?

 

I am not saying anything bad about Sony Support. They have always been good to me. I just don't think there is any need for a warranty after the first year. Unless your are a klutz and you need ADH. I take care of my valuables so I don't need insurance against myself.

 

I would assume so Sony & Toshiba support have been useless for me (working in IT/procurement) so far. Which is a shame for Sony, since their HW is typically decent on the consumer grade. Toshiba has nothing to lean on, so they are junk, anyways (IMO)

 

Actually the new R830 from Toshiba isn't too bad. It's basically a Z2 without the PMD, but definitely much more durable (I've read that it withstood a 100kg pressure test). The weight isn't so bad either, at 1.3 kg it's lighter than the Z1. It pales in the shadow of the almight Z2+PMD combo of course, but isn't a bad configuration in its own right.

 

ah, that's nice to know Though it's kinda more of a competitor vs the SA/SB/SC series.... I think (based off of their specs/pricing).

 

It's priced similarly to the Z2, even a little more expensive in precise. It doesn't have a graphics card so it can't be compared to the SA/SB. Functionally it fills a similar niche as the Z2 but it doesn't offer a PMD. Slightly worse than the Z2 but certainly gets the job done nonetheless.

 

Is there anyone who already ordered the Z2 who has access to a 2560x1600 or 2560x1440 monitor? I'd love to know if the Z2 can drive those sort of resolutions with an HDMI to Dual Link DVI cable

 

^lol no one has one yet. But i will certainly let you know if i get the chance.

Also, I was also thinking about buying insurance/protection. Anyone know good places/services to buy that kind of stuff that will protect against theft/dropping? I will be living in a college dorm, and I heard if i buy renter's insurance, it can cover the computer and everything else in my dorm. Or should i get somewthing like safeware/squaretrade? Or should i buy Sony's protection?

its going to be the most expensive object i possess so i want it to be protected.

 

anyone know where you can get the CKZ-4 case in the US?

 

I know that no one has it... I was trying to find out if anyone that has already ordered it will also be able to test for WQXGA support. This very well may be the determining factor for my Z2 purchase.

 

Extended warranty depends on the country. I think in the US it's provided by an external 3rd party, and the terms include strange rules - if I remember correctly, they only pay for repairs up to the value of the product. i.e. if you've done 2 repairs and the total cost of those repairs = price of the computer, they will refuse to repair it FOC if it breaks again within the warranty period. That's not the case in Europe, where the warranty is provided by Sony.

More information on this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/570094-sony-decides-pay-me-1058-my-z.html

 

Hi guys!!

I've been absent in these 2 days due to Bon Jovi concert.. XD

Anyway, I saw something about ssd speed test.. but, isn't there something about 128GB 3rd?? Cuz' I saw only things about 128GB 2nd and 256/512 GB 3rd...

 

Display Resolution
16:9 aspect ratio, 1366x768 (HD)

NEXT!

 

A metareview of the Z.
Sony Vaio Z Series 2011 Review Roundup: New MacBook Air Vies : Online Social Media

 

My sincere condolences. I hope your ears recover from that abuse in due course.

 

Isn't the Z also 16:9 ? Anyhow, yes the 1366x768 is quite a bummer for enthusiasts, but for the average customer, it's more than adequate. For me, 1600x900 is ideal. 1920x1080 on the other hand, is overkill.

 

I know I've said it before, but an expensive laptop in a dorm room means you should always have it locked up using a Kensington lock. It stops the opportunistic thief (a determined thief will eventually get his hands on it). Any insurance you get, be sure to read and reread the fine print to make sure it's not a ripoff and that they will actually replace a stolen laptop.

I've always had great experience with EU Sony support; queries are answered quickly, and warranty repairs have taken usually less than a week. Packing materials are couriered out, laptop goes off to Belgium or somewhere, and is back in perfect condition a matter of days later! Although I've been relatively lucky and haven't had many VAIO problems that weren't directly my fault... The only thing about the Z21 that makes me nervous, much like my X, is that I can't repair or replace practically any components down the line. My franken-SZ is a testament to how much you can accomplish with a screwdriver and forum advice. But it looks like i won't even be able to swap out the SSD in a few years

 

yeah, I was mainly trying to point out the "low" resolution, not the aspect ratio. As I'm searching for a FHD display 1366x768 is quite low.

 

Well my previous laptop was a 1024x768 (still remember those good ol' 4:3 screens ?) So coming from that I didn't find the 1080p on my Z particularly useful. It's down to personal preference really, but having a higher native resolution start off with does make you open to more options should you want to change the screen resolution.

I'd still recommend the Z2 over that toshiba thing I mentioned earlier, I just wanted to point out that toshiba isn't really that bad lol.

 

ll sony has just pulled the plugged on any new orders for z2 due to component shortage..