New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

You analogy is perfect, however, I thought the transcripts to be funny.

I didn't know this. Can the PMD power the Z2? Or do you need to power up both the Z and the PMD, which is why Sony supplies two power cords.

So you can't even put the Z2 on standby or hibernate without closing all programs before you disconnect the PMD?

 

i think the best way is, set the lid close action to sleep/hibernate then unplug this way hopefully no BSOD and very convenient

 

Just because of my obsession with the Premium Carbon Fiber. ZƒVƒŠ[ƒY ƒMƒƒƒ‰ƒŠ[„ ƒp[ƒ\ƒiƒ‹ƒRƒ“ƒsƒ…[ƒ^[ gVAIOh - ƒ\ƒj[ƒXƒgƒA

Really wish Premium Carbon Fiber was offered as an option in the USA (along with the gold)

 

When you are planning to spend 3K-4K you want everything to be perfect and you should not need to compromise. It is frustrating to see other countries getting an option but your are being left out. If Sony can add all available options to CTO it will only increase the sale. Although the Gold is not to my taste but I would buy Platinum Pearl any day. VGN-TZ290EAN | VAIO® TZ Series Notebook PC | Sony | Sony Store USA

 

it is always like this every warranty do has this policy that is included squaretrade's warranty

 

Interestingly my mom happens to use that computer! Unfortunately it's very sluggish and the performance is just terrible. I'd be happy to have a silver (or platinum pearl, they're quite similar) Z. Black is getting boring these days.

 

That TZ really was the best looking VAIO ever. I just love the way it looks.

 

We're aware of the "Undock" button. The issue is that the PMD requires power from the AC adapter to run (it doesn't get power from the main unit), so if there is a sudden power loss to the PMD, it will likely have the same effect as disconnecting the Lightpeak cable without first pressing the Undock button. Which is a problem.

Of course Windows is going to crash, it's just that seemingly few people have recognized this problem. It's a significant flaw insomuch as literally every other laptop available on the market does not crash when it loses power, and lots of businesses choose laptops over desktops for that reason of safeguarding data in the event of a power outage.

I recognize very few businesses will replace their laptops with Z2s, but it's just one of those things that you expect from a laptop (fallback on battery power during power loss), and some people might not be aware until it's too late.

And it's not just wide-scale power outages. If someone accidentally trips over your AC adapter, or you accidentally switch off the wrong power strip, or literally any other situation we always take for granted because we assume the laptop battery will be our safety net, you can kiss your session goodbye.

The main unit comes with a compact AC adapter, and the PMD comes with a separate larger AC adapter. When you use the PMD, you only need the larger AC adapter which will power both the PMD and the main unit. The smaller adapter is purely for when you use the main unit by itself.

There haven't been any tests on what happens when you standby or hibernate and disconnect the PMD. From the early reviews, it appears as though pressing the "Undock" triggers a software command to safely disconnect the PMD hardware. So if you resume a session (from standby/hibernate) without the PMD being safely disconnected, I would assume it would also cause a BSOD.

Hopefully someone who plans on getting the Z2 with a PMD can test these scenarios for us (PMD power loss, disconnect during standby/hibernate, etc). Although I plan on getting a Z2, I have no immediate need for the PMD and these potential flaws have convinced me from holding off buying one indefinitely. Or if the staff won't get mad at me, I might head out to the Tokyo/Ginza SonyStyle store and try it on the display units.

 

agreed

and let's not talk about all the problems..

 

I´m looking forward to the european delivery date - the new series is listed for the 28th july.

 

I wish the Z2 was also offered in Silver, like the same brushed aluminum silver used on keyboard of the Z1, ideal if Sony was able to use it for the lid. That silver has that liquid silvery metallic finish to it.

I'll definitely test it on the display models at SonyStyle when they receive their demos.

 

Are we sure about this?

In Vista, video drivers were moved out of kernel space, and into user mode. This allows the driver to fail, and be reloaded, and the machine doesn't BSOD (if you are using a user mode driver).

I'd be hoping that PnP would rescan the bus, find the Intel GPU, and unload/load the relevant drivers.

Edit: back in the old days when running Windows XP on the original Z, changing between GPUs required rebooting the machine. That isn't required anymore. So hopefully that's some supporting evidence that the machines can dynamically change between GPUs, even if one disappears unexpectedly

 

J and R has 5 Preconfigured Z2 for pre-order: Link

 

is it cheaper for pre config model than the CTO?

i might cancel my sony order then order from JR?

 

Well, the ViDock doesn't drive the Z's monitor itself, just external monitors, so if removing the ViDock the internal gpu still runs the notebooks monitor (as it did while the ViDock was connected).

That's a huge difference. Or am I wrong here?

 

It really depends on how you want your Z2 configured. When I inquired about the Z1 a year ago, the rep offered me $100 off - that's an additional savings to the tax that you don't get charged as long as you don't live and ship to NYC.

 

Changing the resolution to 1600x900 will look pretty horrible. Even so, the DPI scaling in Windows 7 is pretty good, so I'd recommend the 1920x1080 resolution.

The discount you may be able to get varies considerably: country, how much you're spending, who you speak to, etc. etc. Not heard of student discounts in the UK, but I got 5% off a previous Z in the UK when I ordered an extra years warranty. See what you can get on the phone. If they offer nothing, you can always end the call and try again later.

 

Managed to get a 7% discount from Sony UK when I ordered a couple of weeks back.

 

i just try it on my current Z (which is the same panel as new z) and it look perfectly fine after changing it to 900p, everything just get bigger but remain sharp and scale correctly

 

you mean SZ? First gen Z (VGN-Z) didn't require reboot after switching stamina/speed.

Cheers,
Miki

 

Almost the exact same system I ordered (uk). Mine was ordered at the end of last month and delivery has been delayed until the end of this one. So I doubt you'd get it before the end of Aug

 

I think when the laptop is connected to the PMD, the PMD's GPU completely replaces the Intel graphics on the laptop, so the laptop screen itself is being driven by the PMD. I'm almost certain about that (you can also see in demo videos that when the PMD is connected / disconnected the laptop screen flickers for a moment whilst changing GPU).

 

^I was refering to a ViDock attached to a Z1, whereof ComputerCowboy was talking about, not to Z2 + PMD.

 

I run my Z screen at 900P and even 720P sometimes to test Intranet app UIs at lower resolutions. Even 720P looks good. It is not 1:1 pixel map so it is not going to be as clear crisp or sharp as running a higher native res. It doesn't look horrible. FWIW, 540P would be a 1:4 pixel map so it would be very clear but extremely low res.

Yes the ViDock does NOT drive the internal display. That was not the point though. What I was getting at is that I would expect an OEM kit to have less issues and no way to ACCIDENTALLY BSOD.


I have pretty much decided that I am going to get the Z2 from Conics and it is really going to be like an X2 for me. My new plan is get maxed out processor and memory, standard SSD, gold color, back-lit keyboard, 3x3 Wifi, LTE and no sheet battery. This would cost about $3K

It is my understanding that Sony will not offer color matched batteries, they never have before. So I can save money on the initial purchase by getting only what I need and won't be able to upgrade later. The only reason I feel the need to save money on this is because the Z2 is just going to be another shinny toy. The Z2 just can't replace my Z1 as a work machine, especially when I upgrade from 1080P to DELL Ultrasharp U3011. The Z2 will be great on the go though.

 

Took quite a while for me to find your post lol.

Yes I did buy the extended warranty. Figured out I might as well get it so I can at least be 50% assured that someone would be there to fix my screen in the event that it fails me. I mean, look at the recent flood of threads regarding broken Z1 screens, that doesn't inspire me with confidence that mine's gonna last.

 

sorry for my ignorance, but what happens when you get BSOD? Can't you just restart laptop, or you need to reinstall Windows from scratch? If later, that sux big time!

Last time I saw BSOD was with Win95

Cheers,
Miki

 

More than likely, you just reboot and everything will be fine.

 

Keep in mind that the reports for BSOD were on prototypes. Sony may or may not fix this for production models

 

thanks. So no big deal actually,rather annoyance, although if you suffer power cut in the middle of some important work.....
I guess if not resolved for production units, we'll have to get some UPS.

 

That's why you unplug the PMD when at desk doing important work.

Oh wait...that sounds like a bad suggestion

 

That's absolutely incorrect. In the past Sony did surely offer color matched batteries:

 

If you use cached write on your SSDs, it means the state on your SSDs may be out of sync when the machine dies. That means the files on the SSD will degrade over time, which means more problems will gradually appear (or suddenly). I think the kind of file system may help, but I'm not sure if Windows has those kinds that do...

 

Is surge protection a real need for laptops? just curious cuz i saw the UPS's protect against those as well.

Also, did anyone get the free engraving? I didn't just in case i want to return it. But it seems like a cool idea. Any 3rd parties that will do it or could you send it backt o sony to do it?

 

I've always had a low opinion of Sony laptops, but this machine is certainly an eye-catcher, even if it's a little pricey. Too bad I don't have $2,500 to blow on a laptop.

 

^There are Vaios. Then theres the Z series.

And its certainly worth every penny. Expensive, not overpriced.

 

^
I agree with you

 

I think it would be cool if they rebranded the Z series without the "vaio" and have the logo like a Z. Similar to what Nissan did to the 350z and 370z

 

I should have been more specific about color matched... have you ever seen a BPL-XXX/N (gold) battery to match a VGP-XXX/N (Gold) VAIO?

Black and silver is like meh and meh.

 

NTFS has journalling. But I think that is beside the point.

If Windows has not flushed the write to disk yet (it's being held in Windows system cache), then you will lose that data. Your SSD should not be inconsistent in any way.

If the write has been flushed to the drive, but not yet committed by the drive (i.e. it's in the drive's cache), then it should still be committed OK. A BSOD doesn't mean you lose power to the machine. It means that Windows has stopped. It doesn't mean that hardware can't keep doing whatever it's supposed to be doing.

 

I've already ordered a Vaio Z for $3474 (that includes FL sales tax and a 2 year all-risk warranty). Question: get a Lenovo X1 for $850 less? (It's an apples to apples comparison.)

The X1 is slightly larger and heavier and lacks an external graphics processor but it does not require a bulky external dock. It has a far superior keyboard and sound. Also, it has an excellent gorilla glass display and Lenovo's System Update utility has flawlessly and automatically installed every BIOS and software update on my W700.

Just a thought, says Gator Bob.

 

^The Z has a much better screen.
Lenovos are ugly imo. The Z is a lot sexier.
The pmd is far from bulky.
the SSDs are faster probably due to RAID0 and SATA3
The keyboard you will get used to
For sound, buy speakers, earphones, or use the included earphones which are apparently decent.

Get the Z says I

 

Suppose we have a process, say it's the Windows Update process. And it's writing system file changes to the disk.

Process: Wow ok I have a lot of data to write to disk. Let's see, I'm going to break them down and flush them to disk ten percent at a time. Ok disk are you ready?

Disk: Yeah go ahead.

Process: Here's the first ten percent.

Disk: Ok I got them, next!

Process: Here's the next ten per-

(BSOD. The Program Counter isn't going anywhere.)

Disk: Yes? Hello? Are you there? I've written the first ten percent, you gonna pass me the next -

(User shuts down machine. Boots up again.)

 

Except for looks (nice but not necessary), I generally agree.

The Sony (Samsung) 256GB mini-Sata SSD is "supposed to be" Sata 3.
The full-size Intel 160GB SATA in the Lenovo is Sata 2 (although Intel's SATA management utility is rated as very effective).

 

HA! Sony has no updates so you dont even have to worry about automatic/autosmatish updates murdering your laptop! +1 for Sony!

(sorry, it's Tuesday morning...)

In any case, the Z has the high res screen... the "sexy" factor (although i must say the x1 looks decent compared to other thinkpads)... and has that fine VAIO logo on the back. Sony's like Apple, we've got our own fanboys (but are a little more justified in our purchases in that no one offers the same total package for less)

 

I laughed so hard I almost cried

 

So ... after a good laugh, has the Vaio Z1 suffered from insufficient updates?

 

My personal experience is yes. I actually fried my brick due to lack of surge protection, so had to purchase a universal power brick. Now, I always use my travel surge protector for prevention.

 

No because you can go find your own updates for all the Intel hardware and you can hack the BIOS and nVidia drivers to keep that up to date.

 

VAIO suffers from insufficient update; VAIO VPC-Z1, not to be confused with PCG-Z1 of 2003, only suffers from insufficient official update.

 

Anyone see the aspire 5755 today?

Number of inches: 15.6
Number of p's : 768

LOL