New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread

It boasts some other hardware which isn't bad. The resolution is a bit...

 

I'm OK with updating from component sites. But "hack the BIOS" ain't my cup of tea.

 

Sony Z doesn't sound quite as cool as Sony VAIO Z.

The last time I had a 15" laptop (2006), the screen resolution was 1280x800. I see that a lot hasn't changed over the years.

 

well there are plenty of community made driver packages also that don't require a BIOS hack.

 

The sheet battery is now in stock, so if anyone wants to save $50, order the sheet battery from the accessories CTO page.

Z Series Battery | VAIO Extended Sheet Battery | VGP-BPSC27 | Sony USA

 

Trying to look at some slip sleeves to buy as I don't want the hard leather one done by sony. I saw on the cases thread that the zeroshock 3 was very popular for the z1, but it dimensions don't quite fit the Z. I want it to fit the sheet battery too. so the Z+Sheet dimensions are

13x8.27x.96

The zeroshock3 says it fits 12.4x9.4x1.6 so its kinda tight on one side and loose on the other and its a little thick. I realized that the Z+Sheet closely matches the mbp13 dimensions of:

12.78x8.94x.95

So i guess getting a mbp case would be a better fit like the caselogic one. That will also make shopping a lot easier.

has anyone else been thinking about sleeves to buy? and other recs?

 

Since it wasn't answered before:

I'm sure it's too early to know this for sure but given current info about the Z2 and prior experience with the Z1 what do you guys expect the cooling to be like?

My CW can get annoyingly hot with fans blowing constantly, I want something super cool and quiet.

 

My Z1 doesn't get very hot, but it can make a lot of noise and blow out a lot of hot air. The unit stays pretty cool though. I don't care about the noise or the amount of hot air ejected. I like that the body doesn't get hot. I expect that the Z2 will make a little less noise and a little less hot air. I don't know if the unit will heat up but I suspect not.

 

I'll be a smartass and say yes, for the VPC-P series, the standard sized batteries matched each body color (black, white, pink, green, orange, etc.) However I know what you meant by that was that did the extended battery ever come color matched? And the answer to that is no, the L batteries were all black.


And BTW I think you should order the gold optical drive for your Z2. Maybe you can find one second hand, or from a different market than straight through Conics, but how cool would it be to have a color matching dock on your desk? Think about the eye candy!

LOLOLOL






BTW the sheet battery's price in the CTO (for USA) was changed a few days ago from $200 to $150. But I suspect those of you that want some of the Z2 now will order it now so they can "imagine" what their new computer is like.

 

Are you saying it is $50 cheaper than $149 if it's ordered as part of an order for a configured Vaio Z? I've already placed my order for a Vaio Z and do not want to drop back in line by cancelling then re-ordering with a sheet battery.

Thanks.

 

Ok nvm they changed the sheet battery option in CTO to $150 as well. if i call sony, will they give me that $50 back? Would that put me at the end of the line?

 

I guess I missed that on the VPC-P, My girl has a VPC-P but it is black so I never thought much of it. You are saying there were white, neon orange, neon pink and neon green standard batteries> Well I guess I don't really care about the standard battery. What I am really getting at is, since the sheet battery is NOT color matched, I can order a Gold Z2 from Conics, then get a sheet battery for cheap later, if or when I feel like it.

I am not too sure how I feel about the sheet battery. The Z2 is all about being super thin... then the sheet battery kills that. If the battery life of the internal battery is anywhere near what Sony claims then I think it might be enough for me and it will mark the first time I've ever gotten a VAIO without the extended battery.

As far as the Power Media Dud goes... I'd rather buy an upgraded SSD than a color matched add on thing that I don't even want. I hate ATI and I already have various USB>Blu-ray drives.

I found out today that the Intel HD 3000 graphic support 2560x1600 so I might just run a single 30" off the Z2 with an HDMI>DVI Dual Link cable if that works. Honestly that is not the way I am looking at the Z2. I am thinking it will be somewhere inbetween the P and the Z1 for me (like the X that I never bought). I'll just take it out and about, then come back to the office and do my work on my docked Z1.

I am in a holding pattern right now. I want to wait until someone gets their hands on a Z2 who can tell me if it will drive a WQXGA monitor with or without the PMD.

FYI Intel HD 3000 is supposed to also support HDMI 3D, I am not really seeing the advantage of the PMD except that you get one more HDMI output. I don't play games... the only way that the PMD would be worth my while is if it allowed me to drive a second WQXGA monitor.

 

^Does the NYC sony store have wqxga displays? You could go there and ask them to hook up their Z to it and see if it works.

Or, bring ur in own monitor to the store.

 

^ I may as well just buy one from conics and try it myself... last trip to NYC a few weeks ago cost me around $3K. I really don't have anything to show for it. I ate a lot of very nice dinners though.

 

@CompCowboy- yes I'm saying all the VPC P have color matched S batteries to their perspective colors. But I know you were referring to the L batteries where all of them are black.
I really want you to get the gold one because it's unique and I have a feeling that you'll love it seeing what other comps you have. Like you said, it'd be the perfect machine in between your P and Z1. For that reason, I'm trying to justify it, but I can't. Not for my student needs. Maybe I'll pick up a used one when the Z3 or Z4 come out, but not right now.

 

Hallo Again, are F12Z owner and heard you guys talk about bios hacks. What do you gain with that, just curious? And yes I have my eyes on the new Z.

 

An article on the optical implementation of Light Peak can be found here.

 

guys, i got an email today they shipped me the battery : ) from IL to CA

 

The ability to disable graphic switching, if you have nvidia only, you can use their latest drivers they have available without having to pray that Nautis or Andrew08 are able to pull yet another miracle with their hybrid drivers.

You can disable legacy usb support, increases boot speed.

I was able to switch from RAID to IDE mode just to update my C300 firmware which otherwise I would have had to open my Z and remove the drives to update.

I disabled C-state on my CPU and my SSD's are much faster now.

couple examples

 

This isn't a disk consistency issue. If the application only commits 10% of its data to disk (e.g. one out of 10 files, or 10% of a file), then the application needs to have its own transaction system to ensure data consistency (e.g. how a database works).

Windows does provide this for the servicing stack (for the Windows Update example you cite).

The disk has no idea whether it's received 10% of a file, or the entire file. It just sees bits that go onto platters or flash.

 

Yeah, the Z1 and the VGN-Z don't get pretty warm in general, but they do indeed blow really hot air. It's very silent though, so that's what's most important.

Anyway, I'm not sure if anybody has already posted this, but it would help me greatly. How is the keyboard travel for the new Z when compared to the X? I really liked the X, but I didn't feel for the keyboard. It felt really shallow. Thanks in advance.

 

Does anybody use Linux on their Zs? I wish there was a fresh start option for the Singapore market, but it's not going to happen anyway.

 

Check out the reviews. It's possible reviewers had pre-production samples but they all complained about a loud fan and shallow keyboard travel.

 

The bolded parts contradict each other. You're saying that the system doesn't have to care about consistency because it has taken care of it. But, if it doesn't have to care about it, why bother taking care of it in the first place? This is exactly a disk consistency issue.

When you say the application needs to have its own transaction system to ensure data consistency, you're already admitting that just ensuring that the hardware continues to be powered is not sufficient. That's exactly why I mentioned certain filesystems may be able to mitigate the inconsistency caused by BSOD. But in general, unless something is explicitly done, BSOD will damage the filesystem. Even if there is journaling, I don't think it is perfect.

I'll also extend your point about the disk seeing bits: to the filesystem, it's about files. What matters to the OS is a complete, uncorrupted file. If the application or whatever can't recover from the inconsistency when the machine reboots, then the system will be hosed.

 

I meant to say that this is not a consistency issue as far as the hard disk is concerned. Either the data it was told to write to platter/flash is committed, or it hasn't been received from the OS yet. There is nothing *in the disks's* cache that the OS *thinks* has been written, but hasn't.

No - you are missing the point.

At an application level, an application must keep it's data set consistent. THis is why applications like RDBMSes that promise ACID support, have transaction logs.
At an OS level, the data must be consistent. THis means that if an OS function tells an application that the data has been written (but has really been put in an OS cache), then the OS needs to keep track of what has been flushed from its cache to the hardware. If something hasn't been flushed, it needs a way to keep track of that and commit it later.

And lastly, the hard disk needs to keep its data consistent. This means that if the hard disk told the OS that the data has been committed, it either must be committed, or if put in a cache, the hard disk has a way of comitting it later.

Otherwise, if the application, OS or hardware can not do this, then the layer above could be working under a mis-apprehension that its data has been safely entrusted to the layer below, but in reality it hasn't.

A BSOD stops Windows from working. It doesn't stop a hard disk from continuing to commit data from its cache to the actual platter/flash (i.e. all the data in its cache that it told Windows had actually been written)

 

Alot of uncorrect info deleted..

 

Well any of you out there wanting to see Apples answer to the Z2, here are the leaked specs.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/19/apples...ed/#more-84003

Cool specs for the 11", but not so much for a 13" lappy.

 

haha, that's all it takes reviewing a notebook!
mmd!

+rep for you my friend!

 

i was kinda hope for retina display.... boooo!!

 

^the article doesn't say anything about resolution, does it?

 

well if it does not save anything 90% is it will be remain the same..

 

This morning i was calling sony europe germany. They told me the new z series is available now in stock.

The pre configured model are running a SSD Generation 1 Version - only the self configurated will get the generation 3.

Is that a big difference? For me the problem is that i can´t get on site support for pre configured vaios in germany...

 

^
In stock? So you can pick one up right now?

 

Why is that? I thought you could get 3 years on site service in Germany if you order a computer with Win7 Prof. no matter if it is cto or not? (At least that's what they've told me)

To the SSD Generation: If you run benchmarks -> Yes it's a big difference. In real world experience there will be a slight difference but I don't think you will notice it if you don't put a second computer right next to it which runs Sata 3 SSD.

 

Don´t know why on site support is not possible. But this is a big problem for premium customers i think.

So the SSD Generation can be ignored i think - i´m changing from vaio z21 with hdd to ssd

 

Well I think you can buy this 3 years on site service no matter if it is visible in the CTO configurator or not. Just ask the phone service because it should be possible to order that one with the new Z (you could order it for the old one also). And as you can't replace the SSDs I would try it that way to get the Sata3 version even if you don't notice much difference.

 

The Intel spec shows WQXGA over DP but doesn't state the HDMI max resolution. It's HDMI 1.4 so it might be possible to get up to that resolution from the HDMI output.

This would be a bit odd though, and rather 'Sony', as the PMD won't do WQXGA as the discrete GPU is limited to 1920x1200 over HDMI. Unless you can use the PMD without the discrete GPU, but then it's getting really crazy. For me being able to dock easily and not dis/connect all the cables is really important, and that the dock probably can't do the high resolution is a big problem.

FYI you can also massively increase the performance of the HD3000 on Sandy Bridge by using higher speed RAM up to 1866MHz - Kingston HyperX 8GB 1866MHz PnP Memory Kit For Notebooks - Final Thoughts and Conclusions - Legit Reviews

Anyway, I only dropped in to see if people had their hands on their Zs yet - when are they expected to land?

S

 

The U3011 only supports max 1920x1200 on its HDMI inputs, like 99% nowadays screens which have an HDMI input....

I think Sony should have implemented a DisplayPort output on its laptop, or at least on its docking station!

 

All Intel IGP only support 1920x1200 max via HDMI. They NEED DP to go higher. All Intel IGP also do not support dual link DVI. So no go on that, either.

And my U2711 does not support 2560x1440 via HDMI, as I thought earlier It was a bit blurrier than it should of been....

 

Ah, thanks for the correct information. Too bad. I better edit that post then..

 

Well there are other ultraportables with DP, but they don't have quite the style of the Z, nor an internal display with the same (high) resolution.

S

 

To be very exactly: there is no BPL-XXX/N battery for VGP-XXX/N. The sheet/extended battery is called VGP-BPSCXX.

 

Here are some pics form the Z launch event in Korea:
???? ??? ???Z ??? ??? ??? ?? ???! :: ??, ???? ???

Product page:
Sony Store, Online (Korea)

Sorry if it has been posted already.

 

Fingers crossed, that would redeem this new design somewhat.

Where are you seeing that the discrete GPU can't do over 1920x1200?

Manufacturers often misrepresent what resolutions can actually work... for example my UX can drive a 1080P display. The Z1 seems capable of WQXGA although I haven't confirmed that it works because I don't have a WQXGA monitor yet. I have gotten 3840x1600 working (2x 1080P) which is actually 50K more pixels than WQXGA.

I completely agree. Although I will be giving up some of that quick docking ability when I add a ViDock to the Z1. The trade off is that with a ViDock I could run three WQXGA monitors.

A real saving grace for the Z2 will be if some adapter comes out for it that allows you to use high end thunderbolt peripherals.

I meant BPL-xxx for VGN-xxx... but whatever. I know what you mean and you know what I mean.

What about a HDMI to Dual Link DVI cable, have you tried that?

So basically the only way to get one or more WQXGA monitors working with an ultra-portable laptop that has an internal high res display is to use the Z1+Dock (unconfirmed but I am pretty sure it will work)... or to use the Z1 with a ViDock.

From what I gather the Z2 may never be able to drive this kind of display unless a third party light-peek/thunderbolt peripheral comes out that works with the Z2.

Why is Sony so awesome and so dumb at the same time? they want to compete with Apple, but even the crappy little Airs will drive Cinema displays

Damn damn damn, I just want everything... is that too much to ask?

 

computercowboy, why are you so sure that 2560x1600 will work on vidock with the z1?there is a thread on nbr and it seem only 1 guy got it to work while many have failed and it is very problematic.

 

The ViDock 4+ will support a GeForce 570
I have confirmed with Village that it will support the eVGA 570HD
The 570HD has 2x DL-DVI, 1x DP, and 1x MiniHDMI

I suspect that I would be able to run two or maybe even three WQXGA monitors with that setup. (can you imagine that? might get lost with all that real estate)

The nVidia page about the 570 suggests that it can run 2560x1600 on digital, that 2X DL-DVI is supported as a standard feature, and that multiple monitors are supported. There is nothing to indicate that you can't run at maximum resolution in mulit-monitor mode.

GeForce GTX 570

 

Dude, like you said, if you consider just the hard disk it only cares about bits, and if it is its only point of reference, it would always be correct by definition Talking about consistency considering just one component by itself doesn't make any sense

I agree with what you say. But, that was not the point my my original reply was making. My point was that *IF* the components above do not help in some way to mitigate the lack of consistency *BETWEEN THE SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE*, and that filesystems that use journaling are one of these methods of mitigation, *THEN* the filesystem will gradually be hosed. Sure, we have databases that are ONE CLASS OF APPLICATIONS that help with this consistency issue, but, not all applications are databases. Sure, Windows Updates may have its own system to rollback changes, but, I wonder why then that when Windows updates, it tells us not to shut off our computers.

My point is that ALTHOUGH there are ways to mitigate the consistency issue, they are not perfect, they are not always implemented by all applications, and so in general, BSODs should be avoided. That's it.

Hey I appreciate you being on Slashdot and being technical, but I'm afraid this direction was not what I had intended. And since I have other things to do, I'm afraid I have to stop responding to you. No offense