New Vaio 2008 model listing with indication prices - FW - Z - SR - BZ

Taking into consideration with this talk about Native Resolution on the Z in comparison to the SZ, which of the 2 would be best overall -performance? Let's take into consideration the best preconfigured Z with my SZ:

Processor: Intel Core 2 duo, T8100, 800mhz, 3B-L2 Cache, 2.10 Ghz.

Memory: DDR2, 2GB upgradeable to 4GB

Hard Drive: 250GB, 5400 RPM, Serial ATA

Based on these specs on my SZ, which Z, and again with respect to native resolution and performance, which model Z do you suggest I consider? Or do any of you feel I should just keep my SZ and call it a night. Help!

 

@ Geeee , native resolution does not really have to do anything with the native resolution unless you're running games or 3d rendering.

For your question about performance:
what kind of applications do you run on your SZ?
Do you notice any slow downs? if so when?
Are you ever waiting for your SZ to finish jobs? if so what jobs?

 

Thank you both. I found an add-on called "Default FullZoom Level 2.7" and it appears to do exactly what I want. I tried the minimum font size options built in to firefox but I noticed some pages were looking distorted with text overlapping in some areas (NBR is a good example). The add-on seems to zoom the whole thing, not just the text and the pages look very good with a 110% zoom which is just enough for my needs.

 

I've been leaning away from the FW towards the Z. Would the Z be any good for music production with a good enough cpu and ram?

 

im also going to do music production on my new laptop

 

Geeee I recommend you stay with your SZ.
Most people don't even need the power of the SZ - but its good to have

Now unless you require a more powerfull notebook, consider the possible problems that might appear in the Z as it is a new series.

And I suppose you have probably to some extent grown fond of your SZ, so do you really want to change it?

And then PhilFlow has voiced the obvious questions.

 

What type of music production?

Nero and Audacity (for making MP3s or ringtones for your mobile ) worked fine on my old Medion laptop, 1,6Ghz Centrino.

So as far as I can see, why not.

Its definitively a very powerful laptop.

 

It all depends...

Personally, my laptops never leave the house. I had SZ, FZ and both were "stay at home" laptops, so I don't see any reason to pay high price for portable laptop and sacrifice on performance...

 

As far as I am aware, until recently, the SZ was Sony's most powerful laptop in term of RAM and CPU.
Harddrive amongst the best.

And I couldn't tell about the graphics card...

 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2592

 

I certainly could be wrong, but these are the numbers I came up with:

11.1 1366 x 768 141
13.1 1600 x 900 140
13.1 1366 x 768 119
13.3 1280 x 800 113

 

I don't know about Vista, but changing the DPI in XP can (and will) muck up the look and layout of some web pages.

 

Can this be done to everything on the screen? For example, will all programs run look "zoomed" (MS Outlook, Calculator, whatever) or does it only work on web pages within a browser?

 

I know we have seen spec for Z series (3 models listed for Europe), but do you really think it will have 1600x900 res in 13.1"? Maybe spec. are wrong?
I have never heard about 13" notebook screen with such resolution, on the other side, there's first time for everything.

But why would Sony "degrade" Z in terms of everyday usage, as due to my understanding, TZ is meant for people on the run, checking their mails from time to time, and SZ was meant for people who want balance in size/weight but not scarifying performance and usability. Now, I spend 10-12 hours on my SZ71 every day, but I'm not sure I'll be able to do it with Z if it has same pixel pitch as TZ. It will cause tremendous eye-fatigue. I have tried TZ and believe me it's not for full day use.

Cheers,
Miki

 

full out music production, ableton live.

 

I think you are right. I only checked the 13.1" by the way.

Yes pretty sure it's correct. Lenovo X300 has 1440:900 which is the 16:10 version of the Z screen.

I would guess it works for everything, but since I'm not using Vista I can't verify it.

 

I see the Z more as the portable sister of the FW, i.e. as a multimedia entertainment device. HDMI, widescreen 16x9 resolution. The SZ is more the everyday usage model if you ask me. So then the high resolution for the Z kinda makes sense since watching movies etc becomes better. The only thing that doesn't fit in the picture is that not any of the Z models has an optional Blu-ray drive...

 

I made a spreadsheet that calculates the DPI values (as well as screen width/heights in inches) "properly" for a few Sony Vaio models, which I've attached (in XLS and ODS formats) in a ZIP. Black values indicate constants I typed in, while the green and blue values are calculated from the constants.

Here's an overview of the results:

Vaio SZ/SR 1280x800 = 113.49 DPI
Vaio Z 1366x768 = 119.61 DPI
Vaio Z 1600x900 = 140.13 DPI
Vaio TZ 1366x768 = 141.16 DPI


It looks like the 1366x768 Vaio Z will be similar in DPI to the Vaio SZ, while the 1600x900 will be closer to the TZ in DPI.

 

Oops maybe bad news for many of the new models:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12331

I hope this doesn't mean delays.

 

The Z comes with NVIDIA so the Z should be just fine, right?

 

Where'd that Dell Latitude link go again?

 

Nvidia + Intel X4500. Hybrid graphics. Hope it will be available first week of August like planned.

Which one do you mean?

 

Well, I was kidding (kinda )... but I meant the E4300.


EDIT: http://www.engadget.com/media/2008/03/latitude-e-ultraportable-12.jpg

 

ah didn't get that. you mean I seem so obsessed with the Z?

I still think the E4300 is very interesting. Lighter and cheaper than Z I hope.

 

Yeah for me its between either the SR or Z from Sony - Esp if they have Blu ray options which im sure they will.

And the Voodoo Envy.

 

Yep, and me too.

Seem?

 

"Also supported by the Centrino 2 platform is DDR3 RAM along with 802.11n and WiMAX."

I wonder why the FW, SR and Z series don't have DDR3 Ram. They use the older DDR2 Ram. Will Sony eventually update their line-up?

 

They'll have to.
Nasa's Space Shuttle is more advanced than the Saturn 5.

The question is only when.

 

They should definitely offer DDR3 Ram (power efficiency+better performance) and the new 320GB 7200RPM hard drive, particularly in the FW series...

 

You're probably going to have to do that yourself. no problem though.

About the DDR3 RAM, sure it's faster, but I am not sure it will be faster when running at 800Mhz in the current Z, FW or SR.

 

Check this out:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/07/07/sony.vaio.fw.and.sr.leak/

I can't believe they said that: "Sony VAIO FW, SR leaks show MB Air styling." Apple copied the design from Sony's X505, particularly the keyboard.

Apple fanboys....:laugh:

 

Hm...I did not know the BZ model will have LED LCD. This is something new!

Do we have any information on the battery size in BZ, with LED and a big battery they might hit the 5h?

 

Hey tha's new to me too. I quite like the idea of a 15,4" TZ model. Too bad it's 2.7kg. 900*1440 resolution is nice though.

With a 9 cell battery, yeah maybe.

 

It seems it will have a standard 6 cell 4800mAh battery. Pitty.

I am sure they will offer extended battery, but they are very expensive.

Thou..the LED LCD + high res + docking port...and a very affordable price for a "business" laptop...hm hm...might be something suitable for office full day work.

 

It's a cost thing at this point. 1GB of DDR3 when it actually arrives will be around $84, compared to the what $40 for 1GB now. I'm sure we'll see it as the systems mature, but in keeping with a realistic price point, I'm sure they are going to wait for the prices to come down, or offer it as a high end configurable option.


As for the BZ - It's supposed to have some great battery life this time around. I really hope it does, and improves on the BX series in that regard. I love my BX, but man the battery life on it leaves something to be desired.

 

Maybe the LCD could do the trick here. On 15.4" laps, the biggest consumer is the screen. LCD on my old laptops eats more power than the rest of the system..if they are able to cut the LCD consumption to half of the normal LCD it should be close to 5h, hitting 4h for sure.

 

I've debated the 13.x" laptop vs. 15.4" laptop in my mind a thousand times. I now have a very small very light 12.1". I had a large (and heavy) 15.4" before that. Going from 12.1" to 13.x" won't be a problem... but going from 12.1" to 15.4" will be huge.

I'd love the larger screen -- but not love the larger footprint and extra weight. I just don't know...

 

Who doesn't?

Hopefully in the future, we'll have laptops where the screen is detachable so you can tote around a small laptop with no screen and then bring along a large screen to connect to it which will be very thin and foldable. Best of both worlds.

 

Or a rollable OLED display where we can freely choose the display size. A TZ size laptop with a 24" screen

http://www.geek.com/rollable-oled-displays/

 

I'd settle for 15.4" laptop that is very slim (no more than an inch thick) and very light (no more than 3-4 lbs) with a bezel-less screen (for maximum monitor with minimum footprint).

 

screen width should drop eventually as OLED screens are introduced on laptops in the near future.

 

I'n fine with a 17" notebook. The bigger the screen the better. As long as the base of the notebook remains reasonably thin.

 

Ouch. That's gotta have a huge footprint.

What are the thinnest 15.4 and 17" PC laptops available these days?

 

I think the thinnest 15.3" is the MacBook Pro, just 1 inch.
Don't know about 17".

 

Actually, I can't find anyone with the LG p300 for sale.
That looks like the Best of the 13's.
That future.ca doesn't seem to have them any more.

EDIT.::: Tho I now see in the LG string they DO still have it for sale!

The Asus U series is at Portable1 http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=ASUSU

along with customer configured sz780s that are as Good as any of the 'New' offerings.
(with free 3gb upgrades), and 200GB 7200RPM drives for $120 that effectivley turns a $1790 N5 into a $2200 N7 http://laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=VGNSZ780N5&Category_Code=

Also with pre-downgraded XP, Unbloated, delivery for free.

-

 

I apologize, I may have misinterpreted your discussion re: native resolution. I was under the impression during your posts that miki69 was worried about the text size on the Z; that it would be smaller than his SZ. I recall him stating that the resolution of his SZ was the minimum he can go. Anything smaller than that would cause eye fatigue/eye strain, so he was worried that the Z would be worst off. This was related to "pixel pitch".

I am planning on upgrading from my SZ to a Z, but after reading your posts/discussion, I thought I maybe worst off. I don't run games or any 3D rendering. I thought your topic would apply to me if I work with a lot of Word, Excel, Documents, and Reports.

Hope this clears it up.

 

No doubt, your absolutely right. After reading through this thread its making me think twice about having to spend another $2k on a laptop. I very content with the SZ. I may just upgrade the RAM from 2G to 4G after the warranty. Vista is what makes it slow on start up. And I've been told by computer tech's from Best Buy to change the Ram 2 x 2G to fix that problem.

 

Kind of dissapointing that the palmrest on the Z-series definitely seems like it's plastic, not aluminum like the SZ. I believe (as far as I can tell without physically opening up the computer) it also uses a 1.8" hard disk drive (like the TZ), which means no 7200rpm option!!

 

Maybe a plastic palmrest would eliminate the slight shock issue the SZ had without the 3-prong adapter, but wait...

... Is your avatar a picture of the Z?? Where'd you get it (as far as I know there are no "real" pictures of the Z out except for your avatar)? Also, your post seems to imply that you have or have handled a Z model. ???

 

So, from past experience, generally how long should someone wait after the initial release of the new laptops before all the bugs/kinks/errors get smoothed out? I'd like to buy my laptop before September, and I'm beginning to wonder if it's at all feasible, or if I should just wait for prices to drop and get myself a cheaper SZ instead.