New Vaio F as it compares to the New Z?

Hello all. I'm strongly considering making my next laptop a Sony and I've narrowed it down to the Z (my current first choice) and new F, the only other machine that seems to bring the power. I just have a few questions.

The F is notably cheaper than the Z - even its BluRay upgrade is only $150 or less, while the Z is at 500! If I recall correctly, the Z is a "Premium Tier" model, Made in Japan/With Japanese Parts, as opposed to some of the cheaper series that are China designed, sourced and built. Is the F part of the Premium Tier as well? Is its build quality up to par with the Z?

I'm also trying to get a "feel" for its size. 16" notebooks tend to either fit into the "Generally a 17" body" or "Generally a 15" body", and I'm not sure which the F happens to be. I'm leaning a little towards the 17" body style as there is the inclusion of the numeric keypad. The closest model I can find is the Asus N61JQ, or so. How does the F "feel" - is it cumbersome the way larger notebooks tend to be, or does it feel more mobile than most?

The Z seems to have some pretty amazing features not available on American CTOs, including new finishes, screens and more. Is this true for the F as well?

At the moment I'm leaning towards the Z, but I'd like to know a little more about user impressions of the F before I make my final decision, Sony-wise. Thanks.

 

I don't think that the Sony F's design was outsourced to third parties. Keep in mind that the announcement was made recently, and the Sony F has been out for a few months now, and Sony still assembles its own computers. (of course, the parts are made by third parties for cost savings, as with any computer manufacturer)

Sony Z is amazing, but I've seen the Sony F in person and to me its pretty solid in build as well. The touchpad and keyboard are pretty good.

 

What I can say say is that I had a 16" HP HDX, and that was too large for me. So it stayed mostly at home. 13" for me is the perfect size, that why I chose the Z.
But the true difference for me between the Z and F is the CPU and SSD option. The quad and triple SSD options on the Z are faster than the F. Remember that the harddrive is the slowest part of a laptop, so having a ridiculous fast SSD will make the entire system feel faster.

F has the option for quad CPU, which in multi-tasking can give an edge. Although the option on the Z is also VERY fast.
So I think it comes down to if you want a more compact system and in return a higher price and if you want the heavenly SSD system from the Z

 

I have a SZ and it was constantly following apart! I had to replace the hinges 3 times..I am glad I bought the ext service plan


I would never buy a sony again It is not tough enough

 

Yes we've heard your story before, and it's OT here as well. Sorry about your luck.

Back on topic. F and Z are extremely different machines. Z's storage system runs circles around the F. F is available with faster CPU options. But neither of those matter until you figure out what size you want. These machines are very, very different.

 

For me, it comes down to the form factor. I needed a mobile workstation that would handle web development and graphic design tasks while I'm working away from my home or office. I have used 13" notebooks and the screens are just too small for that kind of development, IMO. Having seen the Vaio F12 in a store, I found the size to be perfect and so that's what I went with. I did order an SSD in my CTO F12 to improve the storage system performance, although granted it is not a RAID setup like in the Vaio Z.

I suggest you itemize what you will be doing with the machine and then choose which size is best for those tasks. The F's brute strength and bang for the buck won't matter if you never want to use it because it's too big and heavy. Likewise, the Z's performance and portability won't matter if you never want to use it because the screen isn't big enough for your work.

 

The Vaio F is built "Ok", not stellar by any means but still pretty decent I think. I purchased my F11 in March and it has 2 small chips on the edges, and the lid is becoming partially 'polished' from my neoprene sleeve (WEIRD), but I plan to polish that. There is one pisser imho:

The palm rest on mine is starting to fade out next too the trackpad >>

I do intend to call and complain like hell about that. There's no way a machine should have fading paint of any kind after that short a period of time >>

The Vaio F is like a fat 17" MacBook Pro (a 15" sized laptop). I've seen what the PC world calls a 17" laptop and no.. this is about half an inch thinner and a coulpe pounds lighter lol.

 

Do you have the grey or black F? Intersting about your fading palm rest. Z owners have posted about this too. Some pics of the fading palm rests show how horrible it looks. I guess this happened on previous gens too. The thing is, I have only heard owners of black (prem carbon fiber) Zs complaining about the fading palm rests. No silver owners have come forward. That's why I'm curious about your F's color.

 

i'm using my vaio vpcf12m1eh model for 1 month...i have been thinking about buying asus n61jq (which is stronger than my vaio as a processor) ...
About F series i can say its a real laptop..While ur using it , as a screen , keyboard etc.u can feel the quality...
if i had to buy a laptop today still i would buy sony vaio , i think after apple its the best laptop ever!! especially after the bios update that i made today it made my notebook more consonant

 

I have the black VPCF115FM that best buy was selling up until last month, the palm rest has a spot that is fading into a darker black color.

I didn't really finish my post because I had to go take care of some other stuff, but the laptop is fairly solid for a plastic laptop. It flexes less (and makes less creaking/cracking noises), than my old MacBook did when held by the front edge. However, there is a little bit of give in the palm rest edge by the trackpad *shrug*

 

I have a Silver F11 ME/H (the i5 dual core one), I dont have any issues with any kind of wear on the palm rest.

Had it since mid may, and play WoW a lot so it has seen quite a bit of use.

 

had mine since February....I have the black version and the palmrest is wearing out.

 

With the wearing out palm rest, sounds like you guys have had the same experience as Z owners. But as with you, only Z owners that have the dark color have reported the wearing palm rest. Very strange. You'd think Sony would have a way to address this if it's not happening on the lighter colored models.

 

It really depends on how portable you want to be, and then what trade off do you make.

Interestingly I've just plumbed for an F12, having had 2 Z's previously, the last being 2.93ghz c2d, bluray and 256gb ssd.

The F12 is still portable, but not as portable - but then I've now finally gone for an iPhone which does me on the out and about front.

The build on the F12 isn't carbon fibre or aluminium, but it still looks and feels good. Size is good too - 16.4 feels big, but not unwieldy like a 17 does - or my old Ar to be precise.
I got the backlit keyboard which is a must!
The screen isn't as good - and think about it - 1080 in 13" vs 1080 in 16.4" - and I prefer my old matt screen - but it's still a good screen - and it's a really nice size - I prefer the size.
I've gone for the quad 840 which rocks and can play left for dead 2 on high settings and crysis on med - this is going to be better than the latest z 2.66 dual core.
8gb ram ddr3 - same
Drive wise I've gone for 7200rpm - ssd loads fast and no moving parts, but with the f12 specs it's a mean machine already - sp the slight lag in opening programs doesn't make the lack of ssd all that apparent - as I'm not moving the f12 around so much I'm not bothered about having a spindle drive. I've got 500gb which is enough space - and saved a fortune!
Blueray is the same.

So all in all I've traded the portability of the z and gained some power and a more usable screen - the z just seems over priced whereas the f12 feels like a bargain.

As for the palm rest - the paint on my z actually reacted and bubbled. My f12 is grey and the palmrest has gridlines on it - I'm wondering if this is to prevent the wear showing on it.

 

@Virtua,

Think you're right about the gridlines on the palm rest. I noticed that on a silver S (SZ?) that I played with at Best Buy, and I assumed the silver Zs are the same. My brother in law's gray F is also gridlined on the palm rest. Why doesn't Sony use that pattern on the darker colors?

Anyway, nice description. Yes, if you are willing to sacrifice the portability of the Z, then you can get an F with similar or greater power for a cheaper price. But the Z's components make it a monster for its size, which is why it is so expensive. A max spec'd Z and a max spec'd F are actually probably going to feel similar in terms of raw performance. The F's quad core processor is going to be faster, but the Z's quad RAID 0 SSD is going to feel faster than even the SSD in the F.