New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

... more minor stuff...

While on the existing Z, some of the ports are protected (LAN, Dock, Express card) and the protection stays attached to the device, on the new Z, the ports are either not protected at all (the RJ45 for the LAN), or have a cover piece of plastic that removes completely. For instance:

The Express Card (page 54)


2 Push the ExpressCard slot protector so that the protector pops out.
3 Gently take hold of the ExpressCard slot protector and pull it out of the slot.

The Dock port cover (page 100) which actually has a storage compartment on the dock for it!

Remove the port replicator connector cover from the bottom of the computer.

!
You may find it difficult to remove the port replicator connector cover, as it is tight in place on your computer. Do not exert extra pressure when removing the cover so as not to damage the computer or the port replicator connector cover.

✍
Once you have removed the port replicator connector cover, keep it in the designated space (5) on the port replicator.

Is it just me or once that dock cover is off, it will likely never come back on?

... interesting stuff on the AUTO Mode of hybrid graphics...

Looks like the AUTO switch is not nearly as smart as they'd led us to believe so far. Basically, it has a couple of predefined function that it checks for and it just switches based on that, just like most of us do. It does NOT monitor load or usage though (so we can still switch between SPEED and STAMINA in a much smarter way ourselves.)

From the manual, page 121, here's how it works:

Automatically selects either STAMINA or SPEED mode to provide optimum performance when:
- The AC adapter is plugged or unplugged.
- An external device is connected to or disconnected from the HDMI output port on your computer or the DVI-D port on the optional port replicator.
- Your computer is attached to or disconnected from the optional port replicator.

So, if you're on AC, if you're using HDMI or if you're on the dock, you get into SPEED mode, otherwise, you're in STAMINA. It works for me (most of the time) except if you're trying to watch a BluRay movie in the plane I guess...

BTW, note that the DVI-D connection/disconnection option is silly since you seem to always be in SPEED as soon as you're in the dock... Some overzealous engineer added a rule in there which is likely never checked

Of course, there might actually be more to this than what the manual seems to say but... wait and see I guess !

 

Last post for tonight I guess... From digging around some more, it looks like there are actually 55 different configurations "available" for the new VAIO Z.

Just for useless fun, they are:

VPCZ110GB
VPCZ110GBBI
VPCZ110GL
VPCZ110GLBI
VPCZ112GD
VPCZ112GDS
VPCZ112GX
VPCZ112GXS
VPCZ114GX
VPCZ114GXS
VPCZ116GX
VPCZ116GXS
VPCZ118GX
VPCZ118GXS
VPCZ119FL
VPCZ119FS
VPCZ119FX
VPCZ119GL
VPCZ119GS
VPCZ119GX
VPCZ119HL
VPCZ119HS
VPCZ119HX
VPCZ11AGX
VPCZ11AGXX
VPCZ11CGX
VPCZ11CGXX
VPCZ11DGX
VPCZ11DGXSJ
VPCZ11EHX
VPCZ11EHXX
VPCZ11FHX
VPCZ11FHXXQ
VPCZ11GGX
VPCZ11GGXX
VPCZ11HGX
VPCZ11HGXX
VPCZ11JGX
VPCZ11JGXX
VPCZ11KGX
VPCZ11KGXX
VPCZ11LHX
VPCZ11LHXX
VPCZ11MGX
VPCZ11MGXX
VPCZ11NGX
VPCZ11NGXX
VPCZ11PGX
VPCZ11PGXX
VPCZ11QGX
VPCZ11QGXS
VPCZ11RGX
VPCZ11RGXS
VPCZ11SGX
VPCZ11SGXS

I'm not sure if this list is only for the US (in which case there are more CTO possiblities than I thought) or goes beyond but we the ZPCZ115* are missing from the list, and we know they represent the non SSD models in China... So, it would match with what Sony said at CES: all models have SSD, at least in the US.

As for the letters, their sequence and repetition, I wonder if we could maybe extract a pattern based on some of the configurations we already know. For instance, we know that the VPCZ11FHXXQ is the flagship Signature model in the US, loaded to the gill. We also know that this seems to be only the model in the US with 1920 x 1080 screen (based on all the configs for which we have specs so far) and that's the only model with a Q at the end.

Coincidence?

... yeah, you're probably right

Quick update: well, at least, it looks like the 9th character is meaningful. It's the country code. B for Brazil, D (or S?) for Canada, L for Latin America, X for US, E for Europe, etc... So, I'm missing a lot more models, these are only for the Americas it seems...

 

SONY USA is offering four preconfigured models on their site, however pricing is yet to be listed. This is one of the configurations: VPCZ11CGX/X that's being offered and exactly what I was aiming for. The added benefit is it has the glossy premium carbon lid. The only question is how much$.

It looks like the Glossy Premium Carbon is not inclusive to the Signature Line.
Also, it appears if you opt for the 128SSD, for now, Silver is your only choice. I'm wondering if certain preconfigurations will be offered to certain colors, or will Sony offer the same preconfig. specs for both black and silver. I guess this is where CTO kicks in.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644699498

 

This thing is a beast...makes my old Z sit in the corner and tremble.

13.3" 1080p! Nvidia 330GT! 512GB SSD! I know it's basically 4 drives in one, but that still can't be cheap. Been an S, SZ, Z, owner and this is by far the greatest evolution this series has ever seen...with every previous iteration i always found a weak area that kept it from being perfect...but this version is truely perfect...in every aspect...this one looks like it's gonna carry a hefty pricetag...my guess is $2699 ~ $2999 for the full spec model.

 

more like $4.5k for the full maxed out model, the VPC-Z11FHX/XQ I believe...

 

Looking to upgrade my old Z, hopefully shortly....

 

I'm not sure why people get so excited about the 1080p screen.
At the end of the day the screen is already very high resolution and going from 900 to 1080 vertical might be great but won't in any way be noticed for most or nearly all situations.

 

That's the price for signature collection fancy model maxed out. Price for regular maxed out model will be less then that. I wonder if they will offer CTO option for i7-620QM.

 

My previous Z CTO not even nearly maxed out was about $4.4k, so I believe the $4.5k price tag for new maxed out Z is quite possible.

 

Sony has accumulated a rather large debt in the last few years, we've got to help them

 

Yes but we already know that price for signature collection model maxed out (i7-620qm,512 gb SSD,1900X1080 screen,8gb RAM) is $4.5k. I would think regular maxed out model should be less than that.

If Z was made by Apple this will be CNN top story for the whole week . But Sony has marketing strategy for new Z like they are selling antique Chinese vase. I wouldn't be surprised if they can't cover expenses for development of new vaio technologies even with those high prices.

 

$4.5K (actually $4499.99) has already been published as the price for the maxed out model (1080P screen, 8GB RAM, Bluray burner, i7-620M, Windows Ultimate, 512GB SSD etc).

So if one were to reduce the 512GB to maybe 128GB (leaving everything else the same), we can probably shave off a cool $1500 from the maxed out price......SSD is VERY pricey and 128GB is more than sufficient for loading all the primary apps and also a serious amount of documents and with regular backups, the job will get done.

 

The one situation called HD video. The problem with 1600x900 is that a 1920x1080 native video picture has to be scaled, which invariably leads to blurring and visual artifacts. Granted, most movies are too blurry already for it to matter much, but there are exceptions, and more true HD programming appears every day.

Another reason is that you can hook up your laptop to a TV and see the exact same image on the screen as on display. There's no scaling involved, so the image will be crystal clear and actually readable, unlike today, where the 1600x900 gets scaled up to 1920x1080 on the TV, and you can't read the small text.

 

That model will have i7-620qm except if that's typo on sonystyle US and as I said it is signature collection model so price will be different for regular model.

 

The i7-620M (One of the dual-core versions of the i7 range, with graphics core built in and 4MB of cache) will be freely available via CTO and I typically skip the "signature" models and go with a CTO model and get it in the exact configuration I need.

Now, would I love to have the 512GB SSD ? Sure ! But $1500 (my estimate) is a serious chunk of change for a little more disk capacity. I might skip the "Windows Ultimate" and go with the base "Windows Professional" and save another $100. CTO is the way to go !

 

You could save more by going with the DVD burner and not the Blu-Ray one.

 

I can assure you you won't see that much scaling artefacts when going from 1920*1080 to 1600*900.
And if you're worried about so, a lot of HD content is 720p and will therefore be scaled up to 1080p on all the Full HD sets. I don't hear many people complaining about artefacts.
13.1" is just too small to expect that level of clarity IMHO.

 

Does anyone know how far an extended battery would stick out..? Would it be a good idea to get one anyway in order to improve air flow under the chassis..? (Provided it sticks downwards rather than out of the back...)

 

In the year 2010, I would never purchase a DVD burner. I will go with a Bluray burner (for whatever they charge for it), which in turn will allow me to play/burn Blurays, play/burn DVDs and play/burn CDs.

I specifically need a Bluray Burner, since I will be backing up (archiving critical data) onto the Massive capacities that Bluray discs are capable of (25GB to 250GB). Seemingly, the current firmware in the Sony Vaios will only write upto 2 layers (50GB) but later firmware upgrades should take it to even more capacities.

I will also be editing home videos from my HD camcorders and creating Bluray content - love watching it on my 65" Plasma !

PS: I always prefer at least 2 different modes for backing up my data - Optical (Bluray Discs) and Magnetic (portable Hard-disks).

 

In my over 3 dozen Highdefinition Bluray discs, not a single one is 720P.

 

One of my early notebooks was a Fujitsu P5010D which had a 10.6" screen with 1280x768 resolution. That's 140dpi.

The notebook that replaced it was my current SZ at 13.3" with 1280x800 - 113dpi. I could stand more resolution in the same space.

The Z with 13.1" and 1600x900 is 140dpi. Identical to my old subnotebook, which means it'll be small... but usable.

Now the Z with a full HD screen - that's 168dpi. Not quite as bad as the P series at 221dpi, but still potentially uncomfortable.

 

As with the 'old' Z, I'll have to wait and see what the noise/heat issues are. Seems like the old model had its share of problems and complaints in this regard, so I'll be amazed if the spec can be upped so drastically and this crucial aspect of performance be improved. But I'm prepared to be proven wrong...

Meanwhile, I'm surprised that the new Z SSD option isn't getting more criticism. With the old Z I would imagine plenty of savvy users ditched the cheap stock HD and stuck in the standard 160gb x25-m g2 (or above). Given that Sony have up to now used less favourable SSD stock does this not bother you guys?

Z

 

Not until they release pricing for the Owner Made options ; )

 

Any news on the performance of the gt330m? According to notebookcheck it had a score of 6500+- (comparing to the 6200+- my nvidia 8600m gt has).
This seems a rather low score...
I've found a nice vid on this site http://tweakers.net/nieuws/65037/sony-introduceert-nieuwe-vaio-z-laptop-met-ssds-in-raid0.html
That sony looks so slick, I have no use for a 13 inch laptop or for those weak graphics (if notebookcheck is corrent), but I'm still considering of getting one of those, no idea why...just looks like a good product.

The cheaper model has only 1 ssd unlike the high budget model with two ssd's, they mentioned in that forum (of the link I just posted) that you can't enable trim function on 2 ssd's in raid 0, so I guess the 1 ssd option in the lower model is better then?

 

Great find! It kills me, though, to read this in the manual regarding the docking station:

So, no dual monitor setup with the docking station alone. Not a show stopper as there are other solutions, but disappointing.

-Peter

 

Notebookcheck didn't do any 330M GT tests.
Anyway it should be 12000 in 3Dmark05 which is significant upgrade over 8600M. And don't forget that in real life (I mean games) difference in performance may be even higher due to high CPU-dependence of 3DMark test.

 

What do you mean notebookcheck didn't test the gt330m...what is this then?: http://www.notebookcheck.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22436.0.html

Anyway I hope your right about it being above 12000, in that case I might get one of these to play the new assassins creed ^^

 

Quoting from that site, towards the bottom:

-------------
:: There are currently no reviews for this graphics card.
-------------

 

Hmm... there're still no gaming tests

Ok, I see 6500 in 3DMark 06 for 330M, and your 8600M scores 6200 in 3DMark 05 and 3347 (average) in 3DMark 06. So nothing to worry about, 330M is almost twice as fast.

 

Maratus, where are you getting the 12000 number in 3DMark05 from? I haven't found the source for that yet...

 

Does anyone know the actual color of the keyboard/palmrest on the New Black Z. In the youtube video, the one for 1min, 25secs. which I'm sure Sony produced, it clearly looks like its black, just like the current Z8xx. But on the photos from engadget and other sites, for example, it appears the color to be like the first gen. Z5xx - gunmetal gray?

 

if you click on the View Models now they have Z quickship configs for sonystyle USA

still no dates just notify me

 

The performance of the GT 330M should be similar to the GeForce GT 240M and 3DMark05 for it is around 12000

 

There is a video of the new Z at the following link:

http://tech.163.com/digi/10/0119/23/5TE9B3SG00161MAH.html

 

I saw the link posted, that gets us there. But how do you get to this point, via the menus on Sonystyle ? By following the menu, it still takes us to the old/current Z, than the new Z.

 

Wow if 3d mark is right then the Z is AWESOME :d Such a nice design, and so much power, i'm definitly considering this 'lil wonder' ^^

@roweraay
if there are no gaming results, I wonder how they came up with that score, well according to the 3d mark that score is far from correct anyway.

 

Huh? So i couldn't hook up this vaio to another spare laptop's monitor and dual screen it? what the hell

 

You can use the laptop's screen and one external screen in tandem, but you can't use 2 external screens. My current setup is 2 22" monitors which my Asus docking station can drive (one monitor comes from the dock's monitor port, the other from the dock's DVI port).

To do this with the Z's new dock, I'll have to invest in something like a USB-VGA adapter.

-Peter

 

SONY VAIO VPC-Z11Z9USAI
Price and availability in france :
http://www.pixmania.com/fr/fr/4491373/art/sony/vaio-vpc-z11z9usai.html

 

March 19th release date...

 

Don't countries outside of the U.S. get the models later than us?

 

330M is rebadged 240M with slightly higher clocks.
http://www.notebookcheck.com/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-240M.17633.0.html

 

That's true for the VAIO F that is till hardly available right now here in europe!
VAIOs are also more expensive here (in Europe).

 

Aw, man. No eSata, USB3.0, and ExpressCard 2.0.

Oh well. I'll just have to settle for 'awesome' rather than 'awesomely awesome'. I'll live.

edit: Oops, sorry, wrong thread. I thought I was posting in my Signature Edition tab.

 

They have another model, http://www.pixmania.com/fr/fr/4492820/art/sony/vaio-vpc-z11x9usai.html, going for 1799 Euros.
They do list as well the new S-Series, 899 Euros, that should be around £800 but Sony has the same model listed at £949.
If my calculator is correct, the lower model of the two new Z will cost as much as the top end Z released in Summer 2008, with the top end costing as much as the 007 edition (around £2500+).

That's a lot of money.

 

The only useful backups are the ones you actually make. Some problems with BD for backups is that it's slow, holds less capacity than the drive you back up and doesn't change media for you automatically. So you'll sit for a couple of hours waiting for the BD to burn so you can change it, and then wait again. Repeat for the verification process.
Most people will do that once, and perhaps twice if they have masochistic tendencies.
The end result is that the backup will be old and outdated, and quite possibly not work at all if the verification process was skipped.

Even using a USB drive for backups becomes a hassle, and likely to get done less and less frequently. I know because I have one. It is now collecting coat pocket fluff, and is seldom if ever hooked up.

Compare that to the convenience of an online backup, where the notebook wakes up every night if it's plugged in, makes a backup to a network storage, and then goes back to sleep. In a fraction of the time.

 

Have you ever had to restore from an online backup? That's where I've read the negative reviews. I have Acronis set to backup to an external hard drive and it does so nightly, painlessly. I've had to restore Outlook from Acronis and it was a snap even for a novice like me. I'm open to online backups but those negative restore reviews caught my attention.

 

Then again many people can't notice the difference between 1080p and 720p scaled to a 1080p display...to me then difference is night and day. It is harder to find a difference between 720p material displayed on 720p display vs 1080p material displayed on 1080p display. I think all notebooks this size should be offered with full 1080 displays as an option at the very least. The only downside that i see to this is that the 330m is not an ideal card to play many games in 1080p native resolution. Bluray will be drop-dead gorgeous on this screen i bet...

 

330M is still as good as it gets in 13" (Alienware M11 aside)

 

^^really? ATI HD5650 would have been better. Better performance plus slightly lower TDP.

Actually, ATI HD5830 (Class 1 performance GPU) has a TDP of 24W; this is quite possibly as powerful the GPU gets in a new Vaio Z, which its GPU has a TDP of 23W.