New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

Much faster. A good SSD is better than a veciloraptor 10000rpm disk drive

 

Several orders of magnitude better than even a velociraptor 10,000rpm drive....

 

Official specs from sonystyle.de
http://www.sony.de/product/vnp-z-series/tab/models

no ddr 1333, no usb 3.0, vga webcams only

VPCZ11Z9E/B

Technische Daten
Bitte beachten Sie, dass die Funktionen/technischen Daten sich von Land zu Land unterscheiden können.

Alle ausblenden

Betriebssystem

Betriebssystem
Legales Windows® 7 Professional (64 Bit)


Architektur

Chipsatz
Intel® HM57 Express-Grafikchip


Colour

Farbe
Schwarz


Prozessor

Prozessor
Intel® Core™ i7-620M Prozessor

Leistungsstärke
mit Intel® Turbo Boost Technologie.

Prozessorgeschwindigkeit (GHz)
2,66

Max. Turbo-Boost-Geschwindigkeit (GHz)
3.33

L2-Cache (MB)
4

Anzahl Kerne
2


Speicher

Größe des Speichers (GB)
6

Speicherdaten
PC3-8500

Geschwindigkeit des Speichers (MHz)
1066

Speicher-Typ
DDR3 SDRAM

Max. unterstützter Speicher (GB)
8

Max. Speicherkapazität – Kommentar
Möglicherweise steht dem 32-Bit-Betriebssystem ein Teil des Systemspeichers über 3 GB nicht zur Verfügung.


Laufwerke

Festplattentyp
Quad SSD (RAID 0)

Festplattenspeicherplatz (GB)
256

Optisches Laufwerk (Typ)
DVD+-RW/+-R Doppelschicht/RAM


Laufwerkgeschwindigkeit

Schreiben
CD-R (24fach), CD-RW (10fach), DVD-R DL (4fach), DVD-R (8fach), DVD-RW (6fach), DVD+R DL (4fach), DVD+R (8fach), DVD+RW (8fach), DVD-RAM (5fach)

Lesen
CD 24x, CD-R 24x, CD-RW 24x, DVD 8x, DVD-R (DL; 8x), DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 8x, DVD+R (DL; 8x), DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 8x, DVD-RAM 5x


Display

Bildschirmtyp
VAIO Premium-Display mit LED-Hintergrundbeleuchtung

Diagonale (Zoll)
13,1

Diagonale (cm)
33,3

Bildseitenverhältnis
16:9

Auflösung
1920 × 1080

Externes Display für max. Auflösung
2048 × 1536


Grafikausstattung

Grafikkarte
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU + Intel® HD Grafikkarte

Video-RAM-Speicher (MB)
GDDR3 1 GB

Bemerkungen
* Der gesamte verfügbare Grafikspeicher bezieht sich auf die Klassifizierung nach Windows® und variiert je nach Betriebsbedingungen, Version des Gerätetreibers und Größe des Systemspeichers.


Anschlüsse

Memory Stick™ Steckplatz
JA

Memory Stick™ Steckplatztyp
PRO-HG (Nur Duo)/MagicGate™ (MGR)

SD Card™ Steckplatz
JA

Mikrofonanschluss (Stereo)
1

Kopfhöreranschluss (Stereo)
1

Anschluss für Docking Station
Ja

HDMI™ Ausgang
JA

USB-Anschluss (Anzahl)
3

USB-Version
2,0

USB-Anschlusstyp
A

VGA-Anschluss für Monitor
1: Mini-D-Sub 15-polig

Express Card-Steckplatz
1

Express Card-Typ
34 mm


Anschlüsse

Integrierte Funknetzwerkkarte
JA

Maximale Auflösung bei Bewegtbildern (Pixel) (Mb/s)
300

Wireless LAN (Typ)
802.11 a/b/g/n (20/40)

RJ-45-Direktanschluss (Netzwerk)
JA

Ethernet-Netzwerkkarte
10BASE-T/100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T

WWAN integriert
JA

WWAN-Modul
Qualcomm Gobi 2000

Übertragungsgeschwindigkeit (Mb/s) für WWAN-Download/-Upload
7,2/5,76

Bluetooth®
JA

Bluetooth® (integriert) (Version)
Bluetooth® Standardversion 2.1 + EDR

Bluetooth® (Reichweite in m)
Max. ca. 10 (Freiraum)

Bluetooth® (max. Datenübertragungsrate in Mb/s)
Max. 2,1


Multimedia

Stereolautsprecher (integriert)
JA

Integriertes Mikrofon
JA: Mono

Dolby® Codec
Dolby® Home Theater®, v3


Integrierte Kamera

Integrierte Digitalkamera Motion Eye
JA

Bildsensor (Mio. Pixel)
0,3

Maximale Auflösung bei Bewegtbildern (Pixel)
640 × 480


Tastatur

Touch Pad
1

Anschlag (mm)
2

Tastenabstand (mm)
19,05

Beleuchtete Tastatur
JA


Sicherheit

Sicherheitsplattform
JA

Sicherheitsfunktionen
Fingerabdrucksensor


Ausstattung

Spezielle Tasten
Dynamische Hybrid-Grafik, VAIO, Assist

Automatische Helligkeitssteuerung
JA

Gehäusematerial
Kohlefaser

Kensington-Schloss
JA


Software

Lösungsratgeber
VAIO Gate

Foto/Video
PMB VAIO Edition (Ohne VAIO Creation Funktionen)

Support
VAIO Care

Hilfsprogramme
VAIO Transfer Support, VAIO Update, VAIO Smart Network, Google Chrome Browser

Microsoft®
Internet Explorer 8, Windows Live Essentials Suite

Büroanwendung
Adobe® Reader® 9, Adobe® Premiere® Elements 8, Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 8, Microsoft® Office Ready (kostenlose Testphase von 60 Tagen)

Sicherheit und mehr
McAfee® (mit kostenlosem Virus-Update für 60 Tage), Norton™ Online BackUp Testversion


Mitgeliefertes Zubehör

Netzteil
VGP-AC19V32

Netzkabel
JA


Abmessungen

Tiefe des Geräts (mm)
210

Höhe des Geräts (min. - max. in mm)
23,8 - 32,7

Breite des Geräts (mm)
314

Gewicht mit Akku (kg)
1.43


Akku

Akkutyp
Lithium-Ionen-Akku (VGP-BPS20/B)

Stromversorgung
58,32 Wh (10,8 V/5400 mAh)

Gewicht (g)
315

Akkubetriebsdauer – Haftungsausschluss
Die tatsächliche Akkubetriebsdauer ist abhängig von Ihren Hardware- und Software-Konfigurationen. Benchmark: MobileMark 2007

================================
VPCZ11X9E/B

Technische Daten
Bitte beachten Sie, dass die Funktionen/technischen Daten sich von Land zu Land unterscheiden können.

Alle ausblenden

Betriebssystem

Betriebssystem
Legales Windows® 7 Professional (64 Bit)


Architektur

Chipsatz
Intel® HM57 Express-Grafikchip


Colour

Farbe
Schwarz


Prozessor

Prozessor
Intel® Core™ i5-520M Prozessor

Leistungsstärke
mit Intel® Turbo Boost Technologie.

Prozessorgeschwindigkeit (GHz)
2,4

Max. Turbo-Boost-Geschwindigkeit (GHz)
2,93

L2-Cache (MB)
3

Anzahl Kerne
2


Speicher

Größe des Speichers (GB)
4

Speicherdaten
PC3-8500

Geschwindigkeit des Speichers (MHz)
1066

Speicher-Typ
DDR3 SDRAM

Max. unterstützter Speicher (GB)
8

Max. Speicherkapazität – Kommentar
Möglicherweise steht dem 32-Bit-Betriebssystem ein Teil des Systemspeichers über 3 GB nicht zur Verfügung.


Laufwerke

Festplattentyp
Dual SSD (RAID 0)

Festplattenspeicherplatz (GB)
128

Optisches Laufwerk (Typ)
DVD+-RW/+-R Doppelschicht/RAM


Laufwerkgeschwindigkeit

Schreiben
CD-R (24fach), CD-RW (10fach), DVD-R DL (4fach), DVD-R (8fach), DVD-RW (6fach), DVD+R DL (4fach), DVD+R (8fach), DVD+RW (8fach), DVD-RAM (5fach)

Lesen
CD 24x, CD-R 24x, CD-RW 24x, DVD 8x, DVD-R (DL; 8x), DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 8x, DVD+R (DL; 8x), DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 8x, DVD-RAM 5x


Display

Bildschirmtyp
VAIO Premium-Display mit LED-Hintergrundbeleuchtung

Diagonale (Zoll)
13,1

Diagonale (cm)
33,3

Bildseitenverhältnis
16:9

Auflösung
1600 × 900

Externes Display für max. Auflösung
2048 × 1536


Grafikausstattung

Grafikkarte
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU + Intel® HD Grafikkarte

Video-RAM-Speicher (MB)
GDDR3 1 GB

Bemerkungen
* Der gesamte verfügbare Grafikspeicher bezieht sich auf die Klassifizierung nach Windows® und variiert je nach Betriebsbedingungen, Version des Gerätetreibers und Größe des Systemspeichers.


Anschlüsse

Memory Stick™ Steckplatz
JA

Memory Stick™ Steckplatztyp
PRO-HG (Nur Duo)/MagicGate™ (MGR)

SD Card™ Steckplatz
JA

Mikrofonanschluss (Stereo)
1

Kopfhöreranschluss (Stereo)
1

Anschluss für Docking Station
Ja

HDMI™ Ausgang
JA

USB-Anschluss (Anzahl)
3

USB-Version
2,0

USB-Anschlusstyp
A

VGA-Anschluss für Monitor
1: Mini-D-Sub 15-polig

Express Card-Steckplatz
1

Express Card-Typ
34 mm


Anschlüsse

Integrierte Funknetzwerkkarte
JA

Maximale Auflösung bei Bewegtbildern (Pixel) (Mb/s)
300

Wireless LAN (Typ)
802.11 a/b/g/n (20/40)

RJ-45-Direktanschluss (Netzwerk)
JA

Ethernet-Netzwerkkarte
10BASE-T/100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T

WWAN integriert
JA

WWAN-Modul
Qualcomm Gobi 2000

Übertragungsgeschwindigkeit (Mb/s) für WWAN-Download/-Upload
7,2/5,76

Bluetooth®
JA

Bluetooth® (integriert) (Version)
Bluetooth® Standardversion 2.1 + EDR

Bluetooth® (Reichweite in m)
Max. ca. 10 (Freiraum)

Bluetooth® (max. Datenübertragungsrate in Mb/s)
Max. 2,1


Multimedia

Stereolautsprecher (integriert)
JA

Integriertes Mikrofon
JA: Mono

Dolby® Codec
Dolby® Home Theater®, v3


Integrierte Kamera

Integrierte Digitalkamera Motion Eye
JA

Bildsensor (Mio. Pixel)
0,3

Maximale Auflösung bei Bewegtbildern (Pixel)
640 × 480


Tastatur

Touch Pad
1

Anschlag (mm)
2

Tastenabstand (mm)
19,05

Beleuchtete Tastatur
JA


Ausstattung

Spezielle Tasten
Dynamische Hybrid-Grafik, VAIO, Assist

Automatische Helligkeitssteuerung
JA

Gehäusematerial
Kohlefaser

Kensington-Schloss
JA


Software

Lösungsratgeber
VAIO Gate

Foto/Video
PMB VAIO Edition (Ohne VAIO Creation Funktionen)

Support
VAIO Care

Hilfsprogramme
VAIO Transfer Support, VAIO Update, VAIO Smart Network, Google Chrome Browser

Microsoft®
Internet Explorer 8, Windows Live Essentials Suite

Büroanwendung
Adobe® Reader® 9, Adobe® Premiere® Elements 8, Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 8, Microsoft® Office Ready (kostenlose Testphase von 60 Tagen)

Sicherheit und mehr
McAfee® (mit kostenlosem Virus-Update für 60 Tage), Norton™ Online BackUp Testversion


Mitgeliefertes Zubehör

Netzteil
VGP-AC19V32

Netzkabel
JA


Abmessungen

Tiefe des Geräts (mm)
210

Höhe des Geräts (min. - max. in mm)
23,8 - 32,7

Breite des Geräts (mm)
314

Gewicht mit Akku (kg)
1,41


Akku

Akkutyp
Lithium-Ionen-Akku (VGP-BPS20/B)

Stromversorgung
58,32 Wh (10,8 V/5400 mAh)

Gewicht (g)
315

Akkubetriebsdauer – Haftungsausschluss
Die tatsächliche Akkubetriebsdauer ist abhängig von Ihren Hardware- und Software-Konfigurationen. Benchmark: MobileMark 2007

 

ive seen the fan getting slim than the previous Z.. now with powerful gpu and cpu, i starting to really curious to know the heat management on this new Z.

 

Most likely ok, you really don't need that much chord (which make the fan taller) to get the amount of flow. It's just easier to design and make. The noise at load is more questionable, looking at the few pics I have seen so far. Not very impressed with the tip treatment. Hopefully it's just the pictures not showing enough detail.

 

In the video, they indicated that the fan design is newer and slimmer (again, after benchmarking against the old Z) and the overall heat managment is significantly more efficient than the old Z.....which it of course needs, considering the FAR more powerful innards the new Z comes with.

The good thing with any such new design, especially when benchmarking against an excellent existing design, is that they can leverage off of all the advantages the old model had, while focusing on improving those specific niggles that the old model came with.

I think the new Z's design team were fortunate from that perspective, in having all of the design info of the old Z at hand, ready to be tweaked for improvement - thus allowing them to introduce an even better product, without having to develop all the technologies from scratch.

Remember that the fundamental design of the new Z is intended to hold the fort till ITS replacement arrives. This in turn means that all the FUTURE processor upgrades has also been factored into the new design and thus the cooling systems have to not only be efficient enough to cool the currently available options, but also be functional enough to efficiently cool down any FUTURE components (that will enter the new Z during the next 1.5+ years of its lifespan) that might run even hotter.

 

You should take into account the time it takes for the raid controller to initialize the disks.
Currently it takes about 50 seconds to boot my Dual SSD system.
But when I had just the one Memoright 128GB GT2 (high in small file transfer speeds) it took just under 10 seconds from pressing the power button to all icons loaded on my desktop and taskbar.

Granted the Memoright is SLC as opposed to the Vertex MLC drives but I cannot imagine a quad 128GB SLC system going for any less than $6K...
I would pay that much but then again I can make that much in no time so possibly I'd be one of very few customers. That's why I guess Sony went with MLC drives.

 

Well I believe it's quite sure Sony went with MLC drives. With MLC drives being better and better and SLC drives being still expensive, I don't think there is any future for SLC drives in consumer's computers in next few years. Even Intel is not planning any new SLC drives in the close future.

What I'm saying is, that I see much more disadvantages to have raid 0 config SSD running OS in nb than advantages...

 

Sure, Sony has employed MLCs in their past SSD implementations. But do we know for sure that the Quad-SSDs in the new Z-series is an MLC than an SLC ?

Or are we simply making an assumption based on Sony's past choices (to my knowledge, none of Sony's past choices were ever quad-SSDs in Raid 0) ?

 

Two decent, unmodified, 64GB SLC SSD's will cost about the same as the base model VAIO Z goes for.

http://www.google.com/products?q=SLC+SSD&aq=f

Perhaps SLC is an option, but forget about it being the default.

 

As Solinx said, the price would be few times higher, if it would be 4 SLC SSDs. Anyway I don't know about any company putting SLC SSDs in their nbs. As I said, I don't think there will be much new SLC SSDs made for consumers, like e.g. Samsung and Intel used to do.

 

I think they will be MLC SSD. For Sony, the SLC doesn't make anything different for the marketing.

 

There are benchmarking results that compare the core i3, i5 and i7 processors against the "old" Core 2 Duos.

Seems like the new generation of Intel processors are thrashing the daylights out of the older generation from a performance standpoint.....

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Intel-Core-i3-i5-i7-Processors-Arrandale.25085.0.html

 

But those benchmarks don't compare them with Core 2, only with each other (and you can't take the figures from that benchmark and compare it with different benchmarks on different hardware).

The only benchmark that was listed with a non-core3 participant was the PCMark Vantage which has an X9100 at the end for comparison. But it's unclear whether that was old results from a different machine -- chances are that they are, unless they somehow managed to overcome socket differences.
Anyhow, the X9100 performed better than the i3-330M and i5-450M, and (of course) slower than the fastest new offerings. Keeping in mind that the newer machines almost certainly were tested with DDR3-1333 and the older CPU with DDR3-1066, that's very much within what I'd expect; the top Core2 models being fairly equal to the midrange Core3 models, and the midrange Core2 models being fairly equal to the low range Core3 models, provided everything else is equal.

So yes, a speed-up. But not "trashing the daylight out of".

I'll be happy to upgrade once there's a 25W TDP Core 3 high-end model on the market -- until then, I'd just trade power for speed, and that's nothing new; overclocking does that just fine.

 

Based on this, it would be maybe better to buy the new Z with i5-540M rather than with i7-620M. The performance is almost identical but the i7 has much higher power consumption.
Or are there some other important aspects where the i7 would score higher?

Edit: I thought that the cheaper european model will have the i5-540M, too, but it seems that it'll come with the i5-520M

 

The i7-620M using 65W(!) under load and 30W while idle should make people think twice. Even if you're going to use it plugged in all the time, if the system throttles to bring the CPU temperature down, it's going to be far slower than the i5.
So yeah, at present, I would be very cautious. The i7-640LM might be an option, though, but I'd like to see some performance specs on it first.

 

Sorry, I read the test results differently and there were comparisons against the prior Core 2 Duo EXTREME processor which is superior to the Core 2 Options that came on Sony laptops (none of the Sony Laptops ever got the Extreme version of the Core 2 Duo generation):

In addition to that, the Core 2 Extreme had an advantage in this test, by "The comparison to the X9100 should be taken with a pinch of salt because it has been tested on another, even if more efficient test platform (mySN XMG7 / Clevo M570TU) ":

---------------
Super PI test:

We also used the efficient X9100 Extreme CPU for comparing the "old" Core 2 generation. On average it only was able to reach the level of the i5-520M CPU with 906 seconds in the 32M test. The i7-620 chip can very evidently outpace the previous leader of dual-core chips with a plus of 13%.

----------------

Cinebench R10 test:

So much first: the results of the tested new Core-i chips are impressive. As expected, the single CPUs position themselves accordingly to their manufacturer information. The i7-620M CPU, with 3346 points in the single CPU rendering test (32 bit) defines the top, as it's practically identical to the hitherto strongest dual-core CPU, the Core 2 Extreme X9100. However, the chip can take the lead on the X9100 in the multi-core rendering test and outpace the X9100 by about 15% with a bit more than 7000 points. Naturally, you can argue about the accomplishment of a 15% gain, but if you consider that Intel currently lists the X9100 CPU at a proud price of 851 US dollars and the i7-620M is listed with 332 dollars, this comparison is put in a different light.

-------------------------

PCMark Vantage Test results (the Core 2 Duo Extreme X9100, is now roughly at the i3 level, let alone i5 or i7):

http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/650ef6bf0e.gif

--------------------------

 

It's power consumption of not i7 but the whole system.
And I guess there's something wrong with their tests because that much difference between i5 and i7 simply doesn't make sense at all.

 

Let it go, fellow. Just come to grips with the realization that the newer generation has just outpaced the prior generation. Simply harking back to the good old days is not very productive, when it comes to technology products. Time and tide waits for no-one.

Of course someone who has the later versions of the Core 2 units might as well keep it, and upgrade much later on, unless unlimited funds are available. However, anybody contemplating buying a laptop right now, will not be advised to go down to a Core 2 Duo as their processor of choice. It has been consigned to the dustbin of history, as we speak - like it or not.

 

I don't think he's advising people to stick with the previous generation, but rather to consider the i5 over the i7 due to reasons of heat and power.

 

Is anybody else but me thinking how the flip did they manage to put an i7/i5, GT330M, quad SSDs, bluray player/burner, good port selection, full HD 1920 resolution and a whopping 7+ hours of battery life in a 13 inch 3.3 lb laptop? I am amazed.

I would argue, and I'm sure others would also, that the Z is probably will be the best 13 inch notebook. Heck, maybe the best notebook period.

Sure its expensive, but it is one hell of a damn good machine if they pull this off.

 

Everyone is knocking the quad-raid before any info either comes out.

At some point you have to give Sony some credit and consider that maybe, just maybe, one of the most sophisticated consumer electronics firms are going with a new hard drive configuration because they've found a way to make things better.

 

It's not a RAID, it's a stripe set. And 20 years as a system administrator gives me the right to knock large stripe sets before I've seen specs on them.
When a single drive in a stripe set fails, the whole set fails. You lose all data once the first drive goes.
And with four drives, the expected time before any of the drives fail is much much lower.
Even if you start with a very reliable medium, a multi-drive stripe will demolish that whole benefit.

To put it in layman terms: A quad drive stripe is like gambling even odds on flipping a coin four times, and not get a single head.

 

Went to SonyStyle today to get info. on the new Z. I was told Spring, with no exact date. While there, I got to see the Y and the F. I wasn't impressed with the Y, but the F, I noticed had inherent characteristics with the new Z, i.e. palmrest, Vaio and Assist Keys etc.

Some of you were concern about the material used for the palmrest - being cheap and the keys - wearing out and turning shiny. If Sony adopts these inherent design characteristics of the F, I don't think these will be issues anymore. I agree, Sony is addressing the concerns that people had with the current Z and is indeed improving them on the New Z.

The palmrest on the F is definitely a different material from the keyboard, feels plastiky, yet it doesn't look cheap IMO. Its got these small grid indentations. It's not a smooth surface as I thought, from the youtube videos and photos of the New Z.

As for the keys, I compared the new F keys from that of the current Z. The material used is different. The F feels more or less like rubber. So if Sony uses this same material used on the F, I can't see these issues with the keys wearing down/turning shiny like the current Z.

SonyStyle offers a 10% Student Discount compared to Sony Online at 7%. However, SonyStyle has a 15% restocking fee/14-day return policy. And from what I read in these threads, Sony Online gives you 30 Days Full Refund, whether it's used or not.

 

All keys will be worn and polished by the fingers touching them during regular use, regardless of material. And yes, even with rubber keys, as numerous Sinclair Spectrum owners can attest to.

Show me someone with a keyboard over a year old without any "smoothing" wear on at least a few of the most used keys, and I'll show you someone who doesn't type much. Regardless of keyboard.

The only way to lessen the effect is to make the keys shiny to start with, like the ivory keys on a piano. With matte keys, there's no chance whatsoever to avoid this. (And yes, the ebony keys on pianos suffer from this too.)

 

arth1 - I didn't know that any materials used, including rubber, would allow it to still get polished. Even so, I hope Sony uses the same keys that's on the New F. It just felt more quality. Thanks.

 

It's called wear and tear?

 

Simple solution. Stop eating and leaving chunks of beef jerky and hot pockets on the keyboard.

 

How did you know I eat Hot Pockets around my laptop?

 

Well, not really, considering HD failure rates are usually between 0-5 percent for non SSD hard drives (SSD's are more reliable) at worst the chances that one drive will not fail within the first couple years is about 81% And that is a VERY conservative estimate considering the hard drive failure rate study was performed around 2007 and we have manufactured them more reliably since then.

The chance of you flipping a coin 4 times and not getting head is 1/16, which is definitely overstating the risks.

 

arth1 seems to be one negative nancy after going thru most of his posts

 

lol, btw, I am very jealous of you notebook The Z is a beautiful machine. The barrel hinge it has for some reason makes me like it so much more. It's like if it wasn't there, it wouldn't be Z, lolz

 

My Z90 from Japan doesn't have a webcam, but it's a CTO. I think Japan generally is the only place where most things - including the fingerprint sensor - can be optional.

As for the WWAN, I use a USB WWAN modem.

 

you can't have a computer with a webcam if your a business person? I did not know that :0

 

I see the metal mosaic Z starts at $2350 US. This I like.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...198552921644649998&N=4294954789#/main/spring/

 

Oh wow that looks so awesome. That is one of the most beautiful pieces of laptop I've ever seen, lol. The Carbon Fiber one exudes awesomeness also, but $4500! Holy crap I wish I was a rich man. But boy they look awesome.

 

Of course you can. But you can't bring a camera into many businesses. Whether it's on a cell phone or a laptop, if it has a camera, you have to leave it with security until you leave again.
This is why phones and laptops marketed as executive models have cameraless options. It would suck if your marketing veep visited a big company for a major sales pitch and couldn't bring his laptop past security. So they don't risk it.

 

No, it's actually the CPU only.
See this thread to see an example of i7 power drain under light load.

Which is why I at this point can't recommend the i7, at least not the full-power mobile versions. With the amount of heat production in the regular i7-M, I expect there will be overheating and throttling.
So my advice is to go with the i5 instead, until there's a i7-LM version that beats the i5s on performance.

 

I'm sure some of you have seen, but did you catch the announcement today of the updated Panasonic CF-N9/CF-S9 in Japan today? Sony may have the better screen and Blu-Ray, but Panasonic has bar none the best ultraportable I think now. The premium (not standard) one has:
* 500GB or 256GB SSD
* i5-540M
* up to 8GB of memory
* up to 15 hours of battery life (slightly down from the CF-R8)

... all in a 12.1" widescreen weighing 1.29kg (2.84 lbs). Wow!

http://club.panasonic.jp/mall/mylets/open/premium/s_spec.html

They also one-upped Sony in the smaller ultraportable category by putting a i7-640UM in the R series.

 

They still haven't fixed the design flaw with having the headphone jack being in the front...
But it's a nice machine, perhaps especially for students who need something sturdy, not too expensive, yet relatively powerful.
But I'd still take a TT over any of the Let's Meow Meow models.

 

Yeah, but it lacks a blu-ray drive - not even a reader, let alone a burner. I bought DVD burners, several years back and would like a Bluray burner, in 2010. No interest in going back in time.

 

A nice machine, but for a different class of user. From my perspective, the deal killers are:
-No discrete graphics
-lower resolution screen
-cannot drive past 1280x800 when using screen and external monitor
-smaller overall screen.

I won't mention lack of RAID0 SSD, as that has its pros and cons, but if you can put the Z in RAID5, I'd be a happy man (though I have to say, having 2 SSDs on one card will make replacing a failed SSD drive in RAID5 a bit more expensive...).

As well, the premium Panasonic model is 1.36kg (2.99 lbs). Not sure what the Z11FHX/XQ will weigh (compared to lower end models), as all models are specced now at 3.04 lbs. But I don't see the weight difference being that large, and certainly not anything I would sacrifice over the smaller screen and lack of discrete graphics.

Oh, and no noise-cancelling earbuds

As I said, it's a nice machine, but not sure you can make the statement of "bar none the best ultraportable" - not for me it isn't. In fact, the only thing it has going for it is much better battery life (12 hours for premium model) and slightly lower weight.

Here's the Google translation link for the Panasonic specs.

-Peter

 

As stated above, I have not found too many blackberrys or blackjack options without cameras built in. EVERY executive I know, carries one and to my knowledge, till date, nobody had to leave it with security.

As stated above, we operate in 90 countries and are a conglomerate - multiple industries, including defence - never a problem with a camera phone or webcam. The clients are not exposed to the engineering areas and even if they are, they are always escorted. Never a problem with someone whipping out their camera phone and snapping away. If it is a visitor, there are "sanitized" visitor areas which don't carry any sensitive stuff.

I think we are getting a bit carried away with the compulsive negativity.

Bottomline, if the worry is industrial espionage, it will definitely not take place via a camera phone left behind with security - you can take that to the bank.

 

Do you operate in Japan as well? For me it's quite common that the procedure is that strict. They don' let me take mi iP and Z with me. That's why I still carry my old TX sometimes around

New Z has headphone jack in the front as well. Also last time I checked, Panasonic notebooks were very expensive. In Japan I saw most of executives with Panasonic nbs, none with Sony nbs in fact. The machines are really great built quality.

But the true is I hate Panasonic design (super ugly round touchpad), screen quality and resolution. But I do respect it for being the last nb being made to last long.

 

Meh. I only use my DVD in any of my computers to load software, and once that's done, it's infrequent. I have no need for B-R in a laptop driving up its cost. The only real convience to me of B-R is the ability when backing up to optical media to have > 8.9 GB per disc.

It is a bit ironic considering how much Panasonic loves to push B-R, but hey, it is what it is.

 

For normal usage in my setting, none of that matters. I own a Z (among everything else lol), and that new resolution is just dumb. Hated 1600x900, and definitely don't want 1920x1200 or whatever the higher end new Z is going to be. Anything more than 1366x768 on that small of a screen I thinkis a bit ridiculous. I actually prefer 1280x800 - I'm using it on the R600 right now. If the R600 had a bit more processing horepower, it'd be the new S9.

I also never had a problem just running in Stamina mode on the Z. Didn't enhance anything for me whan I ran in Speed graphics wise.

I got the Z90 with the RAID0 64x2 (for 128GB). One of the drives failed. Sony Japan fixed it with no problem, but even my R600 with a single 512GB SSD has the same or better I/O speeds than the Z at this point.

1.36 is the WWAN one with a traditional HDD; 1.29 is the one with SSD and no WWAN (which is useless outside of Japan anyway). With the extended battery, the Z will be closer to 4lbs anyway.

Size, screen res, etc. are all subjective as to what people like. Had they offered the new Z in 1366x768, I'd consider it. I like the lower weight, smaller screen and res of the S9 right now over even the specs of the updated G which I was about to pull the trigger on.

Usless IMO. I have Sony's NW-A847 and NW-X1060. I don't use their stock earbuds, so I don't get the noise cancelling feature, and I don't use my PC for music.

As I said, it depends on what you want in a notebook. It'll be just as expensive as a Z, so it boils down to preferences. The fact that Panasonic could put the same horsepower as the Z in a slightly smaller frame is pretty impressive.

It's a viable option for those of us who don't want/like/need certain aspects of the Z to get the same computing power in a roughly 3lb notebook.

 

IMHO the Panasonic laptops are in a completely different class than the VAIOs, at least here in Japan. Most executives here use Panasonics, period. The features required by the average executive here are not closely aligned with the Z type, and I don't think the Z is even marketed here towards businesspeople. If I gave the Z to an employee, they would probably return it saying the resolution is too high. The Panasonic machines are also far higher quality. They are built for reliability above all, and Panasonic is always very conservative in their lineup (actually, I was a bit surprised they already announced their i5/i7 models). I used to have the T5 (went through all of business school with it), and it wouldn't make a creaking noise at all if I picked up with one hand. My current Z, while feature packed, makes all kinds of creaking noises from the body parts shifting slightly.

 

In fact, considering the in-frequency of your optical drive use, you should simply move away from high-end units like the Z-series, whose big claim to fame is the sheer power it packs in a 3lbs 13" form factor, while being full-featured, including the highest end optical drive (bluray burner), IMO. You might as well get an external USB unit for those rare forays into using the optical drive.

Obviously, if you don't want these unique Z features, then you should simply go for lower priced options that may not even have an optical drive (yielding dividends for portability). Take away the bluray burner (or optical drive), and there are dozens of options in the markeplace for FAR less money....why pay the big bucks for something like the Z ?

 

I totally agree - the business executives I know (ie. my bosses, and their bosses) needed something for email and powerpoints. All of their intensive analysis/reporting software are server-driven.

But as a software developer who travels, the Z pretty much hit every item on my checklist. The ability to handle software IDEs and compiles (the high resolution means more code onscreen at once - a huge plus), VMs, databases, and the occasional gaming session or movie, all in a thin and light package. Plus, it's classy enough to bring in to business meetings (unlike something like, say, the Alienware m11x). I've been waiting a long time for a laptop like this.

-Peter

 

It depends on what you do. If you are a consultant where you go to other companies, you probably can't. But if you are an exec of a normal company, most likely you can.

We never had restrictions of camara's or other stuff at any company I worked for, but one. The one company was Johnson & Johnson and it was because the one building with all the restrictions was the place they invented new surgery equipment. But if you were outside of that building there were no restrictions.