New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

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Intel® Core™ i5-540M processor (2.53GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
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Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
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Premium Carbon Fiber
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256GB (256GBx1) Solid State Drive with RAID 0 Technology
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8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066
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CD/DVD Burner

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Works for me.

$2,649 wasn't as painful as I thought.

My only question is whether to update to the i7 for $130 more.

 

Thanks!

This confirms 100% that there will be a Z with a hard drive.

 

they probably won't offer the HD model in the USA, but at the very least what it confirms is that a 2.5" drive fits for those of us who'd like to replace the drive in the future!

 

yeah, and no built in dvd/blu ray driive for HDD version.

 

Any chance of getting the quad core in a non Premium model? I did get the Blu-ray drive.
Anyone in the US ordering soon or waiting for more options?

 

- 1600x900 resolution on the specs page + no screen upgrade option on the CTO page

- BUT there are 4 more Ready-To-Ship models listed as "Notify Me" when they become available with 1920x1080 resolutions

 

Cool, i definitly hope the HDD model comes out (or is for CTO) so that will lower the prices (alot), which make it a bit more affordable.

But it's too bad the 1080p models arent on there yet

 

Key feature is that each SSD (either 64, 128 or 256) is actually two SSD's on single PCB. That's why they'll act like Dual RAID 0 or Quad RAID 0 when 2 PCBs are connected together.

 

If you go to a SonyStyle store and show your school ID you can get a discount between 7% and 10%. But this is only for the models they carry, no CTO. If you call up SonyStyle and give them your school information they give you an EDU account. Which then you can get discounts on CTO. I think then it is onl 7%, I never really calculated the actual percentage. But for the pre-orders of the Z there is no discount. I have my EDU account logged in and I am not seeing a discount.

 

Meh...I don't get it. I am a hardcore Sony Vaio SZ fan and I have owned two. My most recent is the SZ-350PC which appears to be on its last legs at nearly four years old. This new Z is not rocking my world and at these prices it should be. The form factor is there to a degree and the weight is still attractive, but the hardware is not the cutting edge that we have come to expect from Sony in their SZ/Z lines. This computer they are foisting on us now should have been marketed over the holidays if not a bit earlier. I am not impressed. Is it finally time to start looking at the competition?

 

I think the quad core is a misprint. There is no i7-620QM only the i7-620M. the only i7 quad core processors are the: i7-720QM, i7-820QM and the i7-920XM.

Stefan

 

What specs are you looking for? I would love to know a PC this light with these kind of specs or better from another company. Because I have not found it.

 

I have to disagree with you when you say the hardware is not cutting edge. Although it may be subjective since you and I may have different definitions of what is "cutting edge", I believe the Z is a powerful machine for its size. The fact that they're using SSDs, the Core i5/i7 processors, a 330M GT GPU, Blu-ray, a backlit keyboard and a stunning display at 1920x1080 resolution for its size and weight is truely amazing. I think the Sony engineers have achieved a whole new level of portable computing with so much power packed under the hood. I can't think of any laptop of the same size equipped with all that technology. Yes, I agree, the price isn't within everybody's price range, but then again, the Z is Sony's premium flagship notebook. I just don't know of any brand that can compete with the new Z. Let me know if you do.

 

+1

I wonder if we will be able to read at least one decent hands on review for new Z before some of us get this machine.

 

Yes, but e.g. for 256 GB it says 256GBx1. So that would mean dual SSD on one drive (not Quad as advertised).

 

The cheapest preconfigured US model (VPCZ112GX/S) doesn't make too much sense. It costs 1899 and has an i5-520M CPU and the cheapest CTO costs 1899,too but has the i5-540M CPU (same specs otherwise, if I'm not mistaken).

Btw. interesting that the i5-520M is not listed as a CTO option. Only one US and one European preconfigured model has it. On the ad posted by Miyabi, there's no sign of it as well. Even the HDD model has the i5-540M.

 

The only diff is the pre configured US model (VPCZ112GX/S) has the edu discount available now for 1766.99 Hope the edu discount is also available on the CTO models.

 

What?? No dvd drive???

 

Sorry.....for the double post.

 

4x64Gb here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5820318&postcount=1251

There may be both Dual and Quad 256Gb versions though

That makes sense. 2.5" HDD instead of DVD-Drive just like in TT/TZ.
New motherboard, advanced components with reduced overall weight and therefore no room for 2.5" under touchpad (where SSD is actually located)

 

CTO: $2199.99
i5-540M
W7-Pro
Premium Carbon
192 SSD
4GB Ram (maybe upgrading to 6GB for $150 more)
Fresh Start

The preconfigured model (VPCZ11CGX/X) listed in SonyStyle (without a price), looks like I can get that same spec. on a CTO for $2399.99 with Premium Carbon (Glossy, is questionable), so if the preconfig. model prices out to be the same, I'll just order the VPCZ11CGX/X, instead of a CTO. Do preconfigs. price more than CTO's?

Another concern is when you CTO Premium Carbon, is Sony referring to "Premium Carbon" as the Glossy Premium Carbon or the Premium Carbon that's on the current Z that you only get through Sony? Or is the Glossy Carbon only exclusive to the Signature Series?

With the student discount of 7% (online), that should cover most of the state sales tax (8.75), so my out-of-pocket should be slightly above $2200 (CTO). I'm glad I got it below $2300. I'm going to see if SonyStyle Store will offer a 10% if I CTO directly through them. They never said that CTO's were exempt. This, of course, is pending on the yet to be determined price of the preconfig. VPCZ11CGX/X model.

 

If you click on More Info under the color options, you'll see a picture showing the two colors. The Premium Carbon doesn't seem to be glossy.

 

Yes, there are 3 colors listed:
Premium Carbon
Glossy premium carbon
Silver

 

Seems like currently it is only available with the Signature Series. It will become an available option via CTO maybe a few months later.

 

I am sorely disappointed that the CTO process does not allow the screen to be upgraded to full-HD. In fact, it does not even indicate what the screen resolution is, even though we can probably guess that it is 1600x900.

 

Should I assume some of us will be ordering shortly? I am thinking about doing it within a few days.

 

If you look at available options it lists: 13.1" display with scratch-resistant technology and 1600x900 resolution

Stefan

 

do you think I can use my TT or my Z blu-ray drive to the new Z ?
the Z and TT use the UJ232 drive and what about the new Z?

 

Hey geeee, could you do me a favor and post here what the result of this is? I was going to call sony, myself, but I've been under a lot of work this week.

Thanks!

 

Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, I see that now. I would prefer to wait till the full-HD screen becomes available, which means I will not be placing an order right away.

 

I doubt anybody would know that for sure, specifically about fitment onto the new-Z, but I certainly would not set much store by it. If I were to guess, I would say it is almost dead certain that those won't fit the new-Z.

 

Here's a hands-on article that was published today:

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/31217/sony-vaio-z-series-photos

Stefan

 

My goodness, that article sucked. You'd think the author would be able to come up with more than ten sentences for a "hands-on" article.

 

Trying to decide on the screen. May i ask u what are the reasons for u to go for the full HD screen? Thx

 

The pictures were certainly new ones but the "article" seems to be a quick re-hash of the specs-sheet (albeit with some mistakes).

 

lol, no kidding. that was horrible, told us nothing new.... we could have told them more about the Z and they had it in their hands!

 

I do quite a bit of photo and video editing and would like as much resolution as I can get (the full-HD screen covers 95% of the Adobe RGB color gamut too).

If the full-HD screen were not available, I would have happily sprung for the 1600x900 screen. But now that I know about the Full-HD screen, and if I go with the lower-res version, I know that buyers remorse will kick in pretty soon for not waiting a wee bit longer and going full-HD - especially after paying $3K+ for a laptop.

 

Does the lower res screen make a diff while playing movies and games? I have glasses and don't want to squint at the small fonts

 

Looks like CTO may be the only option then

 

just found out sony financing is down

 

Bad news, I may have to wait a while before ordering.
Maybe the webpages are not complete, since they seem to just come up today.

 

For games, the lower resolution would be better (higher frame rates).

For movies, it does not matter except if you watch 1080i/1080p movies of people wearing herringbone suits or dresses, or need to make still shots of menus or rolling credits. In which case you want the 1920x1080.

Don't worry about having to squint at small fonts with the higher resolution -- when you adjust the DPI correctly in Vista, Windows 7 or Gnome (if you use Linux), the fonts will scale up and be just as big as before -- just clearer and easier to read, because they use more pixels for the same size. Icons, scrollbars and borders scale too. Only bitmap images and Really Old Programs won't.

 

I've cancelled my F11 order in favor of the new Z. I was told today that in Canada we won't be able to order it until March 8th - worth the wait I think (hope). I hope by then to get an actual review and hear how the 1920x1080 resolution will look on that small screen?

 

I just ordered a new Z this morning...stock everything besides the added premium carbon fiber casing...Says it should ship by march 9th, but hopefully earlier than that...pretty excited...

 

The current CTO options (new Z-series) does not include full-HD. Only the "standard" 1600x900.

Everything else, including the SSD choices upto 512GB, RAM upto 8GB, bluray burner, i5/i7 CPU choices etc are all available....but Full-HD is not an option - at least not yet.

 

what's the big deal about "full hd?" Really seems like overkill for a screen that small...keep in mind I have a desktop with a 30" 2560 x 1600 monitor which is probably why I don't care...btw how easy will it be to remove those hideous stickers from the palm rest?

 

Ouch. That means that it instead of a 4-drive stripe, it uses what we call a plaid stripe, or raid 0+0, if you like. It has no benefits over plain striping (unless you have dedicated controllers with their own CPUs and RAM), but increases latencies slightly over RAID 0.

I had hoped until now that this would not be the case.

Let's hope the two "visible drives" can be reconfigured as a RAID 1 -- they we'll in reality have RAID10, which is just as fast for read operations as RAID0+0, but the increased reliability of RAID 1.

 

I ordered the stock 1899 with carbon fiber and extended battery, which they claimed to last up to 11 hrs. Anyone else went for that battery?

 

Is that page even public yet? I couldn't find it from the main site, and they're still listing the old Z. Maybe we're not supposed to order from it yet...

 

I am wondering if the extended battery sticks it butt out from the laptop I like to keep it sleek