New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

The Dutch SonyStyle now offers the Z for CTO and has more options than available in the US.

For example, the basic model has a HDD, instead of SSD.
Another interesting point is that the 1080p screen costs only 50 euro.
The starting price is also quite interesting. It is not 1799 euro, but only 1499

Delivery times are estimated to be 7 to 8 weeks.

Edit:
Link to Z CTO options:
https://www.sonystyle.nl/SonyStyle/...80002BC29B86/48871F75DD740098E10080002BC29B86

btw. The edition sporting a HDD has no DVD drive, like the one spotted earlier.

Edit3:
Instead of 3 USB ports, you can also opt for 2 USB + 1 iLink, which apparently is Sony's name for Firewire

 

Good to know that the hard drive versions also come with dvd drives.

 

Uhm thats not true, theres a ''hdd' version. But you'll have to miss the DVD/bluray drive, since the HDD takes that spot ;-).

 

Thanks for the info!

It's good, that the fingerprint reader is optional.

The Bluray Drive costs 700 Euros That's where I'll be saving money...

 

Yeah, but I'm going for the HDD option anyhow. I hardly use DVDs and already got an external burner besides.

Edit: Yeah, the bluRay costs way too much for me.

 

They come with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M 256MB?

What happened to 1GB?

 

probably a misprint

 

The laptop comes with US keyboard: "Toetsenbord: US Int"

Does anyone know how I could order a CTO laptop from the Netherlands or the UK? (I'm in the EU, but in my country there's no CTO)

 

My Z51 from the Netherlands comes with a US keyboard.

 

Well noticed. I do wonder whether it is a mistake or actually a difference.

 

There's a remarkably high numbers of typos on the internet when it comes to absolutely-critical specifications of Sony laptops...

 

So using 128 SSD / 1unit, for example, one write cycle is accomplished when you write onto 128GB. Then, the second cycle begins the process over again. So, 10,000 cycles is a lot, even if I keep this Z for 4-5 years. I don't expect to fulfill all 10,000 cycles.

Now how does this write cycle work when you have 2 units, like on the 192SSD (128 + 64)?

Saw it. Thanks. So the "Matte" Carbon Fiber is phased out on the new Z. I still question if the Silver is classified as having carbon.

They didn't say. I don't think they would know. I'm still waiting on that one model, the third one on that list -VPCZ11CGX/X to be priced. According to the CTO, if I CTO'd one with the same specs., cost would be $2399.99. I'd rather purchase this pre-built and receive a 7% discount and upgrade the ram up to 6 later. For me, it's easier to upgrade Ram that upgrade the HD.

I would just call to place your order when you CTO and request for the student discount. They may give it to you. It seems everyone receives different responses from C.S. when you phone in.

 

So maxed out configuration is around 4000 euros or 5500 US. So if you want to go with maxed out Z It will probably be cheaper to buy airline ticket to NY and go buy it in sonystyle US

 

@Zendar:
Yeah, I was so happy with the specs and pricing I forgot about that.

There is quite a difference in the running time between the standard and extended battery (4.5 vs 10.5). Another typo, or will the extended battery really be that much better / bigger? And weren't there pictures of the extended battery somewhere?

 

There was a small photo of the extended battery. Not sure where I saw it. I think it was under accessories. It's just like the current Z.

Z gets the earphones, E Series gets a mouse.

 

It still works fine here. Probably a quick update then, although I don't really see what they changed.

 

If you make your CTO z series and after its built click on accessories and click on standard and extended battery and click spec for both of them and the dimensions are on the page, the extended is .6in higher than the standard.

Standard: * Approx Weight : 0.7 lbs.
* Dimensions (Approx.) : 1.9"(W) x 1.0"(H) x 8.1(L)
Extended: * Approx Weight : 1.04 lbs.
* Dimensions (Approx.) : 1.9"(W) x 1.6"(H) x 8.1(L)

Standard site: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...0151&langId=-1&catalogId=10551#specifications

Extended: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...0151&langId=-1&catalogId=10551#specifications

 

$1899 version of Z in US include: i5-520m, 128 SSD, DVD, 1600X900 screen. For same configuration on Dutch SonyStyle you will need to shell out around 1.900 €

 

@igorstef: Yes, I'm aware of that. The hardware has not become cheaper. It has however become cheaper to get a Z
Edit: btw. The almost direct dollar to euro conversion has always been so with Sony. It's basically the price you get after taxes and customs duties.

Thanks for the answer biggturtle. I had just thought of looking in the accessoires myself, and found the new batteries for the new Z are just a bit different from the ones for the previous Z.

Standard ( VGPBPS20/B.CE7 ): https://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/S...8360080E10080002BC29B86&z_accStore=z_accStore
Extended ( CGPBPL20.CE7 ): https://shop.sonystyle-europe.com/S...8360080E10080002BC29B86&z_accStore=z_accStore

A list of weight, size and capacity:
Standard: 315 g - (w x h x l): around 205.1 x 20.3 x 46.7 mm - 5200 mAh
Extended: 460 g - (w x h x l): around 205.1 x 42.0 x 46.7 mm - 7800 mAh

The large one is 1.5 times the capacity of the small one, so the 4.5 vs 10.5 hours is quite wrong I'd say.

btw. For comparison, the Z starts at a weight of 1410 g (1.41 kg)

 

Speaking of Canadians and the Z...

I wonder if Sony is going to continue only selling the "bilingual" keyboard on all prebuilt models. That thing is gonna look damn ugly when illuminated.

Hopefully Canadian CTO will continue to only be available with the US keyboard, otherwise I'm going to have to pull some gymnastics getting a CTO up from the US...

 

Does anyone know when the Z will be available for pre-order online in Canada? (...this is already happening almost everywhere else...)

 

A page or so ago someone reported they were told next week.

 

That would be true if you deleted every file after you wrote it, or reformatted the drive to empty periodically.
However, as the drive fills up and only a part of the drive is still available, that's no longer the case. Let's pick the most extreme example: you have two blocks free. In that case, 20,000 single block writes would cause both those blocks to get 10,000 writes each. Of course, it's not that bad in practice, but the more static content you have on the drive, the faster you'll wear out the drive despite wear leveling. Half full drive = twice as fast.

The real killer for SSD drives are log files, database files and temporary files. These are often written to almost constantly -- very little data on each write, but a lot of writes. If you use Windows' performance monitor, and look at the IO counters, you'll be very surprised at just how many writes per second that typically happen during normal use.

Thankfully, Windows has become better at caching up the writes and sending them as bunches that can be concatenated into fewer real writes. But "better" does, unfortunately, not mean "good". There are too many things that must be committed to disk and can't really wait, and whenever the OS routines are in doubt, unbuffered writes and flushes is still the order of the day.

 

When I called to cancel my F11 order the sales rep told me March 8th or there about. He has promised to call me as soon as they are available for order.

There was a more recent post that stated sales will start next week - I hope he is right!!

 

March 8th sounds like more when they will be available to ship. Although very often they will get in orders before that (when I bought my preordered SZ 4 years ago it arrived about 2 weeks before the initial ship date).

 

Does anybody know if you will be able to swap out the SSD for a 500 GB 7200rpm HD?

 

Well for now it doesn't look so...because it seems like there's not enough space for regular 2.5 HDD, so you would have to choose Z without drive. That's I feel is quite odd comparing to current Z.

 

I agree, I'm sure they're now snapping the parts together as the CTO orders for the Z begin to pour in. Won't be surprise if a few of you receive it in the next couple weeks.

 

Eh, I think I'm going to wait for when we can pick the glossy carbon fiber, the full HD screen, and a DVD drive [or is it there and they're just not listing it since it's so obvious by now that every laptop has at least a DVD drive when there's room for it? ].

Also, is the current screen still HD, just not full HD? I recall when buying an HD t.v. that it's very hard to tell the difference between 780 and 1080 on a screen smaller than 32 inches.

 

How much longer can you go on with your current computer? Wait it out, most likely, it'll be offered (glossy lid) as a CTO option and/or pre-built like the old Z.

 

You may have to wait for a refresh or two before Glossy Carbon becomes available. I'm sure the first refresh of this new Z will be sometime in Fall. It hasn't been released yet, and we're already talking about a refresh.

As for HD, I don't get it. What makes the New Z HiDef. What kind of screen will it be equipped with?

 

Noone answered the question but what can be upgradeable with 3rd party hardware.

In particular can RAM and the SSD's be upgraded at a future date from parts at a local pc store?

 

Oh man there's no way I'm waiting until fall! I've already waited for the new Z since August, since I was afraid they would come out with a brand new one soon (and when they came out with that refresh a few months ago I still waited). Does the regular carbon fiber scratch easily? And are you sure the glossy one won't be available for a long time? Maybe if I call Sony tomorrow they'll give me an idea... (or not).

 

Don't get confused by marketing terms or words when all you need is numbers.

Existing Z standard resolution: 1366x768
Existing Z high resolution + New Z standard resolution: 1600x900
New Z high resolution: 1920x1080

HDTV as broadcast on the air is either 1280x720 or 1920x1080. So-called "full HD" is considered 1920x1080.

In my opinion 1920x1080 is too much for a 13" screen for anybody that WORKS with their notebook - even with W7's DPI enlargement options it's still going to be a pain in the eyes for some applications. Now if you're a gamer or someone heavy into multimedia, 1920x1080 might be nice. But if you do a lot of internet surfing or work with productivity applications, I think the 1600x900 screen with a DPI setting of 125% is the sweet spot.

 

So the standard is pretty much almost full HD? And yeah, the new size does seem a little overkill. I can imagine having Word open with a ton of blue space on the sides. To people who are getting the super large resolution: What would you use it for? When would you have two apps open next to each other?

 

Actually I think most of your question has been answered already... but:

CPU - should be user upgradeable (although it might be a bit of work to get to).

RAM - user upgradeable, and fairly easy too.

SSD - NOT upgradeable by the user at all. Sony is doing something completely propreitary here, so if you think you're ever going to need the space during the lifetime of your Z, I would buy it now because it's going to cost you 2-3X more to buy it through Sony Parts later. Also you WILL NOT be able to replace the SSDs with any sort of hard drive. If you buy the special low-end version with a hard drive in the optical bay, then that of course could be upgraded. It's also possible that the optical bay adapter might be buyable through spare parts for other Z owners, however no one really knows yet how or if this will work on SSD models.

WiFi card - upgradeable

 

Another thing... where is the page to buy the new Z on Sony's site? How did the person who posted it back on page 125 find it, and does that page even have all the possible options you can pick (as in, should it even be public yet)? The page says that you get a Windows XP downgradable disk, and if I remember right, I think those were the models that cost more in the past while you could get regular CTO's without it, but that's the default option on the page.

 

Well, "nearly" is 69% of the total number of pixels. But it's better than 1280x720 with only 44% of the pixels.

Due to the nature of video, I doubt that there's going to be any visible difference on VIDEO PLAYBACK between the 1600x900 and 1920x1080 screens. Scaling video is not a problem these days, so you're not going to have jaggies or moiré patterns with a little downsizing, and even Blu-rays don't have enough fine detail that you're going to notice a difference in detail (save perhaps for computer animation).

Here's something to think about. A lot of high definition programming on television is filmed with cameras that do not resolve the full 1920x1080 resolution - many sensors only record 1440x1080 resolution (which is nearly the same total number of pixels as a 1600x900 screen). But the channels play it back at 1920x1080. You think you could point out which programming was originally 1440x1080 and which was 1920x1080?

 

It's on the site, just not linked to yet. I've seen Sony's CTO pages when they were still being entered, and the one up there now is definitely ready to roll, SonyStyle just hasn't gotten around to providing proper access to it.

Easiest way to find it is to perform a search for "VPCZ11". This will bring up the two CTO options (with XP downgrade and the normal one without - I don't know why the original poster chose to link to the XP downgrade model), plus a couple prebuilt models, plus a whole whack of "no longer available models" which would be better described as "not yet available".

 

So in other words you're telling me the HD screen is overkill and to just go with the standard resolution.

 

For everyone who is a n00b at this like me : http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...d=10551&in_dim_search=&keyword=VPCZ11&x=0&y=0

 

I think it's a personal preference thing. I would say that you should think about whether you actually have a valid use for the resolution - and eyes good enough not to get strain actually using it - or whether you're just falling for the "bigger is better" numbers game and want it "just because".

I myself LOVE the concept of a full HD screen. But it's the fact that this is a 13" screen that's the major sticking point for me pulling the trigger. I'm even hopeful that Windows 7's DPI scaling will be good enough for anyone who actually opts for the 1920 screen but finds reading 3 point type at "standard system DPI" a pain. I think that the biggest issue is going to be older applications, and surfing websites with fixed font sizes. You'll have to "zoom in" on the site, which tends to make all graphics blurry.

I keep thinking about my last monitor - a 23" LCD with 1920x1200 resolution. It was just a tiny bit uncomfortable for me at standard distances. Since upgrading to a better 24" LCD with the same resolution, I'm perfectly comfortable reading it.

I've owned a subnotebook with the same DPI as the Z's 1600x900 screen, and I recall feeling that it was rather small. Legible, but small. So to go for something that makes things significantly smaller than THAT - well, I keep telling myself not to be stupid and to be satisfied with 1600x900.

However I don't want to presume to tell someone else what's best for them - just caution you to think about it honestly. Last summer my best friend bought a 15.4" notebook with 1920x1200 resolution and he hates the thing - finds it too hard to see. Now squeeze that down to 13.1"...

 

Well, I'm glad you're sharing your insight because it's seriously gotten me to change my mind! My eye doctor says I am his worst patient in terms of my vision, so I don't think I need to ruin it further by squinting at a small screen. I'm only 21 and with my contacts I can see perfectly, but I'm sure squinting all the time will still make my eyes worse.

These are my remaining concerns before I pull the trigger...

1. RAM - 4GB seems to be standard right now, but is 6GB too much?
2. GHz - I STILL don't get the whole turbo boost thing, and someone explained it to be several pages back but I'm still confused. So it's ALWAYS running at the least at 2.53GHz, and if it needs more power, can jump up to 3.06? I think they told me my thinking was wrong. Either way, it doesn't seem like the jump to 2.66 is worth the extra $150 since it's not too big of a difference, right?
3. Carbon fiber lid - I don't know about this one. When I went to the Sony Store a few times it seemed like the carbon fiber was uglier and as if it could scratch easier. What do you guys think? I was sort of a crook and tried to scratch a corner of the lid with my fingernail, but nothing happened, though I'm not sure how that'll translate to real-world use.
4. Warranty - I'm getting a warranty for sure since I have broken my laptops countless times (most failing HDs since I carry my laptop around with me EVERYWHERE). Does Sony pretty much replace the things you break without any problems (for the accidental one, that is)?

 

1. You can never have enough memory. With that said, I think 4gb is "enough" for the vast majority of users. But personally, my preference would be to load up the machine to 8GB. However if you don't want to spend the $300, there is one point to consider - if you get 4gb it's in 2 x 2gb modules, which means to upgrade to 8gb you have to throw everything away. If you go for 6gb, which is $150, you only have to throw one 2gb module away and get to keep 4gb.

2. The i5/i7 CPUs run at whatever speed is needed. So if you're idling, they're far slower than the marked speed. If you run BOTH cores at 100%, they will operate at the indicated regular speed. Where turbo boost comes in is when you don't need two cores - so if you're running a demanding single threaded application (say a game) it can overclock ONE of the cores to the indicated "turbo boost" speed. Another reason to get the i7 is the increased cache size, which does help speed more than the extra GHz would indicate.

3. Are you talking about the glossy signature or "premium" carbon lid? At any rate, between the two CTO options, it's more a question of whether you want black or silver. Call me a traditionalist, but I want black myself even though it costs more. My 4-year-old black SZ is carbon fiber, and the thing has held up beautifully (which is one reason I don't actually want the glossy lid - they're a pain to keep clean of fingerprints! My matte carbon SZ always looks pristine).

4. Sorry, no experience here - only problem with my SZ was a failed battery, and I've never bought accident coverage warranty on anything before. Although I did buy it on a platinum card so I'd double the warranty (even that expired 2 years ago now...)

 

1. What does RAM even do? Allow more stuff to be open? Will the computer be way faster with 6 vs. 4GBs?
2. I COULD go for the i7, but I heard it uses a lot more power, which means less battery. Does the sacrifice in battery life, which is important to me, justify the speed increase? Is there even that big of an increase?
3. I forgot that the new Z only lets you choose silver or black carbon fiber. In any case, I was asking if the carbon fiber scratches easily (or even at all). So with the glossy, you're saying it's more finger-print prone? What about the carbon fiber?
4. I take my laptop everywhere, to school, in my backpack, to trips, in the car - it gets bumped around a lot.

 

1. The operating system and your programs need it... if you have programs that are memory hungry and there's not enough available, the system has to swap to disk - which is putting stuff that should be in memory, on the hard drive. This makes the system very, very slow. Examples of memory hungry programs would be games, video editing, photo editing, encoding, statistical analysis and so forth. Plus if you do a lot of multitasking with numerous programs open.

2. Really, I need to hear more on the reported power consumption and heat production of the i7-620m vs the i5-540m. I just don't see it. However I keep my laptops for a long time, and I know a few years from now I'll be happy I got the i7, even if the reported negatives are true.

3. It's really just plastic mixed with carbon fiber, more for the effect. It's not like it's a solid chunk of carbon fiber or something. I don't believe it makes it any more or less scratch resistant. The glossy finish - I'd actually tend to think that it would scratch or at least show scratches easier, depending on what they have or haven't done to it. And the glossy one is carbon fiber too.

 

How about a 1.8" HDD..??

 

If you had a choice of buying the 6 GB RAM over 4 GB or i7 over 15, which would you choose?

And I'm still a little afraid about the i7. I've been Googling about it and people say it's much hotter and more power-consuming than the i5, with only a small boost in performance. But then again, I wonder if it's better for the long run? Oy. So many questions.

BTW Sunfox, thank you for answering all my questions.

 

The i7 620 or the i7 720?

 

These are the options the page gives me:

# Intel® Core™ i5-540M processor (2.53GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
# Intel® Core™ i7-620M processor (2.66GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GHz [add $150.00]