New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

Any ideas when it'll be available in the UK and for how much? Sending a Dell 1557 back and this looks like a good replacement

 

Too bad, there's no MANUAL CONTROL for the back-lit keyboard on this Z. The Macbook Pro allows you to manually turn it OFF completely. This, in some respect, does help extend battery juice.

 

Search for vaio z11x9e/b and vaio z11z9e/b - and check out sony.co.uk where they are listed. Many UK retailers have them for sale now, for instance Dabs.com, BT Shop, Oyyy.co.uk etc.

The z11x9e/b (i5-520m, 128GB SSD, 4GB, 1600x900 LED) is around £1600-1700 - and the z11z9e/b (i7-620m, 256GB SSD, 6GB, 1920x1080 LED) is around £2100-2300.

Release dates however are around mid-March.

 

It's more likely that engadget didn't find how to do it

 

If it is anything like the new S, I think there is something software based that will turn it off. I think the Vaio control program.

 

post deleted

 

Hmmmmmm... maybe!

From the manual:

Changing the Backlit Keyboard Settings

Some features and options may not be available on your computer.

If your computer is equipped with a backlit keyboard, you can set the keyboard light to automatically turn on and off according to ambient light intensity. Additionally, you can set a time period to turn off the keyboard backlight after inactivity of keyboard operations. To change the backlit keyboard settings

1. Click Start, All Programs, and VAIO Control Center.
2. Click Keyboard and Mouse and Backlit KB.

Ambient light intensity is measured by the ambient light sensor. Blocking the ambient light sensor may turn on the keyboard backlight.

 

Engadget review is very positive.

I'll likely be getting the signature "Mosaic Silver" once it gets released and more insight is given into fan noise/heat/ways of dealing with the TRIM issues.

Shame it only has 4gm ram in that config though.

 

I was really glad to hear that the new z seems to handle heat pretty well (from the engadget review). I would totally pull the trigger right this second if only i could get the educational discount from the cto'd version.

 

Your right, there has to be a setting in control panel.

 

As far as my assumption the Silver mosaic Z top is actually metal, I may be wrong. If I am it is due to these following web pages, which lead me to believe that particular model is metal:

http://community.sonystyle.com/sstyle/post/?id=5997025398136160561

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...552921644649998&N=4294954789#/Metal Mosaic Z/

If not metal then I may decide on carbon fiber.

As far as the other silver colored models, I assume them to be something other than metal, not sure.

 

Here in the netherlands you can choose;
Black
Silver
Premium Carbon
Silver (Metal shield) - which is probably the metal like the signature version, at least i think it is.

 

from Engadget review:

"Batman: Arkham Asylum rocked 21fps at the native resolution"

native is 1600x900 right... also it had a ~6200 3dmark06 score... since 3dmark06 is very CPU bound, can we say this Vaio is slower than the Allienware M11x in 3D?

 

from the engadget review, especially the gpu part, doesnt cover much like temp and stuff. the good thing i saw, this new Z has more vent hole on underside of the notebook unlike the old Z, which is good to those using notebook cooler. im pretty much positive this notebook would run at pretty reasonable temp provided you are using it on proper surface.

 

Arth1:

Thank you honest and humble friend, I was kicked out from my job after the financial crisis, and left US, now I'm living in Cairo, Egypt, and working in one of the Mobile Service providers, I get 95% of what I used to get back in US, and No taxes, No dozens of Bills, no huge rental fees, so that makes my profit 2.5x what I used to get in US, let alone the advancement in Tech & Comm fields, even 92% of plp. has cell phones, that never close to this figures in US.

I got my Sony reward (Dock st./BT Mouse/Stick Charger), and became a friend with the rep. that processed my order, he does not have a Notebook, PC, or even a cell phone, though he is working in SONY CORP. he said that he just can't afford any of these.

Anyhow, lets all wish that the crisis passes and things return to normal, I love US, its my home, and always wishing the best for it, and wish that someday soon I go back home.

Sorry for being off-topic, wish to read some real-life reviews about the New Z, actually I started hating mine (Sig.) no.1 reason is cuz of the 9300M GS, thats my bottle neck.

Will

 

There is always new improvement from the previous release for sure. God knows what will new Z will look like after this new release in another 2 years.

 

in 3d gaming, te M11x is def faster. Games are more GPU dependant than CPU, so you can get away with using a slower CPU if you got a good GPU. The GPU in the M11x is (despite the small numberical increase 330m vs 335m) about 50% faster

 

Nope look at it's vantage score almost 10k LOL Wonder what the score will be for m11x? m11x 3dmarks 06 is 6100, Vaio Z 6200, very similar there so no noticeable difference in real world for gaming.

People seem to miss the fact that cpu and gpu work as a team, GPU can only render frames as fast as the cpu delivers them. This is why 3dmark 06 and nowadays Vantage are good estimates of actual game performance they take into account both cpu and gpu.

I would say these 2 will perform very similiar depending on the vantage scores.

 

where did you get that 10k vantage number?

 

Got it from engadget review but I just realize it is pc mark vantage not 3dmark vantage.

 

...and that's with i5-2.53 GHz processor; imagine what the PCMark vantage is with i7-2.66 GHz processor.

 

(Re: SSD performance degradation)

Mr. Shimpi has some good info on SDD degradation, and how it affects different controller/SSD manufacturers.
I believe ars also had a feature article about this.

The question is how much Sony's using disk stripes and not supporting TRIM will affect this. It will be interesting to see, for sure, and may affect what other manufactures will do in the future.

 

Yea the i7 upgrade is only 150 extra too. I am seriously thinking of ordering one of these. I have an m11x coming but the Z just has so much more to offer, its a tiny bit smaller has bigger screen, way better cpu, same 3dmark scores, it's much lighter, it comes with SSD and DVD burner built in. At first I thought the price was outrageous but the more I think about it it really starts to seem you get what you pay for.

 

me, in the other hand, tought the oposite hehe I first tought Z would perform indeed better than the M11x, but now I think it's not worth the 1k premium for the same or worse 3d performace. =/

 

if you're looking for a gaming notebook, then no. if you're looking for an all around desktop replacement in a thin and light body, the Z is far superior.

far better screen and resolution options
dvdrw drive or bluray drive
much much better CPU's
thinner & lighter despite the larger screen
elegant professional design vs standard alienware look at me styling
SSD's

but no, if gaming and value for your money is your primary focus, you're looking at the wrong machine. you will be disappointed.

 

If all you want to do is play games the 11x is a much cheaper way to do it but you get a 13" form factor laptop with an 11" screen that is what bothers me so much about it. I'd rather have a 13" if the laptop is going to be that big anyway.

Plus i'll end up putting SSD into m11x anyway so price becomes more similiar especially without the discounts the Z is only a few hundred more and you get so much more of a laptop than the 11x.

 

Wouldn't Sony know of the whole TRIM / degradation issue by now and make sure they have a solution to it? Maybe in the past not, but now SSDs are standard on all their Zs, their high-end model, so you would think they would make sure everything is A-okay.

 

Hi, I was thinking the same thing and if that is indeed the case then I'd like to see a blurb about it on the main product literature page so I can stop speculating! I certainly can't find anything in the manual.

 

I said the same awhile ago. I think the concern is much ado about nothing.

 

Large files are those large enough that "most" blocks written will be complete.
If the sector size of an SSD is 128 kB (a common value), you "waste" from 0 to 128 kB per file, depending on exactly how big they are.
For files smaller than 128 kB, you "waste" the difference between the file size and 128 kB to extra data (re)written.
For larger files, it depends on how many multiples of 128 kB you get, and what's left over.
Say a file is 1023 kB in size. You then need eight blocks to store it, which takes up 1024 kB, and you thus "waste" 1 kB of extra writes. That's 1/1023 waste, or 0.09%, which is negligible.
On the other hand, if you have another file that's 1025 kB in size, it needs nine blocks, and you have an overhead of 127 kB of unneccessary writes. 127/1025 is a significant overhead, at about 12%

The larger the files get, on average the lesser the overhead is compared to the file.
Sure, you can get "stalls" on large files too, while the SSD runs an erase operation on a bunch of blocks to give room for your data. But averaged out over the whole write process, it's going to be very little.
For small files, however, a 128 kB single block erase is going to be felt much more, as it can cause your tiny write to take a very long time, relatively speaking.

In other words: If your large five-minute write of a video file gets delayed by 3-4 seconds overall because of erase operations, it won't matter much.
However, if your small one-line append to a log file gets delayed by 0.25 seconds, and this happens once every second, it will become a big problem.
And if you only do reads, it won't be a problem at all.
So it depends very much on usage patterns.

 

The "Metal Mosaic" is definitely not made of metal. "Metal Mosaic," just like the other finishes, are made of the exact same materials IMHO. The name "Metal Mosaic," like "Premium Carbon Fiber," is just a fancy name given to the different colors/finishes. This is where the marketing department is doing a good job IMHO.

Furthermore, the following is quoted from one of the links you provide:

The above leads me to believe that the lid is not metal. Or am I wrong?

 

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Maybe they're updating - can't get on

 

Nope! The VPC-F series is up for pre-order - no Z

 

yes, what really bothers me in the M11x is it's screen size and weight... it weights more like a 14'', I would like something very light, I have a Dell X300 wich weights only 1kg... sony z comes very close to that, but I don't want to pay that much =/

 

I hope their interpretation of "earphones" is not ear buds. I have yet to find a set that will stay in my ears.

 

Don't know if anyone posted this yet:

VAIO Z Series Concept Video - Kaya Kanomori, Product Planner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQm0V2qZBaw

Watch in HD for full effect!

 

Thanks bluehaze... great find. I really like this one too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEOd8hbYf0E

 

I am about to pull the trigger on one but am hung up on the colors. Does the premium carbon fibrer finish actually look like carbon fiber? Because in the pics it looks just like the silver brushed aluminum only black? If it looks the same only black I will probably go with the silver.

 

Z series review by Engadget:


Oh and by the way; a good reason not to add a few hundred dollars to your Z is to scrap the blu-ray player...who needs it... high def movies are readily available over things like itunes...

 

I have the carbon black on my Z790 and prefer it over the premium and silver. Here's a couple of actual pics...

 

Thanks for the pics, so the carbon fiber is not actual carbon fiber look but is just black instead of silver? I like the contrast with silver and black so I probably will go with silver if this is the case.

Also wondering about wether it is worth it to preorder now if I am just going to get the base config anyone know if this will be available in stores for the same price around the same time or possibly even earlier due to not having to wait on shipping? Any chance Sony will jack up the price of the base model before it hits the stores? Just wondering should I order now or just be patient?

 

Sure, except some of us hate iTunes or anything Apple. I'd rather take the time to rip my Blu ray discs to my Z than to support that Blu ray hating Steve Jobs. He's just being cheap by not wanting to pay licensing fees to add Blu ray to his notebooks. I'll gladly pay $500.00 more for Blu ray than to pay $500.00 more just because it says Apple.

 

Pretty interesting i5/ i7 HP 14" ProBook apparently with USB 3.0 to compare the Z to - too bad everything right now is smack dab in the middle of a transition period

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/hp-refreshes-probook-and-elitebook-lines-with-core-i7-processors/

 

deleted post

 

What graphics do those come with?

 

I will wait and see how the land lays with Apple and other companies. The Sony Z is sweet, so much power in such a small size, but I'd hate to pre order and know there is something better out just as it is shipping thru the mail, although I admit it's hard to picture something more powerfull in a 13" screen and 1" thickness, and all under 3 lbs, especially from Apple...

But as to your question; I have experienced the mad rush for Macbook pro's where others, having pre-ordered were stuck waiting while I called ahead to secure one at a store, then walked in and bought it. Fortunately there is a new Sonystyle store near me, and all I might need to do is give a salesperson my number so he/she can call me as soon as they come in.

 

13.1" Sony Vaio Z11 - NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 1GB VRAM

14" HP ProBook - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4550 with 512MB Memory

14" HP EliteBook - NVIDIA NVS 3100 graphics with 512 MB dedicated GDDR3
or:
14" HP EliteBook - NVIDIA Quadro FX 380M graphics with 512 MB GDDR3

Add an extra Pound for the ProBook - 4.19 + 2 lbs. for the EliteBook over the Z though!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/06/hp-refreshes-probook-and-elitebook-lines-with-core-i7-processors/

 

Well, I personally would not buy a desktop replacement type product like the Z, in a 13.1" form-factor, without a bluray burner (which obviously can play/burn Blurays, DVDs and CDs). There are very few manufacturers in the marketplace, that actually offer a bluray burner and Sony is one of them. And in a 13.1" product like the Z-series, not a single other product in the marketplace, even dreams about adding a bluray burner.

Even though $500 is a bitter pill to swallow, if I get the Z-series, I will definitely CTO it with this option.

 

ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4550 with 512 MB dedicated video memory
Intel® HD Graphics (nowhere near as powerful as nVidia GT 330M but more powerful than nVidia GT 310M)

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/321957-321957-64295-3929941-3955552-4095207.html

 

Hmmm...I may get that Playstation 3 for $300 instead...but that's just me. Something for me to think about though, very carefully.
I guess I am not thinking of the Z as a desktop replacement for my needs; it will be something I take with me a lot. My MBP will remain home as my desktop replacement. And watching Blu Ray on a small 13" screen on the go may not be worth it to me.

Jeez, when will Verizon do the AT&T thing and charge $29/month unlimited data like the iPad? Hopefully soon. I will get the 3g on the Z but won't activate till that $60/month drops to $29. To me $60/month has always been outrageous. Some jailbreak and tether their iPhones to get around it; not saying I do...not sayin' I don't either...