New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

Hi People.

A lot of posts talking about SSD. But only one single question.

Which SSD configuration from USA Pre-Order will be 4 SSD ? I´m not convinced about old posts.

 

That is the score for the memory... 5.9 but I think it might be like someone said because there is only 4gb the WEI probably takes amount of memory into consideration as well.

 

That would be awesome except the size would have to be bigger, to me the small size is the biggest selling point otherwise I would not even be looking at getting a Z.

 

Yep it takes amount of memory into consideration. It's quite visible, if you compare WEI of previous Z with 4/6/8 GB of RAM.

 

Signature model

$2,349.99

$2,185.49

As low as $65.56/month**

In Stock

Estimated ship date: 02/17/2010
Shipping tomorrow?

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666059659

 

? The TT isn't bigger...

 

The ship date for these orders are incorrect. Mine has had a ship date of 02/08/2010 since I ordered it. I think we'll see them in March.

Stefan

 

Don't know about the TT, just saying having seen the videos of Z there is no way they fit 2 2.5inch drive in there without making it bigger, it is already packed to the gills, there is no room.

 

No, my information was inaccurate. The i7 should be faster than the i5, now by how much im not capable of telling you.

I was looking at the table clearly, but definitely failed to take into account the most important variable; credibility of the site. It was immediately corrected in the next post. Sorry for your confusion.

 

Boy, that impress.co.jp site is incredible - I wish it were in English. Here's a new article from them comparing side-by-side the old and new Z. One thing that caught my eye was 4x better SDHC card read performance, and around a 20% improvement in write performance.

Link

 

Darn, the old palmrest was so much more stylish.

 

Sometimes it's the subtle things that make the biggest impression. I also think the current Z's plam rest looks better as well...current because new Z still isn't released yet.

 

Express Card on new Z is between USB connectors and very close to them, almost anything you put there will then allow you to only plug cables into USB connectors.

Third USB connector comes at the expense of modem (it was time to get rid of the modem) and Firewire. Some may consider the latter essential for interface with camcorders, external audio, or external HD enclosures. I, personally, have not used Firewire in the past 3 years or so.

Interesting tradeoffs.

It's funny how batteries are incompatible between models. Was that intentional? Those who bought a spare battery and decide to upgrade their Z will have to by a new spare. Probably a small number of customers, still ...

 

for those of you curious about how the 330M stacks up against the 335M in the highly touted (for portable gaming purposes) Alienware m11x check this out

http://translate.google.com/transla....net/article/1657/1657224.html&sl=zh-CN&tl=en (check out page 3)


like i've said before, those getting a Z purely for gaming could do better for the money, but for those of us that are looking for a better overall package will be glad to know that the new Z will be much better suited for gaming than the previous Z was!

 

When I hit the link, I get the original price of $2,349.99 crossed out and the same price of $2,349.99 highlited next to it. Has the price of this Z gone up?

I am torn about the $500 Blue Ray drive. I currently have no use for a blue ray drive and am wondering if you will be able to retro fit one in later if you want.

Right now, I'm thinking about basic specs with affordable performance tweaks to keep the price reasonable. Am I right?

Bronsky

 

I would also do that. And you can get a external bluray drive (USB) for pretty cheap nowadays.
I wouldnt pick too ''massive'' specs. For example the i7 isn't really worth the price difference of the i5 540m (it's just that i7 sounds much better).

 

I just was reading that review and actually it got me thinking m11x is much weaker than the Z, Engadget ran 3dmark 06@ default 1280x1024 on their Z and got 6200 whereas m11x cannot run 3dmark06 @1280x1024 it defaults to 1280x768 on the m11x and it only scored 6100 3dmarks at lower res.

So I did some searching and found Gt240m (old version of 330m) with i7 the ulv version which only runs @ 1.6ghz/2.8ghz and that scores 7367 3dmarks @ 1280x720 http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-240M.17654.0.html (expand the 3dmark 06 list and it's at the bottom)

So given the i7 in Sony Z run at 3.33ghz it should be similiar to the 240m and i7 ULV and score higher seeing this article makes me want a Sony Z far more than an m11x now LOL That SU7300 really is hurting the m11x they should have put i7 or i5 in it...

 

good comparison. the new one looks solid and more black color. whats up with that docking port cap on new Z lol? someone gonna lose it later :z

 

The price of the Signature Z Metal Mosaic remains he same at $2349.99
I called and the sales lady said only these are ready to go and they are the limited edition; only a certain number will be made. If you try to customize it your order (like add Blu-Ray drive) will be delayed from what I understand.

Also she says the Metal Mosaic is indeed CARBON FIBER AND NOT METAL.

Oh well...

Sooo...I placed an order!


VAIO® Signature Collection Z Series
Model Number: VPCZ11DGX/SJ
Color: Metal Mosaic
In stock. Estimated ship date: 02/17/2010.
$2,349.99 1
Customization Summary

And I requested 2 day shipping.
Hopefully I will be writing about it Friday. Woo-hoo!

 

You better keep us all updated!!

 

LOL - You bet!

 

The metal mosaic has now reverted back to PRE-ORDER status with ship date of 3-19-2010

maybe it was a mistake?

 

I am confused What does it mean, the metal mosaic is carbon fiber and not metal? It sure does look like metal? LOL I would like one that the top looks like Carbon Fiber that is why I am asking but it seem like they all look like metal to me.

 

perhaps it carbon fibre but with silver color. the photo always looks good.

 

I called them back. Got the same lady who took a while to research it and get back to me. Amazingly I was one of the last to get those ready to ship! Apparently all of the pre-orders on that particular model were taken up. So sorry; those babies went like hot cakes.

Though I did not pre-order I guess they had a few left over. I was hopefully one of the lucky ones, and it really does look as if I may have gotten the last one, but she says if I do not get a Fed-Ex confirmation of shipping by Thursday...she gave me a Sony number to call. So I'm kinda holding my breath as she believes my order did indeed go through.

 

I am still not sure that you cannot fit one caseless X18M in the spot for the quad SSD, even though I personally don't mind the SSD RAID 0 (except the price, I guess, but that's comparing to a HDD).

One thing I find troubling with regard to the HDD option is that HDD shock/fall protection is not supported according to the Japanese spec page. If that is really the case I would steer away from HDD option myself.

 

The reviewer was disapponted about the docking port cap and the fact that the new ExpressCard slot has a dummy card rather than just a slot cover. I'm happy Sony changed these things. On my Z, the docking port cover always opens on its own accord, and the ExpressCard slot cover sometimes "sticks" a bit.

The screen looks a bit glossier on the new Z, so we'll have to see how it does in light. Glossy screens are only useful to those who do work in rooms lit by nothing but lava lamps.

 

Does the new Z work with the Old docking station? I am thinking about selling my desktop and using Sony Z for both laptop and desktop but only if the docking station keeps working so I can keep upgrading laptop and use it with same docking station? If not how much does the docking station cost? It is not available for purchase right now on Sonystyle site and no price there?

 

From Sony's site it looks like the two docking stations are not compatible with the each other's generation of the Z. It makes sense, the placement of the docking port and how the laptop lines up with the docking station seems to have changed quite a bit between the two generations.

On this topic, does anyone have experience with using the Z series with docking stations? I'm currently using a ThinkPad with a dock and it's a great experience and saves me considerable amount of time, so I would like to have that with the Z as well. But it looks like for the Z, the docking experience is just an after thought. The Z's spec page doesn't even mention the docking port, you have to dig really hard to find that it can be docked. And both the docking port and the dock itself appear to be very poorly designed. The docking port cover has to be manually removed, there's no locking mechanism on the dock so if the machine gets moved accidentally the system could crash from the disconnection, there's no power button on the dock (although with the Z it's not an issue since the power button is on the side), and there are no audio connections on the dock. All these things are fairly standard with docking stations, so it seems to me like Sony doesn't really expect many people to be interested in using docks with the Z. I would like to know if there are many here who are interested in using the dock/have used it and how they feel about it.

 

Your are the man. I'll be waiting form your report.

I have figured out the configuration I would like. The only remaining issue is the lack of the HD screen. Is that stopping anyone from ordering at this time? The problem is that I need a new laptop for work. I'm sure it was discussed in the last 223 pages but I can't wade through all of that.

 

When I read your first post about the Signature Series being available I checked the CTO orders and I could have sworn that besides the Signature Metal Mosaic I was able to get a CTO available with a 2 day shipping date. Were my eyes playing tricks I don't know. But if I were you I would keep checking their site daily from now on if you really want one before March 17th.
I really think they are trying to get these out as soon as they are available.

 

doesnt make sense

i CTO my z on 2-8-10, why would someone who just happend to check the website today get a CTO fulfilled before mine?

 

They are really currently updating the German SonyStyle site and the UK site already has the new CTO models online.

The same config costs almost 300 EUR more in the UK than in the Netherlands. The German Z CTO site is not available yet.

 

YES that is definitely stopping me from ordering right now. I have been waiting for YEARS to have an HD screen like this on an ultra-portable. I just HATE that I have to purchase a premium model with Blu-Ray to get it.

I think I read a few pages back that you can configure a Japanese model with the HD screen and no Blu-Ray for around $2000. And you can even get it with a bigger (non SSD) hard drive. This is what I really want. The only thing I would hate this config for is the Japanese keyboard. I've used them before and am not a fan. But for a $2000 price difference I'd probably live with it.

Does anyone think the U.S. version will eventually be offered with an HD screen as an option without Blu-Ray? I'd love to just drop the DVD drive altogher and get a regular hard drive like the Japanese version...

 

I dunno, maybe it was a temporary glitch on their web page, as I'm sure most of us know does happen, but I really believe I saw it, then after my order it was gone. Just saying those who aren't CTO should check more frequently.

 

Hey, just out of curiosity... I call SonyStyle and order by phone for my Z, would it be possible to get a dual language Japanese/English keyboard? From what I've seen, the Japanese keyboard on many models is a US English keymap, that also has Japanese characters upon it. Think they could do this on a CTO Z?

 

All Japanese keyboards are QWERTY, but have some punctuation/special keys in different places (i.e. ', ", [, ], @). They also have a larger ENTER key that's further to the right than the US keyboard (but more like many European keyboards) and a few extra keys used for switching input modes. Everyone I know here uses regular phonetic (romaji) input rather than the kana.

The four keyboard options in Japan are:

• Regular Japanese keyboard (with kana characters)
• Regular Japanese keyboard layout (without kana characters)
• US keyboard layout (no kana)
• US keyboard layout (no kana, but with "customized" font)

Backlit option is only available on the Regular Japanese keyboard and the Regular US keyboard. I don't think Sonystyle US offers the Japanese keyboard, but you could try calling.

 

Yes, I personally think that it is very likely we'll have the option to get a 1920x1080 screen as a CTO option in the next refresh of the new Vaio Z series, especially if the U.S. market follows what had previously happened to the current (old) series. When the current (old) Z series was first released (the Z5xx series) in the U.S., all the pre-config models (VGN-Z520N/B, VGN-Z530N/B, VGN-Z550N/B, VGN-Z570N/b) come with 1366x768 screens, except for the only pre-config model (VGN-Z591U/B) that comes with the Blu-ray drive ("top of the line" & most expensive) which come with a 1600x900 screen. This is despite the fact that for all the other markets around the world, almost all the pre-config Z come standard with 1600x900 screens. Why Sony made such a decision for the U.S. market, I honestly have no idea.

 

I don't know how nice Sony USA is, but I asked the German Sony support people multiple times, whether I could order a Laptop with English keyboard (UK or US) and the answer was a definite no.

 

Like I had said earlier, "Metal Mosaic" is just a fancy name given to distinguish different colors/designs/patterns for the top lid.

By the way, congrats on your purchase.

Might want to read the following as well:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5871504&postcount=1833

 

Well, that was quite a chore getting back up to speed on this thread after only a day!

 

Well gee, looks like I was right after all.

 

Does anybody know if i CTO in Canada would the keyboard be the French or US?

 

Well, now the comments from Sony Style Canada that they're waiting for "changes to the motherboard to support trim" make no sense at all, since there should be no reason for the existing setup not to support trim, as long as the SSD firmware does.

Next we need Intel to update their RAID drivers with trim support.

CTO orders will come with an English US keyboard. Preconfigured Sony models have recently come with a very annoying combination English/French keyboard, but I don't know what's going to happen with the new Z as no details on the Canadian models have been released (and a dual-language light up keyboard probably wouldn't work well).

 

all you need to do to see what's inside of new Z ->

http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/pcuser/articles/1002/16/news077.html

i think the palm rest looks like injection molded plastic.

 

looks like the cpu is soldered into the motherboard this time around unlike the old sz and z.

 

arth1; I thought "transfer test" meant both read+write. You saying no?
You learn something new every day...!

Im truly looking forward to the new Z. Hoping European models will have the same configurability (is that even a word?) as the Japanese site offers..

 

It may look like it is BGA in this photo but as you can see on the top right corner it says ES (Engineering Sample) so I am hoping that is for the model the press received.
Would be a shame not to be removable.

 

when I called the second time for sony canada, I was told early March.
This is similar to what a sony style store said to me as well. He mentioned late Feb, early March.

I guess the first guy lied to me... grrr

 

SonyStyle.ca told me specifically March 7th for CTO, unknown for preconfigured.

If it is soldered on, then I guess I'm for sure going with the i7.