New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

I can't decide between black and premium carbon
Is one of them more durable (-> less scratches, fingerprints etc.) than the other?

 

Doubtful.


Premium carbon will probably be rarer and have a price premium.

 

Premium carbon is (somehow) much easier to scratch. I heard so many stories from ppl with premium carbon that they got scratches and even visible fingerprints. I have normal black with premium pattern, carrying my machine everyday...in fact I even hit the wall with that few times...and I don't have single scratch.

 

Hm, in the video, they identify the premium carbon fiber laptop as the one seven seconds in, but it looks like the regular lid... it doesn't have any "shininess." Is it misidentified or is it really that hard to see the shininess in low light?

Also, where are the two scratches some of the posters mentioned?

EDIT:

Normal black with premium pattern?

 

Seems the same just premium carbon is a gunmetal grey sort of anything shows less fingerprints than black though so it might be less, it is still pretty dark though. It's gonna be silver for me.

 

I have been using my brother's brand-new silver Sony NW and it already has lots of scratches. It seems like the silver paint covers up a dark chassis, so if you scratch off some of the paint, the dark plastic underneath can easily be seen.

 

Aren't those just black plastic painted silver though? I am pretty sure the Z is actual aluminum not plastic.

 

The only aluminum part on the Z is the palmrest.


edit:

I don't have good light here, but I think you can see it's normal black with premium pattern, which makes the lid look darker....still love the pattern, because it's the only one I saw from Sony which is plastic and possible to feel under fingers

 

That is different than the one in the video. Also you are saying the top is plastic not metal? that is really disappointing if so.

 

Interesting little number for those of you looking to drop your optical drive off the device.


http://apcmag.com/tiny-external-optical-drive-is-perfect-for-netbook-users.htm

 

That's the old Z, not the new one But the black should be same as on the new one. All Z have the lid from carbon fiber reinforced plastic...

 

Is it my imagination or does the screen look pretty reflective from the video?

 

I was thinking that too. Just found out USB 3 can be 10x as fast as USB 2.
Bummer.

 

Well the new screen looks more reflective than the previous one. Maybe it was the way how to eliminate the vertical lines problem.

 

Well after seeing the disappointing initial performance from the m11x users it looks like I am going to not even open it, just sell it on ebay as NIB and go ahead and get a Sony Z.

Anyone know how long before these things start showing up in the wild? Would be nice to save on tax and shipping if I can get it from Amazon or something when it releases since I want the silver anyway as opposed to preordering from the SonyStyle. They charge tax on SonyStyle right?

Sorry but I am all about saving a buck anyway I can LOL

 

Hmm, if the sony canada store updates, it might be a good time to buy a non-CTO Z.
Everything at the sony style canada site thats non-CTO can be combined with these coupons...

CJFMPLC15 - $15 off $150 or more
CJFMPLC25 - $25 off $250 or more
CJFMPLC50 - $50 off $500 or more
CJFMPLC100 - $100 off $1000 or more
CJFMPLC200 - $200 off $2500 or more
CJFMPFREXP - Free Express Shipping
valid from February 19 to March 31.

And Ive seen 10-15% off on CTOs before, so if you're not in a hurry, you might want to keep an eye out for these coupons. Not sure how often other sonystyle sites offer these discounts.

 

I have an old VGN-S in black. It has no scratches (I take care of it), just two minor scuffs on one edge. Fingerprints are also not really visible on it.

I was going to take the premium carbon, but in this case, it's maybe better to stick with the black one.

 

The website said over 5 pounds, so isn't that 1.5 heavier than the Z?

 

To express a contrary opinion, I have a premium carbon and don't really see any scratches (on a casual inspection).

 

Haha, oh yes so it's actually worse than the F series.
Z remains the king of portable power!
Some here ask why the Z is SO expensive when Dell delivers that

 

Yea mate, you really do get what you pay for...unfortunately LOL I was hoping to get similiar performance to Z for less money but it is just not even close. It is looking like a giant netbook rather than an ultraportable :/ Would have been nice to save some pennies but looks like you have to pony up for the performance.

 

I agree. My 6-month-old Z's premium carbon lid is durable. The only scratches on the lid (2 small ones near the hinges) were caused by a heavy brass zipper. Anything would have been scratched by that. As for whether or not the scratches are easier to see (in comparison to one of the other lids), I'm not sure. Fingerprints are also really only visible in direct sunlight.

As a side note, this display looks like it would be a nice match for the Z. It's IPS, has the same resolution as the Z, and costs around $430 or so. It may be a good long-term purchase because I think we'll be seeing many laptops in the future have a Full-HD display.

 

One little piece of comforting advice;
I've got a friend who is building custom CF parts for sports cars and I showed him the video and he said: no prob, if I ever scratch the lid of the Premium Glossy CF, all he has to do is just shine it up with something like a very fine sandpaper.
He says CF needs epoxy resin to set and that is sort of maleable.
If that is true for the Premium Glossy CF, then we shouldn't worry a lot about scratches.
At least not the people who opt for the 4.5K signature or those who select the glossy CF lid.

 

Question, does the sony styles uk site ship to the US? If not, is there any other place to buy the Z in the US besides the sony styles US site?

Can I just put out there the CW again. Its got the same performance specs, but its 5lbs and 14" screen with a poor 4 hour battery life and you wont get that solid carbon fiber. On the plus side, it comes with a blu-ray read and write and even with that Its still a good 1k cheaper. No exaggeration.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?playnext=TL&videos=6J-Zna4pTfg&v=RP-c_9UIer4
Another usage video, with more of that glossy carbon lid.


http://www.colortec.jp/contents/vaio/VAIO_Z_info.htm
In this analysis, I find the answer to the eject button on the HDD model. It becomes a programmable button ("P").

 

I need the 1920x1080 display and all this long while I have compromised with my current Z since there's nothing else out there to compete.
But knowing the new one has a full HD display, I cannot pass on that.
Maybe, others would be more attracted to the CW...

 

Hmm was that the Full HD screen? It looked like it was 1600x900 I woulda thought 1080 would be too hard to read. The real estate was great.

Im not sure I got the same video as you linked though..thing said "playlist invalid or expired"


EDIT: ^ @nutman, understandable. I myself cannot pass. Being a college student, 4 hours of battery life just wont do, not to mention that extra couple lbs will probably be noticeable after hours of carrying it in my backpack and finally, itll have to be rough and tough to deal with all the reckless college student business. Afterall, it will be in with my books and what not, I imagine carbon fiber stays longer than plastic.

Bluehaze was specifically looking for a cheaper laptop with similar performance and is going with the Z because he could not find one. So I recommend him the CW ! It can literally be configured with the same specs (minus screen; can only go to 1600x900) and is much much cheaper. Maybe he will like it, maybe not.

 

Thanks but if it's not ultraportable I don't want it LOL I was initially interested in the 11x because it seemed really small and I thought it would be a good all around computer but after much research the Z is actually smaller and much lighter and it has 13" screen and blows it out of the water performancewise. That is why i'm going to get a Z, I would have put an SSD into the 11x anyway which makes cost a bit more similiar but the price difference is nothing compared ot the amount of power you get.

The CW is a nice computer but it doesn't compare to the Z at all due to the size/weight of it which is the main attraction to me nowadays. I have a 17" XPS that I bought like 5 years ago and it probably has about 24 hours total use on it because it's too big and bulky I never take it anywhere and when i'm home I just use my desktop. I need the power but I also need the portability else I won't ever use the thing so no sense buying it, theres just nothing else like the Z available that i'm aware of.

 

Same situation here. While I really like my Z820, I really want the new Z with the 1920 x 1080 resolution screen and Blu ray optical drive. Those would be the major upgrades for me. I'm still not excited about the SSD's though.

 

I'm certain that my company appreciates that I don't discuss my workplace on a public forum, but suffice it to say that we produce high tech equipment which includes SSDs.
Part of my job is forensics work on broken SSDs, as well as benchmark and stress testing them.

But plural of ass is often asinine.

A HD usually doesn't need that much -- if errors occur, they tend to be localized to on one area of one platter for purely physical reasons, and a relatively small spare blocks zone can handle several defect areas. In contrast, SSDs aren't subject to mechanical wear, but wear out due to the number of writes. With wear leveling, it means that once blocks start to wear out, more of them will quickly follow. So you need a much larger area.
In addition, many SSDs are shipped with a certain number of bad blocks from the factory. Below a certain number of blocks, this is acceptable. Those aren't "wear" type bad blocks, but blocks that simply never worked. So those are mapped out too.

No, you won't get 20% extra. Common practice is to sell based on the total space, and then in small print state how much "usable" space there is before formatting. OCZ is a honorable exception here -- they have started marketing their 60 GB usable drives as 60 GB, and not 64 GB. (And no, that's not due to the 1024 vs 1000 debacle that plagues the HDD manufacturers, it's mostly due to the size of the scratch pad -- the space used for housekeeping purposes, including wear leveling temporary space and bad block mapping)

What kind of link would satisfy you?
A.L. Shimpi has written quite a few articles on this, with plenty of references.
Here's another one, but from a company with a vested interest of painting things more rosy red than they are.

 

"But plural of ass is often asinine."

I thought it was a s s e s. I thought asinine was a state of being. : )

 

In this thread around page 230-231, i was told that we in the US can buy from a japaneese reseller and get a CTO with a High res screen as well as teh 7200 rpm HD.

 

Yea but I will put an ssd in it anyways so rather just get the U.S. one with warranty and raid 0 SSD! I don't want the 1080p screen because text will be too small and I don't much care for the dpi scaling in Windows it seems to be rather buggy with many programs when I have used it in the past. I can afford it, is not really a problem, I am just cheap is all, trying to save money and I really hate to spend it LOL

 

Are these above coupons for CTOs or non-CTOs?

 

Is Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo have the same speed as USB 2.0? I checked wikipedia, and it says a theoretical rate of 480 Mbits/s.

 

If you buy it, let us know how it works out.
Not all IPS displays are good, unfortunately. I have a Dell 2208WPS (TN) and a 2209WA (IPS) side by side, and in that particular case, the 2208WPS is by far the better display. Sure, the IPS display has better viewing angles and much higher contrast, but that doesn't weigh up for it being incapable of displaying pure red shades. It's also impossible to calibrate it for a warm paper white in D65, which makes it pretty much useless for photo work. So if the Mitsubishi/NEC is a good one, please let me know!

 

No. You'll never get that speed.

And unless you have a HG reader with the extra pins, you'll only get old MS Pro HS speeds anyhow. The old Z doesn't have a HG reader, and as far as I know, the new one doesn't either. ICBW.

 

Quick questions..

1) I know generally RAM is upgradeable, wanted to know if this is the same case in the new Z. If I get a 4GB model and later decide I need more memory, will I succesfully be able to add an extra 2GB RAM?

2) Not a clue in the world if processor is normally upgradeable. If I get the i5 processor, is it even possible for me to later on upgrade to i7?

3) If I plan replacing/tampering with the SSDs in the Z, all that fun void warranty , is there any SSD option best for this? Should I get the 128GB (128GBx1), (128GBx1 + 64GBx1), 256GB (256GBx1), 384GB (256GBx1 + 128GBx1), or 512GB (256GBx2)? Or does it not matter?

 

1)It only has 2 ram slots so you need to replace a 2gb ram by 4gb.

2)I don't think you can change it as the processor is welded in the motherboard. I mean even you can change it, it is hard to purchase a mobile processor.

3)256GB and 512GB options are the fastest. Because they are quad SSDs in RAID 0 in all other countries but I am not sure if it is the case in US.

 

Ok so help me out; i5 540 or i7 720?

 

Quick question, is the screen of the new Z glossy or matte?

 

It's a hybrid of both + scratch resistant.

 

It's matte but is still a bit reflective, not nearly as bad as a glossy though.

 

Interesting. I purchased an HG Pro Duo for a Sony Digital Camera. It was also formatted. When I placed the stick into the Z550 slot, it didn't recognize it. I thought it may have been a bad batch. So I exchanged it, and it happened again. I was only able to transfer photos if the HG Pro Duo was in the camera and hooked via USB. So I'll encounter the same issues with the New Z.

 

From Z11 Manual:

Using "Memory Stick"

"Memory Stick" is a compact, portable, and versatile IC recording media especially designed for exchanging and sharing digital data with compatible products, such as digital cameras, mobile phones, and other devices. Because it is removable, it can be used for external data storage.

Before You Use "Memory Stick"

The "Memory Stick Duo" slot on your computer can accommodate the following sizes and types of media:

❑ "Memory Stick Duo"
❑ "Memory Stick PRO Duo"
❑ "Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo"

Your computer supports only Duo-size "Memory stick", and does not support standard-size "Memory Stick".

For the latest information about "Memory Stick", visit [memorystick.com] at http://www.memorystick.com/en/.

 

Am I the only one who likes premium carbon better than glossy carbon? IMO glossy carbon is too shiny, it gives off a cheap plastic sort of feel, while premium carbon has a nice subdued kind of luster, almost like brushed metal.

 

You're not the only one. Premium carb looks nice, glossy is too "cheap" imho.

Really looking forward to some hard figures. Benchmarks numbers and temp, specifically. Who will be the first one?

 

CNET Review:

Product summary

THE GOOD: Light and sturdy design; large SSD hard drive; switchable discrete graphics; excellent performance.

THE BAD: Expensive; switchable graphics options can be confusing.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Sony's top-of-the-line 13-inch Vaio VPCZ116GX/S has a speedy Core i5 CPU, discrete graphics, a huge 256GB SSD, and a sky-high price to match.

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vaio-vpcz116gx-s/4505-3121_7-33976156.html

 

PC Magazine's review is up as well:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2360047,00.asp

 

Going from "I have lots of broken SSDs lying around" to "the risk of disk failure is higher with SSDs than HDDs" is asinine. The plural of anecdote really *isn't* data.

So, all these broken SSDs lying around, are they from consumer returns? Then perhaps you have a point, unless your company has an unusually high rate of returns for SSDs. If that's the case, I'm *certain* your company appreciates that you don't discuss your workplace on a public forum. Well done!

Ah, so you mean SSDs don't last because of the 10,000 cycle limitation of MLC? Do you think this makes them a worse choice than HDDs for Raid-0/laptop applications?

It should be uncontroversial that because of their physical characteristics (other than wear), such as shock resistance, power use, etc, SSDs when used in Raid-0 in a laptop are a better choice than using HDDs in Raid-0 in a laptop.

Assuming that HDD failure rates, when used in Raid-0 in a laptop are such that it is imprudent to suggest using HDDs in Raid-0 in a laptop, do you think that SSDs when used in a laptop in this way will have a similarly high rate of failure such that using SSDs in Raid-0 in a laptop would also be imprudent?

As you must be aware, this is also standard practice for the HDD industry.

Well, there's certainly at least one company touting 20% - SandForce: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3702&p=5 .

I got the 20% figure from http://silvertonconsulting.com/blog...-laptop-write-rates-confirming-ssd-longevity/ - it was consistent with the sandforce claim.

I think the problem is that manufacturers don't always talk about how much overprovisioning they do.

Well, I'm was looking for a link which supports your assertion that "But the downside is that once it starts occurring, it's likely to occur a lot, all over the disk, until you're out of reserved space". However, if you were talking about a situation where users had reached the end of the 10,000 cycle, for whatever reason, I agree. It's just that given normal use that time is probably measurable in tens of years. I guess all I really want you to do is address the questions above.