New Z model with Intel Core i5 CPU

As Xand stated, it's your connection speed to the router. The only way to determine how fast your connection is to the Internet is to do a throughput test, using sprint I can't see the value being much above 1-2Mbps.

Stefan

 

Not at all, as 54Mbps is absolutely impossible today over a single WWAN connection.

Stefan

 

In the mall, posting from an Apple Store Macbook Air; The Sonystyle store rep says the Z's should be in possibly end of February or early March. That would be something with pre-orders shipping dates beginning March 9th? He did say it is not a definite window though. Just thought it was worth mentioning.
Also noticed the top end Macbook Air is, with an external drive, costing $1899, the same as a low end new version Z, which really overpowers it's 2.13 Ghz and GPU. I am still planning to wait and see what Apple has coming up though for the new MBA version. It better happen soon though.

 

Hi all!

Im new user from Finland, this is my first post in here. I have pre-ordered and paid the finnish model from local Sony Center, where i have bought all my recent Vaio's as well.

Now i'm using Sony Vaio VGN-Z51WG/B and the new model for Z-series is called VPC-Z11Z9E/B. It's also the only model you can get in Finland and comes with i7 processor, full hd display, 4 x 64 gb SSD, dvd-driver etc. Price is for 2700 € in Finland.

I'm happy to find this very active forum and good level of conversation for this product, since there is like none of these in Finland.

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/727942346.png



I ran the test from here as well as Broadband DSLReports .com and the results are somewhat different. And if you go by the speedtest.net result of 0.06 upload and 0.14 download, and the download speed of 745 Kb/s and upload speed of 384 Kb/s, then this determines what the Sprint EVDO connection is and therefore the computers would be running very slow. That is NOT the case here. As I stated previously, " The speed increases have something to do with the boosting of the EVDO signal and what Cradlepoint says has to do with the WiPipe technology that "helps prioritize time-critical packets to provide the best performance in latency-sensitive applications, while insuring that background tasks are finished without interruption." In simpler terms, it uses special logic to help make certain types of internet connections go as quickly as possible, while ensuring that all the rest of the connections still complete their objective.


So while I understand what you guys are saying and see what these tests are reporting, those scores DO NOT reflect actual real world use when these EVDO modems are connected to the Cradlepoint. Perhaps you guys can explain the dramatic speed increases. Also, I have had Sprint modems since 2000, when it was only 1xRTT speeds and those scores above reflect the 1xRTT speed and not EVDO. And if that score was the actual speed, then you could not call it mobile broadband. I'm not trying to pull anyone's leg or make this up, but obviously we seem to completely disagree here. The guys I work with have seen this in action and compared it to their own USB modem EVDO speeds and have noticed the dramatic speed increase and are buying these Cradlepoints now after getting to see it firsthand. Plenty of skeptics here I guess.

 

Sony needs to stop cramming stuff into Z so people don't have anything to talk about...

 

The EVDO connection is the same when I'm at a location in a building. It's when I move the computer farther away from the router that the speed slows down, such as 36Mbps when on the opposite end of the building and the full 54Mbps when next to the router. The speed increase has to do with the router speeding up the EVDO signal and not because the tower is any closer when I move around. The EVDO speed remains constant. It's that the 802.11g in this case captures the EVDO signal and does " the work " in speeding it up.

 

Traffic prioritization is completely different to speed. It may seem to go faster for some types of traffic if say TCP is prioritized over other protocols... but regardless of any prioritization it would be impossible to exceed the EVDO max of 2.4Mbps on Rev A (Sprint & Verizon).

While your perception might be a speedy connection you'd never be able to pull down a file faster than the maximum speed.

Stefan

 

Ahh....perception. Well, I guess there's no need to argue anymore. It is what it is. I know what the Cradlepoint does and until somebody else here uses one to see what I'm talking about, then I'm wrong. Nice debate though. Look forward to getting my hands on the new Z.

 

Hi,

I also just today pre-ordered that same model, 2500 € from Multitronic ( www.multitronic.fi). I'm slightly disappointed for the lack of blu-ray drive (even as an option), but then again, I guess it's expensive enough as it is. But I don't think there is any other laptop currently on the market with similar specs (especially the GT330M and 96 % AdobeRGB are important for me).

 

No, the colour temperature isn't a property of the graphics card, it's a property of the actual display. So the graphics card drivers can't do this job.
For desktop monitors, you normally set it through the monitor's buttons, but you can also set it through EDI with a desktop app, if the manufacturer has provided an app for doing so.

For those who don't know about the calibration problem:

To calibrate a display properly, you should first set the colour temperature ("white balance") to a fixed point, usually D65 (Daylight 6500 Kelvin).
The Zs display defaults to something around 10,000 Kelvin, i.e. it's much cooler than this. If you hold up a piece of bright white paper to the screen in "normal" daylight, the "white" on the screen will have a very blueish/purplish tint compared to the paper. Only if your background light is old blueish fluorescent tubes, will the white appear untinted compared to "real" white.

The net result of calibrating at the wrong colour temperature is that the resulting profile will be severely off for some colours, because the calibrating tool will base its colour corrections on a different white balance. The reason is that the calibration software doesn't really test all colours (a monumental task with millions of colours), but tests certain values, and produce a curve describing how it should transition, based on the assumptions that white appears neutral and black is as dark as it gets.

Many laptop manufacturers provide a default .icc colour profile with their displays, which greatly assists in getting the same colours on print-outs and web as what you see on the screen. It may not be perfect, due to individual displays differing, but it's far better than no .icc profile at all. Sony isn't one of those manufacturers.

 

1.4kg = 3.08lb
1.6kg = 3.52lb

My last gen Z90 (and SZ) also had/have the extended battery. I do agree Sony having the lift, while slightly awkward looking, is practical in use. The SZ was just over 4lbs (4.1ish), I believe the Z just under. My weight max for carrying a notebook is about 4, which I determined after years of breaking my back and being constantly on the road with bricks.

In a notebook .5 or even 1lb can make a big difference to some. It does to me. It does to me, and a big reason I went got the CF-S9 which comes in at under 3lbs with its extended battery and the i5/540. I've found I'm more more comfortable having a notebook with a slightly smaller footprint and weight. Any time I've gone bigger (Z or SZ), it's never totally worked with me. Switching to the Toshiba R600 from the Z felt natural to me, and I've been happier with it than the Z even though the Z was technically more powerful. The S9 has few compromises compared to the new Z (I won't lie and say there are NO features of the Z I wish the S9 has), but it's the best of both worlds for me.

 

youtoube video shows difference between 1600X900 and 1900X1080 screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPKZ2S_Jm-g

 

Hmmm i found the model from the websites. but the specs say that display is 1600 x 900 version instead of a full hd, which is quite strange if you think that price is 2500 €. I guess it's just a mistake.

If you ask me, i could easily leave out even the dvd-drive, since i havent used one in 2 years. Since i got ps3 and not many bluray movies, i wont be missing anything without bluray-drive, not mention that it costs like hell.

You got any idea where i could colour calibrate my display in Finland? Also lower cpu voltage instrests me.

 

Go to this webpage, and scroll down to the first grey test image.

If it shows as a uniform grey with "lagom" barely perceptible, you have a good display.

If it shows the text "lagom" in a dark grey or light grey, your contrast or gamma correction setting is probably off.

If it shows the text "lagom" with the same non-grey colour tint all over the screen, your display needs calibrating.

If it shows the text "lagom" in a different colour near the top and bottom of the screen, and it changes colour if you move your head a bit up or down, the vertical display angle is very narrow.

 

Thank you. This is a great evaluation tool. As for my Z's screen, I'm in the dark grey or light grey classification, and am needing to adjust the contrast or gamma corection setting. The top two lines of lagom are a lighter shade with all the others uniform in shade. I'm tweaking with the NVIDIA colors but without any real calibration tool, I probably won't get true color accuracy. I'll tweak with it though.

I ended up settling on the following :

Brightness at 50%
Contrast at 47%
Gamma at 1.00.

I used the lagom test and when shading it out, it made photos look red and somewhat dark. I adjusted the settings to make the photos look in my eyes as close to what I remembered as if when I was there. Good thing I'm not a professional photographer. But, I'm happy the screen does not have the dreaded narrow viewing angle.

 

That is confusing... here're my thoughts:

1. Colour temperature of monitor is temperature of actual image displayed after receiving 255/255/255 "coordinates" from videocard. Some monitors have ability to adjust white point by not displaying absolutely "white" image (100% voltage to all subpixels) when receiving 255/255/255 coordinates. If monitor doesn't support white point color temperature adjustment the only solution is to reflect that in colour profile that is loaded in videocard's LUT. Negative effect of that is slightly reduced colour "resolution" due to 255(R)/240(G)/240(B) /for example/ being "whitest" coordinates sent by videocard.

2. Why can't colour temperature be corrected when calibrating using for example Adobe Gamma? I see no problem in writing down 10000k actual value and 6500k desired value and getting corrected color profile after that.

3. Why can't color temperature correction value be set up in nVidia control panel? It will properly interprete and convert color coordinates on driver level which will provide the same result.
(colour coordinates will be corrected by means of driver before hardware interprete LUT table values for fine-tuning)

4. Those manufacturers only provide correct colour profiles for their notebooks, right? They still don't allow you to change colour temperature in monitor settings. My point is that colour temperature is corrected by means of colour profile in any notebook. So what's wrong with Z?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Full HD is going to be amazing! After watchng the video, I almost feel bad for 1600x900!

 

I was wondering same thing, color temperature is not the same as white balance as arth is referring to. Color temperature can be fixed by color calibration as it just removes an amount of blue or red to adjust to 6500 kelvin. Seems like a very simple thing and 10000 kelvin is extremely blue I highly doubt the Z will come with such a color temperature as it would seem almost defective by most peoples standards. I wouldn't expect something like that from a laptop of this pricing but I can't say for sure. I would expect alot more complaints though if this were true as opposed all the "Z display is amazing" comments that we see.

 

Did we miss this review?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2360044,00.asp
I just found some mistakes:
Maximum storage at 256+128=384 instead of the 512GB offered.
Also, they say due to space constraints Sony couldn't fit a mobile broadband modem... or maybe their model didn't have one but you sure can add it as an option.
And what's with western reviews not reviewing the top of the line?

 

Yup, posted by quasi888 ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5913584&postcount=2502)

But anyway, I agree with your point in general, though don't you think it's probably the model they get sent by Sony? Also - they probably want to talk about "value", and flagship models are rarely good value compared to midrange in the same model.

 

Yeah, I guess you are right...
It is usually true that the 2nd best model gets the limelight
I just wanted to see a review of the full HD display and the 620M cpu

 

No, no, and nyah.

First of all, D65 isn't the same as 6500 Kelvin. It's 6500 Kelvin relative to ambient daylight. If you set your screen at 6500 K and your ambient light is warmer or cooler than daylight, you won't have D65. If your ambient light is warmer, you have to reduce the colour temperature of the monitor below 6500K to get the equivalent of D65.

Second, the K value of a monitor refers to the temperature a perfect emitter would have to match the brightest colour the monitor can display. As this colour is what is displayed when the computer tells it do display white, it also directly correlates to the white balance, and can be used synonymously.

If you reduce the amount of blue a monitor emits, yes, you'll shift the white balance and but also greatly reduce the number of colours the display can display.
If you set the colour temperature on the display itself, there is still a difference between 63,63,62 (6-bit display, remember) and 63,63,63. However, if you cap the blue, there isn't -- both would be displayed as 63,63,62 (or lower, if your cap was lower). So yes, you can do that, but it's not equivalent; you'll lose nuances.

10000 K isn't "extremely blue". It depends on your ambient light. If you sit in incandescent light, it will be perceived as shifted towards blue, but if you sit in cool fluorescent light, it may not.
The "standard" colour temperature for monitors used to be 9300 K, which pretty much matched ambient office lighting back in the 80s and 90s. These days, we both have warmer ambient office lighting and LCD displays, and you'd think that the white balance would be shifted towards warmer colours as a result.

Not so, unfortunately. Colour temperature is much like the "loudness" button on a cheap stereo system. People perceive a bluish white as brighter than a true white (which is why laundry detergents with "bright" or "white" in the name usually contain blue dye), and associate a cool monitor with higher contrast. Much like making sounds "louder" sells more stereo systems, making the display cooler sells more displays. So the "standard" is still pretty much around 9300K, with some going slightly lower, and some going higher. Sony's displays are definitely at the high end.

Again, turn on your Z in overcast daylight or use it in "full spectrum daylight" artificial light. Then hold a bright white paper (or better yet, a Gretag MacBeth 100% white card, available from most photo stores) next to the screen. Compare the two. Chances are that your eyes and brain can't agree that both are white, make a compromise, and you end up seeing the screen as slightly blue, and the paper as slightly yellow.
Then try to adjust the display so the two have the same perceived colour. That's indeed doable.

However, once you do that, the rest of the grey tones going towards black will no longer be grey, but shift away from blue. If you do that adjustment, and then compare a 25% grey on screen with a 25% grey colour chart card, it will almost certainly appear greenish.

You really need a full colour profile to get accurate absolute colours throughout the contrast range.
A device like EyeOne or Spyder can help, but they presume that you have the ability to set the "white point" to D65 (or another given value) before you start calibrating. Since you can't, the end result isn't that terrific. You can get a pretty good perceptual profile at the cost of gamut coverage, but not one that works for paper printouts.

For Photoshop work where I need to know that the colours actually match the printout, the Z's screen isn't good, even after calibration. Relatively cheap desktop LCDs do much better, but when colour correctness is king, a (somewhat expensive) NEC/Mitsubishi CRT I have does the best job. It may not be able to display as many extreme colours as the Z display, and is horribly blurry compared to LCDs, but the colours it can display are far better matched to what they're supposed to look like in daylight.

What the (old) Z's screen excels at is being vivid.
But yeah, it is very blue. Because that's perceived as even more vivid, and thus sells to the boombox crowd.

 

Well much like you do HD phorensics for a living I do lighting for a living and can assure you a 6500 kelvin on a monitor is not as relative as you think to your ambient surroundings. This would only be true if the image on the monitor was reflective which it is not, it is a light source so the color will not be affected by ambient light. This would only be true if your monitor was for instance a white sheet of paper with no source it will absorb the colors of ambient light and change drastically.

Theoretically you could change the color temperature of a light source with another light source but the method used to do so would have to be significantly more powerful than the source you are trying to change. Ambient light would never do so. Perhaps direct sunlight but that would be 5500-6500 kelvin anyway and would render the monitor unuseable as well due to it to powerful to actually see the monitor properly.

And I can assure you 10,000 kelvin is incredibly blue so much so that people would be complaining about it, certainly not proclaiming the Z's display to be amazing etc... I have not seen an older Z's display so cannot really comment but I can assure you if my new Z comes with a 10.000 degrees kelvin display it will most assuredly be going back straight away LOL

Just to give you an idea the difference between tungsten and daylight is approximatley 3000 degrees a normal daylight source is between 5500-6500 degrees kelvin. A normal tungsten source (lightbulb) is approximately 3200 degrees kelvin. That is 3000 degrees kelvin is enough to change blue to orange more conventionally referred to as red light. So a 3000 degree rise in color temperature on an already 6500 degrees kelvin display would render the whole thing with a shade of blue causing most to feel it was defective.

 

Just for those who are planning on purchasing from Japan...
The WWAN option from the Ginza shop machine (as displayed in Device Manager) is:

Qualcomm Gobi 2000 HS-USB Mobile Broadband Device 9225

 

Does anyone know the actual dimensions of the new Z's LCD screen? Kinda curious, but I wonder if it is possible to get a 1080 version and stick that in the current (old) Z...

From what I found out, the current Z's LCD is about US$350, so my best estimate would be that the 1080 of the better Z's LCD will be approx US$500.

 

Do you guys think that this configuration is expensive?

Product: US-VPCZ1190X-LBOM
Component: No additional Video Editing Software
Component: No Engraving
Component: Microsoft® Works
Component: Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
Component: 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1066
Component: No additional Photo Editing Software
Component: No Mobile Broadband Built-In
Component: No Fresh Start
Component: Intel® Core™ i5-540M processor (2.53GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
Component: CD/DVD Burner
Component: Standard Capacity Battery
Component: Premium Carbon Fiber
Component: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Component: 192GB (128GBx1 + 64GBx1) Solid State Drive with RAID 0 Technology
Per Unit Price: $1,800
Quantity: 1
Total Price: $1,800

this of course is before tax. after tax it comes up to $1908. It's also the regular led screen. I received a huge discount but I don't know if I should pull the trigger. Without the discount it would have been $2149 before tax/or $2278 after tax.

I saw the prices in japan configured with the same specs as above (except is only a 120SSD instead of 190SSD)and its actually more expensive, about $400. I also wanted the HD screen but it almost comes to $2400 in japan plus I have to pay duty

What do you guys think any ideas, will the screen make a whole difference? am I getting a good deal?

Thank you, please let me know because I really dont know what to do

 

I do not think is a good idea buying from an exporter because they add about 10-30% compared to the prices in japan. by the way here is the link for the vaio z in japan if anyone is interested:

http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Special/Computer/Vaio/Z/index.html?view=biz

for those who do not know japanese just click on the orange tab next to the yen price (top right of main z picture) from there you can either select the basic or the business one. just click on the basic starting @ 153000 yen and configure it, its pretty simple.

Also to all those guys saying that the vaio z is cheaper in japan that is not true, the base model with HDD and no dvd drive is but its still only $200 cheaper than the US model coming at $1700 (dont forget that japan has crazy "tax" which may add $200 dollars

 

I think the US model at 1899 is almost a steal. If you can get 7-10% off as a student, then I would even say it is good value. Unfortunately, that model will be sold out for at least 3months, at which point they will release a more attractive package at that price point, which will also be sold out for at least 3months, therefore continuing the cycle.

 

how do u get the discount???

 

I just called the Sony style Spanish line and asked the lady if they had any discounts and she told me that since it was a preorder CTO they were not supposed to have any discounts but she would give 10%off anyways, then she gave me a 7% for an extended warranty, so 17% off that's like $400 bucks off.

You should call them up and ask for the 10% off and once configured then ask them for an extra % off if you get the extended warranty. Its almost 2k so I don't think they would say no.

I just told the lady I was gonna think about it and she told me that the thing was going to be saved in my cart and that she was going to call me back tomorrow, Should I buy it? I think is kinda expensive but I need a computer for school and the discount is ok.

 

What's the phone number?

 

Also I think that its not an actual percent off the total price since they can't apply the discounts to the preorder, but its rather a credit put into the card you paid with. So if you pay with your visa or whatever they will refund you the percentage they told you about to the card but you have to pay the total amount at first, then they credit you. I do not know how this would work with a Sony card since I don't have one

 

1-877-865-7669 option 2, or the Spanish option.

 

might be worth calling!! 15 minutes could save you a couple hundred bucks...just like geico gecko

 

if they are able to do in the Spanish line, then they should be able to do it in the English line as well; unless you get transfer to India, then you'll be out of luck since they always pretend that they don't know about any discounts.

 

Good night everyone. Hope you can get a good discount as well.

 

Well, they're not ordering it from Sony for you in Japan for free. If they just charged you what Sony did, what do they get out of it? Feeling good? It's usually less than 10% of the final cost. In the USA I've never paid duty on laptops sent from Japan.

Again, the bonus of Japan is that it has the most configurable options anywhere. I've always been within a few hundred of what a similar config would cost here. It's gone both ways - sometimes a touch more expensive, sometimes less. But if you're getting exactly what you want, does it matter?

 

concerning duty, I meant tax; sorry about that. Current tax is 5% of the purchase price. I really would have liked the HD screen but I don't want to pay $500.00 for it if you consider the discount I could have with Sony US just for a regular system. Anyways, concerning the price, I do care about it because I am not willing to spend that much money on a machine that will depreciate in value by as much as half in 1-2 years. This is why I hate technology.

 

Regarding the exporters its more than 10% they want to charge as much as $3100 in conics for a system that you can get in japan for $2500. Not only them but pretty much everybody else.

 

I placed my order just now.

Sony started sending links to the Z ordering page today at 10:00. The emails went to people who registered in order of the number of STAR points they had, with people having 10,000+ being able to purchase it before noon. I had 6500 or so, so I received a mail at 12:40 and placed my order soon after. General sales begin tomorrow morning at 10:00.

Sonystyle Japan's order processing servers were absolutely hammered (because of the Z orders?), and it took at least 8 tries to get my order through. Every time, I had to start at the beginning because they had a separate register for the STAR Point people (i.e. clicking on "Cart" did not display what I added through the link Sony sent me). It looks like demand for the Z may really shaping up. Let's hope Sony can match with supply...

I ordered the following specs (not changed from my plans a couple weeks ago):

• i7-620M CPU (I hope those Notebookcheck numbers are anamolous!)
• 8GB Memory (Not a bad price for the upgrade; 4GB would have been fine)
• 1080p Screen (The biggest reason I'm upgrading to the new Z)
• 320GB HDD (I hope the new Z won't be too big a pain to take apart)
• Premium Carbon Lid (The glossy looks great, but I just couldn't convince myself to order it)
• Black Palmrest (I preferred it when I saw it in person)
• Web Camera / TPM / Fingerprint Reader / Noise-Canceling Headphones / i.LINK+2xUSB
• Backlit Japanese Keyboard
• Intel 6300 3-Stream WiFi
• NO: FeliCa Port, Optical Drive
• NO: WWAN or WiMAX (iPhone tethering works just fine for me for the little I need to use it)

The total price was ¥193,685 (before discounts, ¥209,100). IMHO that's a good price/performance ratio. I had two discounts applied: one was a 5% coupon on all VAIO computers, and another was ¥5000 off for Z upgraders only (I'm upgrading from the previous generation Z). The ¥5000 off was a pretty interesting coupon. I will pay via COD (+¥800).

The delivery of the order was advertised to be at the begining of March (first third of March, as Japanese divide the months into thirds). I could actually set the delivery date and time already, and I set it to the earliest possible time: Sunday, March 7th between 8:00-12:00. Unless there is an issue with production, I'll have the new Z in 10 days.

 

Congratulations on your purchase. I hope to see a review and pics I will b picking up mine in HK 3 days after you get urs.

 

This is the part I am jealous about We r all waiting for your review

 

Remember to post here when you place an order.
Avoid multiple posts to keep it tidy, just update your post once you get new info. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=459423

 

so whats the best option for people in US ? I mean what site to order it from?

 

Message for all future buyer of new Z in Japan, there is a 4000 yens rebate coupon that you can receive if you create an account at Sony Style.
If you don't have it you can ask it in any Vaio store tomorrow (in Yodobashi and Biccamera as well). It's also possible to pay cash in Vaio counter to order (if you want to avoid to pay by credit card).

 

I'm with you... actually I should be hearing from Sony any day now.

 

Thanks for that Arith.

Also, don't forget y'all, that the thing comes with a dad-gum external veegeeaye connector. To me that means I don't have to make the tiny little display be good enough to become the home theater epi-center...
It just has to be a good display for when you are not at your desk.

 

And how many people here live in Japan? A smaller number than elsewhere. An importer is their only option. On most of my systems the difference (I've done the configurators on Sony and Panasonic's sites in the past) when you add the importer "tax" as you would probably call it after conversion rates is usually between $200 and $400, with the average around $300. It's going to vary of course - sometimes more, sometimes less. Again, also take into account they convert the OS for the system into an English/French/whatever image that is usable. A lot of people can't do that on their own.

I'm not defending their practices, but look at the reality of the situation. They provide a service, and it's up to an individual to decide whether it is worth it or not. If you live in Japan, clearly you don't have to worry about any middle men and can take advantage of lower prices, coupons, etc.