Official Canadian vaio user thread

that's wild, and I called Sony to ask them ... they said no ... if our local Sony Store here in Kitchener had one I'd like to see the font size in real life

 

He's right...well at least with the one i saw at the sony style store in erin mills town centre in mississauga. I checked the resolution and it said 1600x 900... and no option at all for 1366 x 768...maybe this is just the display model?? The model number was vgn-z555 though...

But im glad i didnt get a high res screen cause that was waayyyyy too small for my liking. also the weight asstounded me...it was soooo **** light...i was amazed...but i forgot to check if the battery was plugged in... and finally i was quite disappointed with the keyboard. Cause of the pink letters along with the vertical enter..that will take a while to get used to. My own one is supposed to arrive tommorow so we will see then...

 

vertical enter button - really? it doesn't show that on the Sony.ca website ... must be a US keyboard shown in the photo... my z570 from the States has no pink letters and has a horizontal enter key..

can someone post a photo of their Z555's keyboard?

 

it because the canadian one is bilingual or something.... ill see if my 540 cto is the same or not tommorow hopefully..

 

GUESS WHAT!! YA!!!, I just phoned Sony Store and asked them to check the screen res for me, so he put me on hold and said in the settings it said 1600x900!!!!

 

bummer, I'd never want 1600 x 900, far too small for working on a long period of time.

maybe all the z555's in Canada are 1600 x 900 ... that explains the 256 graphics instead of the 128 - aha!

 

but you cant switch to 1366 x 768...

 

Hey guys
I got my Z555 from Scarborough Centre for $1999 + 13% Tax
**** I wanted the Z590 but they said it won't be sold in Canada. They told me that US and Canadian models are not the same.

I still haven't opened the box! I'm gonna do it now!

 

i'm shocked about the resolution on the 555's ... could a huge company like Sony made a mistake and advertised the wrong resolution ???

I would of been p*ssed if I had of ordered what they advertised and then received a notebook with 1600 x 900 res., that with the Canadian bilingual keyboard with the vertical enter key and pink letters ...

Had that happened, returning it and deciding on LG's would of been a very easy decision. Maybe that's what should of happened, lol ...

Anyway, makes me so MUCH happier I ordered from the US, got the 1366 x 768 res, a normal keyboard ... that vertical Enter key bugs the hell out of me, the little LG has the international keyboard and that's the ONLY thing I don't like about the LG ... (I'm going to see if I can get the keyboard changed on it).

At least if Canadians don't like the 555 they have the option to order the 540 or 570 from the US. It sucks that we don't get many options in our Notebooks up here, it's the same with Dell and Lenovo, we in Canada can't order their new notebooks with LED screens ... that's what sent us in the direction of LG and Sony in the first place ... must be LED and HDMI too

Can someone post a photo of the keyboard and a screen shot of the 1600 x 900 display?

 

Buddy, if you can, take some nice screen shots and give us a good review!!

 

Please explain what's bad about 1600x900? Can I not use 120 dpi to make the fonts larger? Is there a penalty in terms of sharpness?

 

Did you get any free stuff thrown in, le.g, a wireless mouse or a sleeve? BTW, Z590 is in the custom website in sonystyle.ca, altho they are not in the stores.

Please post your thoughts after you opened and use it. My questions to you are:

1. Is it 1600x900?
2. Is it usable on your lap (not hot like the TZ) after you run it at high load for a while?
3. How loud is the fan?

Thanks.

 

you can read about it here ... FenderP ended up returning his ...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=294632

 

I dunno if u read my previous post, but read it regarding the screen res.

 

I'll be seeing this laptop on Friday and one of the first things I'm going to do is check out the resolution of the display. I was kind of hoping for 1366x768 personally, as I've heard it would have been better for gaming with the 256MB of graphics memory. Knowing this, the extra screen real estate wouldn't bother me at all, as I have excellent eyesight.

I can't wait to see some pics and read some reviews.

 

Guys just to note

The Scarborough Sony Style didn't have the laptop in display yet, but they have it on their storage room. So you'll have to ask the staff there to get the Z555.

In the outer box of Z555 it is written that the laptop resolution is 1366x768. But in the inner case it is written 1400x900. I checked it and it is really 1400x900 in the control panel. I'm really glade!


Super great laptop! But it would really be better if Sony provided us with restore disk and a bag like what other companies do!
And I don't really like a keyboard with some french words on it. Like for example on the Enter key, you'll see "Enter" and "Entree".

Overall, it is a perfect laptop!

 

1400x900...are you sure?? isnt it 1600x900???.... but anyways my Z540 CTO should arrive today 'before 12pm'

 

Thats messed up, cuz like I said before, Sony guy said it IS 1600x900 res, he confirmed that for me. And the keys might be an issue for me. Is there a way I can request a normal keyboard??

 

Can you take some pictures?? Especially of the keyboard. Thanks.

 

yep, it's amazing, new Canadian Z owners are in for some surprises today, a tiny font and a wierd keyboard aka 1600 x 900 resolution when they advertise 1366 x 768 and a bilingual keyboard with a verticle enter key when they show a 'normal' keyboard w/horizontal enter at Sony.ca ...

*glad* i ordered the 570 from the US or I'd of ended up waiting and waiting only to end up really disappointed ... resolution and keyboard are important.

will be interesting to read the comments and see any photo's of this keyboard

 

yea man...im really hoping my Z540 CTO (due to arrive within 3 hours) has the US keyboard. I really dont want a vert enter. I can picture it already... ill be missing the enter key all the time...

 

I'm in the process of finding out what the deal is with the resolution. The Manager at Leaside is finding out form Sony for me, once he give me an answer I'll let you know.

 

If someone could PLEASE take a close picture of the Keyboard as soon as possbible. Thanks!

 

I don't have the camera now unfortunately
The keyboard is english except some keys like enter and caps that have also french on it

The resolution is 1440x900 not 1600xsomething

 

What? Now I'm confused! There's no Z series that has 1440 x 900 as far as I know. It's either 1366 x 768 or 1600 x 900.

 

Wow, so much confusion... At this point, I think I can only trust my own eyes, lol.

 

this is rediculous, lol. i phoned our local Sony store ... after arguing with the Manager who insisted the screen resolution was 1366 x 768 I talked him into physically going and checking on their display model .... he did check and it IS 1600 x 900 ...

he was pretty surprised and phoned Sony Head Office to find out what's up.... he just called me back and he said 1366 x 768 panels are in short supply within Sony, they have no shortage of 1600 x 900's .... at the last minute they decided to user the higher res panels rather than delay the release date into October ... he also made a point of saying it's a FAR better deal for the Consumer ... higher res panels cost more ...

then, I asked him what's the prefered resolution in a screen this size he told me "for sure 1366 x 768 is preferred 8 out of 10 times", he equated the resolution on the Z555 with that of their smaller screen models and the biggest complaints he gets from them is the text is too small ... he wasn't too impressed, he won't buy the machine himself because of the high res screen and said he isn't looking forward to hearing all the *****ing about it from Customers either.

if that's true then it's incredible too, again Sony, a huge company with the ability to plan ahead and find out and give consumers what they want in these later years seem to use more 'smoke and mirrors' add a little arrogance, bloat the price for no reason and make the style 'different' because it's Sony not because it's necessarily or practical ....

Sure in one way I'm glad I got the 570 from the US and all this is none of my problem, at the same time I have a few associates waiting to see how I like my Sony and then they'll go ahead one and get it from a Sony store here in Canada ... but in telling them about the screen res confusion and the keyboard they're looking at me like I"m from outer space ... LOL ... I tell them "HEY, it's Sony NOT me that's pulling out all the surprises ... ! ? ! ?

 

How bad can the pink really be? Ill take a nice clear pic of it tonight and post it via Photobucket.

 

color won't make a difference ... vertical Enter Key and tiny font will.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. I'm still waiting on hearing from the manager at Leaside.

 

Can you also do a mini review of what you think of it once you get it please?

 

Are you not getting one? Yea ill definitley do a review, infact an indepth review.

 

Guys it is 1600x900 for Z555
I was mistaken in my previous post. Sorry! I read the resulotion of the other laptop by mistake

 

I am getting one but I don't know when yet because they're ordering one for me through CTO.

 

@yuzi,

Which resolution are you gonna go for?

 

I'm gonna go with the 1600 x 900. When I saw it it didn't seem that small for me, I loved it. I was unsure because of what people were saying on here but once I saw it I knew I had to have the 1600 x900.

 

The 1600x900 on the Z555 makes it really tempting for me. That means for $2,000 I can have more or less the spec that I want (except that I would have preferred a 7200rpm drive, but that's not a big deal, I'd probably look to slap an SSD in there once they get cheaper anyway).

 

I always thought that higher res is better, and more expensive (in terms of LCD display, and also the graphics engine). I read the threads about objections (small fonts, and sometimes cannot see the info, unless back down to 96 dpi), and I think I can live with that. Besides, I would like to do some photo post-processing on it, altho I use my desk top for it. I like to watch movies with a good res screen also. Therefore, I'll go for the 555 tomorrow if I have time to visit the store.

 

seeing a good close up photo of the home screen of the 1600 x 900 would probably answer a lot of peoples questions - hopefully someone will post photo's this eve

 

Ok, I just spent some time with it in the store. As everyone else said, I can confirm it's 1600x900. The screen is GORGEOUS. I mean, absolutely stunning. Yeah, the text is a bit smaller than we're all probably used to, but I didn't find it to be an issue at all for me. Personally, (& again, based on my own opinion & my own eyesight) this is for sure the resolution I would want. I don't see it as being at all uncomfortable.

I don't think it's as small as the TZ is, in terms of DPI -- I remember the TZ seeming borderline uncomfortable, but the Z at 1600x900 seems great.

 

True, for some the 1600 x 900 resolution is a great bonus!

Just be sure you are comfortable with the font sizes in all your software programs within the return/exchange period ... you'll only know for sure if you try it for a few days ... that's how I found out 1600 x 900 wasn't for me ... and that was on my Dell D820 15", lol, and I hated 1600 x 900 but I did take too long to realize it and the return/exhange period ran out ... for a while after that I had to live with using it at 120% DPI and in XP that makes for some odd looking fonts, true - Vista does a better job resizing - but it will still look a liitle off.

I can imagine photo's / video look incredible on a 1600 x 900 screen, the Sony Z screen is the best I've ever seen, it's bright, yet there's no glare, the colors are exact, impressive for sure.

Hoping someone will post photo's of their 1600x900 display and the keyboard layout too.

 

I got the laptop, OMG is it ever so beautifullll. I can't even see the **** pnk no more. I will take good clear pics tonight! Wow. I just hope when turning it on its good, the main thing. Just wow man. Small and light and perfect so far. Cheers!!

 

congrat's Toronto Guy ... you waited and hoped and speculated a long time like I did, glad to hear you finally got it ... hurry up with those photos!

 

Here are the pics!!!!!

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0077.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0079.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0080.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0081.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0083.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0085.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0086.jpg

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0087.jpg

 

Looks great, the pink isn't so noticable !

So TorontoGuy ... how happy are you now ?

Can you take an up close shot of it turned on showing the home screen to get an idea of the text size .... do you use gmail? - how does the text size look when composing an email for example when running 1600 x 900?

I wonder if it runs warmer or if the fan runs more with the 256 card in it instead of the 128? Would it?

What's your first impression? Scale of 1-10? Is it what you expected, less/more?

 

Will do man. By the way, im going to be puttin my own Vista Ultimate, is there a way I can put it with just the drivers????

 

Heres the screen shot, sry it didnt come out to well

http://i452.photobucket.com/albums/qq245/torontoguyyy/DSCN0091.jpg
'

One concern I had though, My model says, Manufactured in 2008/08. Arent the defective video cards within that date period??

 

from the Ultimate CD i think there's only on way to do the (full) upgrade from business to ultimate

 

thanks for the screen photo ... it doesn't look that small to me either, and I'm the one who's been *****ing about the resolution, lol, that photo has given me the motivation to at least go into the Sony Store in the morning and see it in person, I'm all for more real estate, just not at the sacrifice of eye strain ...

 

'Honestly bro, the 1600 is fantastic, BUT I like 1280x768, thats always been my favourite resolution. Its perfect for me, so in other words, Ill never use the 1600x res, but its still really nice. Good to have that option avaible.