Opinion on Sony Vaio Z series

I'm looking to buy Z series, but I don't know weather it's good to but or not.
Can you guy give the pro and con of it.
Some Z series have 128mb VGA and some have 256mb VGA, is it different price and model?
It's fit my configurations that I nedded, Are there any Z series sony vaio available on retail stores in US right now?
I need your help.
Thank in Advance.

 

IMO Sony Z is a bit overpriced right now. (But its Sony so thats expected) It is definately a VERY powerful slim and lightweight laptop on the market with new Centrino 2 right now.'

There arent any avail in retail stores cause Sony expects to ship first batch around August 15. Its avail. for pre-order only on sonystyle.com

 

don't expect price drops for it either anytime soon. Sony would be bombarded with "I just bought the Z and you dropped the price 100$ 1 week later" is not going to happen.

 

Overpriced, thick and bad battery life... yet still I want one

On a more serious note: it is not sure how battery life is, I'm expecting it to be good.

 

both Z and SR are disappointingly thick. Battery life SEEMS nice..but I doubt it will be anything more than okay.. 3-5 hours

 

3 hours with IGP would be disappointing, 5 hours would be great imo.

There's a good side to the thickness: proper ventilation. The lack of it causes a lot of problems in the Macbook Air.

 

How thick is this compared to the XPS M1330?

I really tempted. :-S

 

I don't think Sony would drop the price... but I do think retailers will.

Me too. Love the small footprint size. But I'm an idiot for even thinking about it.

 

If you're worried about the battery life, here's the MobileMark 2007 stats for the FW/SR/Z (and weights):

( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3687220)

The ATI SR gets a 3.5 hour rating in MobileMark 2007. According to reports from actual ATI SR users, they're getting about 3.5 hours of battery life, so these values are very accurate. The Integrated Intel graphics SR model by the same benchmark gets ~5.0 hours.

The Z should get ~5.4 hours (in Stamina mode) or ~4.5 hours (in Speed mode). With wireless off, USB off, underclocked CPU, etc., while doing word processing for example, I wouldn't be surprised if you could get 6.5 hours.

And I also prefer the thickness - for a few "oooh's and aaah's", ultra-thin laptops sacrifice a lot - mainly good air circulation (cooling) and performance. The Z is still fairly thin, certainly thin enough for all practical uses - in fact it's perfectly sized to hold in one hand and carry around easily, unlike super thin laptops which feel like they're about to slip through your fingers . It's just not thin to the point of compromising anything like the MacBook Air for example.

 

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2008/0730/hotrev369.htm

depends on a Japanese review from above link...

Speed mode with standard battery:
1 hour 49 minutes in full power mode
2 hour 42 minutes in energy saving mode

Stamina mode with standard battery:
2 hour 07 minutes in full power mode
3 hour 29 minutes in energy saving mode

I think the large capacity battery should be a good choice.

 

The screen is absolutely incredible in color reproduction, it blew away all the other Vaios in my SonyStyle except for the TZ. If I bought an SR or FW and placed it next to the Z, I would be very upset.

Is the battery life that bad on it?

 

QQ more. Battery life decent on what? the z? Probably around 4-5.5 hours.

Battery Life for Z W/ Typical Specs

Battery Type Lithium-Ion battery (VGP-BPS12)
Battery Life - Graphics mode (min) 270 ~ 4.5 hours
Battery Life - Stamina mode (min) 325 ~ 5.4 hours
Battery Charging Time (min) 225

http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowPro...WN/B&site=voe_en_GB_cons&category=VN+Z+Series

They were pretty much right on with the SR owner's. so I wouldnt expect anything an hour more or less than these times. If you need 7+ hours...get the extended battery, duh.

 

Remind me to keep my distance from a Z.

 

If you look at the review in detail, you'll notice that they're testing a Z with a T9600 2.8 GHz (power hog, 35W TDP) and dual SSDs (a single SSD will reduce your battery life, not to mention two). Not exactly the best configuration for battery life benchmarks, don't you think?

Definitely - if your eyes ever come in contact with the Z's screen, it's mesmerizingly stunning brilliance will make you forever feel bad buying anything else, so avoid eye contact at all costs if you plan on buying an FW/etc.!

 

I agree with you on the CPU. The Samsung SATA II SSD they used is pretty power efficient though according to this review. But yes, using two would cost some battery life.

 

righttttttt

 

Seriously...I don't know what kind of battery life you guys usually get out of your laptops.

I would be extremely satisfied if I can get about 3 hours/ 5 hours max in speed/ stamina modes. My current 15.4 in laptop only gets 2.5 hours max when surfing the internet.

 

Remember though that this is a 13.1", not a 15.4", and it's a Sony . I would say that judging by the battery life the SZ gets, it wouldn't be at all unreasonable to say the Z can get 5.4 hours in Stamina with power savings enabled.

Also keep in mind that everything is just speculation, except the figures we receive from users / Sony. And so far the MobileMark 2007 values from Sony UK were practically identical to the real-world battery life values reported by ATI SR owners, so I don't think it's such a stretch to expect that the Z will get the claimed 5.4 hours in Stamina.

 

That's good to hear.

BTW, how long's SZ's battery life?

 

There are reviews all over the place, but basically:

 

^Can you give the source please?
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Well if you look at the values claimed by Sony Japan (11 - 17 hours) and you get like 3 hours on power saving like the one review stated, thats a pretty big stretch...

 

There's often a big difference between the battery life quoted by the various Sony regions... so Sony Japan might claim 9 hours but Sony Europe 5 hours - for the same battery and config!

I would suggest ignoring the higher figure as a bit too optimistic.