Retail store with Sony Z on display?

..I live in Jacksonville.. does anyone know if any store has the Z on display?! ofcourse, besides sonystyle store cuz we don't have one in my city.

I found the FW on display at the Regency Best Buy. Like to see and play with the Z before I order one.

AJ

 

I think only select SonyStyle stores have them on display right now, mainly the bigger, flagship stores like in Manhattan.

 

I was in the San Francisco SonyStyle last Thursday (7/17) and they had the Z. Very Very nice machine - and very fast - but I'm still using a TR so an abacus would be fast to me. Surprisingly (to me), it looked considerbly smaller than the SR. I live in Michigan and plan to visit our local store this weekend to see if they have it - i guess i could just call them.....

 

blah of all the northern cali stores, the one that has the Z has to be the farthest. boo i guess i need an excuse to go to sf now

 

I saw the Z yesterday in San Francisco's Sony Style store too. Sweet machine. It only seemed a little bit smaller than the SR to me... but it did seem significantly lighter. But the Z on display had the 1600 x 900 screen... too much res for me, for a 13-inch... made everything really small. I'm sure some people will love it, but I would rather get the lower-res screen option.

 

triplem55 and swarmer... you guys are lucky to have a sonystyle store nearby.... The nearest one for me is in Orlando and that's still good 2 hours away.. wtf.. neways, no more crying.

could you or anyone tell me the Z's screen size and overall "bulk" compared to the SZ? I was just about to get the SZ and this came out for which I'm glad cuz currently I have an FZ and the only thing about it that I would find tough to part with is its awesome awesome keyboard. It looks just like the one on the SZ (infact lots won't know that the SZ's keyboard has certain of its keys even bigger than the ones on FZ making it a bigger keyboard in a much smaller chassis.. go figure) but the SZ's nowhere near as responsive and crisp as the FZs.

I played with the keyboard on the FW at BB the other day and was very satisfied with it so am thinking that the Z may be the same or better (unless ofcourse its the same as what the SZ is to the FZ)

I'll go search for side-by-side pix of the Z next to the SZ in the meantime....

 

I love the TR. Abacus it may be, but a really, really nice abacus. So nice looking....Brings back memories from when my friend had a T series...I love that line from the bottom of my heart.

Anyhow, I need to check out the Seattle UVillage SonyStyle store, and see the new laptops for myself.

 

.. so does anyone know if any of the national retail stores are gonna be carrying the Z in the near future?

 

I can confirm that the Sony Style Store (Beverly Center) in Beverly Hills, CA has the high-end Z model on display. High end as in SSD RAID 0 (but no Blu-Ray).

 

The Boston, MA store has it (plan on going in to see it this week), but Burlington, MA, only had the SR and FW.

 

If you look at the specs, the SR is almost 1" deeper than the Z. They have the same width. The Z is about 0.84lbs lighter.

Z: 2.4"(W) x 1.0~1.3"(H) x 8.3"(D); 3.3lbs w/battery
SR: 12.4"(W) x 0.99~1.33"(H) x 9.2"(D); 4.14lbs w/battery

How did they get the Z to be almost 1" shorter in the depth? And is this that noticeable in person? Because it sure is a large difference on paper.

 

The Z is .2 inches smaller screen also, the screen is WIDER. It's slightlywider than the SR. So it's shorter but longer, thus making it less deep.

 

Ive seen all 3 in san diego, but only at the sonystyle store. The Z looks very nice, as does the SR really. However.. I'm quite concerned as both seem to be made of cheaper material and had some flex. I never got to see an LED screen and i was amazed at the quality of it, and thinness

 

Ok we get about 3 people per day being worried about the flex now.

Sonys LED screens are very thin. I've owned a TZ and SZ they both had a lot of flex on the screen, it was never a problem.

I do recommend using a keyboard protector so you don't get prints of the keyboard on your screen, but I recommend that with every laptop.

 

I've noticed the concern, too. But it seems like when I started looking into the latest laptops that flex is expected for the LED screens, and not really a bad thing. I don't know, but I think for the size and weight it is a trade off like any other upgrade/feature. Personally, the size/weight/quality outweigh the flex.

Do you expect the Z's DuraView claim to eliminate the need for that? (It claims to protect from scratching, etc better.)

 

I doubt it, I would not take the risk.

Ps. a keyboard protector is just a simple piece of cloth.

Edit: oops it's called screen protector.

 

Nope. Same width.

Sony Vaio Z
12.4 x 8.3 x 1-1.3

Sony Vaio SR
12.4 x 9.2 x 1.3

 

He meant the screen is a wider aspect ratio on the Z (16:9 rather than 16:10 I believe). That's where you save the depth...

 

I don't see how the difference between 16:9 and 16:10 warranting a whopping ~1" difference in depth.

 

its a flippin optical illusion

 

SonyStyle stores with Z: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentDisplayView?cmsId=experience_zseries&hideHeaderFooter=true&storeId=10151&catalogId=10551&langId=-1

California• Beverly Center Mall (Los Angeles, CA), • South Coast Plaza (Costa Mesa, CA), • Fashion Valley (San Diego, CA), • Metreon (San Francisco, CA)

Massachusetts• Copley Place (Boston, MA)

New York• Sony Plaza (New York, NY)

Texas• Houston Galleria (Houston, TX)

Also, SonyStyle USA has corrected all Z to DDR3 RAM.

 

Regarding the thin LED screens...if you watch the European VAIO 2008 launch video, a reporter talks to a Sony rep about the flex and they say it's by design. The reason they allowed it to flex is that it's less apt to get damaged compared to a more rigid display especially when their research showed that a lot of people opened and close their laptop typically pulling or pushing more on one side or the other. So, they've factored that in....funny thing in the video is the reporter guy is touching the two sample screens (they have the flex screen and rigid screen) and he accidentally partially cracks the rigid screen (or at least you hear it and see him panic).

Oh, and regarding the screen size of the SR and Z....if you see them next to each other, you can tell the difference in size. The SR feels taller (which makes sense given the aspect ratio and different body design). The Z feels a little lower to the table giving it a sleek feel.

 

just came back from the sonystyle store in sf metreon and played with the Z on display. i'm not sure what HD or SSD it had, but it was the P9500 version with 3GB of ram and 1600x900 resolution. Here is my short review:

Case: The brushed aluminum design all over the keyboard and wrist area is very attractive to look at. However, I was not impressed with the outside of the case. Even though it is supposed to be carbon fiber, you really can't tell that it is made of that material. To me, it looks like any other black laptop. The LCD felt a little flimsy, but that's because it is so thin. Not a big deal to me. You really notice the wideness of the LCD compared to the SR though.

Resolution: The unit on display had 1600x900 resolution. It gives you a huge amount of workspace, but the text can be very small to see. I had to put my head about a foot away from the screen to be comfortable reading the text, which is not the normal position i would sit in front of a laptop. Not only that, if you are not comfortable with the 1600x900, you cannot change to 1388x780; the next lowest resolution would be 1280x1024 or 1280x800 (I don't remember the exact number), which I assume will make the picture slightly distorted because of the widescreen.

Performance: Not much to say here, but programs opened immediately after opening them. For normal tasks, it's just as fast as my Q6600 @4Ghz and 4GB ram desktop.

Weight: Wow this laptop is light! You can really tell the difference between the SR and the Z, although they are only different by about 1/2 a lbs. Lifting the Z up required almost no effort at all.

 

PhilFlow is absolutely right...I have had an SZ for a long time now, the SZ160PC and I have never ever had a problem with the LED screen. People worry too much about it.

-Mike

 

fuzzielitlpanda: Nice . Did you try the keyboard? If so, what were your thoughts on it (not the look, but the feel)?

Regarding the carbon fiber case, I know that when something feels really light / thin, the natural impression is that it's flimsy, so I'm wondering if you think the plastic-ish feel was because it was so light, or if there was actually a considerable amount of flex?

 

The keyboard felt great, very similar to the SR. Each individual key is slightly smaller than the SR though, but it was not a problem for me to type on. With regards to the carbon fiber case, what I meant was that I thought I would be able to see some type of weave or design that would show off the carbon fiber case, but instead all i saw was a normal black paint. The only part that felt "flimsy" was the LCD, but i think it had to do with its weight and how thin the LCD is, not how flexible it is. overall, it is a great looking laptop and i'm happy i didn't go with the higher resolution.

 

Thanks!

I'm really glad to hear the keyboard felt good. The main thing I would be worried about is that the space and lower keys may be awkward to press due to the fact that they're somewhat lowered from the palm rest, but if you didn't notice anything wrong than I'm sure it'll be fine

And personally I'm not too disappointed that the Z doesn't have the carbon fiber weave. I think this was discussed in another thread, but practically it's of no real use (not any stronger or anything), although I guess it would be nice if Sony offered it on some Z models. But who knows, maybe they will later. I know only a few SZ models had the carbon fiber weave, so I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility of some Z models having it too at some point unless Sony says otherwise.

Thanks again for the info .

 

Looks like its time for me to head to the Galleria Mall this weekend to check out the Z.