Sony Pro 13 - Vaio Z Replacement?

Specification
- Intel Core i5-4200U / i7-4500U
- Intel HD4400 Display- Wndows 8
- 13.3" 1920 x 1080 FHD / TRILUMINOS
- 128 / 256 GB SSD
- 4 / 8 GB DDR3 RAM
- HD Exmor RS Cam
- USB 3.0, HDMI, SD
- ClearAudio+
- NFC
- Optional Sheet Bettery
- Optional RJ45 to Wifi Adaptor that can attach to the PSU
Pricing (converted from HKD to USD)
around $1199 for i5 model (4G ram + 128 SSD)
around $1699 for i7 model (8G ram + 256 SSD)


Please note that the low voltage i7-4500U is actually faster than i7-620M, used in Z1 in 2009....

What do you think?

the only think missing is the Gigabit ethernat port....it would be great if there is Gigabit Wifi in this model

btw, is there USB3 to Gigabit ethernat Adaptor?
Or I guess home user will get the docking station, if any

 

Maybe you somehow missed this 57 page thread?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/658740-official-haswell-z-speculation-thread.html

plenty of opinions there.

 

So basically you are saying that the Pro 13 is a replacement for the 2009 Z1? We want something that can be considered a 2013 Z. Powerful CPU, powerful discrete graphics, tons of RAM and SSD storage. Something like the Razer but with a high end display.

 

Tons of RAM? BWhaahahaa .... sorry, made me laugh. I remember buying the VGN-Z1 and Sony crippling the RAM. The SVZ-13 only had 8GB. Sony has *never* allowed max RAM (in this case 16GB) in their premiums pretty much. There have been some exceptions, but it's one reason I went from Sony to Panasonic for the most part. So don't act like Sony has always been about the biggest and baddest. It hasn't. They make great compact machines, but others can trounce on specs all day long. Sony seems to balance power, weight, and looks - but is never the king of power.

Anyway, as Qwaarjet has pointed out, there's already a thread dedicated to this talk.

 

Actually quite a downgrade from the Z3 that...

 

You're the only person I've known who needed more than 8GB in a laptop. When I used to show off my servers I would log into them using remote desktop etc. All the Hyper-V stuff used to be on my stack of servers, ie. in a real working environment, where I could show actual performance figures.

I have a 2010 vintage VPCZ1 with 4GB RAM. Never needed more, even while playing games - the GPU would run out of steam long before the RAM did.

 

I agree. FenderP, you are a 0.1% niche within a 0.1% niche.

 

A lot of laptop users utilize more than 8GB RAM. However, most of them are using high-performance workstation or gaming laptops with quad-core processors, not ultrabooks with ULV dual-cores. I'm not sure how many legitimate applications there are that would push 8GB of RAM on a machine like that without bringing the processor to its knees...

The biggest thing, however, is that they try to save as much space as they can to make the notebook smaller and smaller. That means cutting out full-voltage CPUs and their cooling systems and soldering on minimal amounts of RAM to cut it down to the minimum possible size.

 

Most people I know need 16. 8 would be bare minimum. My business partner has 32.

You can't count on internet connections. I present and teach all around the world. I need to be completely self contained but I also need setup that is generally 3lbs(ish). Showing concepts you don't need performance per se, but constructing, say, a multi-site, multi-subnet demo or a full SCVMM stack in VMs takes quite a few running at the same time.

BTW, Camtasia pushes a processor pretty well and it's a common app.

 

Well, it looks like there is no 12GB or 16GB option on Sony Store USA CTO for the Pro or Duo.

Pro and Duo 13 are not yet up on Sony Store Japan, but I wouldn't keep my hope up.

On a side note, SVZ is still available in Sony Store Japan's Business section...

 

My guess: It may be more than 0.1% of 0.1% but Sony probably has research confirming that the vast majority of buyers of very compact "executive" laptops, of the kind they seem to be focusing on, in addition to mass market Fit series, very rarely need/expect more than 8GB. They're telling those who do: "look elsewhere; we'll cede that market to the business models and game machines." Their prerogative, much as it chagrins some. Remember, they're all about profits, more these days than in the past. That means every model earns its keep. Goodbye Z...

 

For most consumers, 4GB is enough, 8GB maximum.

I do a bit of gaming along with post-processing with Photoshop. I get by fine with 4GB, and I've never ran into any issues.

People that do more intensive processes with their computers will probably need 8GB + more. I don't think Sony really targets that market.

 

On my SVZ running Windows 8 with only browser open (single tab - notebookreview.com) I have 4,2GB free RAM (of 8GB). Which means my system, with cache and buffer, background tasks and Windows, with only one active program, only just over half of my 8GB RAM is available to new programs/games, without deteriorating buffer/cache or forcing write-backs to the ssd.

With the >2GB switch activated on most of my heavy-duty 32-bit programs, I'm sure many would eat a lot of those 4GB free ram. I know I ran into memory problems as well on my system once, when I was running two instances simultaneously of the Hearts of Iron 3 TFH game. Got me a warning then...

For virtual computers and heavy number-crunching (database rendering) or video-encoding or transcoding (BD video) as well as photoshop rendering, 8GB is a must I think. Also, quite a few games these days eat at your memory. Do note also that the HD4400 graphics card uses shared memory and doesn't have dedicated memory of its' own. On modern dekstop computers the graphics card dedicated ram is quite commonly 2GB or more... I wouldn't buy a laptop with only 4GB of ram these days, esp. considering that ram has gotten dirt cheap compared with how it used to be in 'em ol' days.

 

Most people only need 4G Ram in their laptop - all they need to do is to use MS office, browser, RDP; what they usually want is longer battery and lighter notebook

I think Sony does it right with Pro - much lighter, better pricing (no more USD 2000+ like VPCZ) and the battery life of intel haswell is promising
AnandTech | The Haswell Ultrabook Review: Core i7-4500U Tested


VERY FEW people uses photoshop/LR for converting RAW, heavy video editing on their LAPTOP

 

Virtualization, genome therapy calculation, heavy number crunching, video editing, gaming, disk cache, statistics calculating, in-stream database editing, hex-algorithm finding, computing vortex math and quantum mechanics equation solving... also, windows 8 uses like 4GB of memory just with my background programs runnin'. 8GB is little on the low side for this workstation desktop-replacement and is the weak point of this machine, in addition to Sony's refusal to reason with their choice of external gpu unit (I think they were too stuck in their math calculation on that one, finding a chip that would be 100% on the 4x lane of the PCIe 2.0, instead of realizing that 4x PCIe equates like 90% performance on high-end chips when compared with the full 16x lanes, in most scenarios anyway. I'm glad they chose an AMD gpu unit though... the upside of the downside that is...

 

95%+ of laptop buyers DO NOT RUN the following applications on their LAPTOP:
Virtualization, genome therapy calculation, heavy number crunching, statistics calculating, in-stream database editing, hex-algorithm finding, computing vortex math and quantum mechanics equation solving

You need Alienware / etc. for running these types of applications

I just wish Sony Pro 13" has even longer battery life; giving the new 13" MBA has 12 hours of battery life....

 

For those of us who are software developers 16 GB is very desirable. It isn't that one process takes up that much memory, it's the sum total of all processes that we run. As an enterprise developer I'm typically running a heavy weight IDE, database and one or more J2EE servers and a VM or two. All of these consume a fair amount of RAM on their own but when taken together can really strain an 8 GB system. So far I've been able to get by on 8 GB but if a 12 or 16 GB option had been available I would have taken it.

 

The Pro 13 is a second notebook for the executive business traveler. A weekend-car for situations where weight and form factor mean more than performance.

As a former owner of two Z Series notebooks, I was never thinking of these as desktop replacements. They were always my go-to for two weeks of work in Asia or a vacation to London, something to type emails on, read some spreadsheets, surf the web, store and edit digital photos. Used them maybe 30-40 days a year max. That's the way to view the Pro 13, and by that criteria it's a great machine.

Mine is shipping today.

BJ

 

The SVZ1311 is a clear desktop replacement in my view. The ssd's are faster than most desktop ssd's. The cpu is quad core, full voltage, i7 960 desktop equivalent, 8GB of memory and full hd screen makes this thingy a power-beast. you also have lte, gbit ethernet and wifi and bluetooth for connectivity. opencl video-processing, hardware encryption of files and cpu-hardware-decryption of software-encryption algorithms, toppled with fast boot bios, uefi and tpm and fingerprint scanner makes this also a very secure laptop. all this power, flexibility and security in a small and durable chassi and it weighs no more than just over one kilogram. It is by far the MOST powerful laptop for workstation productivity, relative to its' size and weight. Myself, I've never owned a desktop computer that is this powerful for productivity tasks. The Pro 13 is a downgrade, both disk performance, cpu performance, screen size and screen quality as well as security.

As for "you need an Alienware" for that kind of tasks. Well, I'd never EVER touch a Dell computer again, EVER! 'Nuff said!

 

I'm not getting a Pro, but the PCIe SSD is going to fly.

 

Yeah, I bet...

On my SVZ1311 I get 900MBps sequential read (raw). I dont'r remember the write speeds though. IOPS is awesome (no number). I use third party proprietary cache solution, with write delay and thread optimization with NCQ support, so I don't remember the numbers... Anyway, speed is lightning fast, we're talking ddr3 speeds here. I use 1GB of system memory (have 8GB in total) just for disk cache, leaving a nice 7GB for system, of which, Wiindows 8 with background programs uses just under 3GB, leaving 4,2GB of RAM for active applications and programs. I get by with that, as long as I'm not multitasking virtualization and in-stream database editing, the rest of my workstation applications are more CPU than RAM intensive...

 

The Z is clearly a desktop-replacement class machine, one you can use as your main and only computer (as I do) while the Pro is just as clearly not, it is a portable Ultrabook which can only handle very basic tasks (documents, browsing, very simple graphical programs). It's the netbook of 5 years ago, you buy one specifically because it is portable, not because it is powerful. Yes, I do virtualization, number crunching, large scale compiling (30+gb), encryption/decryption, etc. on my Z (June 2012 model). But then, 95% of laptop buyers did not need or buy the Z (in fact, probably more, 99%?)

The Pro is, correct. The Z was not.

 

I think this has been covered in one of the pro, or haswell Z thread, the Pro is clearly a replacement for the T, or what the T should have been from the start.

 

I think sometimes we try too hard to map a new model to the old model it "replaces" when the brand has gone to lengths to make the sku name and look and feel of the replacement as different as it could be. Sony, in particular, has so revamped its lines, branding and capabilities - apparently leaving powerful ultraportable DTRs to someone else - that it would seem almost fraudulent to imply any of their new models are successors to their old models. I don't recall a Sony model designation that's lasted more than 3 years anyway; in the past that has seemed total folly to me, but with the functional changes in the market and their new product line, I think the entirely new naming nomenclature is probably appropriate. At least they're not pulling an HP: take the mid-range Pavilion line, stick the word "Envy" in front of each model, try to convince the market the same machines have gone upscale. Pathetic.

 

I'm guessing the SSD is not user-upgradable. I'm all for speed, but would much prefer a non-proprietary msata.

 

From the Vaio Pro 13 thread:

So in case Sony isn't black/whitelisting devices my guess is you can.

 

Anybody who thinks 4GB on the Z is enough, or that the Z is a "weekend laptop" is someone who has too much money and just wants the most expensive gadget.
For those, the Pro 13 is *perfect*. They're actually the reason sony discontinued the Z IMO, since the Z wasn't accessible to as many of the "latest gadget" crowd as the Pro 13 is (price is like 33% of the Z...)

When you get a laptop with a normal voltage CPU its not to read spreadsheets "cuz u don't have ur big laptop". The Z is/was actually faster than your big laptop, it just had a smaller screen.

The Z is basically a no-compromise laptop. The fastest and the most portable. That means YES, Z users (again, the ones who aren't "i want the most expensive/latest gadget") want 8GB of RAM OR MORE.
Obviously, that's a pretty niche market.

Personally, I'm in this niche market and there is no replacement by any vendor, sadly.
You see, I need to run multiple VMs, I have a bunch of git checkouts and objectcode that takes a lot of disk space, and I need to compile that stuff on the go (no, not on a remote machine) as fast as possible. Bang, exactly what the Z does.


Now I do have my gripes with the current Z that I own and I'm in the market for an improved version (the one which doesnt exist, since nobody really cares...):
- a good trackpad
- a good keyboard
- more battery life when the CPU is idle
- more RAM
- more disk space
- more speed when the CPU is in use
- a PMD that works with Win8 and Linux better than the current one (/dream)

that's it.