Sony SA Series Discussion Sony's next new 13.3 laptop

This recent version of Z is crappy if compared to existing units.. why would the screen resolution be less....1600 X900?.when we are already having full HD( 1080P)
What i mean here is the new introduction... besides if we are having a feather light carbon fiber body why would somebody appreciate a metallic appearance if its heavier?

 

This new Vaio looks plain. I don't feel it looks as nice and refined as current Vaio Z. Heck was hoping they would just do a Vaio Z refresh with usb 3.0 and maybe a new graphics card so I could upgrade in 6 months. No, not waiting to see whats out there in 6 months, waiting because I feel I should keep using my Vaio SR for 24 months like I used my dell. Heck its funny i actually put my old dell back together today to see if it works after not using it since sept of 09 lol. It made me see what a nice upgrade the SR was. Gonna stick with Sony laptops, but the SA just looks plain.

 

That's no new version of Z, it's a differnt model, the SA. New redesigned Z should come out anytime this summer ("early summer" stated by beaups a few pages earlier in this thread).

 

The SA was meant to replace the Z for a little while. Now it seems that with the Z possibly being made public in June/SA being released in June that might not happen anymore.
The title of the thread probably needs changing now.--changed lol

 

You may be correct but with the VAIO SA/SB not having been officially released by Sony yet, who is to say that the VAIO SA/SB series will not be released in the summer instead while the "new" VAIO Z will be temporarily "dropped" & released late this year or early next year.

I also understand that beaups has been kind enough to give us very useful insights into the new Sony products (& he mentioned that he don't work for Sony), but these sort of product release decisions could still be changed.

 

Alright guys, got some nice information here for you guys:

- The SB will be the succesor of the current S-series and the SA will be the (maybe short) succesor of the Z. Whats going to happen with the Z I don't know.
- The aim for the SA and SB was to get them thin and with a good batterylife while still being mobile and powerfull.
- Of course they will come with a Sandy Bridge, they will also both come with hybrid ATI graphics.
- Batterylife for the SB will be much better than the current s-series.
- Extended battery will probably fit under the laptop, like discussed earlier.
- Both will be 13.3", a bit bigger but if I'm right also a bit thinner. Will also both have more or less the same housing.
- SB will (just like the SA) have backlit kb.
- I read something about booting Windows 7 in 15 seconds, but I have no idea what they meant by that.

Got this from a recent training from someone at Sony. I'm not online at home on this account to protect my identity so I can't reply here often.

 

When you mean bigger, you mean bigger than the Z right, or is does this mean bigger than the S also? And will the SB be released in the states?

 

Thanks for the information - Makes total sense.

@ Beaups

Can you tell us this much. In terms of design and style. You posted that people will either like the New Z or not. If anyone has been a fan of the past 2 generation Z's VGN-Z and VPC-Z, will the design of the New Z be unappealing, because its so different from the cuurent style. I realize this is all relative. Thanks.

 

Perhaps the new Intel 310 ssd's like in the new Lenovo's?

 

May be, i noticed when looking at the pictures of this laptop that it has a web button. I think that the X or P series had this and this allows you boot to web much more quickly. I'm really glad that the SB/SA has this feature.
Only with the web button with those models you boot to Sony's own OS. I wonder how they've implemented this.
May be there is boot without BIOS options also.


edited to add:
I see that the E series has also got this feature and this is how it works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgjKLYIvhjM

 

Which E model got it? All of it or is it just limited to one the three models, 14in, 15in, or 17in?

 

On current E models they all seem to have the Vaio web button feature. From youtube videos i see that it boots in about 22 secs. Now with an SSD you might be able to get 10 secs of this.

With my TX you could boot to applications like your dvd drive without booting to OS, now it would be great if we could do that as well. This has a Vaio assist button which i think is unnecessary.

 

What Noneano meant by bigger, was having a larger footprint. But this usually means the laptop is thinner. It's a trade off, basically.

 

I finally pulled the trigger a couple days ago and said goodbye to my 3 year old, top of the line SZ680 model. I typically purchase a new VAIO laptop (always 13 inch) every 12-18 months, so this is the longest I've kept one.

I've been wanting to get a Z model for the past 12 months, but just kept putting it off. And for the past 4 weeks I have been anxiously hoping that the new SA model would be announced. But, now with the delay of that, I figured it was time to upgrade to a.... Sony S13!

I haven't been a big fan of the S series over the past year (the Best Buy exclusive) as I really disliked the display screen. (I had taken my SZ model into the store and compared them side by side, and obviously my $3,800 SZ model looked much better - but it should for that price).

But surprisingly now that the S13 is out and I did a new comparison (but this time in a SonyStyle store), the S13 screen looked drastically better than the previous model version in Best Buy - and I really don't think I'm imagining it.

I still want a Z model, but can't justify the price right now - so I decided to try out the S13. And I have to say, I surprisingly LOVE this laptop! After 2 days of playing on it, I can confirm the screen is bright & crisp - the keyboard is WONDERFUL - and this should suite my needs for the next 8-12 months. And by the fall, the new SA and Z will have been already released and I'll switch over then and sell this S13.

But for now... I'm very happy with it. And I can finally stop obsessing over trying to get updated info on the new models like a junky trying to get his fix, LOL. I'm content and patient now.

 

All I've got to say is... give me some of your money so I can start the same upgrading routine.

 

LOL. Electronics are my weakness.

 

I think most of us lurking around these forums are...

 

haha, so true!
10chars

 

On Sony's European support site appeared 2 new models: VPCSA and VPCSB.

Unfortunately they're empty - no data, no photos, no specification.
Is it mean that these models are about to release?

 

Well, if I'm not mistaken, we know we won't be seeing them until probably March at the earliest because of the chipset shortages... but here's hoping it means instead that beaups was wrong for the first time ever and we're actually going to see them before June

 

Not only chipset shortages, but the total recall due to a voltage issue in the stepping causing SATA degradation and/or failure over time.

It's even worse than the old Pentium division bug recall, in that now, Intel recalls all the chipsets and not just those of customers that complain, and that you can't just plug in a replacement like with the CPU, but because it's surface mounted, have to replace the entire board. It's going to cost Intel a fortune, and laptop manufacturers a lot of lost time:
Sandy Bridge based laptops aren't expected to be seen in any volume until summer.

 

Good for AMD though....

 

(edit) OFF-TOPIC. Wrong Thread.

My Apologies.

 

Why even go there? You are the customer. Even in court, the customer always wins. The moment you bring up some bogus issue to stack on top the physical damage problem, they'll assume you're lying to cover up the fact that you broke it. That's the worst thing you can do.

If you ask me, if it was purchased at a store, take it back immediately, very politely explain your disbelief upon opening the package to find this damaged (and very expensive) product, and then explain that before they replace it, you want to be able to open the next box right there in the store to ensure it doesn't happen again. Don't even give them the chance to think about blaming you--just presume you will see a replacement the moment you walk up to the counter and it will happen.

Worst-case scenario, you can always call your credit card company on the spot and dispute the charge, explaining the problem to them. If you show enough persistence the store will have no issue refunding your money.

If you got it from SonyStyle, I'd say just do the same thing. In fact, the moment you send it back, you might want to go ahead and dispute the charge with your CC company just to be safe, considering how ridiculously bad their customer service apparently is. Don't even give them the opportunity to accuse you, THE CUSTOMER.

 

(edit) Off-Topic. Wrong Thread.

 

Cheaper version of the SA.

SA 1600x900 screen, SSD
SB 1366x768 screen, HDD

 

In the US?

 

Boy, that's great news for me. One of my biggest concerns with the Z, as many of you know, was how it'd hold up under heavy write cycles with its proprietary SSD array. Given this information, I'll probably get an SA (if it's worth it) and then plug in a standard 2.5" SSD in place of the HDD. Good times!

 

I agree that's great news.

othersteve, you're not alone. Those are the exact reasons why I did not upgrade from my VGN-Z series notebook to a VPC-Z notebook (Sony USA do not offer HDD only models for the VPC-Z series & due to costs, I do not want to import them).

 

Hello,

My first post here !

I live in France and I have a couple of questions for beaups (or any other well informed sony "insider") :

- Will the current Z14 be available outside Japan (in Europe in particular) ?
- When do you think we will know more about the future successor of the Z (not SA/SB) ? By "more", I mean the screen size and resolution, the form factor, the drive capacity, etc.

I ask this question because, when a "prototype" of this future Z is shown/announced, I think I will be able to make a purchase decision : either buy the current Z, or wait till this future Z is released (I want to purchase a powerfull laptop, but I'm not in a particular hurry).

 

I don't think sony will show a 'Z' prototype, it will probably just announce the laptop and then it will go on sale soon afterward.

There is some kind of laptop on the FCC website, with a reveal date of march 3, so I presume this is the SA/SB, any new Z will probably show up on the FCC website as well

 

is it confirmed that the SA will be delayed? is there any chance that sony didn´t receive any deffective chipset, perhaps didn´t receive any chipset at all by the time intel found out the problem and is now building the SA´s with good chipsets for sell in beggining of march?

 

I am in the same situation, so I would be also thankful for any information.

I would be particularly interested in the (new) Z, because I prefer it over the SA. The only temptation about the SA would be for me, that I could probably have an ODD and a single standard 2.5" SSD.

 

ascariss, please give us a link to FCC documents concerning SA or whatever it may be. thanks.

 

If I recall everything right, beaups mentioned things like that:
- complete new redesigned Z
- more "mobile" (I can't remember the exact phrase he used, but to me it sounded like lighter, smaller, better portability)
- coming in early summer this year (not sure if it's affected by the chipset issues in any way)

 

There is no way of Sony getting or having "good" chipsets. All chipsets which were produced until the error was discovered have the problem, even though in only 5% to 15% the error causes any troubles.
Since the error only causes trouble with the old SATA ports, not with the two new SATA6 ports theoretically the chipsets can be used to build laptops which feature only two SATA devices (like an ODD and a SSD/HDD).
Yesterday Intel states that they will distribute flawed chipsets to certain manufactures who explicitly asked for them (Dell is one of them) in order to put them into products with only two SATA devices. In the press release they also said that the first shipments of new, fixed chipsets will be underway in mid February and large quantities will be available in March.

I really doubt that Sony will take the risk of putting flawed chipsets in their products. They will wait until large quantities will be available and than lunch their products. In the end Sony Vaio notebooks are premium products and the can’t risk putting something out with a high return rate.

 

Yes, that's what I had gathered from previous posts, but what I would like to know is when the future Z will be shown (in a public show for example) or when its main characteristics will be announced, so that I will be able to make a purchase decision (buy the current Z or wait for the new one to be released)

 

It will be interesting to see how Apple with their hard supply contracts will influence the notebook situation. In the past Apple always waited with the announcement of their new MacBook Pros until the first rush after the new CPUs was satisfied thus being able to provide the market with large quantities of their new products right after lunch.
This year large quantities of functioning processor-chipset combinations will be available when Apple usually announces their new products (mostly around April or May). Since Apple is not renown for being very indulging with their suppliers I wonder if Intel first provides Apple’s manufacturers with the new chipset or fulfils their contracts with other manufacturers like Sony.
It also will be very exciting to see how the big brands deal with the lack of chipset concerning their products to be announced on Cebit. Maybe during Cebit we will get a closer insight in Sony’s upcoming notebook models.

 

supposedly this is it but I could be wrong, maybe it is just the new S model and not the new SA/SB, there is nothing else new on the FCC site with regards to sony

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...N&application_id=145950&fcc_id='AK8PCG41211L'

 

ascariss, yes, thank you, very likely that the specifications there are from SA and SB models - both with ODD and without it (perhaps the models with HDD but without ODD).

Dear users: what we have here comes contrary to what was said earlier in this thread - I mean if we really see the SA/SB model in FCC - the battery power IS LESS than on the current models. That means, Sony had got its lovely factor of making things cheaper by reducing the battery capacity to the level of AX-BX machines of 2008 - namely, 4400 mAh.

I want to believe still that I am wrong and we see something different there, not SA, in these FCC docs. BUT: HSPA modem on board in the FCC tests makes my counter-suggestions presumably false... IT LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE SA. COLOURED in brown and even blue....

 

Sony also seems to be skimping on battery in the YA/YB as well. I'm not sure I'll be buying this generation after all...

 

the YA/YB are also on the fcc, funny enough the naming was pc tablet not laptop lol

 

It's interesting that there will be models with and without ODD.

Other things I found in the reports:

• Made in China
  
• EUT: Equipment Under Test
  MG: Magnesium
  CFRP: Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer
  
  So from the quote above it seems that there will be a model with CF case.

 

Well, lowering would result in the same batterylife like core i cpus of the first generation.
But what's the point of buying Sandy Bridge then? I was looking for maxed out battery life

 

So it seems like this might be a division 2 approved creation and not a Sony creation as such. With things like the battery slice and carbon fibre on certain models that seems unlikely but may be that is the case.

 

If that is proven to be true when Sony releases the VAIO SA/SB series notebook, isn't that the main point of creating the attached-on slice battery? If you want more battery life, Sony will "force" you to buy the extra slice battery....

 

that extra slice makes the laptop look fat!! (not phat )

 

But good marketing scam for them. EVIL!

 

mAh mean absolutely nothing without a reference voltage. If it's 4400mah at a typical 10.6 volts that would make it a 47wh battery...a common size but smaller than the current Z, yes.

LiPolymer cells run at 4.23v/cell so it's not inconceivable that we are talking 12.7v * 4.4AH = 56WH battery.

Who knows what it will be, but my point is you can make ZERO conclusions from a mAh rating, it means NOTHING by itself.

 

The voltage is known. 11 V. That means it is smaller than on the current Z. The model of the battery mentioned is BPS24. Given the new efficient platform we have the same 4 hours of autonomy with reduced capacity. No improvement contrary to what was said by one of "insiders". Will see.