Sony SA Series Discussion Sony's next new 13.3 laptop

aras87, never got a chance to squeeze 5 hours out of my S. What Sony claims is just a matter of marketology and goes too far from reality. More likely, that 5.5 hours are still on, but now in the new series.

 

In addition to aras87's post, have this link.

Particularly interesting is the comparison to a (desktop) i7 920, never mind the fact that it wipes the floor with every single other laptop they've tested.

@Aiga - of course, quoted maximum battery life for marketing purposes is only achievable under unrealistic laboratory test conditions, but when the marketing-speak battery life is improved, you can be sure the real-world battery life also has.

 

I've been able to get over the predicted max battery life with all the Vaio's i've owned. I'll just have to wait and see if this is the case for the SA.
I've seen the specs for the MBP's and they're not for me so the SA it is.

I think i could well get the gold SA that is if it's got a matte lid but i'm not so keen on black keyboards as they tend to show wear quite quickly. I wish the white one had a white upper body and also bezel.

 

The interesting thing is how much it (battery life) will vary in real life usage, because of how intelligently the processor clocks itself up and down and such.

If all you're doing is a bit of light email/web surfing, in stamina mode with screen brightness turned down, it should constantly underclock and give some pretty impressive times.

Sadly I favour quite processor-intensive tasks with what I do on my personal laptop so have never got anywhere near the quoted max, but I know this is down to my particular usage pattern!

 

Yes but guys... you need to look at the whole picture here! Benchmarks use tools designed to load the CPU to the max, while at the same time use as minimum other resources as possible so that the results are not fooled by the rest of the hardware. Which one of the applications you use on daily basis corresponds to a benchmarking one?

Until you upgrade to a reasonable amount of RAM (min 6GB) and fast storage - even an Intel Dual Core CPU remains the strongest link! If you imagine that you will gain any speed with a Sandy Bridge and 5400RPM and 4GB RAM - this is such an illusion!

About battery life - this is the least I care about - I never go camping and have electricity at home, at the office, in the car and in the plane - 2h battery life is all I ask for. Don't care about anything on top, unless I can go on a 5 days business trip without a charger in my luggage, but no Sandy Bridge can offer that, can it...
I carry around my Vaio all the time - it's been around the continent a few times. And I can recall only two times I actually ran out of battery while using it and keep in mind I only charge it to 80%...

But I did squeeze 4.5h out of my Vaio when I tested the battery life on purpose.

 

I do a lot of work with digital audio. This requires a lot of CPU power above all else. The Sandy Bridge CPUs will be a huge improvement over anything else for my purposes.

I will be speccing either a 7200rpm hard drive or an SSD, with 8GB of RAM. I will quite possibly make these upgrades myself, depending on how much Sony are charging.

Please do not make the assumption that you know how everyone uses their laptop. I stated that Sandy Bridge was an enormous step forward over previous technology; this is a value-neutral statement that can be factually backed up. When you then come back and say 'yeah, it may be better but it won't make any difference in real-world use cases', you are introducing subjectivity, which is generally best avoided if possible.

 

Ok - let me correct myself:

"Yes, it is without a doubt more powerful, but this extra power will not be of any use to 95% of the users (including myself), especially those using it with 4GB RAM and 5400 RPM HDD. The percentage is based on average statistical usage patterns and popular applications, my experience and research."

Does this sound better now? Sorry for offending you - obviously you consider yourself to be one of the 5% - could be - no way I would know - I am expressing my opinion about the majority.

If I were to buy a laptop now anyway - I would certainly go for SandyBridge (still not SA/SB because of the design). But as I already have an Arrandale notebook less than an year old - I would wait until next generation CPUs hit the market and puts Sandy's performance in it's shadow. That is to answer the question I was asked whether I will be upgrading

 

Disregarding the obvious pedantry of asking you to provide a source for your extremely dubious statistics, can you see the huge difference between that statement and:

??

Further, one of the biggest steps forward is the battery life, not just the CPU power. This will make a lot of difference to a lot of users, hence why it is being used as a selling point by every company that is introducing SB laptops.

 

Right, I'm not saying you will get exactly 5.5hrs with the old one or 7hrs with the new one but Sony most probably uses the same methods for those claims in order to be consistent. That means if you are getting 4 hours use with current S, you will get 5.2 hours with new S. Ratio stays more or less same. Also keep mind new S will hopefully achieve this with a smaller battery. This is how good new Sandy Bridge cpus are

 

What is it about you that makes it so hard to accept opinions different than your own??

Please pay attention who the question was addressed to!

I wrote my reasons why I don't think upgrading from S to SA is reasonable - you-yours. No need to argue.

 

I can get what Gracy123 is saying. For Arrandale users that don't do intensive work with their laptop upgrading now for them if they don't do intensive work might not be worthwhile and when it comes the cpu won't be able to tell a difference performance wise. The i5 Arrandale processors are still very capable processors.
However, it's true that SB does offer great gains especially when it comes to the gpu and battery life but some owners don't demand this.
I'm upgrading from an SZ7 T9300 GM965/8400 laptop and it is still quite a capable laptop and still performs my tasks well.

 

I get what she's saying as well, I was just asking her to pay everyone the courtesy of trying to distinguish between fact and opinion a bit better; it's quite valuable when you're trying to discuss something technical.

 

Thanks Rachel, this is exactly what I'm saying. And I do consider myself more or less a "power-user", especially regarding multi-tasking. I also use Photoshop very often as well as engineering tools that do demand CPU. But even than I notice how my HDD can not keep up with my "powerless" compared to a Sandy Bridge, i5 CPU... so an upgrade is nearly pointless to me and people like me, not to say those who only use a laptop to browse, write emails and use Office... and this is the majority.

For you it will definitely make more difference, taking into account your current CPU and if I were you - I would also do that.

No you actually need to understand that whatever is a FACT to me and many others might not be to you Nothing wrong about that It is a fact that facts can apply differently to different people - very factual indeed.

 

If something is a fact, it's a fact. That's sort of how it works.

You were just extrapolating from your particular use case and using it to make general statements about the laptop, which is different.

Edit: something that is also a fact is that this is a pretty pointless & circular conversation now! This will be my last post on the matter.

 

Just stop feeding the troll.

Otherwise, I dont think upgrading every year for someone who doesn't do intense things should be recommended. Like what was mentioned before, just upgrading the ram and hard drive could give you what your looking for speed wise.

The only people that need to upgrade almost religiously are: gamers, people who are rough on there laptops, and people that like shinny objects.

 

I don't care about "shinny" objects so much ( ;P just kidding man ), but I have to say, considering as much video/audio editing work that I do, Sandy Bridge is HUGE for me. It is indeed an enormous benefit in terms of both speed and battery life from what I've read, and I'm simply hoping that the SA provides the options I'm looking for coupled with solid construction and a Z-quality screen. If those items are intact (and the price is stomachable), I'll bite day one.

 

Couldn't agree more.

And now that we are back on track with the real discussion here, I can tell you what I am curious the most about:

Whether SA/SB would have a better, thicker magnesium lid!?

This is one of the disadvantages of the current S - the lid is soft and easy to bend down - it barely protects the screen from a force applied in the center...

Just out of curiosity - would that mean that you plan on upgrading every year? There is something just as "HUGE" every january... Sandy will be just what Arrandale is now in an year from now. And yet I still recall the real huge jump - from single core to multi-core... That was something to consider. Arrandale to Sandy... sorry, not impressed.

 

Well, performance plus energy efficiency is a huge thing when coupled together, and the aggregate jump with Sandy Bridge is indeed greater than that of previous generations of processors. But another huge thing for me is Quick Sync Video functionality, which massively expedites the encoding speed for H.264 video files (something which I deal with extremely regularly). So that's another huge benefit of Sandy Bridge.

I don't plan on upgrading for probably another three years once (and IF) I pick up this laptop, and I probably won't have to! My current model is a 2008 Dell M1330 with a Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz, so it's quite a leap for me actually. I just haven't seen anything worth exchanging it for until now, and the speed jump really plays into that also.

 

Exactly Your decision is quite reasonable based on your current machine! But be sure next year there will be a "Mandy Bridge" that will offer you even better performance and a "whole" half an hour longer battery life ) One should distinguish "reasonable" from "obsessive" though. But in your case I truly believe Sandy will make a huge difference, but only if combined with enough other hardware resources - RAM and storage.

 

If your looking for video encoding you should not be using your cpu anyways. The best way to video code is with special drivers from AMD/Nvidia, those will beat your processor any day.

Really there is almost no difference between the last generation processors and this generation besides you might get another half hour to a hour of battery life.

In perspective, my core 2 duo at 2.53 runs faster than my friends I3 at 2.4 at most things the only real difference between these new processors from a core 2 duo is that they are more energy effective, and they can read data a different way so in some cases for very rare things you can get a small boost.

 

^ what? the SB processors blow nehalem out of the water, not to mention core, in fact, the top stock notebook SB processor bests the top stock desktop nehalem processor

 

Uh, if you're referring to CUDA for instance, it's actually terrible for quality H.264. It's plenty quick, but still not as fast as Sandy Bridge's Quick Sync, and the quality doesn't even compare.

Yeah, I should be good. I've been ripping computers apart for twenty years now and run my own computer repair business, so I've got this stuff down pretty good by now

 

Doesn't anyone bother about Intel Wireless Display in 1080p in Sandy Bridge in comparison to 720p in the older CPUs? As fas as I remember, nobody mentioned that in this thread.

I'm curious whether anybody might use this as a decision factor. I almost had - but then favoured another solution.

 

I don`t remember Sony laptops having the wireless display???
Just this 1 model in the US at best buy.

 

I have just come back from a big Sony Vaio Competence Centre in Northrhein-Westfalia where I was told that the SA and Z21 would hit Germany in late March. I tried to confirm the information with a Sony sales rep at Saturn (a big German electronic retailer) but he told me that he has no further information about the release but the fact that the release is at least three weeks ahead since he can’t order the new models yet.

 

Thanks for the heads up NightFyre.
It does make sense that given the Z13 stock dwindling that Sony would push to get the new models out as soon as possible.

 

not likely.

 

I can only report what a sales rep told me. He also mentioned that the Z14 wouldn't hit Europe.
He also made some vague implications on the Z21 but they are too trivial to post them here. The only fact I think is new news is a Thuderbolt port on the new Z. Maybe the new Z will feature a bay with a Thunderbolt port where you can put a GPU or a ODD or another SSD depending on the situation.

 

Are you speculating that the new Z will have a Thunderbolt port or are you speculating? I understand the last sentence is speculation, but I can't figure out that second to last sentence.

 

Isn't the Thunderbolt an Apple exclusive until 2012?

 

Per Engadget Intel has refuted exclusivity rumor stating that other manufacturers are free to incorporate the lightpeak technology now

 

The persion at the Vaio Competence Centre told me that the new design Z will feature a Thunderbolt port but made no references how the port will be used. Regarding beaups' remarks about the new Z will be very different from the new old one I speculated about some uses of the new port.

 

In December Sony and Apple were named the major supporters of Light Peak/ Thunderbolt Anticipating 'Light Peak' tech from Intel, Apple | Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News . Besides Intel declining rumors of Apple’s exclusivity to Thunderbolt I think it is unwise for a new port to be exclusive for over a year. The number of people buying a new MBP and being willing to replace their existing peripherals is too small to make many peripheral manufactures implementing Thunderbolt into their products. But without enough peripheral other notebook manufacturers will not put Thunderbolt into their devices in 2012 so the port would be like FireWire: A good, but not enough supported port.

 

Thanks NightFyre, Im glad the exclusivity agreement is false.
Im getting very excited now, all that remains is to wait for the reviews of the SA, Z lenovo t420s and toshiba R830 so that I can make a decision.
In all likelihood it will be the Sony, but if Lenovo dramatically improves the screen quality the decision will be a lot more difficult.

 

Same here, though I feel the same way about the Toshiba as well. If the screen is improved dramatically, I will change my plans.

 

Cnet.co.uk published hands-on with SB:

Sony Vaio S series | Reviews | CNET UK

 

The review is kind of pointless as the laptop had a technical problem and could not be turned on.

Thanks for posting it anyway though.

I really hope Sony can keep the price SA comparable to the current Z. Some of the leaked documents are suggesting $2500 for a 128Gb SSD model which is rediculous.
I think they need to aim for $1800 with 128Gb SSD and $2000 with 256Gb SSD.

 

It ought to be even less with a 1366x768 screen and an utterly pointless dedicated GPU. I'd be okay with $1,800 for an i7-2620M SA with 1600x900 screen and standard HDD, however.

 

I think not having an affordable 256Gb SSD option will be a huge mistake for Sony. The Toshiba Portege R830-10V has a 256 Gb SSD as standard (no word on price but prolly similar to the current $1700). The Lenovo t420s will probably have a 160Gb SSD and readily incorporates additional storage options for a reasonable price.

Each of these laptops has it's good and bad points. You could get a Z in Canada with 256Gb SSD for $2000 + taxes. I don't think the SA is better than the Z to justify a price hike.

 

I'm all for a Thunderbolt port...hopefully this will mean it will be much easier for the SA/Z to power a 2560x1440/2560x1600 external display.

 

Hopefully we can use it with the DIY ViDock.

 

A British Online Retailer listed the SA1X9E/XI with a 128GB SSD for £1,570.97 in late January but took the listing off his website.

Does anybody know if Sony drops the fall refresh of the SA and will incorporate the planed changes in the first SA? I think this would be really cool and make the SA worth buying more but since Sony had probably ordered the components for the new SA month ago which are laying around at their warehouses only producing capital commitment costs I fear we will neither see already improved specs nor benefit from probable price drops of components like CPUs, GPUs, RAM or SSDs.

 

From Wikipedia:
Thunderbolt can be implemented on graphics cards, which do have access to the DisplayPort data and PCI express connectivity, or on the motherboard of new devices, like the MacBook Pro.

 

Does anyone know what graphics card the SA will come with? £1500 with 128g is pretty expensive as you can guess that better screen will be £150 ish and for a 256 call it another £300 so near £2k but without the portability of the z. Just for reference the toshiba r700 128g model is on sale in the ul for £1700.
It's insane how manufactures get away with such a rip off on upgrades like ram or ssd's charging over retail for parts.

 

The early articles and everything that was taken down said an AMD Radeon 6630HD - basically slightly faster than a 5650 which wasn't a bad card at all.

 

Any more photos? When will it come out? I am saving my $250 rebate from Sony to get a new laptop.

 

These are correct specifications of SB from Asian Sony's division:

VPCSB16FG : S Series : VAIO Notebook : Sony Asia Pacific

More powerful processor -i5-2520M:
VPCSB17GG : S Series : VAIO Notebook : Sony Asia Pacific

Extreme power with i7:
Intel® Core™ i7-2620M Processor 2.70 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.40 GHz
VPCSB18GG : S Series : VAIO Notebook : Sony Asia Pacific

And what is more interesting, the expanded battery:

VGP-BPSC24 : Battery & Adaptor : VAIO Accessories : Sony Asia Pacific
(49 Wh, 4400 mAh + special adapter)

All what was said about missing ports is true. They cut them off.

P.S. Finally, they put 7200 rpm HDD (!) into renewed coloured C series (and even more advanced video AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M) there... Collapse of business reason.

 

SonyStyle.com is down, mmmm.....something is going to happen

 

You can now configure the SB on sonystyle:

https://shop.sony.co.uk/shop/VAIO-Laptop-PCs/S-Series-13-3

 

Nice to see the SSD is 1X 128GB instead of Raid0. Unfortunate that there's no option for a higher res screen.