Sony SA Series Discussion Sony's next new 13.3 laptop

They should have an option for 1600x900 screen. The low res screen is a turn off for me...

 

1600x900 doesnt seem to be an option for the SB, but it should be an option on the SA

 

I'd like to know whether the SA is also made in China (like the SB) or Japan. The new Z will probably/hopefully be made in Japan.

 

I'm pretty loyal to Sony (the Vaio I've just ordered is about my fifth or sixth) so have no problems paying the premium for a Vaio; but as you say, the SB is actually very competitive compared to other manufacturers.

 

Sony told me the SB is made in Japan. I won't be very happy if I find out that's not the case, got a link/source?

 

im not sure, but i think my 1st generation z series was made in the usa, but they had to import the premium carbon fiber lid from japan

of course, they also manufactured the z series in japan, but i dont think we got those

 

Both my Z's bought in Hong Kong are made in Japan.

 

With that screen, it's really no different than 13.3" laptops from other manufacturers like Asus (which has a much better warranty than Sony by the way), when do the higher resolution models come out?

 

Few months time, that will be the SA not the SB.

 

Ascariss posted the internal pictures of the SB:

On the first photo there is a large sticker on the bottom of the laptop with Made in China written on it. Of course, this is no 100% proof.
Previous S series was made in China as well.

CTO models are "made in USA", because some parts are put in in the USA, but most of it is made in Japan. Pre-configured models are made in Japan.

 

Well spotted - I've seen that pdf & didn't notice it myself. As you say this is not 100% proof, as it is a prototype model.

I will not be very impressed if they told me the wrong answer to a direct question about where it was being made, they definitely said Japan.

The other possibility is that they are building the early ones in Japan then moving production to China once they've ironed any kinks out - they've apparently done this with past Vaios.

I'll let you know when I get mine and look at the sticker!

 

hmm nothing on sony canada yet, hopefully soon since looking at the pricing in in the US vs poland, I could easily get a higher spec'd model from canada and then import it here.

I wonder if the SA/SB models are from division two, where as the new Z will be division 1?

 

Do we know what the production model's palmrest materials are made from? The matte-smooth-look sure is nice when it's new, but fast-forward a year or two from now, like many SR-owners have noted, the palmrests become shiny/very aesthetically unattractive with use.

 

Single piece of milled aluminium.

Not sure on the SA, as I don't know how much the chassis differs with it being carbon fibre.

 

^Awesome, thanks for the info. That's one of two requirements for my next purchase, the second being decent vertical viewing angles. My Sony SR is still quite good compared to the 1366 x 768 in the old-CW/old-S models, so hopefully the SA's 1600 x 900 will be more along the lines of the Envy's Radiance display, which is, in a word, stunning.

 

The palmrests do look nice. I wish they would nix the stickers, though; this isn't a 1997 Windows 95 Gateway laptop.



The keyboard looks a lot like those from the Mac-camp. Meaning Sony's gone away from the 'scratchy' material that hid fingerprint oil. One of the grossest things I've looked at recently was the keyboard of a Macbook Air at Best Buy that had *so much* grease on the keyboard that I wanted to take a power washer to it before touching it. Hopefully Sony will offer keyboard protectors so we Americans can continue eating buckets of chicken while we surf the web on our new notebooks

Images taken from: Sony VAIO S Series Hands-On - TrustedReviews - TrustedReviews

 

some video of the new S from sony

YouTube - Exclusive Video: New VAIO S 13" Laptop -- SGNL by Sony

as stated in the video standard battery is user removable as is obvious from the FCC documents

 

I also agree with some of the sentiments here that the SB should at least offer a 1600x900 and leave the 1080p screen for the SA, but I do like seeing Sony being competitive in the mid-range consumer market again and not always the high-end (I hope they don't forget their high-end market though!)

 

I'm dissaponted that we need to get i7 processor (250 bucks extra) in order to get amd 6630 here in US. I would have been perfectly happy with the base i5 as it is already very good cpu.

 

Well, Sony needs to save something for the new Z...don't they?

 

The color offerings are more limited than I'd expected. Perhaps the other colors will be released later?

 

Yup, more colors will show up when it will be refreshed.

 

Engadget sort of messed up their whole story.

Many of the photos were for SA, it's not available for a while still.
Either SB or SC (edit, it's obviously the SB now) is coming to US, with very limited distribution (similar to the S last year). Even that is still a little ways out (but not as bad as SA).

 

Thanks, is that typical for Sony to do? And how often are series refreshed? Just wondering whether to place an order now, or wait.

 

Well, that's what whey usually do.
The refresh is usually roughly every 3 months.
Kinda sucks that whatever you buy, there will be a newer one 3 months later.

 

So, this model does not have ExpressCard slot. Couldn't they add at least another USB instead or Firewire? There appears to be plenty of space on the optical drive side. USB would probably cost next to nothing to add. It looks like a pretty decent model otherwise.

 

No, there's no space left on that side: the battery is integrated under the cover and occupies the zone which is note occupied by odd. The battery is large 6,9 cm and its height is 1,2 cm.. so there's no way on that side.

 

This laptop is growing on me, at first I was skeptical and I just noticed that the model in poland ships with 8 gig of ram, blu-ray drive (read only), a 128GB SSD and the 6630M.

No doubt this will cost an arm and a leg here, plus I don't want sony's SSD, I'd rather a hdd and stick my own ssd in. Now to wait and see when it shows up in canada

 

I was gonna wait for the M11x R3, but this is just too attractive. 13+ battery life, thinner & liter than even the new Mac 13", Sandy Bridge + 6630m (the same GPU that Llano will use) and a very elegant design. Pretty much the best of its class.

Although, the "You must select Intel® Core™ i7-2620M processor" in order to get the 6630m is kinda lame. That's like $250 extra.

 

Yep that kind of sucks for you guys in the us. But you dont have to pay as much for the hardware as we europeans do.

 

What about the fans? Are they active all the time or do they shut down most of the time whenever the Radeon (6470M or 6630M) is deactivated via 'stamina mode'.

I am particularly asking since I returned a brand new Vaio S last year because of constantly active fan with a built in Nvidea 310 - even with virtually no load on the system such as just surfing the net. I'd like a quiet system whenever just the Sandy Bridge HD Grafics 3000 is active.

With respect to noise: Is there a difference between a Radeon 6470M and 6630M system in idle mode? Does somebody have hands on experience?

 

Several of the parts are marked Foxconn, which if I'm not mistaken is a Chinese manufacturer.

S

 

If the dimensions are the same or smaller than the S model it is replacing and the screen is actually acceptable, I think I may just go with a base model with the ati gpu. Unless, the SA starts at $1200 and comes with an even better screen.

 

What kind of SSDs does Sony put in their notebooks?

 

Well they have the SB's here in the US now up on the Sony store. I'd buy one but I noticed that you couldn't get the $50 graphics upgrade unless you also got the $150 i7 processor. This seems kinda...off to me. I would buy it in a second if I could get it with the i5.

 

At the moment, five different colours are available for the CTO SB in the UK (white, silver, black, blue, pink). I'd assume that more colour options might show up soon for other markets (before the first refresh), especially since the actual chassis and case are made in the same place for all worldwide orders.

 

Thanks - I'd noticed the UK site had the different color offerings too, which is why I was surprised at what was offered on the US site. Then again, there's also no option for a fingerprint reader yet on the US site, so perhaps they're limiting options for pre-orders. Who knows. I plan to wait a bit longer to see what options present themselves.

 

Guys, I didn't see a thing before:

The previous S series had a simple Vaio LCD.. not a Vaio Plus LCD.

Seeing the other LCD, I saw that those LCD on Sony notebooks that are marked as simple Vaio LCD have a contrast which goes from 120:1 to 250:1 with brightness of black often above 1 cd/cm^2 with a maximum brightness going from 160 to 240 cd/cm^2 with sRGB gamut uncovered for a lot of space color...
Those LCD which are marked as Vaio PLUS Lcd have often a contrast about 500/550:1 , black around 0.40/0.50 cd/cm^2 and brightness from 200 to 250 cd/cm^2 with a sRGB almost completely covered.
It's not like the premium one with 800:1 , 300/350 cd/cm^2 and wider color gamut like MBpro 17" but.. it's not bad at all.
If the SB with Plus Display will show this behaviour would gain a point for this price in my opinion. "contrast about 500/550:1 , black arount 0.40/0.50 cd/cm^2 and brightness from 200 to 250 cd/cm^2 with a sRGB almost completely covered" would be good.

 

Sony SB, etc pre-sales listed in Sony HK:-

Sony VAIO - Sonystyle.com.hk

 

note that the slice battery for the 13 hour battery life will make it thicker than the mac 13, from my guesses

not that it matters to you, as i could care less

 

Right:

SB thickness 2,39cm + battery - 3,49cm

MacBook Pro 13" - 2,41 cm

But a MacBook Pro 13" get 7 hours of dvd playback while an SB with a battery standard gets 6 hour of xvid playback so the difference is not so high. and with additional battery you get 12 hours which is something NOT reachable in other way with such power in the notebook...

 

Any word on if the SA will offer a quad core?

 

I wouldn't count on it.

 

So then the only differences are carbon fiber and 1600x900?

 

since it appears that the SSD in the US version is already the raided one, yep thats the difference.

I still find that i7 + 6630 bundle a rip off. I need the added instructions on the i5 2520m, but I dont need the little speed that the 150+ that the i7 offers me. And I sure as hell wont be downgrading my gpu performance.

 

Will the weight reduction provided by the carbon fiber be significant? Are we looking at about a 3lbs SA vs. a 3.8 SB?

 

should be approximately almost 300g difference = 0.66lbs = 3.2lbs approximately (rounded up)

edit: yup, just googled, it's 1.46kg which = 3.22lbs

 

Any word on dimensions? I was wondering if the carbon fibre lid would make it just a bit thinner.

 

Ok just found out about these two. I know that the SA has a release date of this summer but is it anymore specific than that?

Also does anyone know if Sony authorizes the full amount when you make the order instead of when it ships? I get paid on the 15th and can't currently preorder if they authorize the full amount on order instead of when it ships.

 

Err, yes, they will need to make sure you have the funds available before they proceed...