Sony SA Series Discussion Sony's next new 13.3 laptop

What a strange decision to put all the ports on the right side and the OD on the left side.

 

would have liked the premium display but too impatient, ordered an sb at the weekend and received an email today confirming its in production and delivery should be next week.

core i5 2520
hd 6630 1gb
7200rpm 500gb (i need space more than ssd)
4gb ram
fingerprint reader (well its a bit of bling)
oh and white (wifes choice not mine (maybe ill hold for a black sa )

 

Any word on when the SA is expected?

(likely been asked already, but I could find anything)

 

New pics of SB from Japanese website

 

I wonder if the SB (and the SA for that matter) will have any open mini-PCIe slots inside, for adding a wireless card (for the GPS, I don't really care about WWAN connectivity per se) or one of those miniature SSDs Intel has been flogging.

The price on the SA sounds pretty good, a bit better than I expected. I might wait to pick one up.

RE: pix above. Damn the Macbooks are so much more awesome looking. I wish they weren't so damn expensive.

 

Is that with the slice battery? Hope so as it looks way fatter than the MBP

 

I think it's without the slice battery...

 

Well that's disappointing then

Although the new design is much nicer than the old S series, the side with all the connections on does look a bit messy, especially when you compare it to a macbook pro (which it shares market with).

 

Some more pictures here-
???????????

I agree putting all the ports to one side is a little unconventional and it hasn't been done brilliantly. It's something that i could put up with though. It also looks better with the coloured option models.

This whole release has not been the greatest and now we have to wait several months more for the SA. The thought has crossed my mind as to whether we will see the SA. I think we probably will though and i'll just keep waiting.

From earlier leaks we gathered that-
Technical Description: Sony SA1X9E/XI Intel Core i7-2620M Processor, Windows 7 Professional 64bit, 4GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory, 128GB Dual SSD (RAID 0), 13.3" WXGA++ (1600x900) VAIO Display Plus, AMD Radeon HD 6630M + Intel HD Graphics 1GB, DVD SuperMulti Drive, HDMI, 802.11a/b/g/n, Buil - VPCSA1X9E/XI.CEK (Laptops Notebooks)
£1,570.97
http://www.morecomputers.com/techdesc.asp?pn=vpcsa1x9e/xi.cek

VPC-SA1Z9E 13.3"/i7-2620M/8GB/256GB SSD/HD663M 1GB/WIN7PRO/1.46KG zwart, 2.799,00 (Euro)

Pricing seemed bang on for the SB so i wouldn't be surprised if you can get a HD SA for around 1,400-1500 (euros) list price and may be some retailers will sell it a bit cheaper especially with discounts. I've got an SSD here already that i would use so would go with the HD SA model.

 

Wai wait wait... the SA display is not premium but plus???!?!??
Beaups.. do you know something?

 

Why disappointing?? Take a better look. trace a line from the CENTER top of MBpro to the SB, parallel to the plane... you'll see that the MBpro is thicker (it's a very litlle difference). Do it with zoom, cuz that grey over grey is misleading

 

I just had a look in photoshop and you're right there is hardly any difference at all, must be an optical illusion

 

For what it's worth, going off their respective product pages from official sites:

13" MBP
Height: 24.1mm
Width: 325mm
Depth: 227mm
Weight: Approx 2.04kg
Apple - MacBook Pro - Technical specifications of the 13-inch model.

Sony Vaio SB
Height Main Unit 23.9mm
Width Main Unit 331mm
Depth Main Unit 224.5mm
Weight with Supplied Battery and Supplied Drive 1.75kg
(edit with corrected link) http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-s-series/vpcsb1a9e-b

As Crystal1988 has astutely pointed out, the grey background does give off the impression that the MBP is a bit thinner than the SB.

 

Another photo showing that it is made in China:

(link)

Sorry that the sales rep misled you (unfortunately that is not an unusual thing).

 

Ah well. If the fit & finish is below par they can have it straight back.

Not prejudiced against Chinese assembly in general, but I have certainly preferred Japanese-assembled Vaios in the past.

@ shift6: that bears out the PowerPoint slides posted up thread & then removed, where comparison to size & weight of the 13" MBP was quoted as being a selling point.

It would be interesting to find out how many sales they will steal off the MBP, as it's very similar form factor/design yet better specced for less money; that's clearly what they're gunning for.

 

From earlier leaks we gathered that-
Technical Description: Sony SA1X9E/XI Intel Core i7-2620M Processor, Windows 7 Professional 64bit, 4GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory, 128GB Dual SSD (RAID 0), 13.3" WXGA++ (1600x900) VAIO Display Plus, AMD Radeon HD 6630M + Intel HD Graphics 1GB, DVD SuperMulti Drive, HDMI, 802.11a/b/g/n, Buil - VPCSA1X9E/XI.CEK (Laptops Notebooks)
£1,570.97
http://www.morecomputers.com/techdes...x9e/xi.cek

VPC-SA1Z9E 13.3"/i7-2620M/8GB/256GB SSD/HD663M 1GB/WIN7PRO/1.46KG zwart, 2.799,00 (Euro)


I woudl have to guess that one of these prices must be wrong as the only difference between the 2 models appears to be 4gb of ram and 128g ssd space buy the price difference is about £800 which can't be right.

It woudl be nice if Sony put up the listing for pre-orders even if they don't ship until end of april (fingers crossed).

 

256GB SSD upgrade is expensive (around £400), it is not stated what kind of display the SA1Z9E has, it has maybe BluRay-Writer, etc. So £800 difference is possible.

 

What will the write speed be on the CTO Blu write drive? The small drives in the Z have slow write speeds compared with the larger laptops.

 

On the CTO SB series, the 128GB SSD is +£320 from the standard hard drive, and the 256GB is +£690, so that's nearly an extra £400 right there.

Add the £80 for the extra 4GB RAM, assume the higher end one has Blu Ray (£150 option on SB), and some variance in UK/European pricing, and your price difference starts to look fairly realistic.

Edit: ha, emev beat me to it while I went to look up the actual prices!

 

Some specs are listed here for the VPC-SA1Z9E and it's a little cheaper here and it indeed appears to come with a BD drive. I'm not sure how reliable this site is though. May be the given price of the VPC-SA1Z9E in the other post is out and the lower end model about right. I'm not sure what was the source for that leak.

http://notebooknet.de/product_info.php?info=p4942_Sony-VAIO-VPC-SA1Z9E-XI.html

 

that bezel is huge on the sb model.

 

It's certainly an interesting design decision, especially since they'd only have to shave ~6mm off the width to be able to really market it on the 'smaller than a MBP 13" in every dimension' thing.

Must be to do with space considerations in the bottom half, as with anything this size it's pretty tightly packed in.

 

for sure the bezel is designed that big for a purpose. But, again, with a laptop with this much power,features and also stylish the bezel kind of a blow a little bit. I'm thinking the reason for the size of the bezel has something to do with durability of the laptop. Make it more sturdy or something. Because if you replace LCD screen before you know that there isn't anything BESIDE that LCD other than the two wires, and the bars holding the LCD.

 

I couldn't care about it being stylish as such. I'd rather have a slightly bigger screen in the same size laptop, or a higher resolution one, for purely utilitarian reasons. That would probably mean I couldn't then afford it though.

As someone with more than a passing interest in design it does baffle me that they couldn't lose that extra 6mm, I'd love to know what the technical reason behind it was.

 

Hmm if the screen on the SA will not be a premium screen then other than the higher resolution I am not sure if I personally need a higher res screen.

Unless there is a SA CTO with hdd option and the hi-res screen for a good price, nothing over 1200, I doubt I will go for the SA and just opt for the SB and stick in a ssd later on

 

Yes, it is China. Here is a special case for SB-SA seemingly

 

Is that the connector for the slice battery? Having it exposed doesn't seem very good...

Interestingly according to the spec on the bottom, that one has the fingerprint reader but not TPM, which I don't think is an option in the production version.

& it's a bit cheeky displaying it with the BT mouse when they want extra money for it! (& doubly so since they're bundling a mouse with the C series, which is cheaper)

Mine ships Friday so will have some pictures of a real one for you all next week, unless someone beats me to it.

 

Here is the thing, my FW CTO is made in the USA since it was assembled there, but truth it wasn't, only certain items were put into the device where as the rest of it was probably assembled elsewhere.

the fact it is being assembled in China is actually better than it being assembled in some other country where there is little or no assembly of electronics.

I don't mind the ports on one side but being right handed and using an external mouse on my laptop, the ports on the right side may become a problem if too many things are connected.

Also the vent in the back, I am wondering how much heat will be present and blowing on for example the lap when one is not using the laptop on a desk.

 

Yes, this is the connector for outer battery, even without cover
Friday is soon W''ll be happy to see unboxing!

 

I ordered it about 2 hours after the CTO went live on the UK Sony site

She was unsure about how long the shipping would take, but it's leaving the factory on Friday & will be with me sometime next week.

 

beaups,

Will the Z be a "higher end" machine than the SA or a different approach to achieving similar levels of performance? More specifically, in maxed-out custom configurations, will the Z offer a faster processor, high quality screen, larger SSD, etc. than an SA?

 

How long are you delivery times then ? I ordered last week but they are saying it will be sent between 14th and 19th. Shipment is 7 days.

 

I'm getting express delivery but I don't know how long that takes. The Sony UK rep couldn't tell me either, just that it was in production at the moment and leaving the factory on the 11th.

 

The battery connector comes with a removable cover. It says so in the user guide

 

I was told that they would leave the factory on the 11th as well, but a couple of days after that it went to the 14th.

 

In that site it's told that SA will be available on 17 March!! How is it possible? (weight seems wrong.. probably it's fake)

 

I agree with you on the dates may be that was the eta before the expected delays. Also, BD models can weigh a little bit more.
I know that adding a BD drive increased the weight of my TT a little. Also, may be 1.46kg is without WWAN. It looks like it could be wrong but i guess we just need to wait and see.

 

I was told that at about 11.00 today (GMT) - be interesting to see if it slips!

Good to know about the removable connector cover, anyone know if they've had the brains to design somewhere for it to clip into the slice battery when you're using that?

 

grey background and rounded corners of the macbook pro make it look like it is thinner than SB. However when you draw a staraight line from the thickest point of macbook pro, it is clear that overally SB is thinner than macbook pro. Have a look at the attached image.

 

Or you could just look at the dimensions from the respective websites, which were posted just below the pictures?

 

Just trying to help. Chill

 

I'm puzzled,
if sony tried to compete with MBP why didn't they shave off 2cm on sides (length) and min. 1cm on width, since there is really thick frame around screen

MBP 32.5 x 22.7 x 2.41 cm
SA 33.1 x 22.4 x 2.39 cm
it could easily be smaller

 

It would probably be thicker then. Besides, the SB has a 16:9 schreen while the macbook has a 16:10 screen.

This laptop is still very compact build, even with a dedicaded graphics chip and more ports than the macbook has.

Im fine with this size, one cm more or less in width or length doesnt matter that much.

 

^^ If we multiply the 2 sets of WxDxH numbers, the SA is 1/3 of 1% smaller than the MBP. Ok ok.. there's no difference

 

Hard to say without knowing what fits in the inside..

MB Pro using the latest iteration of an Intel's integrated solution. The SA has the 6630M which is more powerful than the 5650 found in 14.1" laptops weighing 5 lb's and bigger.

 

I'm sorry but I've had to ask. is there an official photo of SA? its way lighter than SB and has the same specs. but couldnt see a SA vs SB photo.. It has 1600x900 screen and BD and it weighs 1.47 ok but where is it? can we see it? couldnt find anything on that one..

 

I think it's the same chassis/design of the SB meaning, what you see is what you get, except that it'll have better components and it'll be cheaper.

 

Thanx for the quick reply but what doesnt make sense is there is a 300Grams of difference between SA and SB.. That difference is only because of the material they used?

 

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

 

Thanks . Well from the guy's mouth "It will charge the internal battery first, then the external, then it will discharge external then internal." (~2:30) that's smart. I read before that it discharges internal first... which is dumb. Glad to know that isn't the case

edit: Whoah! at around ~3:05 is that the AC adapter??? O.O that's small! I don't now how small compared to the USNA 95...

edit2: the C series looks kinda ugly now that i see it... the sides remind me of some older pavilions before they went Mac-esque