Sony SA Series Discussion Sony's next new 13.3 laptop

Yes, it's clear with SB. I was hoping that SA would have a reasonable start price. Even $1500 is too much for me.

 

Pretty much no chance of it being anywhere near $1500. They are not going to overlap on pricing. The most likely price is it will take over the old Z's price point of $2000+.

 

That's sad to hear. Will wait for Dell then before making a final choice.

 

beaups already said around $1400 with HDD and core i5

I see no reason for them not to overlap especially since for that price with SB you would get a lot more but with (arguably) worse materials and screen rez.

 

That would be nice, and I hope it is, but I'm definitely not holding my breath on that one.

 

I may be able to do 1400, I hope that quote is fairly accurate.

 

But from the fact that we only see specs leak that have an SSD I get the impression that they want to focus more on that Market. I hope it won`t be the case that the SA with HDD will only available in a few places... I have access to countries where there are no CTO options available

I don`t have a need nor the cash for an SSD drive. I can go 1500 Eur Max. I keep patching my HP to keep it alive until June, hopefully it is worth it

 

I honestly doubt it will be $1,400, you should rather aim for €1,400 or £1,400.

 

$1,400 in US is pretty much €1,400 in Europe - not talking about currency conversion obviously, but about real prices (and some complain about the i7 ripoff in US)

I doubt it will be much more then that, 1,400-1,500 is a reasonable price for it, and beaups did already say that it should be around that.
SA and SB are "same class", SA just has some upgrades, so the point about price overlap doesn't make much sense to me (1,500 is still 50% more then SB's starting price).
Also consider that SA isn't a Z replacement (Z is getting a refresh too, but "it wont be anything like the old model"), so if SA would go to $2,000 starting price, where would the new Z need to be ($4,000 ??, since Z is the premium model)

Just my #0.01

 

I believe in 1500 USD for i5 + HDD. Let´s don´t forget sony got a delay, so they will have to come with some attractives like a good price.

 

Rumors are that the new Z is gonna be the Hybrid PC Sony leaked about. meaning it won't even be that expensive... Its a tablet like CPU+ integrated graphics and a SSD basically without almost any connections but a Thunderbolt to plug to the module number 2 a dock-like with a proper ODD,conections, keyboard, discrete GPU and another HDD i guess.... so nothing like the old Z, being the combined prices would be around the current pricetag of Z but since you can buy the main module and later the other its more acessible ahahah

my one cent

 

Just because it's a hybrid PC doesn't mean it's inexpensive. This is Sony we're talking about after all.

And supposedly it comes with module 2 which makes it more expensive as well.

 

Yea, the top end laptops from Sony never come cheap, thats for sure.

 

Just saw this, UK review posted today, haven't had a chance to read it yet:

Sony VAIO SB Review

4 out of 5 stars.

 

The guess prices of each module belonging to the Hybrid PC were not Z-like expensive, that's all i meant. its just guesses though..

if the screen of the SA is really something more than amazing than i guess i'll be switching my SB screen for one in the future xD

 

The SA is on Amazon.co.uk here for pre-order. Release date of June 2nd.

 

I hope that is a mistake...
128GB HDD for 1700 gbp??? that`s 2000 euros for an SB with carbon fiber, better screen but worse Hardrive

I guess they ment 128GB SSD

 

Yes, it is a mistake. It says SSD if you go into the full technical specifications.

 

It was already posted here. Anyway, the price is too high IMO.

 

Sorry, been following this tread since the start. Must have missed that one.

 

With higher specs and higher resolution, do you guys think this SA will consume more battery than the SB?

 

Higher specs don't necessarily mean more power consumption, but if it's even lighter (and thinner?) perhaps it will contain a smaller battery. And I don't think it actually can be equipped with better hardware than the sb can also have. (i7 & HD 6630M max)

 

Not to the point where it would be really noticable. Having a higher resolution panel does mean slightly more battery consumption (due to the fact that the computer has to register more pixels, regardless of the screen size), but the battery life difference would probably in minutes.

Think of the difference of battery life between a laptop with a full powered i5 and a full powered i7 with a slightly higher clock rate.

 

The amazon price is basically £350 more than SB with the same specs so you might expect the SA with most basic hard drive for £1379 then say £400 for decent size ssd just under £1800.

It depends on the overall weight and the screen as higher res display plus woudl not be worth it, woudl have to be a preimium screen for that price.

 

Let's hope that Sony will announce soon the SA with its final specs, price and release date

 

The amazon release date info looks promising. Only 6 weeks away if that is true. Cannot wait to get this.

Basically I looks like the SA will take over a chunk of the Z market share while the new Z will be more revolutionary (but potentially Fail) with some kind of MBA / dock / something else approach. Personally, I prefer what the SA seems to offer.

Fingers crossed here for a 1080p upgrade option. Any mention if this so far?

 

Anyone see the SB in a retail store yet? I have checked Fry's and Best Buy without luck. Our Sony store closed here awhile back.

 

Looks like Best Buy will be carrying under their blu-label brand the SC with widi and blu-ray standard for a bit under $1000.

 

2nd june just about tolerable but the problem is that cto is going to be 3 weeks after that, it would be nice if they had a good range of pre configured options at launch.

 

This looks good...

 

It could be, but I am not sure what the difference between the SC and SB are. Is the SC the Best Buy version of the SB, or model that even more consumer oriented?

 

beaups could give us a hint on when to expect new Z specs.

 

I'd have to say the SB is consumer oriented enough... 720p display, HDD, mediocre discrete graphics and i5 (I am talking about the base model). The SC is just the Best Buy name for the SB. Depending on where you are, the SB and SC refer to the same models (that's true internationally too)

 

Doesn't the SC look a bit different in design from the SB?

 

Some have said that the SC weighs more than the SB but i'm not so convinced about that.
VPCSC1AFDS | VAIO SC Series Laptop | Sony Canada

13.3" Core i7 Laptop | VAIO® S Series Laptop | VPCSB1BGX/B | Sony USA

VPCSB11FXB | VAIO SB Series Laptop | Sony Canada

The first two links suggest that the weight difference is down to the HD but in the third link it's listed as 3.6lbs which is the lightest i've seen it listed as. The UK website lists a very similar model as 3.85lbs. I see that notebookcheck also weighed a SB in at 3.83lbs.
Review Sony Vaio VPC-SB1Z9EB Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews
BD's drives tend to weigh a bit heavier than DVD drives.

The chassis is different. I posted some pictures in this thread.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7335827-post12.html
In the US the SB seems to come in various configs so i see less purpose in releasing the SC in the US.

 

That's interesting... the SC has the better keyboard tray IMO... VERY mac-esque

hmm... i don't know why sony would do this... have two very similar designs at one time...

edit: maybe the SC's design was their original one for the SB... then they decided to change so they had surplus weird keyboard trays and now are passing it off as a "Best Buy" special

 

The Blue Label version is one hell of a deal. Blu-Ray drive, hybrid 4GB flash/500GB hard drive, $99 WiDi adapter, 2 year warranty, no crapware. And $949! That's cheaper than the base model SB!

 

Just got my fully loaded VPCSB.

[size='-1']Blu-ray Disc™ Player Large Capacity Sheet Battery AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB VRAM) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology. 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333 Intel® Core™ i7-2620M processor (2.70GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.40GHz 256GB. (128GBx2) Solid State Drive with RAID 0 Technology. 13.3" VAIO Display with LED backlight (1366 x 768) [/SIZE]

I am not impressed with the way this device looks. Both structurally and more importantly - the display. I've got a 2009 Z690 right here with 1600x900 resolution on a 13.1" screen which looks spectacular. Both in color, clarity, depth, smoothness, and brilliance. Sitting next to this old school laptop with a far inferior video card, the VPCSB looks hokey, washed out, faded, bulky, and lower quality. It brags about a high definition top of the line display with amazing graphics card. Yet sitting next to my 2 year old Vaio VGN-Z690 the display is very poor. You can see vertical lines on the screen, its washed out and faded, and because Sony is trying to force a larger resolution on a 13.3 screen (1366x768), everything displays "bigger" and uglier than it is supposed to.

Additionally, I am transitioning from Vista (which has a much more sleek, minimalist appearance with significant screen space) to Windows 7 - which also forces a significantly more "bulky" looking display onto everything. Larger taskbar by nearly 50% (even with small icons) and windows have fatter wider borders than necessary.

The bezel around the display is just plain ugly. Its much too large and is reminiscent of a 1992 laptop. Before they figured out that things look better slimmer. Its a serious downgrade visually. This "Bulky" feel adds nearly 50% more empty, useless space around the screen, which results in the footprint of the laptop being nearly a full inch bigger than the Z series. This increased footprint makes carrying the laptop actually feel about 30% heavier than the Z series.

The larger resolution causes everything to be slightly "blurry" and swollen as well, which is a terrible effect, for someone like me who works on web design and needs things to look *correct*. As if that wasn't enough, the hue on this display is wrong. It has a stale yellow hue to everything, which makes web pages display wrong, and faded out.

When I go into my video settings it wont let me go higher than 1366 resolution. It doesnt list my video card (which I got the upgraded one), it just says VAIO LCD. When I click "Detect" it finds the AMD Radeon HD 6630 and lists it, but the "Resolution" box is grayed out and I can't change anything.

How can I get this computer to a more realistic resolution?

The border around the monitor on the VPCSB is extremely wide, making it look like an old school retro 1990 laptop. Why would they make the border of the monitor (and therefore the overall size of the laptop) 50% larger when the screen itself is exactly the same size? Its disproportionately big and ugly. There is a ton of wasted space. The laptop weighs a ton and for the exact same size laptop, it feels like a suitcase compared to the Z series.

Totally bummed right now...

NB

 

Something tells me you'll be returning it.

How does it compare to the VGN-SZ 750 with 1280x800 resolution? Did you ever own an SZ before your Z? I really liked the SZ, but if this SB is worst than the SZ, I may consider the new Z in July. Thanks.

 

just return it. There is no way to higher the res unless you swap the lcd. The same goes for the bezel

 

Comparing the SB to a Z (even older generations) is like comparing
- a cow to a race horse...
- a toyota to a Porshe
- a big mac to a dinner in a french restaurant
- ...

you just made a wrong choice IMHO

 

yes, you have the option of making a wrong choice in USA. You can't return stuff for no reason in Brazil. I believe SA is what you are looking for.

 

I like pretty much everything about the Vaio SB except for the display. As the poster stated above, it is yellowish and dull compared to others displays, especially the MacBook Pro, which is the best display I have personally seen. Whites are not white but instead a yellowish white. If only it had a good display, it would be a perfect notebook. Hopefully they will update the graphics drivers and provide more control in the ATI control panel for display color correction.

 

I went to central London earlier today and spent some time on Tottenham Court road. I visited most of the electronics shops there including the Sony Centre and finally got my first glimpse of the SB series specifically the SB1X9E/S. Considering there was a Vaio Z13 just on the next table from it, I could make a fair comparison between the two. Here are my impressions, considering I currently have an (ancient) SZ2XP/C and was eyeing up the Z before I heard about Sandy Bridge, and that I'm waiting for the SA1Z9E...

> The SB has very good build quality - it feels as good as the Z and the unibody MBP, especially the aluminium palmrest, and there is little noticeable flex in the chassis. The SA should have less flex if the CFRP structure is well designed. That palmrest and the way it slopes down to the keyboard surface is fantastic and gives it an incredibly premium feel. The MBP would feel better if it wasn't so damn heavy and wasn't dented so easily (as happened to a friend of mine's). The hinge also feels very sturdy in my opinion and is very smooth.

> It is very light - at 1.69 kg, but the display model didn't have the battery inside and then it felt like it needed some more heft because it was too light for its size.

> The bezel - yes it is quite wide, but it's more evident on the silver model; on a black model it'd be fine, considering it's about the same size as the bezel on my SZ (black) and the MBP 13".

> General looks - in person, the laptop is actually quite pretty, and looks a lot better than in photos, just because of the way the finish looks under normal lighting.

> The keyboard - man, it is the best keyboard on a laptop I've used, it is very comfortable and easy to type on, hard to mistype thanks to its isolated keys, and it has a full-size enter key, unlike the MBP (very annoying when typing long documents and using the web). Keys feel better than those on the Z series. The backlighting is great as well. Sadly, there are no dedicated Home, PgUp, PgDn and End keys, they are Fn mapped to the arrows.

> The power - yes the display model only had the i5-2410M, the 5400 RPM 500 GB hard drive, and the HD6470M, but it was a very quick machine. Graphics switching is now smoother and quicker than on the Z.

> The screen - it's really not that bad. Compared to other laptops from Acer and HP in its price range (£850-1100), the screen is more than acceptable. However the Z next to it with its 1600x900 display had deeper blacks, more vivid and accurate colours, better refresh rates and looked just damn gorgeous... just as you'd expect from a £1700+ laptop. The SB's display not as good as Vaio Display Plus, Premium, or the Lenovo IPS displays. Horizontal viewing angles are just fine, vertical ones are worse than those on my SZ. Auto dimming works like a dream, though. Also, it's matt, so it doesn't blind you with sunlight or showroom spotlights, and it's very bright.

> The smart battery - they did not have a working one to demonstrate to me, but they did have a dummy, and it is very light (its weight seemed true to the real deal) and its design works well with that of the laptop.

> The cooling - yes, there is a worry that the vent is blocked by the screen's hinge, but playing videos and using Windows Media Centre did not make it uncomfortably hot. In fact, it ran quite cool and there was no noise at all (considering the shop was quite empty and the Vaio section is on another floor from the rest of the Sony products). The air vent is quite large and is never completely covered by the hinge... air can still easily circulate around it.

> The ports - yes they may all be on one side, but that's pretty much the case with my SZ and it really doesn't bother me, as the clean look of the laptop is preserved in this way, rather than having ports litter all sides of the base. Plus, all the desks and tables I use my laptop on, however small, never cause USB devices to get in the way of my mouse or general usage.

> The trackpad and mouse buttons - the trackpad is the biggest one I've seen on a laptop of this size, save for the one on the MBP. It works very well and is a pleasure to use, with good sensitivity (not sure if it's better than the one on my SZ, which is very sensitive and very smooth to use). Two finger scrolling doesn't seem to be available in Mouse Options, but I didn't really have the time nor the internet to check for a workaround (the in-store WiFi required a passkey, which hadn't been entered). Edge scrolling works well, especially with the wheel scrolling feature, where you move your finger in a circular motion to scroll. Pinch to zoom works fine, though not without small issues from time to time. The mouse buttons are nice and large and easy to click, even with the fingerprint reader in between.

> The price - the SB's price is incredibly competitive, considering what you can get from Lenovo or Apple is more expensive and is the same quality and reliability, not to mention that in-warranty support for Vaio in the UK is excellent in my experience. The SA is significantly more expensive, but is still cheaper than an equivalent Z series and MBP making it good value for money, if you really need that screen and that SSD drive... and can afford it.

> My verdict - if you are looking to spend £800-£1200 on an ultraportable laptop, you cannot overlook the SB. Just put in a 7200 rpm hard drive and you're off. Better than the MBP or Lenovo X220 simply due to its discrete graphics card and speed. However, if your needs are more similar to mine, and you want the best of the best with all the bells and whistles, wait for the SA. Either way, you can't go wrong in this segment with the new S series.

* Please note that all the above is my opinion and my personal experience.

Other stuff:

Speaking to a Sony rep (who seemed very knowledgeable), he said that Sony's comments to the Centre about supply of the SA are that it is currently delayed due to issues regarding the closure of a number of Sony manufacturing facilities due to the recent Japan earthquake and tsunami. Sony have not announced a release date at the moment and there is no news as to when they are planning to release it. However, when I asked him about delivery dates from order for the SB, it takes 1 week for a preconfig model to be shipped and 2-3 weeks for a CTO.

Inquiring with other retailers on Totteham Court road, they said the following things about the new S series:

> Some retailers have not heard about the models at all, one mentioning that Sony only lets you to sell their models if your shop has a revenue above a certain figure, limiting them to more 'premium' retailers and those which can quickly and efficiently shift the units.

> A number of retailers said they're taking delivery in two weeks of a number of models from Sony, and while they don't know which specific models they will receive, they will get some S series stock.

> One retailer told me they are getting a delivery of the SB in two weeks, and also that in two weeks he is going to Sony to see the new SA and to negotiate price and stock quantities, with deliveries to start soon after that.

> All the retailers that knew of the model said that there was a lot of interest and many people were going around asking about the new S series.

> There are shortages on all Vaio models currently (because of the Japan disaster) and over the last 6 months due to ever-increasing popularity and demand for Vaio laptops.

On a side note unrelated to this specific thread, I also saw the hideously fluorescent green and orange CB models and they really do look like they have edge lighting all over - they actually look awesome in person.

I hope some useful information can be extracted from this post by potential S series buyers... and sorry I wrote a damn essay If I put this much effort all the time into my uni work, I'd earn the Nobel prize before I finish my degree

 

Looks like a great value. It also has a hybrid HDD, which is a good fit for this mid-level laptop/price.

It lacks a fingerprint reader (no big deal.) It has lesser graphics (6470) which is a big bummer. The 6630 is much better than the 6470. It also does not list the graphics as switchable. If not switchable you would lose out on the HD graphics better battery life and rapid video encoding.

 

The pictures show a switch for "Stamina" and "Speed", same as the SB.

Blue Label <- Click Sony then Features for close ups.

And the 6470 is the base GPU in the regular SB.

 

You guys are right. I should have gone for the new Z model rather than changing models.

The display on this model sucks. Anyone who says otherwise suffers from a lack of attention to detail. The yellow hue and the oversized resolution results in both incorrect color rendering and bulky, blurry, swollen display content. Especially on web sites.

However I should note that the sony rep told me I "got the one with the standard display, not the one with the upgraded high definition display option". At which point I told her I was almost 100% sure I had upgraded everything I could, and there was no other display upgrade. She checked and saw that was true. So ... if there is a model with a decent display, then great.

The sheet battery on this computer however is the most briliant, amazing design change I have seen in laptops in years. To provide someone with 15 total hours of battery life without having to swap out batteries - and without any big gaudy high capacity battery sticking out the back end, is just plain genius. I hope beyond all hope that the sheet battery will be added to all new Sony laptops. You can carry the thing around and barely notice the weight difference. You dont notice *any* structural difference. And you've got a laptop with 15 hours of life in your hands? Brilliant.

 

Just wait for Sony SA which will have a decent display. At least thats what I'm doing.

 

Hopefully the SA will have a better display than the SB. I'm hoping for a premium display CTO. Some posters have said that where build goes the SB is superior to the current Z series.

I was hoping to use an old 128GB SSD that i have here-I will though be better of with a SATA 3 SSD so i guess it's time to upgrade. Still, i don't want RAID drives so i'll need to purchase another 128GB-256GB and give that one away.

 

Any news on when the SA is coming out?