Sony SA Series Discussion Sony's next new 13.3 laptop

Ok I found out that the Vaio SA in the replacement of the TZ not the Z series I’m really happy to hear that
Sony annonce sa nouvelle série de Vaio TZ
I hope Sony keep the main purpose for the z series and make lighter and powerful notebook

 

That page you linked is from the 30th of May 2007... a Wednesday if my very, very bad school French serves me right.

 

No, it's not, not yet anyway, but the point is that Sony has 3 13" Core i in 2010. How likely that there is going to be just one 13" Sandy Bridge in 2011?

 

This actually means in english "Sony announces its new series of Vaio TZ" which was in 2007, 'sa' here has nothing to do with VAIO SA

 

Im sorry if my comments were misleading against Beaups but against Sony's secrecy ... Why ? Sony is waiting to see what the others are offering at CES or next offering from GOD (AKA Steve Jobs) ... Anyhow I have until the end of January to make a choice which Laptop I will be buying ... Im anxious to replace my old DELL XPS 15

 

What ? Im francophone also what is that link dude ... Back to the future link

 

The laptops in the photos are the sa, yes. In fact they aren't even prototypes, they just are not powered

 

Assuming that Beaups is correct (Im confident he is). The look of the SA is not too bad if you stick with the plain scheme. The big question is whether Sony will improve on the Z13. If the price is better, specifications better and build quality is better I would view the SA a success.

 

I don't recall saying that, I certainly didn't mean to. What I was trying to say is that the info I have on the new gpu (info from amd) showed a 485 clock speed. Meaning 485 is ati's spec, NOT sony's implementation. But the specs I have on this gpu are from back in early October, so they obviously could've changed. I don't know if Sony will underclock or not.

 

I think I could be pretty content with this, if I could get one for about $900 with a dvd burner, and heck I could even forgo the ati gpu as the SB intel gpu would be alright for my needs. I guess all I would care about is the extra battery. Unless Sony or someone big can bring out a nice look ulv i core tablet that is priced fair to replace my TT.

 

Hey beaups, I have a quick question.

Do you happen to know anything about the docking station for the VAIO SA series. If yes, are there going to be any kind of improvements (more USB ports, different connectors, etc.) on those docking stations?

 

How does Sony fit so much into such a slim package and keep it light and cooled?

 

some pixie dust, ground unicorn horn, and a pinch of salt... I haven't the slightest clue, but however they're doing it... I LOVE IT!

 

Pure speculation :

This Vaio remind me Lenovo E420.

It seems a litle bigger than S / SZ / Z.

Old S, and SZ always had problem with fan regulation (and it seems Z also as I read some posts here).
Perhaps this litle more space inside the SA will make the things easier for Sony to control the fan, so the fan noise will not be up and down all the time ?

If the Graphic card is a 6630... No manufacturer seems to deliver this GC in a 13".
On the current gen, only the Acer 3820TG is able to manage a HD5650 (mid+ GC) in a 13". But they were forced to remove the optical drive.

As Sony surely want to still deliver Blu-Ray in their notebook, they were forced to put extra room inside, making the notebook larger.
So why a so powerfull GC ? (You hate gamers here isn't it ?)
They are forced to deliver a better GC than 330m, than the competitors (GT520m ?) and counter the Acer's HD5650 attack.

My advice : They should have make the SA a 14" with high resolution 1600 & 1920.
At least we were loosing in size (but not that much since this 13" is very huge), but we would have win some vision comfort.

(Are you guys sure SA is a 13" and not a 14" ?)

 

Stopped by the Sony Booth yesterday. Saw prototype shells for an upcoming 13.3" Vaio. Probably the SA. Not particularly impressed with the Industrial design. I still like the current Z styling better.

Looks like the next gen Z won't be unveiled until Cebit at the earliest.

-Ed

 

I ask this question again now that we are getting more and more info on this, has this been confirmed by Sony or Beaups to be the official Z successor?

 

Beaups recently posted that z will be continued as separate line from SA/S one

 

I agree. The SZ and VPC-Z for me, was far better looking than this SA. Those ports don't look flushed like they do on the SZ, VGN-Z, and VPC-Z.

However, I can see this SA looking very nice in Black/Matte Carbon Lid like the SZ. And as far as the mouse pad, Sony can do away with that polished silver material on the clicker.

In one of the photos of the SA in black, you don't see the headphone jack on the right side.

Seriously? So the current Z will be refreshed as Sony introduces the SA? I'm all for Sony offering as many 13 inch. notebooks they could possibly offer, but I question why Sony would offer three 13 inch. notebooks - S, Z, and SA?

I'm assuming the Y Series will be discontinued as I don't see at SonyStyle.

 

They had S, Y and Z in 2010, and the 2011 S really is exactly the same as 2010, so why not?

 

Three isn't that bad. Lenovo has 4-5 in 11.6-13in range. Many of them seemingly overlap some of them with some being business oriented models while other being a consumer models and both ranging from low priced to higher priced.

 

No, that is not what beaups stated. This is what they stated below and it's been dscussed a bit in the SA discussion thread. I don't how long the SA will be the Z replacement for, may be it could be months. The VPC-Z hasn't been around that long. I wonder if Sony will be going back to the 13.1 form factor and removable batteries. The former doesn't interest me but if i wait a while to purchase if this is being discontinued quickly i might get a very good price through clearance.

 

@ Rachel

Does that mean when the SA makes its introduction, Sony will hold off refreshing the VPC-Z1490 for a short while? I think its cool that Sony is offering two high-end notebooks rather than one.

 

It reads to me like the VPC-Z will be discontinued and then SA will replace it for a short while, how long i don't know. Then Sony will either discontinue the SA and reintroduce what was the Z form factor etc or possibly keep the SA going side by side with the Z.
Of course this is just speculation and i don't really know what Sony is going to do next.

 

I believe sony will release SA and those who want to upgrade their Z will buy it as a replacement. Later they will release the new Z, then new SA, and so on... both will not replace each other.

 

When is "later" though?

I NEED to buy my laptop in the next 2-3 months. Hopefully a Z successor is out by then.

While the SA would suit my needs, it has the footprint of a 14 inch laptop with a 13 inch screen which is incredibly ridiculous. I like the black matte design, but I'm not buying a 14 inch notebook with a 13 inch screen.

 

^Buy a current Z (Z13), you are not going to see anything else besides the SA over the next 90 days.

 

So, in three months the Z successor will be announced?

 

3 months would be good timing for me, Im planning on buying a laptop before I head to business school in September.

 

We can only speculate and assume that it will. It depends on how long Sony want to use the SA series as the stop-gap.

If I was in the market for a new laptop, there's no reason to ignore the current Z. You can always be waiting for the next big thing to arrive...

 

We don't know when the new Z is coming. All beaups said was that in 3 months it isn't coming out, that can mean it isnt coming out for another 6 months.

 

^I'd buy a Z13...and if a replacement came out in, say, early summer, and I liked the replacement I'd sell the Z13 and buy the new one.....

 

Of course, one can do that but IMHO, it is gonna cost too much money as the resale value will go down quite a bit when selling the VAIO Z13 once the replacement for the still not yet announced VAIO SA comes out.

On the topic of buying a VAIO Z13, I would think that it is best to wait just a bit longer so as to be able to snap up the VAIO Z13 at some "substantial" discount when they go on clearance (I hope).

 

I wonder if the next refresh on VPC-Z will offer one 3.0 USB and Sandy Bridge as in the SA. Lastly, which of these two, SA or Z, will then be Sony's Flagship Notebook?

When the VPC-Z was announced at CES 2010, it was up for pre-order in February 2010, I'm guessing that the SA will be up for pre-order next month, February, no?

I still don't understand why Sony would offer the SA for a short while, as earlier mentioned, and re-introduce a refresh of the VPC-Z. If anything, they may be marketing two flagship notebooks, similar to the marketing of their S and short-lived Y Series.

 

no, what beaups said is that there will only be SA in the next 90 days. Someone also mentioned that expect SA to be available in 2 months. What this means is that by late february or march we will have SA, then much later, probably after july we will see a new Z. That´s the most logic assumption. SA and Z will canabalize each other in a certain way, so sony will probably release new releases of them with months between.

 

Sandy Bridge is a given - it would be folly not to jump on that as soon as possible.

As for other changes, here are my guesses:

USB 3.0: Likely
Quad-core: Likely
4G: Somewhat likely
WiDi: Possibly
3D: Possibly
>8GB support: Possibly
Induction charger: Possibly
Better speakers: Possibly, but unlikely
Non-changeable battery: Possibly, but unlikely
Workstation graphics (Quadro/FireGL branded card): Unlikely
Displayport: Unlikely
Real EFI and GPT support: Unlikely
Touch screen / flipover for tablet functionality: Unlikely
IPS display: Almost certainly not
"Real" carbon fiber, and not plastic painted to look like carbon fiber weave: Almost certainly not

 

Thanks beaups. So, reading between the lines, the new Z successor will be unveiled at CeBIT in March with a likely release in April/May.

 

No, reading between the lines there´s no hint on when new Z will appear, but it´s a certain thing that SA will appear in the next 90 days =)

 

I'm thinking about an 'executive-brag' test : I imagine that I'm an executive, with my Z, on a first-class flight paid for by my company. In the middle of the flight, I whip out my Z, and start bragging about it to my fellow traveler, who incidentally is another non-nerd executive.

Looking through the possible advances, and taking into account the fellow traveler doesn't understand much about technology, what would he be most impressed by?

For the current Z, I can brag about the speed of large file transfers, because of the RAID SSDs. He can tell because I can copy a file on the spot. I can also brag about the FHD screen, and the BR drive on such a small form factor.

What can I brag about in the next Z? If it has 3D without requiring glasses, that would certainly be good enough for a long brag fest. The F requires glasses, so the Z will beat the F, and that's good for a flagship. The flagship should also showcase Sony's main tech, that fits too. It would require better graphics capability, different screen, possibly a different BR (??) drive. Perhaps Sony can't get all these working at the same time yet.

What else is brag-worthy?

 

If anyone buys a laptop to impress then they need their head looked at. FFS...

 

USB 3.0? Screw that, I want Light Peak!

USB 3.0 can always go on top of LP as an adapter, since it's half speed anyway.

 

Nope, the brag test should reveal the sort of thing Sony puts on the next Z's features and attractions page. It is a filter for trying to figure out what Sony might most likely put in the next Z that appeals to the general population, not just nerds.

Of course, whether some exec wants to actually brag about his Z, that is his call

 

Fuel cell battery?
Built-in projector?
Continuous backup to second HD?
EFI-based Hypervisor running Windows and fully licensed MacOS at the same time?
Qriocity client?

 

agreed....................

 

a) Besides worrying about my family jewels, I'm wondering if Sony has a history of 'chasing' after competitors. E.g. Apple appears to be focusing quite a bit on the battery life, would Sony try to catch and surpass Apple? It appears that the Z's focus is primarily on performance, and not the battery kind. So...

b) During CES I think Sony revealed this headset, which supposedly can do 3D and has some sound system in it. Perhaps it would be cool to have the Z 'broadcast' the screen to nearby headsets paired to the Z. Then again, I suppose they can just stare at the same screen

c) Given RAID0's reduction in reliability, maybe not...

d) Steve is angry with you now

e) I think this is definitely going to happen. The software part appears to be relatively easy to install on a Z, and Sony did try to link the PS3 with the current Z. Some sort of unified interface between the Sony devices should be a goal I think.

But the question then becomes: for HD quality, we need high bandwidth. Sony could perhaps bundle a better network connectivity card that provides that bandwidth, just like it did for the Z (Qualcomm GPS Verizon thingy). The question is: Is Sony waiting for the LTE network to be up and running? Is it waiting for Verizon's LTE deployment to be more complete? That does feel likely, and will make Qriocity look quite good.

 

Well, bandwidth wouldn't be that much of a concern if the clients were a tad smarter when buffering. If the speed is low, don't start playing until there's enough buffered that you can play from start to finish while downloading without stopping up every few minutes to rebuffer.
My Sony BD player is a prime example of how not to do it. It buffers, starts playing, stops while filling the buffer again, and so on. And the trick of hitting pause and let it proceed won't work, because it will only buffer a fixed amount -- even though it has a 4 GB memory stick, it will only use a few hundred KB for buffering. (Unfortunately, where I live in backwards US, ADSL 1500/256 at $100 per month is the fastest uncrippled internet I can get. So no HD Qriocity for me.)

Speaking of clients, I'd also like to see a DLNA client. Not server, but client. I don't want to push music and videos to the TV, but be able to play them on my lappie instead of on the TV.

(Windows Media Center can't act as a DLNA client despite what Wikipedia claims - it's UPnP and windows shares only.)

 

Can't you just use Windows Media Player as a DLNA client?

 

That works, in general. However, I think the picture changes when we consider user experience. Suppose the brag-y executive wants to watch a 1Gb movie, and his download speed is 1bit/sec. He's not going to go beyond a couple Kbits before the stewardess tells everyone to stow their electronics away (and the other non-nerd executive goes "Haha!").

I think the scenario to beat is that of using an actual BR disc: if the time it takes for the movie to start streaming is comparable to the time to take out the BR disc, insert and start playing the movie, then the network wins. At home, with 720HD, my wired network takes an acceptable amount of time to start playing the movie. With wireless, especially with its fluctuations and dependence on distance to towers and other factors, I suspect it's not going to be as smooth or as quick to start. With LTE, I'm thinking it goes some way into improving the user experience.

Then again, the brag-y executive with tons of company cash to spend probably wouldn't even know about bits/sec. He'll look at the advertisements ("LTE: the next generation of the fastest and bestest mobile networks!!!"), and he'll already be totally sold And it'll look good on Sony as well, for partnering with a reputable wireless provider, and for keeping up with the latest mobile connectivity technology.

 

There should two options.

A way to let it stream until it's ready to play the whole thing interruption-free, as to avoid the case where it stops to buffer for a few seconds every 5 minutes.

Another way to *force* it to play right away, no matter how much it can keep it up.

Done deal.

 

Guys,

The SA is up for PREORDER. My hunch was February; its actually earlier. There are two pre-configured models up for sale:

1. VPCSA18GX/XI - $2499.99
2. VPCSA18GX/XJ - $2499.99

Link

No specs. and photos are shown and offered yet. I'm sure Sony will have them take it down, as they had Circuit City do with the VGN-SR. I have a PrtSc just in case it disappears.

New F Series: I thought I'd toss this into the mix. This has to be the new F that one article were talking about. It's spec'd with 3.0, but no mention of 3D.

Sony VAIO® VPCF215FX/BI 16" Notebook PC - Black
Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.00GHz / 6GB RAM / 640GB HD / Blu-ray Reader / NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M Graphics / 802.11n / USB 3.0 / HDMI / Windows 7 Home Premium ... more info [ SON VPCF215FXB ]
$1,799.99

SON_VPCF213FXB
Sony VAIO® VPCF213FX/BI 16" Notebook PC - Black
Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.00GHz / 4GB RAM / 640GB HD / Blu-ray Reader / NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M Graphics / 802.11n / USB 3.0 / HDMI / Windows 7 Home Premium
$1699.99

 

The problem with (a) is that it needs to relearn the effective streaming rate every now and then because of link quality changes and congestion (more significant for mobility). Which actually isn't that big a deal I suppose. The problem becomes then that together with (b), the quality of the video will drop.

There's been loads of people working on encoding efficiencies and stuff but, if we can just have a really, really big pipe, the problem becomes simpler. Granted it's not going to solve all the issues, but it would help a lot.

On a semi-related note, I'm slightly surprised Verizon's iPhone doesn't use LTE.