Sony VAIO VGN-TZ198N/RC DISCONTINUE

Does anyone know why SONY discontinue the VGN-TZ198N/RC? I'm just wondering as they said that it is a pretty good piece of Ultralight Notebook and having such big demand but why do they discontinue the product?

 

Who said its discontinued? SonyStyle only says its out of stock. If it is to be discontinued, I feel they'll replace it with a TZ199N/XC.

 

lol sucks for the 198er's if their about to come out with the 199 with better specs but at the same price.

 

Probably it will come -also to US- a model with the 64 GB SSD and the optical drive integrated.
In Japan already exists and is called TZ91.

 

The highest end models from Sony have had carbon fiber on the lid, and the TZ191N had a 32gb SSD, add four numbers and you get the TZ195N with 48gb SSD, how about add four more numbers and get TZ199N with 64gb SSD and DVD? And my guess is thats the last model to come out before the TZ line is refreshed again and here, the TZ2XX (for example VGN-TZ250N/B) will have the 965 chipset and X3100 graphics.

 

Totally o/t but a loaded x61t with sxga display is $1500 delivered with FatWallet cashback. Ends today. I am seriously considering it. This after I was offered a LG A1 for $1500 here in Saudi.

Decisions....decisions...

 

Could you compare in terms of performance the ipothetic TZ2XX with the actual model of TZ? What about the battery and the fan? I'm confused...take the actual model or wait the next upgrade?

 

You can't at this moment... there is no spec or any info on TZ2xx now. In fact, we don't know if there is one coming. But again, there is always new models replacing the old ones.

The new Sony ultra portable probably not going to be on 965 chipset x3100 since it improve nothing but drain more power based on the same ULV CPUs. The ultra portable platforms are never performance oriented. Developers are more interested into making it smaller and less power consumption.

According to Intel, the new notebook CPU suppose to coming late 2008 are "Montevina" and "Menlow". The Montevina is Penryn based processor for standard notebooks, while Menlow designed for ultra lower comsumption (only 1/10 of the power consumption of today's UMPC). After Menlow there is Moorestown, which only uses 1% power of today CPU at idle.

 

The TZ is a "hot commodity" for Sony, as is the SZ...you can bet there will be a TZ2xx series very, very soon.


-Mike

 

When the previous Vaio TX was updated to 945 chipset from 915, the battery life increased with the more power efficient Core Solo, but wouldn't the 945 take more juice than the 915?

I have seen a couple of ULV X3100 notebooks have great battery life, like the Fujitsu T2010.

The Asus U1F, an 11.1" notebook just like the TZ, was just updated to X3100 and 965 chipset (U1E), I just feel that Sony will do the same early next year to compete with the U1 for instance and find a way to keep the battery life same or improve it. The 945 will have been around for two years next month, so I feel Sony will migrate all their notebooks from it by early next year.

 

915 chipset was updated to 945 because the previous chipset is optimized for Pentium M processor. The performance gain from TX to TZ are contributed from dual core processor.

The difference between 965 and 945 is 965's better video rendering capability. Or the key, 965 can run DirectX 10 with appropriate driver but 945 can't. But I don't see how is this going improve TZ in particular. Intergrated graphic needs CPU to process video. Without the necessary CPU power, its meaningless because the current ULV CPU aren't good enough for DirectX 10 gaming. Not to mention you will also lose 30% more RAM to video. You system can only run as fast as the slowest components in the computer. The same logic goes ppl who turn off Aero in Vista to enchance performance. When you increase the capacity of the intergrated video, it reserves more CPU power for its purpose.

I have not followed VAIO notebooks for long so I may not know how Sony notebooks are updated. They might update the TZ to 965 for the... marketing reason? However, there will be no performance gain based on the same ULV CPU setup, not to mention Sony may charge $500 for this "upgrade". I would rather use the money on a SSD than 965. The only reason I can see for this update is along with some new CPU lineup. Until better processing power, 965 is more of marketing propaganda than performance on ultra portables.

 

So psun 786,

Are you saying that for such a machine as the TZ that is made basically for portability and battery life, a refresh with the 965 chipset will not benefit the performance? Also, I think that this kind of chipset will produce more heat and discrease the battery life. Correct?
All in all in your opinion, is better to take this generation of TZ than wait the refresh with the ipothetical specs of Santa Rosa?

 

Your purchasing decision depends on what are your key performance criteria: Do you want the impressive battery life or do you want the computer to zip through tasks a little faster or move the gaming capability up the ladder from Solitaire?

Many of us would like better performance when on mains power and maximum battery life when away from a power socket. Could Sony squeeze in switchable chipsets? (Although I wouldn't like the hassle of the reboot to do the switch over).

John

 

Whether or not it is a good time to buy TZ is up to individual user. If purchasing a TZ can help you become more productive today then by all means go for it. It has almost best of everything in term of ultra portables. But if you can afford to wait, then wait. There is always new technology coming out. When they do, you can purchase current TZ at a discounted price or take the advantage of newer model. If Sony did come out with newer version of TZ with GM965 but same CPU and its exactly the same price as current 945GM, buy it . But if they decided to charge more for this “upgrade”, don’t be fooled.

The current weakest link on a TZ is the processor (ULV U7500 or U7600), assuming you already have 2GB RAM and SSD. Switch to GM965 alone won't improve anything.
Normally, manufacture update chipset to accommodate faster CPU so it doesn’t get bottleneck by the motherboard, increase FSB to 800Mhz in this case. GM965 also has more potent GMA (graphic accelerator chip). It means GM965 can process video better than 945GM if a powerful CPU is installed. Unfortunately, TZ processors are not capped by the older 945GM yet and nor it can take the advantage of increased FSB.

Regarding chipset power consumption, 945GM is very efficient (25% less than previous generation). GM965 will consume more power than 945GM at maximum performance based on its spec. However, it can limit the power drained by throttle back the performance with drivers.