Sony VAIO Z1WA Review Upcoming

Not an often talked about notebook, but Sony is being nice enough to send us a review unit to look at so we'll of course give it a look and review it. Expect a review posted on the Sony VAIO Z1WA before the end of May.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by abaxter

 

I look forward to reading your review, too [ ] This is a beautiful looking notebook, with great specs, and it would for sure be my second choice after my v505EX.

Boo

 

I looked at the specs for this notebook and I don't know if it was a mistake or not, but it only has 16MB of video memory. That's not enough to do much with these days. Otherwise, everything else looks pretty sweet!

 

you're right, the 16MB for graphics memory is very skimpy and would concern me, I should get this notebook next week and find out for sure though!

 

I got the Sony Vaio Z1WA, it's a really nice looking notebook, that was the main reason why I brought it, (I think Sony stuff looks sexy ^_^ The fan is really quiet, most of the time you will hear the hard drive instead of the fan. The 16mb vid card is lacking, I can still play war3 at lower resolution and it won't lag, but as I set it higher it's horrible, it can play Ragnarok Online and Gunbound without problems (Lags a bit in Ragnarok Online because I set it to the highest resolution). So if your going to do stuff that needs a buffer vid card... you might have to skip this one.... Also i thought the case was really strong as in scratch resist and after placing into my backpack, there is light black marks caused from rubbing inside my packback =_=;. Oh I was smart when I brought it and got 350 dollar back from rebates and got 801.11g. (When they had the z1va I waited for them to upgrade it from b to g ^_^) OH yeah and the screen resolution at first is wierd, but now it looks great

 

Thanks r0bb for the info. Because this unit only has 16MB of ram, I guess I would no longer be considering this unit. I checked other Sony notebooks on the Sony.ca website and have found that all the models available in Canada have low amounts of memory or have integrated video with shared video memory. Why is this? This is a major turn off when looking for a notebook that is capable of playing games on & I'm not talking about a dedicated gaming unit, just something that will be able to handle some of the newer games in the market for whenever I have that gaming itch.

-Vb-

 

Some of my guesses are to cut cost, lower the heat created from the vid card, thus making the unit cooler overall. If you wait long enough i think they would give the Sony notebooks better vidcards, or you can just buy one with a better vid card. But the Z1WA does have a nice screen (I have a dead pixal T_T, just one..... out of....) and it's light, when I first got it I told my sister to hold it, they said it was heavy, then I told her to use two hands then she goes wow it is light...

 

hey r0bb, I just got the Z1VA (they said they'd send the Z1WA but oh well) and have been playing with it. It is nice and light, the sloped styling cool too, I haven't played with it too much yet other than web browsing and document editing which it is of course perfectly capable of doing (as any laptop is these days). Can I ask what kind of battery life you've been getting with this notebook, and do you use it for work, school or fun and what types of software are you running on it?

thanks for any answers you can give there.

 

Average is about 3-3.5 hours with the third highest brightness, just by browsing and typing. By lowering it to the lowest setting (i have bad vision and it's really hard to see) and by turning off the opitcal drives and changing the fan performace i can see why they said this thing can last a long time... but at those settings... you can't do much. Games (like ragnarok online 1.3 hrs or less) DVD's a bit more then 2 hrs. I use it to watch anime mostly when i can't watch it at home, sisters use it to type up stuff. Software.... i removed quicken from my laptop, i was planning to format the thing and install with winxp pro, but some of the programs that comes with it will be lost T_T. Also the wireless card seems to have trouble connecting to my linksys wireless router AT HOME, my sister's dell doesn't have any problems, but i can connect to other people's routers with no problems, wierd...

So in the end, i use it for fun, then school, yeah the slopes do look cool ^_^.

 

I definitely think this is one of the, if not the, best looking laptops out there. Of course, beauty or looks is subjective. What detracted me from taking this laptop was the poor reviews from cnet.com, i.e. they mentioned that the video card had low memory and this is true, it's not widescreen, and the quality of the screen was just not as nice compared to others.

Abaxter, what do you think of the screen quality compared to your Dell 8600?

Now that I've also read that Sony is coming out with the A1 and A17, I'm definitely tempted to wait for those Sony models to come out. It looks great and it's widescreen w/ WUXGA (hopefully they have WSXGA because WUXGA might be too high of a resolution for me). Hopefully also that the screen quality is better, i.e. the XBrite looks very good unless youre outdoors with all the glare.

I'll be the first to get the Sony VAIO A1 (15.4") if it's reasonably priced and it comes out soon. I was ready to purchase a laptop until I saw the Sony A17 article here.

 

ha, well I'm not sure when the A17 will be out exactly, but I'm going to a Sony VAIO conference tomorrow where they might well be announcing such a thing so we'll see.

The screen on the Z1 is certainly not a standout, not quite as bright as the 9100 I'd say (it was the 9100 not the 8600 I've played with btw) but it has no major flaws.

Thanks for your reply on battery life r0bb and your experiences. I have had odd issues with various notebooks when using different routers too. The VAIO Z1 likes my netgear router just fine, so did my Dell Inspiron 9100. But my permanent computer, an IBM T40, always has trouble finding it and I can actually connect to a further away neighbors linksys router with a stronger signal using the T40. I don't have the time to figure out such issues, it's definitely annoying though and it's hard to point the finger at what's performing badly -- the notebook or the routher.

 

Keep us updated abaxter, I'll be anxiously waiting to find out when the A1 will come out so I can decide on buying a laptop right away or wait. And if they have models out, make sure you take pics