Sony Vaio Z2 or Z3?

Hello,

I am interested in purchasing a Vaio Z21, which is available on the UK Sony site for around £1650 ($2656), which has the following specs:

Intel®Core(TM)i7-2640M,2.80GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
256 GB SATA Gen3 Flash SSD
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
No Power Media Dock
33.2 cm LCD, 1600x900 Premium
No Wireless WAN
Longe-Life battery
Security features
Backlight keyboard

Now i use my current Vaio T11 series for browsing the net, word processing but have started to use it to run Avid (editing) and Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I do plan to use some graphics software later on to create clips.

I wanted to know is it cool to go for the above mentioned Z2 or wait for the Z3? I know people keep mentioning Ivy Bridge, but what are the advantages of this?

The main reason for this Z2 is cos it is like £600 ($965) cheaper then it was a few months ago.

Thanks

 

Ivy bridge will boost performance a bit, but not that much. Of course prices will go up for the new Models (no big discounts).

If the current i7 is fast enough for your, use the good prices at the moment and buy a z21 or z23.

 

The biggest difference for Ivy Bridge will be significantly better graphics performance without the PMD. There may also be some improvements for battery life, but I haven't seen any data on that.

 

I've seen claims of Ivy Bridge being 20% "more performant on average" across the range, which is as meaningless number as any other. The top-of-the-range dual core mobile CPU that will go into Z3 will probably be around 10-15% faster than the one you quote. Eg. in a process that solely depends on the CPU, you'll get 10% benefit, i.e. something that uses 10s of CPU time will now be done in 9s. Note that in what you describe, you'd rarely see those benefits be that "big", except in applying filters to images when editing in Photoshop or reencoding video clips (basically, any actual intensive mathematical calculation).

And as Louche notes, graphics (mostly 3D) performance will go way up with Intel 4000 graphics chip, so if you care about that (think 3D animation, games), that's another reason to wait.

FWIW, I am waiting for Z3 and then I might go for Z2 when the prices go even further down, and I'd basically like to get almost exactly the same model except that I'd go for full HD

 

^Smart. ...

 

Thank you all for your responses.

I think i may just go for the current Z2, mainly cos of the cheaper price
Though may wait another month or so to see if Sony drop the price anymore or if they have any special offers. Current offer is free extended battery until 30th Apr.