Sony refresh coming June 1st!

Spoke to Sony UK who have confirmed that new models will be launched next week = SWEET !!


I'm hoping the upgrade on the E series will be substantial (although I doubt it!)

i7 CPU's instead of i5
1333 Mhz RAM instead of 1066
1TB HDD option (maybe even the new Seagate 500GB Hybrid HDD?)
ATI 5850 instead of 5650 (maybe even Nvidia GT330 with Optimus?)


Even more unlikely - but still worth speculating over!

WWAN with SIM slot
USB 3.0
2MP Webcam
Fingerprint Reader
Bigger Battery

And Blu Ray as STANDARD on all their ranges! I can't believe that Sony isn't doing it's best to push out it's OWN frikkin format!

 

ATI 5000 series is definitely better than nVidia 300 series - more performance per watt, + DX11 support. nVidia still need to catch up.

 

I think new models will be announced june 1st, but stock will be 2-3 weeks later.

 

The i7 may become an option on the E series, but the i5’s are more than capable CPU’s! Heck, even the i3’s are more than enough for most multimedia tasks, applications & web browsing (which is what most buyers use them for).

WWAN on an E series? They would have to redesign the chassis to accommodate a SIM slot. Very, very unlikely.

No chance of USB 3.0 or finger print readers. Why would people buy a premium S or Z series if the budget E series did everything for less than half the price?

 

Where did you hear this? Is there anything special about the new models? Were there flaws with the previous ones?

I ordered an E series about 2 weeks ago, with an estimated shipping time of 1st June - 8th of June... I wonder what'll happen to that?

 

Only hardware upgrade, Sony do this every 3 months - most of the time.

Only P will also get some design upgrades.

 

If they solve the many issues with the current S series (the lose battery for example), and offer a dedicated gpu within the €1000 budget and still offer decent battery life I might consider one. The F series also interest me, since I might need a new desktop replacement soon.

 

Yup the ATI cards are better - but they put a 300 in the VAIO Z so already have these ready to go ...... and it's rumoured that the next M11X will have Optimus so perhaps Sony want to compete? Who knows!

If they make a 5850 or higher spec Nvidia card available as an option - I'd buy in a heartbeat!

 

Yup, the i7 would be kinda overkill, but I'm hoping to use this for gaming too!

I know, I know - but we can always hope!

They are just nice additional features which are eventually gonna become standard anyway - nobody drops thousands on a VAIO Z simply because it has a Fingerprint Reader!

 

Sony Customer Support

Well I hope there is! But most likely it'll just be minor increases in CPU, HDD etc

No dude! All laptops get upgraded as time goes by - it's just suprising that Sony are refreshing the E so soon after being released!

Dunno dude, but I'm sure it'll arrive when they say it will!

 

new F models will have Nvidia GT 330 with 1GB of VRAM, so exactly the same as now. they will come mid june.

 

They are offering free blu ray upgrade right now on the E series, in the USA. Maybe that's why it ends 05/29, because on June 1 the new ones will be announced.

Considering I was just about to buy an E series, I think I'll wait now.

 

I phoned Sonystyle today to ask about the Z series,and if they had any info on what , if anything would be changed, they bounced me to Vaio support, who bounced me to Vaio headquarters ( allegedly )
After beng put on hold for 5 mins, i was told no specifics, but told a week is not long to wait, which was kind of cryptic.

took me ages to save up, and now i am waiting eagerly, but if hey offer the blu-ray writer free when the offers update tomorrow, i will probably break and buy, as i cannot find anything like concrete info, on what the tweaks to the Z may be.

 

Damn I want i7 640LM for the Z, I don't think they will ever put i-UM processors into the Z because it only runs along with 800mhz ram ...

 

Why do they bother to update then ?

 

There will be new CPU options available & perhaps each series may have new HDD options...

 

nVidia Optimus technology. That's what we are hoping and wishing for. PLEEEAAASSEE!!

 

Will they change the price? Kind of pointless if they don't I suppose.

 

Do you have a source for that?

I'm very interested in an F, and I can get the free Blu-ray player right now. If all the F will get is an updated graphics card, I will buy now (I wouldn't upgrade anyway), but if there are compelling reasons to wait, I will.

 

Some people just have more cash to burn.
Plus, some people enjoy/care about the additional build quality/material used, and the design of the Z.

Generally speaking, you won't see much of a price difference (<$100). What Sony does is updating the processors and HDD/SSD's while keeping the price the same. For example, they may still charge $150 for a CPU upgrade, but you get a faster CPU for the same amount of money.

Generally, you can expect a speed increase of ~0.3Ghz for every Sony refresh.

 

It seems that they'll charge 500 Euros for a 2GB RAM upgrade in the new European perconfigured Z12. See here.

 

Anyone see anything yet?

 

Well - SonyStyle Germany rearranged their prices a bit and changed some small Stuff. All in All the only things I see changed:
1) More finish-variations (Metalshield, Metalmosaic, Glossy Premium Carbon)
2) Finally Quad-SSD-Setups for the CTO in Germany - with a new & higher price tag. (Upgrade from 128 to 192: 300 Euro, Upgrade vom 128 to 256: 600 Euro - was quite cheaper formerly IMHO.)

Now you need to pay 50 euros extra for a backlit-keyboard (wasnt an option before), 100 euros for 3g (was IMHO cheaper or included), 150 euros for FULL HD (was also cheaper before) and so on. (The RAM-Upgrade from 4GB to 8GB costed 200 Euros beforehand and now just 80.)

 

the price does not changed. The base price is decreased as well!

 

however - in almost every combination, you're going to pay more as for the same combination in the z11 before.

 

The Sony Vaio E series (in the UK) have seen hardly any change for the configurable models just that core i3 is currently no longer an option and prices have been altered. However 10 new preconfigured models are added to the original 13 some with new AMD dual and triple core processors.

 

Here's a little price comparison between Z11 and Z12.

UK (in GBP)

Code:

[TABLE=border=1]
  
    [TR]
      [th][/th]
      [th]Z11[/th]
      [th]Z12[/th]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]Base[/TD]
      [TD]1709[/TD]
      [TD]1779[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]i5-540M[/TD]
      [TD]30[/TD]
      [TD]50[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]i7-620M[/TD]
      [TD]140[/TD]
      [TD]160[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]Premium Carbon[/TD]
      [TD]50[/TD]
      [TD]30[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]192GB[/TD]
      [TD]140[/TD]
      [TD]190[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]256GB[/TD]
      [TD]280[/TD]
      [TD]380[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]512GB[/TD]
      [TD]980[/TD]
      [TD]1140[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]6GB[/TD]
      [TD]100[/TD]
      [TD]50[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]8GB[/TD]
      [TD]210[/TD]
      [TD]100[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]BluRay[/TD]
      [TD]550[/TD]
      [TD]550[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]FullHD[/TD]
      [TD]50[/TD]
      [TD]70[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]WWAN[/TD]
      [TD]90[/TD]
      [TD]100[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]Backlight Keyboard[/TD]
      [TD]0[/TD]
      [TD]60[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]TPM[/TD]
      [TD]?[/TD]
      [TD]20[/TD]
    [/TR]
  
[/TABLE]

Germany (in EUR)

Code:

[TABLE=border=1]
  
    [TR]
      [th][/th]
      [th]Z11[/th]
      [th]Z12[/th]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]Base[/TD]
      [TD]1799[/TD]
      [TD]1779[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]i5-540M[/TD]
      [TD]50[/TD]
      [TD]60[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]i7-620M[/TD]
      [TD]150[/TD]
      [TD]200[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]Premium Carbon[/TD]
      [TD]50[/TD]
      [TD]20[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]192GB[/TD]
      [TD]150[/TD]
      [TD]300[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]256GB[/TD]
      [TD]270[/TD]
      [TD]600[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]512GB[/TD]
      [TD]930[/TD]
      [TD]1500[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]6GB[/TD]
      [TD]100[/TD]
      [TD]30[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]8GB[/TD]
      [TD]200[/TD]
      [TD]80[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]BluRay[/TD]
      [TD]700[/TD]
      [TD]730[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]FullHD[/TD]
      [TD]50[/TD]
      [TD]150[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]WWAN[/TD]
      [TD]100[/TD]
      [TD]100[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]Backlight Keyboard[/TD]
      [TD]0[/TD]
      [TD]50[/TD]
    [/TR]
    [TR]
      [TD]TPM[/TD]
      [TD]?[/TD]
      [TD]20[/TD]
    [/TR]
  
[/TABLE]

 

What a huge disappointment - but then that is usually expected from a Sony refresh !!

The E series has had price drops on the upgrades - but the Base model has gone up almost £100 !! What The F !!

Base Spec was £529 now £619
2.4Ghz CPU was £50 now £30
500Gb HDD was £40 now £30
4Gb RAM was £30 now £20
ATI 5650 was £100 now £70
FHD Screen was £40 still £40
BluRay Player was £50 now £40

This configuration comes in at £849 - last month the same spec would have cost £789 !! Double What The F !!

Hopefully Sony will bring the Base model price down to £499 which is where it freaking should be !!

 

Pretty sad that the US models didn't have any changes made to them.

 

The "New" F now only has the 512MB 310 video chip with 900 v resolution. The 1GB 330 with 1080 v resolution is gone.

 

There are some changes, they just havent made it official yet: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/488550-z12-available-sonystyle-us.html

-new granite lid option
-free photoshop/premier elemts 8 included
-FHD is now a CTO option
-glossy premium carbon seem to be gone (?)...carbon fiber is still there.

 

These price differences are amazing. It looks like it is... arbitrary.

Oviously they expect people to buy more RAM and less SSD.

 

That's not obvious at all.
RAM: They may have noticed that people buy less from them (and likely buy it after-market cheaper), so they reduced the price in order to sell.
SSD: They may have noticed that the larger SSD drives sell well; since they're proprietary, you can't buy them from anyone else.

So in my opinion, the exact opposite from what you think.