The Official Haswell/Z Speculation Thread

Looks like it. Fit Premium aren't too different.

 

Based on what's happened in past years, does Sony announce all their new laptops at once? In other words, if they have a display at this conference, will that be everything they offer? And if they're not going to display anything at the conference when would we hear from them about what they're going to offer this summer?

 

Do you have a source for that? If it's true that screws me over good. I've been waiting for 2 months for them to launch the new lineup since here in Europe some components were missing - they only had 1TB hdd and bluray drive - which would have cost me 300 euro's extra compared to a 320GB HDD and dvdrw, and the sales support told me to just wait. Also, doesn't the Fit come with only an ULV CPU and a freakin' touchscreen?

Edit: I just look at Sony US and all the fit series are ULV and touchscreen. They're also heavier, bulkier and uglier than the current S series. Therefor killing the S series would mean killing the only 15" notebook which has a full voltage CPU. Fit premium aren't too different than the S series? I say they're totally different.

 

I still believe that there will be a Sony Vaio S 2013.

 

shop.sony.de states:

"VAIO® Pro 13...
... Touchscreen optional"

I hope that means it will still be available with a true matte display. What panel tech are those rumored "triluminous" displays based on?

Ugh, no more WWAN!?

 

It's not "panel tech" , it's backlight tech (provided by a company called QD Vision). You can check the new high end BRAVIAs for more details.

 

I'm pretty sure he meant is the display IPS or TN (most likely IPS).

(Or PLS/OLED etc... but it's sony so...)

But I think you're right as the most likely options TN and IPS typically come with either LED or CFL back-lighting (as the panel doesn't produce it's own light brightly) and they appear to be thin and LED is very efficient so it's most likely LED edge lit, possibly with local dimming.

 

Oops....I thought he was asking what is "triluminous" .

 

Lol no worries just dem english mishaps. You read it as what is the triluminous tech based on while he was asking about what panel tech the displays (which are triluminous) are based on.

Also, your name..

 

Pro 11 and Duo 13 pics leaked from a Chinese site

¡¾Ð»úÇ©µ½¡¿¹¤ÒµÉè¼Æ£¡ÔÚ¹¤µØÉϵÄË÷Äá¼Ò³¬Æ·~~·æâ±ÏÏÖ£¡_Ë÷ÄáÂÛ̳_̫ƽÑóµçÄÔÍø²úÆ·ÂÛ̳

enjoy!

 

have to admit, looks sharp! The underside is so clean, could be confused for the lid. Small bezel compared to the SVZ and screen does look nice.

 

Oh my god. Enough with these ultrabooks!

Could it be that there will be no more light-weight full voltage notebooks? Come on, Sony... throw us a bone here...

 

^
Looks nice!
I'd like to see the 13 inch version and see how much larger it is than the 11 inch version.

I love the new Duo!!! If there is no proper Z successor than I guess I'll be getting that new Duo. I want that larger screen.

 

Sleekest ultrabook I have seen!
Also I did a bit of research and it seems the Fit series is a replacement for the E series. Is the Pro the only thing Sony has to show at Computex? All other notebook manufacturers, other than Sony and HP have shown a number of devices.

 

Qwaarjetб
thank you for sharing the video! The only difference I find between 11" and 13" is that the former has a SD slot on the front while the latter has it on the right side.
There will be an additional sheet battery, that is for good! Unfortunately, see no place for WWAN. May be it is somewhere on the rear, beneath that silver strip.

 

Wow the screen looks amazing in that video, of course it is shinny like mad but those viewing angles are insane, hopefully Sony announces these soon.

Duo 13 looks amazing, shame it is not shipping with a dedicated GPU, that headsink looks big enough for one,

The Pro looks almost to have a pseudo omni balance design, wonder how the new speaker design will affect quality.

Lots of positives with these 2 new laptops, now to wait for release and reviews. I am hoping for a quick release since I will be back in Canada until the end of July and plan to pick up one of these.

 

I have to agree. Why do the laptops have to be thin? I'd be happy to have a fatter but light notebook like the VPCZ1, and then at least they can include a decent selection of ports as well as a full voltage processor.

 

That ultra trend is quite disappointing. They already pushed the limit down to tablet territory. But now there are no good options for professional laptops like Z.
Looks like we'll have to look on apple this time. They may be still old school with non touch screens but yet good specs.
Aspire S3 looks interesting too but has no F keys row on keyboard. what a miss...

btw, what happened to thunderbolt for pc? did not they plan to bring it in? Quite few laptops on computex has that mini display port now but no work on TB. I wold like to use my eGPU with ultrabook => win-win.

 

Would be awesome if Sony take their laptop designs from 3-5 years ago and retrofit with latest hardware filling all that space with power. Their old design were much better. Good keys travel, very unique approach and materials. Even that unlucky TT series was a masterpiece. Now they getting worse.

Why did apple brought that trend to have thin laptop, arhhhh. Most people are ok with 1 inch laptop. no evil in that The weight is what matters. Panasonic is doing quite well in this department btw.

 

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OtR8Ln5kv0g?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OtR8Ln5kv0g?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width='560' height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

English version of the video, sub 1 kg it seems? madness.

 

So if there's already videos out of their laptops being demonstrated at Computex, doesn't that mean we're not getting any other models? Wouldn't they have shown all of them off there? And when is Sony going to announce these on their site?

 

They might want to make an announcement first. They may have used the Pro as a teaser of sorts...

 

Ah I see. Do you know when we can expect an announcement? Today?

 

I have no idea unfortunately...

 

waiting for z though... seems the pro is a good start..

 

I just spoke to a Sony rep about the S series and he hinted that we might not see a refresh. So basically if they won't present a new model (S successor) or if the poster above me was right (Fit is the new S successor) there won't be any Vaio with a full voltage CPU.

 

I see no reason why a regular voltage CPU can just be stuck into the current vaio S and also a better screen. It might happen in august or september for the school shopping season.

 

Sony VAIO Fit 15 review (2013): Sony's mainstream notebooks get a makeover

This article suggests the Fit series is a replacement for the E series. Unless Sony plans on leaving the performance sector then an S series refresh/replacement should be announced the latest at IFA...

 

There are two models of the Fit series. The Fit E is a replacement for the E series and the Fit Premium could be a replacement of the S series making what the rep said true.

 

But they only offer a GT 735M for the Fit and 3rd Gen ULV CPU! Plus it's not available in Europe. Are they aiming lower than the S or what!? The F series had a 540M class gpu and the S had a 640M LE.

 

The Fit series will be available in Europe in a week or two.

 

With Haswell? I've promised my 12 yo daughter a new laptop and I guess it would be silly to buy one now.

Edit: I called Sony Sweden and the rep didn't know exactly but his guess was Friday this week or next week for new Haswell devices.

 

Still don't see the Fit as a replacement for the the S as mentioned it comes only with ULV for now, so unless that is changed, it is a downgrade, not an upgrade.

Sad thing is the FitE in canada ships with 1366 x 768!, Sony was supposed to kill this, on a 13 inch maybe would have been fine but not on 15. The regular fit does ship with Full HD, but not with nvidia 735M, that costs another 100 more.

 

Don't you think with the options they offer for the Fit it doesn't even match the year old S in performance? Maxed out it may perform better than the E series but it doesn't seem like an S series replacement. Anyway, if the S series isn't getting a refresh how can we expect the Z to get a revival!? If you're right and the S series isn't getting a proper refresh this year then the Pro, the Fit and maybe some kind of notebook/tablet hybrid is all we will get this year from Sony.

 

I don't know whether with Haswell or not, I didn't ask since I saw on Sony US that they're with third gen processors so I assumed they'll be third gen as well. If you look at the Sony S series on various EU sites (sony.co.uk, sony.it, sony.dk, sony.se, sony.de etc) you'll see that they're missing either the S15 or the S13. That could be because they're selling their remaining stock and we won't see a refresh or they're selling their remaining third gen and we'll soon see a Haswell refresh. But it still doesn't explain why there's no DVDRW available and you're forced to buy a bluray and for the HDD as well you're forced to buy a bigger and much more expensive one. Also the only available color is black.

Did you ask the rep about the S series or Fit ?

 

No, I asked specifically about Haswell CPUs, but not about any specific model. I think the reply was a general reply about all future models, whichever they are.

 

The Pro 11 reminds me a bit of the old VGN-G. Pipe dream, but if you can order that with at least 12GB of memory, I may consider it.

What kills me about the Duo 13 is that ok, I get they don't want to put a VGA out, but they had plenty of room for ethernet. Outside of battery life, I don't really see it as an upgrade to the Duo 11.

 

This is what puzzled me, the Duo 11 has VGA but this doesn't, definitely not a size issue.

 

That's my point. If they had done the flip-down ethernet like the Duo 11, fine. The lack of VGA is just plain annoying. With the pen, clearly it's more of a business oriented machine. But what do I know ....

 

I believe VGA is being phased out.

 

Yes I was wondering if those "trilumious" displays use TN, VA or IPS panels.
You've been waiting 2 years for your first post making that sharp observation?

 

I believe the panels are IPS, it was in some post earlier.

 

wouldn't be surprised, Haswell chipset has phased out PCI support.

 

Link to more pics here from the website that shot the youtube video:
Sony Vaio Pro 11 ist das leichteste 11 Zoll Ultrabook der Welt | TechHive.de



In the spirit of being positive in a sea of negativity, let's ignore comparisons to the Z in which this is a big letdown in the CPU/GPU department (and likely no RAID?) and look at the positives


-Less bezel!!
-better speakers (no definite info here yet, but really, there's no way but up compared to the Z speakers)
-return of the Z1 white back-lighting for the keyboard, instead of the dingy yellow of the Z2-SVZ
-bigger trackpad it looks like?
-Should have nice battery life plus sheet battery option
-HD4400 GPU is no HD5000/Iris/IrisPro but hey, it's none the less better than the HD4000 (grasping at straws here, lol) (edit: thanks ascariss, missed that)
-VAIO logo on the BOTTOM, I mean, that is just sweet
-LCD looks NICE in the video and that's with it being in harsh lighting conditions. Let's hope Sony's "Triluminos" tech actually is more than a buzz word. From the video alone, it looks like brightness should exceed that of the SVZ already.
-Could be considered also the return of the beloved TT with this 11.6" option?

 

I know. But tell that to all of my customers as well as conferences where I present who still have it everywhere. I'd say it's still 70/30 or 80/20 in favor of VGA vs. HDMI out there in the real business world.

On a business class machine, for now, IMO VGA should still be there. HDMI is far from being universally accepted.

 

Blame Intels dubious marketing $$$ on their desperate move to make it into touch screen devices!
It's disturbing to see all those glossy touch books popping out of nowhere suddenly. They are basically all the same mainstream boredom. This just compromises manufacturers creativity we've seen in recent years.

But if sony.de's Vaio Pro 13 statement "touchscreen optional" is actually true, then it's not an Ultrabook and there might be a chance we'll see full voltage CPUs too!?

 

Howdy folks, long time no speak. Nice to see some of the familiar names still actively posting.

I'm on the prowl for a new laptop and saw this thread. What's the overall consensus on what's coming our way in Haswell-land that isn't a Fit model?

I'm having a hard time not looking at the Zenbook Infinity right now, especially with the rumored 2560 x 1440 gorilla-glassed display. Sony best bring it on strong, the competition isn't mucking around.

 

Since it appears to be carbon fiber, it looks like a descendent of both the VGN-G (as I mentioned) and a bit of the T series in one. I do like the fact it is literally just over 2lbs. The tech specs, though, are completely underwhelming in terms of memory - but then again, we haven't seen what a CTO one can be built as in Japan. We'll find out soon enough I guess.

 

I think the gpu is the 4400, assuming the CPU is i7-4500U as on the image.

 

Welcome back Zoinks, sadly no word on a true Z replacement much less competition for the Zenbook Infinity, Currently their premium/high end appears to be the DUO13 and Pro13 models, but they use dual core ULV Haswell chips with no dGPU or even higher end Intel Iris/IrisPro.
We're all on bended knee praying to our Sony overloads for one though :\