Thoughts on the new Vaio Z..

Too many posts to respond to individually. Thanks for the responses. Seems like no one is happy with the plastic palmrest but willing to live with it. I can see that. The exact reason why its there, no one will no. But is plastic the best way to go about the palmrest (considering tradeoffs)? I suspect not.

Some people are just more sensitive to these type of things than others. And, no, I have NO plans to convert to Apple. I'll stick with my little TZ for now until Sony delivers something that is worthy of my 2k.

Also, one more question, anyone know why Sony decided to separate palmrest from the rest of the keyboard bezel in the first place? Does it add some engineering benefit?

 

TBH, I haven't seen much of the S model here in North America, especially the side view. Does the S model taper in thickness like the old Z or is the battery the only protruding part like the new Z. Taper would already make the S model thicker than the new Z. Also, the S model has a greater minimum thickness. Therefore, I still see the new Z winning in this area too.

 

It's unfair to call the Z "substandard" in design when it is packing the power that no other ultra portable can match.

It's heat dissipation and fan noise reduction is fantastic for a machine of it's power, size and weight.

The macbook looks sharp (not significantly better tho IMO) but runs so hot when it is packing like 25% less power than the Sony.

 

Yeah, i suspect that the new macbook pro will pack i5/i7 and the m330/m335, but i doubt they can pull it off without a significant cooling redesign. I had a macbook pro briefly in 2009 and man did that thing get hot.

 

Oh well, according to dimension6 new Z's cooling system holds its own. It is quieter in idle mode and much more powerful under heavy load (although noticeably louder as well) compared to previous Z. Apple's MBP 13 has significantly less capable cooling system with slightly smaller heatink made of aluminum instead of copper, more restriction for intake and exhaust airflow due to case design and crappy thermal compound. That is why it won't handle 330M. Even 15" (it has dual heatink/fan) runs hot with 9600M GT under load.

 

If you suspect not, do you have a better idea? Let's say hypothetically that using a one-piece aluminum that includes the palmrest is not possible for whatever reason. With this in mind, what's the best way to go about the palmrest? Any material you use would cause a mismatch with the rest of the area due to different materials.

 

I wasn't bothered by the plastic palm rest when I saw the Z at the Sony Style store. It looked and felt fine to me.

 

The cooling on the Z is absolutely amazing. The keyboard barely gets warm under heavy load (3D gaming), the palm rest is absolutely cold and the only place when you can feel a bit of warmth is the top left side of the laptop, right where the GPU and CPU are.

The fan can get a bit loud though.

 

why assume the aluminum one is not possible?

 

You said aluminum is not the best way to go considering tradeoffs, so I'm asking you what they should do assuming that is a tradeoff they have to make.

 

On the Conics website, they say a new model will be coming out for TT series. I contacted Conics and got the confirmation, including the 2 months. Also, the screen size should be the same as the current TT. They say though it will take a month to process and ship the orders to US customers. I'm looking forward to this one.

 

I did not say that. I was only referring to some other guy that posted that on this thread. I am not assuming aluminum is not the best way to go. In fact, I think the palm rest should have been aluminum. Or better yet, make the entire thing carbon fiber. Not even sure why it has to be a separate piece in the first place. But the way they have it now, plastic block slapped onto aluminum just does not look good (or even right).

 

Whoops, I meant you said plastic is not the best way to go considering tradeoffs.

It was just a hypothetical, sure aluminum would be nice. But what if it's not possible? You said

It sounds like you are saying no matter what tradeoffs that had to be made that are unknown to us, plastic is not the best way to go. So what about the hypothetical situation where aluminum is not possible? Is plastic still not the best way to go?

Carbon fiber impregnated plastic would look just like plastic and would be silly because this is not an area that needs extra strength.

 

Too many assumptions here. How about all-around carbon fiber.!

Anyways, I just wanted to see if it was just me who thought the plastic on aluminum was just off. I really don't know why Sony chose this and what the viable alternatives were. But, again, as someone who is paying for a $2k - $4k "Ferrari" laptop, I care about the aesthetics.

 

Interesting, I was waiting for an upgrade of the TT! Did Conics told you if is going to be a redesign or just a refresh of the TT?

Any news about the P series? I am between those two. The form factor of the P is just incredible!

 

Why would they do that? It wouldn't look any different but it would cost extra because you are putting carbon-fiber reinforcement where it's not necessary. Right now they have carbon fiber reinforcement where it's helpful for the machine's durability, which makes sense. Making it all around carbon fiber doesn't make any sense.

Perhaps you think carbon fiber reinforcement is an aesthetics thing. It's not, it's something you embed in the plastic to strengthen it.

 

They made it sound like it was going to be a redesign - only overall size and screen size would be the same. Sorry, no news on the P series.

 

So let me ask you. Do you think it looks right the way it is? plastic on aluminum? and what is your solution?

Also, what is the purpose of having aluminum in the first place? light-weight and durability? and its not clear to me why they wouldn't just use aluminum in the first place. if not aluminum, i agree carbon fiber will be more expensive. but we are talking about a premium laptop here. not something u slap pieces of plastic onto.

 

Plastic on aluminum doesn't bother me, but I agree it doesn't look as nice as one piece aluminum.

I'm suggesting that it's possible that one piece aluminum couldn't be used, most likely for the heat reason many have stated. Then what do you do? There is no perfect solution, and I think the plastic is as good as any other if there is indeed a problem with using aluminum. What purpose would carbon fiber serve? If it's expensive but solves the problem I'm all for it. But it doesn't solve anything. It adds strength to the plastic but that's about it. It doesn't solve the aesthetics problem in any way.

 

Why assume heat is the reason? While Z is capable of some intensive processing, they seem to have used plastic on the entire Vaio line so was heat the reason for all those? I can think of another equally viable reason - cost. Cost of engineering an one piece design, cost of aluminum vs plastic.

 

I'm not assuming heat is the reason. I don't know nearly enough about the engineering tradeoffs that went on here. Cost is a possible reason but I think it's unlikely to be the only reason or even a major consideration. How much extra do you think it would cost for them to mill their aluminum slab a little differently?

 

you're not assuming heat is the reason?

 

Question is not absolute cost but relative cost. aluminum slab vs plastic slab. when u produce a whole bunch of these, it makes a difference. unless u are assuming plastic costs more than aluminum.

 

Yes, I don't know how you could've gotten the impression that I'm assuming heat is the reason with all those qualifiers I used.

How do you know it actually is cost saving to use two pieces? I would say it's just as likely to be more expensive to do so due to the complexity. It's not like they are saving any money on the material, they are just milling parts of the aluminum slab away.

 

Anyways, this is what I was curious about. Glad to hear I am not the only one who thought this way.

 

my statement was about relative cost of plastic vs aluminum. why they did not use one piece, i do not know.

 

Doesn't that suggest to you that there's a reason to use the plastic besides cost? Most people will agree with you that the aluminum looks better. But most people are also reasonable enough to think there may be a reason to use the plastic and not immediately come to the conclusion that Sony dropped the ball on the design and wanted to save some money. The relative cost of plastic and aluminum argument would make sense if by using the plastic allowed them to use less aluminum, but it doesn't. By using the plastic they need to mill away more of the aluminum slab they are already using anyway.

 

Palmrest is a bit more elevated compared to the rest of the chasis, no? To use an one piece design, in theory, this means they would have to mill away more aluminum, no? so not sure why plastic vs aluminum does not hold.

Also, just curious, but can milled aluminum be recycled and used to produce more aluminum slabs? i suspect it can.

 

Thank you for additional confirmation. Have fun with your new toy

 

I remember reading from somewhere that for the old Z with the palmrest that is being cut out to implement the FeliCa smart card reader, it is not working as well as it should be (due to the infrared waves of the FeliCa reader not being able to past through aluminum well or the aluminum palmrest causes some interferences to the FeliCa reader or something - not too sure about the specific details of all these though). That probably is the reason for the use of this new non-aluminum palmrest "block" since the palmrest "block" that comes with the Felica smart card reader have the reader implemented into the palmrest for a "seamless" look. I summarized it in the following on a previous post:

 

Is this FeliCa thing so important (in Japan)? The first time I heard about it was a 1-2 weeks ago here in the new Z thread. Would be funny if that was the only reason to redesign the sleek aluminum chassis.

 

Your reasons above, no support for TRIM on the SSDs and I didn't read good things about battery life stopped me from going for it. I know if there is one component I'll want to up grade it is the hard drive.

 

Zowie, gang. Nine pages on the bloody palm rest? I think Sony needs to start delivering more systems so that we can all have something better to do, and be able to stop dancing on the head of a pin.