VAIO TZ 10 Year Anniversary Japan Official

Will TZ have recovery partition?

 

Of course, why wouldn't it? What will be interesting is the OS that Sony will provide on SSD-based systems. My sense is that this might be the first time that Sony provides an optimized OS -- slimmed-down to better fit that smaller 32GB footprint. In other words, you can specify the level of bloatware installed.

 

The r500 is the thinnest 12" notebook.

 

Don't think so..

Still I will be doing a clean install and make vista more smaller with vLite.

 

You may be right.

But I really love vLite! That program might persuade me to leave Vista on the TZ. Particularly if it can remove that Windows Search. It appears to do its component removal on a system that's already installed, correct?

 

Yes my country charges the VAT. It makes difference if i take it from US because a) OS and manual user in english b) maybe the price will be cheaper c) Longer warranty-international.In the other hand if i order it from the US the VAT will be 400 euros, if they don't make the tricks of pricejapan.com
After someone here was saying that if install a new OS you will loose the features of TZ like the AV mode. So you say that if you install Vista Home Premium in english or another language than japanese TZ will work properly?
I asked pricejapan about wireless n and i have to wait one month...is it worth to wait?

 

Installing a new OS will NOT allow you to loose the features of the AV mode assuming you're installing Vista. However, if you're installing XP, then most likely you will lose that feature, this is from someone in this forum that wrote his AV mode did not work after installing XP. Like I said, installing fresh Vista will have no negative effects, only positive.

Unforunately, sony will still install the blotware and what not regardless of the size of the hard drive. There was a review done I read on the newest sony umpc with the 32GB SSD, and the reviwer was complaining about how there's a lot of bloatware and 5GB was allocated to recovery, and he was only left with very little space left. one more reason I want to install a fresh copy.

 

Advantages of wireless n?

 

Oh, OK, so reinstalling Vista with vLite will be very important then.

 

Is absolutely necessary a flash memory of 16 GB or an external drive for the TZ. What is this vLite? I think i will wait one month to order TZ so they will put the wireless n.


http://www.deviceforge.com/articles/AT5096801417.html

 

These are all theoritical speeds which you will never see. Most of the people who are currently using N that I have encountered said they did not see an increase in speed, perhaps a longer range of able to detect a router, but download speed did not increase. This will also vary with the type of broadband connection you have. Also, everywhere I have searched suggests the N is currently still in the draft form, meaning it wont be finalized sometime this year. If thats the case, once wireless N becomes finalized, it will be different than the draft form. I suggest you google N draft and read up on some articles of it, it will give you a better idea if getting N will bring you any noticeable benefits right now and make your decision on when to make the purchase.

 

vLite is a cool, new utility that let's you remove unnecessary components of Vista, like its very irritating and useless Windows Search, and reduce the size of Vista by as much as 5GB:

http://www.vlite.net/about.html

As Outrigger points out, draft "n" will not necessarily increase your download speed. But I do disagree that this draft spec will be revised. There's just too much gear out right now based on this spec to make any changes palatable to Wi-Fi organization members.

 

I did a little research about the n issue. Well, a lot of pc sites like trustedreviews are saying that the draft n will 5 times faster:
"Our experience of Draft N hardware shows a real world maximum throughput of around 70mbps, which is still way higher than what 802.11g can offer, but clearly a long way from 300mbps. that the a and the g. "
http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2007/04/17/Intel-Santa-Rosa-Revealed/p5

I thing that n will increase the download speed, maybe not at the incredible 300mbps but the double or more of the previous wi-fi drafts. Anyway i'm not in a hurry to take TZ so why don't wait little more and take something more for the same price?
Nice tip ubercool about vLite!

 

I contacted pricejapan, and it seems that the TZ does not ship with any drivers on discs, so if you do a fresh install of vista, you will have to obtain the drivers from elsewhere.

If by the time I get the TZ next week, the drivers still does not appear on sony uk, I will install the drivers for the TXN being that they are mostly identical other than the web cam, and I will let you all know if I encounter any issues.

 

Hope that TZ will be announced quickly to US so the TXN will go down with the price.

 

Anyone knows if the TZ have the WWAN?

 

Japanese and Euro's version do not.

 

That might explain why the U.S.' TZ introduction is being held up.

 

Hope so ubercool For me is an important issue the WWAN. The prices i think will be the same ofTXN and maybe the SSD option little more.

 

the SSD will be a lot more I'm sure. mostly likely over $400, but it all depends on when its released. However, in the sony uk, I don't even see SSD is being offered as an option, so its possible that it might not be an option for the US. might have to wait til the end of this month or next month to see what the US version will offer. the UK version is only showing as pre order and it will start shipping at the end of June.

 

In that case, Dynamism or ordering it from Japan will be your only options.

 

It is an option, look again, the highest end model, the VGN-TZ12VN/X has the 32gb SSD and DVD burner. All other models have the 100gb HDD.

 

maybe you can provide a link.

I just see 3 models of TZ and they're all TZ11 series.

EDIT:
nevermind, you have to search for vaio consumer and click on the premium carbon fiber model, or else you will not be able to see it. its 2099 pounds inc. VAT. which equals to $4135USD!

 

Hong Kong will have TZ launched within this month. How come US is so slow?
http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/campaign/vaio_tz/teaser/pop_index.jsp

BTW, I have an accident handle damage warranty for my TXN15 but I do not have the reciept and the original box. Am I still able to get a replacement if any "accident" happens? When I buy the warranty plan on the phone, I told the sales that I did not have the reciept.

 

I'm considering placing an order for the TZ in July but I'd like to get your feedback/thoughts:

1) Has anyone on the site purchased one already? If so, could you give us your comments

2) Are there any 1.8" hard drives that spin at 7200RPM? I was thinking of swapping out the Sony 4200RPM one for a faster drive if possible. I just don't see how the 32 GB SSD would be able to store all of my every day programs/files after the Vista+Office overhead. (I need the optical drive option)

3) Anyone know if we can use the TV tuner option in the US? I know Japan uses NTSC, it'd be a cool feature to have, just hope the software is in English.

4) What do you think about the Champaign color? I'm debating this vs the carbon fibre.

5) Lastly, I'd rather install Vista English os myself, is the BIOS in English? How hard would it be to source the drivers/utilities on my own?

Thanks Guys!

 

1) Yes, Outtrigger has purchased one and expects to receive it soon

2) No, 1.8" hard drives are only available at 4200rpm.

3) I've talked to two importers and they say the TV Tuner option will not work
outside Japan, you'll have to get an Expresscard TV Tuner or some other
alternative

4) Its all personal preference, I personally perfer the black or carbon fiber
colors.

5) The BIOS will be in English and if not by default, you'll be able to change it
there.

 

what he said.

the only way to get a 7200rpm drive is if you get it with the 2.5" hdd and buy a 2.5 7200rpm drive yourself and swap it, but that will suck major battery power.

the BIOS will be in english default, you won't have to change a thing.

Me and a couple of other people have ordered the TZ but don't have it on hand as of yet, but I do believe one person here already has it but with the 4200rpm drive.

 

When people now soon start to receive their ordered TZs, can they please check how the cooling fan (or fans?) is going - silent or noisy?

 

As the review saying in cnet.co.uk the fan is very silent. But of course user's reviews are always helpful.

 

I bought one from Dynamism last week. From what they have told me they got their first couple of shipments and they are working on the US image as well as the XP drivers. I was told that they should ship out early next week. My fingers are crossed I can't wait to replace my Macbook Pro that I have now.

 

So, are you getting yours with XP or Vista? I'm getting Vista.

 

From where you ordered it ubercool? Which combi?

Do you thing pricejapan offer also the 100GB HD as an option? Because i don't see it in the site.

 

I am getting with Vista I have an extra XP licenses here so I will just re install xp. I didn't want to spend another 160 bucks to go from Vista to XP when I had the licenses already.

I got the 32SSD and the 160 HD, 2 GIG's of RAM and a docking station... Can't wait... It's my bday on Tuesday lets see if get a really amazing present

 

I have a t140p (1.1 ghz, 1 gig mem, 40 gig 4200rpm hd) and I finally now have a reason to upgrade. The TX series just didn't have enough juice for me to upgrade.

But the TZ with its dual core and flash HD has enough performance enhancements for me to justify buying it. However, I'll probably wait until a 64gig flash hd option becomes available before I do it. I do wish the graphics were a bit better, but I don't really play games on my laptop so its not a huge deal.

For now, my t140p is doing the job. As long as I keep bloat to a minimum and not run vista, performance is adequate. But it is starting to show its age and I would like something a bit faster.

The T140 is the best laptop I've ever owned so I'm really looking forward to the TZ.

Dave

 

Hehe, we're both Geminis! Happy birthday, twin!

Yea, I'm treating myself too! I ordered it with Vista as well. I also have Win XP but but I'm intrigued by the possibility of reducing the size and possibly slightly increasing the speed of Vista with vLite. The config I ordered is:

SSD/DVD/2GB/Vista Home Premium/Standard Battery

Let's see whose birthday present arrives first!

 

LOL Cheers bud!! I actually just got an email from Dynamism about an hour ago saying that all their orders will be fulfilled Tuesday (my bday) from thier US office. Lets hope ours go out!

 

All you that you choose the SSD model aren't you worried fitting all of your programs into 32GB?

 

that is why I didn't get a optical drive and ended up with the second HD. Who needs an optical drive anyways

 

It depends on what you're gonna do with your notebook.
For me, 32GB is absolutely not small for OS and program files.

Actually, x505sp, my previous one, has even 20GB total capacity!
But I got nothing trouble with it.

 

Does anyone know what is the exact GB in the 32 GB SSD?

Is it (32 x 10000) / 1024 or exactly 32 GB like they said?

 

You should understand how it works first.

32GB means 32,000,000,000 bytes, and that is allocated by certain OS like Microsoft Windows to 32,000,000,000 / 1024^3= 29.8 GB in the OS.
The gap is made by OS, not hardware makers. And that logic applies to TZ's SSD too.

 

That's good to know! So, after Windows XP is installed, you have about 24.8GB of disk space. After Vista Home Premium, you can most likely leave about 26.8GB if you use a utility like vLite to cut Vista down to a manageable size.

 

Thanks, opus9, for the information. Do you have an opinion about how much (or little) this amount of 29,8 GB is for running Vista Home Premium, Office 2007, Adobe Reader (PDF) and Firefox - and still have some room for documents and a bit more? Is it close to the limit, or will it run fine?

And as ubercool wrote about vLite: Does that program take away the AERO feature of Vista? And what about the SSD capacity if one runs Vista in the regular way?

 

Mr. Andersen, it's really easy to figure out what's left after the apps you mention are installed, since I've already noted in this thread that Office 2007 takes about 600MB or less, here are the others:

Adobe Reader is bigger, 680MB, a pig obviously, but we know Adobe just can't write software.

Firefox, OTOH, is extremely well-written -- only 24MB. (Don't ask how big Explorer is.)

My apps folder has about 90 applications and utilities and is 4.9GB. So you can have all your apps, I'm sure you have fewer than that, plus 18-20GB of documents on that Sony SSD.

I hope this info helps everyone. Please give me some more street cred for providing all this useful data.

 

ubercool, very interesting info, thanks a lot!

Another thing: To start up Vista fra "Stand by" or another quick start up modus, what is the time difference when using the SSD 32 GB and a 1,8 HDD 80 GB? I think there is no "instant on" in any of the cases, but is one alternative much quicker than the other?

 

There is a link to a video in the early party of this thread that actually shows you the difference between booting from a drive and an SSD.

 

Yes, I have seen that video. But it shows booting from "scratch", don't it? I wonder what the difference will be when starting up the TZ from "Stand by" or another quick mode i Vista.

 

According to BusinessWeek's Stephen Wildstrom, the biggest SSD speed boost will come when waking up from hibernation.

 

Is difficult to know what configuration to choose. 32GB seems little specially if someone download music, movies...ext. After only Vista is around 15GB, Office 2007, Firefox and other programs they fill up the SSD. At this point or you take an external drive or a flash drive of 16GB.
Maybe is better to take an external DVD (that you will not use it so frequently as programs) and have a lot of space inside the TZ.

 

Exactly!

Me too i am in the middle of the 32 ssd +dvd and the 32 ssd + 2.5" 160 gb.
The point is if you want to carry an external drive or an external dvd? Can't fit everything in such a small machine! If Sony would put the 64 gb we shoudn't have these problems.