VAIO TZ 10 Year Anniversary Japan Official

Yes, I was afraid there was some laptop-il-logic here...

 

At least now we know where Engadget got its erroneous information from.

The SSD option will become far more practical when capacities approach 100GB. Then you can have your speed cake and eat your DVD too.

 

No they aren't. Usually the higher capacity (in this case the medium) is considered the standard battery by Sony. Then there is the lightweight one, and in this case, the super high capacity one.

Notice that you can swap which battery you get when you order your TZ, so you can get the standard instead of the lightweight for an upgrade price.

 

Weigh your choices really:

Lightweight will make the TZ thin at both ends and gives it the cleanest look. But <4 hours battery life is only enough to see Lord of the Rings.

Standard will give you almost twice the battery life, but will make an awkward hump at the back of the TZ. Moreso with the extended battery.

 

Yes, is a difficult choice. From the pictures that i saw the lightweight battery it doesnt make any difference to the weight. The medium battery (named Standard?) does a small hump and the bigger battery does really a big difference with a big hump.
So, i think the medium is the best choice cause as you said the lightweith is only 4 hours.

 

Battery Life: Lightweight battery pack VGP-BPS11: 6 hours
Standard battery pack VGP-BPL11: 12 hours
Bulk battery pack VGP-BPX11: 18 hours

Definitely i will go for the Standard. 4 hours is not really enough for a ultraportable. Now i must decide the HDD and DVD combination

 

I think 4 hours is pretty much comparable to most regular (non-Sony) laptops.

IMHO, I tend to lean a bit more towards mobility than stamina if I wanted to buy any ultraporatble. However, I understand some would lean a bit more towards stamina. But hey, what I also like about lightweight battery in the TZ is the looks.

 

If they come out with a 2GHz Santa Rosa processor, I'd be very tempted to buy one even though I have a relatively new SZ. As much as I want it to be ultraportable with a built in DVD drive, it has to have adequate processing power for the multiple apps and power hungry apps I run. My 2 GHz SZ is too slow for me as it is.

 

I don't think they will. Judging from the clockspeeds of current Merom ULV processors, the Santa Rosa ultra-low voltage processors will probably have clock speeds of between 1.2 and 1.5 Ghz.

If you need processing power, you're better off sticking with the 12.1" or above notebook screen size, since most of the laptops in that range will support any of the mobile Core 2 Duo's.

 

From the japanese site where you can pick and choose the components and you can see the weight difference, I think the standard (medium) one is the perfect balance for me, it addes a tiny bit, while substantially adding more life (2x) to the machine, esp when I don't travel with it daily, I can def. live with the tiny bump in the back.

After reading more reviews on the SSD, I'm convinced that it would be the route for me IF its offered in the US version due to its quick boot up time as well as accessing programs in vista. While 32GB is tiny compared to what most laptops offer, I don't plan to store anything huge on it. I already have a 750GB NAS already.

For those that are interested, I called Dynamism, I was told that the laptops will be out on May 26th in Japan, and they will receive shipment by the end of the month and will ship as soon as they get it. Of course this is just speculation on the sales guy's part, but when I asked about the SSD on the US version, he said he being that there are already US models with the SSD, its pretty likely that the TZ for US will also have that option. But of course its just speculation, anything can change.

 

I think he's referring to standard voltage processors.

 

The TZ comes with ULV processors. People shouldn't buy ultraportables if they're looking for performance.

 

About the components of TZ: The thing that i absolutely need is the optical drive. From there would be nice if i had a faster HD than the 1.8" 4200rpm. So i am oriented to the combinatin 32GB SSD + DVD but i am wondering if later on i can change the 32GB SSD with 64GB or 128GB SSD?

 

Have you tried ReadyBoost? I am not sure if that will complement the slower hard drive.

 

sturmnacht wrote: "Have you tried ReadyBoost? I am not sure if that will complement the slower hard drive." Please elaborate on this theme! (I am afraid that 32 GB SSD will be too little. On the other hand, how much difference in speed will there be between the SSD and the 100 GB HD?)

 

Thanks sturmnacht. ReadyBoost is using Your USB key to speed up Windows Vista no?
I don't have a laptop with Vista yet...I am interested at the TZ but i kinda searching for the best combination for me. Phisically, can I in the future replace the 32GB SSD with a bigger one? Because i really like the SSD for its speed but i would need a bigger HD.

 

I'm sure you'll be able to change later - at the cost of voiding your warranty if you screw it up, of course.

You can always just get an external 2.5" drive and be done with it. The TZ is light enough that a .4lb drive won't add real weight to your bag. That's what I'm going to do with the G.

 

Readyboost may speed up some I/O as it has somewhat to do with caching, but I see it more for if you are memory challenged, it will add a bit of memory without buying physical DIMMs. It's not going to fundamentally change the speed of your hard drive.

 

Probably, yes. By the time SSD prices fall, your warranty should be long expired, so you don't have to worry about voiding the warranty by changing the hard drive.

However, that brings up an important point - SSD prices currently are sky-high. The 32 GB SSD is a premium that'll put a $500 hole in your pocket right now. The 64 GB SSD will fall in price to that point in maybe half a year to a year. Then, larger SSD's will be the more expensive types, like possibly a 128 GB SSD will cost $500 18 months from now.

As said earlier in this thread, it's great to keep all your most important stuff (operating system, Microsoft Word, critical applications that you may use like Adobe Photoshop, Firefox, one or two games that you play a lot) on the SSD, and then buy an external 250GB+ hard drive to put all your music, video, picture, or games in.

 

I can also recall that there's a 16GB or 32GB SSD in Expresscard form too. Imagine storing the most heavily-used applications into the SSD while opening up the space in the 1.8" hard drive for everything else. That's a seek time booster right there, with a total maximum space of 132GB. But as of today, even the 16GB SSD almost doubles the price of an internal 32GB SSD. Those who are really passionate about speedy ultraportables and have ultradeep pockets can use those to turn the TZ into one sick, slick ultraportable with an integrated ODD.

http://www.vr-zone.com/index.php?i=4803

 

Just keep in mind that ReadyBoost doesn't contribute that much to system performance. If your system has 1 GB of RAM or more, ReadyBoost will almost do nothing to speed up your system.

 

The pictures show an antenna at the top of the screen, I'm assuming this is for built in WWAN. Does anyone have any info to confirm that it is in fact WWAN and any guesses what will be offered in the US when the TZ is released?

 

The antenna is for the optional TV tuner in Japan, not a WWAN.

 

earlier on this thread, someone mentioned that the TZ has a tv tuner option but it is only in Japan. My question is why don't Sony just import the TZ the way it is to the US or UK without taking out options. Like I just found out the in the UK they dont get WWAN (even as an option).

I just don't see the logic in removing features for different markets. They spend all this time and money on R&D and then they omit features, ...what am I missing here... please let me know.

 

Well, the price point might be a big concern here.
It more depends on the marketing of the products, they assume not many users are going to like the added price for the TV-Tuner, so they won't bother to ship two different versions of the laptop overseas.

 

If there is a US model with SSD, it will be very close to the Dynamism price of $3000. Just look at the tech -

Current higher-end TX's sell for $2500. Those have a Core Solo, 2 GB of RAM, an optical drive, and all the amenities, including that slow 1.8" 100GB 4200 RPM HDD. Add a Core 2 Duo, which shouldn't add to the price of the TX, take 2 GB of RAM (which is more than Dynamism's 1 GB), add the optical drive, and then add the 32 GB SSD, which is around a $500 premium, and you easily get to $3000.

 

I can see your point of adding a premium to laptops with SSDs, however, when I configured a TZ90 on the japanese site with the 32GB plus the optical drive and 2 gigs of RAM, total price after converting to USD is around $2500. It kind of sucks to know that thats how much it would cost in Japan and we might have to pay more for the same things here. But then again, Europeans pay a lot more for even worse specs so I guess I can't complain TOO much.

 

How much more slow is the 1.8" 100GB 4200 RPM HDD in confront of the SSD? Let's assume for a normal user (most of the times web surfing, multitasking, office work) it makes all this difference?
For sure the boot time is much quicker with SSD but once you are on it, there is a lot of difference from these two?

Thanks

 

Important question also for me! And what about the time difference between SSD and HDD regarding booting time when using Vista from Stand By modus to start up?

 

That is very true. I have always bought my laptops from abroad Hong Kong and the US. A Sony TX with 1.33GHz, 100GB HD and 1GB RAM goes for just over £1600 ($3200) on the Sony UK site and i have seen it in stores for around £1800+ ($3600). It is crazy the markups you find in the UK.

 

You cater to a local market. What's so hard to understand? The TV tuner isn't compatible outside of Japan, so why in the world would it be configured that way in other countries?

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126833/article.html

Now the 4200RPM drive is even slower than the 5400 RPM drive - the SSD will wipe the floor with it.

 

$3200 for a TX is just ridiculous right now.

As for the above questions regarding SSD vs. 4200 rpm drives, I don't believe it will make a huge difference when you're just browsing web pages or typing up a word doc. However, compared even with 7200 rpm drives, it will make a noticeable difference esp. when booting up, coming out of idle mode, starting up programs. But the benefits go beyond that. We're talking about no moving parts which means no more hard drives making that annoying sounds when you're starting up a program. completely silent! Less heat and certainly a lot less power usage, something very beneficial when you're talking about an ultraportable here. Since there's no moving parts, the chances of it failing has decreased many folds. Oh and one very important advantage, no more defragmentation! And I don't know about you but to be able to boot into windows in about 30 seconds flat is pretty impressive as well.

 

Thanks Fren (the article was illuminating) and Outrigger for your responses.

Wow, the SSD seems really fast. And the article of pcworld confront it with a 5400 rpm! 1.8" is definitely a slow hard drive. So, if you all say that in the future i will be able to put a 64GB SSD or even 128GB SSD, i think i will go for this option. Because ok that you can take an external drive of 160GB and put inside the multimedia features, but having an ultraportable with a 32GB of HD is too small for me.

 

Just remember that even a 32GB is very expensive right now, so if and when 64GB or 128GB becomes "somewhat" afforable, this TZ might be outdated. I would expect the 32GB version to become affordable next year but not 64GB or 128GB which doesn't even exist as of yet.

I was thinking about going with a 100 or 80GB before, when you think about it, people want the latest and greatest like santa rosa and better integrated graphics, but whats the point of having it even if they DO have it on the TZ when you're pairing it with the slow 4200rpm drives? Thats kind of like buying a real expensive sports car but getting cheap wheels and putting in regular unleaded gas. but then again, it all comes down to what you're using it for and what you're willing to sacrafice.

 

One (indeed not unimportant) aspect of the SSD is the price. Another aspect is the size: Is 32 GB too little to run Vista and Office and web surfing? Would 64 GB be sufficient for smooth running?

 

Fujitsu claims that the Q2010 is the world's most desirable laptop. Check out the battery life through this link. This will make all of you love Sony more.

http://vilpublic.fujitsu-siemens.com/vil/pc/vil/datenblaetter/mobile/en/ds_lifebook_q2010.pdf

That's the reason why I personally prefer the lightweight option. For me, mobility beats all. By the way, how many cells does the lightweight battery of the TZ have?

 

Either 3 or 4.

 

I'm curious as to who plans to order from dynamism and who will wait for the US version next month or so?

I was thinking about going through the dynamism route, but I do believe there will be a significant price difference when the US version hits sony stores in June or July.

 

yes it is but as you all discuss the specs of its innards i think a lot of you truly need to pay more attention to the screen. And its the screen why such a laptop is so expensive.
This is just the beginning of the next phase of what LCD computer screens will be. Only with LED backlite can a true zero-light black can be achieved.
Right now the best LCD computer screen is the Samsung SyncMaster XL20 (well, theres another made mby Dolby but thats 50grand) and i suspect all these new XBrite LCD LED's are coming from the same Samsung factory.
Extreme high dynamic range has never looked better.

If and when Sony finally makes a 17" LCD LED i may just have to jump back to the shinny side of Vaio

 

I also agree there will be a significant price difference when the US version of the TZ comes out later, and I plan on getting that.

 

I just wish the TZ could have the X3100 graphics right now. Dang ultraportables, so small and sexy but so not upgradable and expensive. Wish there was a way to upgrade our models as early adopters as the line keeps getting gradually refreshed over time.

 

Look on the bright side, early adopters usually pay the premium for the latest but suffer the bugs and early incompatibility issues, while the 945 chipset maybe last year's tech, its mature which means there should be almost no issues with drivers and what not, thats how I see it. And being that I won't be using this laptop for FPS games, the 950 should be more than enough for what I'm using. And the fact that it will not be SR based means even longer battery life. While it may sound good that your laptop is SR equipped, I used my friend's laptop for a couple of weeks which is SR equipped and honestly, I noticed zero difference in the tasks I was using which was mainly web browsing, checking emails, light gaming. I wouldn't even know the difference if there wasn't a SR sticker on the laptop itself. From what I heard, SR will almost reduce the battery time dramatically due to its twice the power usage as Napa. I'll take napa with the standard battery which will give me over 6 hrs in real world use as indicated by dynamism.

 

That's exactly what I tell myself

Not exactly true. The extra power consumption of SR should balance out the extra power saving features Intel has managed to cram into the new processors.

Plus, the ULV Santa Rosa processors will definitely be quite power-efficient.

 

I have one on order from Dynamism. Hopefully, it ships sometime soon!

 

which one did you get? I was told they would start shipping by the end of the month, they still have to get their shipments from Japan.

 

I ordered the SSD/DVDRW in Premium Carbon. I was told the orders should ship by the end of the month. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed.

 

and the type of battery?

 

I ordered the lightweight battery. I wanted the smallest and lightest package with a DVD drive.

 

$3,000 is so expensive zzz

Dynamism added an option of upgrading to 2 GB for $300. I wonder how the 1 GB in the stock models are being split up? Is it 512 onboard with a stick of 512 GB in the bottom, or is it 1 GB onboard?