What do you prefer, new Z or old Z, external optical and gpu or internal?

Not anymore , all votes are anon and 2 and what was 4 have been merged, i think it makes sense.
It was a mistake that there was a repeat.

 

So right now, slice battery is 1.2 Lbs, dock is 1.5lbs, and laptop is 2.7~ lbs. So it's like carrying a 5.5-6 lbs laptop should I go on any extended travel... Not very appealing to me...

 

I think they did it right -- except for the proprietary Light Peak connector, of course. This is a seriously lust-worthy machine.

 

Too bad LG didn't do the same for the P330 as the P430 and P530 - ultra-slim bezel.
(It's still much smaller than the bezel on the new Z, though)

 

As is mine, other than the wall of LPs. On the other hand, I have only limited interest in portable music. Still, I would have preferred to have the external unit with a battery powered option. An internal ODD would have been nice, but I don't know what design compromises would have been needed. On the other hand, if I get the 512 SSD, I should have enough space to store a couple of Blu-ray discs if needed.

 

Ok new Z online now, and I'm loving it. Prefer it without docking station crud but want extended battery. Dont need dvd / blue ray.. so this a an amazing machine.

 

Where do you see it online? I don't see it at sonystyle.com. To be honest I'm having a hard time wondering why not go with S?

 

Z has a better screen and a 1080p option. Otherwise, the SA is a better value.

I'd still go Z.

 

Who games on the go? If you are gaming somewhere other than home, how hard is it to pull out something smaller than an external hard drive and plug it in to your laptop? You're going to be sitting down most of the time anyway, so I don't see how carrying around this dock can be too cumbersome.

 

bottom line is that i don't want to have to "think" about what i will need when i take my laptop on the go... everything i need should be there

making the gpu and optical as an external plug in is dumb. the current Z has it all and is a tiny bit thicker and heavier

say you go out for the day to starbucks and you want to travel light so you leave the dock at home... then you see a friend there and he's like check out this new soundtrack or bootleg dvd, or you want to sheep a few friends on WoW while waiting for your triple latte... o wait, you cant!

also the design of the power dock is super bad... it needs to be plugged in to wall outlet (not truly portable, always lugging around AC adapter)

what if you're at airport and you stumble across those rent a DVD for the flight... you can't! not even if you had the dock with you cause there is no place to plug the dock into on normal seating airlines!

all this hassle for what... 0.5 pounds lighter and 0.30 inches thinner? no thank you

 

Those are some of the most unlikeliest situations I've ever heard of.

 

Well it's hard if there's no power socket nearby. Because it doesn't work on battery power. And I think there are some people like students at University who like to play for a while even if they don't have a power socket near there seat.

 

Hmm, I guess you have a point there, I do like the occasional gaming during class. I didn't realize the dock wasn't battery operated :/

 

this laptop is not for you.

this laptop is introducing the next stage of mobility.

witness, that these days there is the digital age of movies and software. itunes movies, netflix, qriocity, apple mac store..

when windows 8 is introduced next spring, everything will be diverging online digital space. sony z2 is one step ahead of the pact.

 

i game on the go... WoW with my wifi-tethered phone... i can run random BGs for about 1.5 hours with gpu enabled on regular battery, 2.5 hours with extended

throttle the CPU down to 85% and leave the GPU on, you will get smooth framerates and save the battery + heat

i also watch DVDs on airplanes... you don't? i guess if you can plan ahead and buy the DVDs you want, or download them the night before, but it is for those times that you needed the GPU or the optical and didnt have it or couldn't plug it in... those are the times that being 0.5 pounds lighter and 0.30 inches thinner make no sense at all

hell if you do carry the dock and AC adapter with you... aren't you already over the old Z's weight and thickness?

 

i'll buy that argument when 20mbps+ wireless connections are free and widely available, because only then can i download the huge digital content i want in a reasonable timeframe

that isnt today or in the next 6 months

point of laptop is portability... usefulness on the go... and the power dock is NOT useful on the go

 

sony did not design the laptop with united states bureaucratic political issue in mind. loolllll
sir that is not the problem of sony, that is the problem of united states.

case in point: read this article and understand
Why is European broadband faster and cheaper? Blame the government -- Engadget

United states is ranked 16th in the world. we are the superpower economy.

anyways that is just another subject

 

consider Vaio SA

they have given the Z attributes to SA w/o letting it have the premium quality materials.

at the end you can't have a best of both worlds. or well.. that was the past in case of Z

 

Yeah, SA is looking pretty good. $1500 well equipped.

 

Its on the sony uk site. will PM you the link as I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a direct link.

 

carlos milos, there is no problem with posting a link to the Sony website.

 

Well in that case

Z Series : VAIO & computing : Sony

 

Hmmm, UK, nothing on the US site yet.

 

The concept of the new Z makes sense, but you can buy a USB external optical drive anywhere. That leaves the external GPU, so if the heat load and power draw are in an external box, then I say go nvidia 580gtx not some mid grade gpu

 

I don't like the new series. It's the solution to the problem nobody seem to have asked for.

The appeal of old Z for me was having power in one portable package. New Z under went drastic redesigning internally which few asked for. When all they needed to do, was swap in Sandy-Bridge and a new GPU. New Z now compromised the ideal of the single ultimate Z form factor, as its function actually reduce further once without AC.

If the dock were included for free or drastically cheaper, I might consider. What it lack is different graphics card depending on power demanded/ willingness to pay. In for a penny in for a pound, if media dock needs AC, why not implement lightpeak properly, and E.g. put Nvidia 570/580M into media dock, something vastly superior than IGP. While the tech is promising, knowing Sony there are plenty proprietary format that had not made it. Starting at £1400+ standard, it doesn't represent significant value over the likes of Thinkpad X220 - which is almost halve the price. Unless you're willing to invest heavily into the media dock. Frankly I'd get thinkpad/old Z + PS3.

The time of charging large dollar for marginal extra satisfaction is running out imo. I don't think it's sensible charging £525 for a media dock that houses Blu-ray, as far as personally, why would you use external bluray drive, on 13 inch laptop? bizzare.

 

It's very possible that the form factor of the dock and the need to avoid meltdowns contributed to the selection of the GPU.

 

Very possible, yes one of many reasons. Not to mention the need for a big fat 250W power supply just for the GPU, and the fact that PCIe 2.0/2.1 is 8GB/s for an x16 lane and Thunderbolt is "only" 1GB/s, so it'd be limited in bandwidth there too.

 

First time posting ...but i have to ..why sony why!!! they distroyed the entire concept of the "Z Series"
In my opinion the bezel of the screeen is way to fat it should be smaller even smaller than the Z1 i love the screens with a small bezel like the new samsung D8/7 series.dont you all?
It is bigger than the Z1 series
why remove the GPU
Where is the performance "in" this notebook?
Ohh i found it .....is "out" of the notebook....
I feel so bad that i have to move to another manufacturer that will keep the good stuf together and "INSIDE" like "INTEL" said.OR TO WAIT UNTIL THE REALIZE THAT THEY MADE A BIG MISTAKE WITH THIS MODEL OF Z2.and make a new chasis with all good stuff together.
I own the VPCZ13V9E/X quad ssd i7 640m 8 gb an i feel great with it i will never trade the z13v9e for any model of z2x

 

I'm actually pretty glad that the Z went to this strange configuration as now I can stop worrying about it and save myself $1000 with a similarly equipped SA. I think it's crazy to have the gpu AND the blu ray drive external. The whole point of the Z (at least to me) was to have the smallest, sexiest laptop with a blu ray drive to use that nice screen. I'm not going to take around a cable and something that looks like a wii with me wherever I go. And when I'm at home, I'll just use my blu ray player to watch movies.

If only the gpu was external then maybe I'd consider it, but I still think it would be unnecessary. It completely loses its portability for me with this awkward configuration. If I didnt want a disc drive I could save a ton of money getting an ultraportable and just using their $300 portable blu ray. I just don't get the point of it I guess. If it was to appeal to gamers, I think they aren't even looking at the Z, they'd get some alienware laptop or something that is truly optimized for gaming, not a $3000 slim computer.

 

Same here, first time posting after following for months the speculation thread.
The Z2 is wider with same or worse battery. The gain in weight is totally lost if we have to carry the dock in a long journey. And we need an external ODD anyhow since the dock cannot function on battery. I was travelling in the States for a month with my girlfriend. We had to use my Z to have a look at photos in a DVD burnt by a professional photographer, rip a rare audio CD from an audiophile friend and watch a DVD in bed.
She stopped bragging about the weight of her 11.6 MBA after this.
I always thought that an internal ODD is optional and a waste of space, but if I have to carry all the bulk of the Z2 dock, forget it.
So I will wait for the Z3 now, or observe the competition if they manage to make laptops with good high resolution screens (the ZA is heavier than the VPCZ and the screen quality is far worse).

 

The thing with very thin notebooks as we've seen with the MBA battery life can suffer. The 1.18kg Z has a 45w internal battery. For me in a notebook i look for excellent battery life more in the region over 7 hours with wifi on. This will give you may be around 3hrs over WWAN. Going by the SA indications which has a higher battery capacity those times are looking very unlikely. To get this kind of battery life for travel i need i would need to buy the sheet battery which brings the weight to 1.8kg, about 4lbs.

Longer battery life would have been great and i was expecting it to be longer. It would always have a 4lbs travel weight for me even if just doing day to day travel at home. When comparing with other notebooks the weight advantage edges away to get like for like battery figures.

I spent not that long ago time in Africa in a country where the electricity was forever cutting out and you need to depend on generators that cannot be used for hours on end. In the future i will be doing a lot of this type of travel. If i was a gamer i wouldn't be able to use the dock.

I wouldn't travel with the 1.5lbs dock as i wouldn't need to use the gpu. For those that do need the weight increases again so this is about 5.5lbs-6lbs travel weight. What i would have liked to have is a traditional dock for home use.

I was thinking yesterday that if i was condensing my two notebooks into one i would be looking at the last gen Z, the Fujistu P771 (15hrs battery life with a single battery) and the HP Elitebook 12.5. For travel 12< notebooks have an advantage, although a 13.3 is ok. These are the only 12 notebooks now i think with a built in drive. I think getting a new notebook now i would want USB 3 so the older Z might rank a little lower.

It's a shame that they pulled the CFRP from being used in the SA. I would pay extra for a premium display but it's not going to happen. Also, i would have liked a thunderbolt port and this is another pro that i see in the MBP.

 

The Z series has always been product of a weird niche. It's ahead of its peers but the advantage it has over the others isn't too big of an advantage when you consider what most people use their Z for. The Z is being targeted at "business users", but if you're a business man there's little need for a dedicated graphics card, and the HD3000 should suffice for most business users (unless one also games whilst doing business <_<)

I'm actually one of those people who fits this niche though. I'm no businessman, but I'm a student who needs a laptop that can do things in a snap and is portable enough that I can bring it to school every single day no matter how much my books weigh. The gaming capability is also a nice bonus so I can play online matches during recess with my friends.

The VPC-Z1 series was probably the best "portable gaming station", but this classification isn't entirely practical (as you'll have to bring your mouse, headset, and the power adapter for the most part). However, for the VPC-Z2, I have no idea what niche it fills to be honest. The weird external dock design is a real deal-breaker.

 

Doesn't make sense, any 3rd party external USB optical drive will work and as for the external graphics....go really big. Since both the power drain and heat load are external to the laptop, I say use and nvidia 580GTX, not some mid grade card that's in other laptops. I realize the lightpeak interface might not have the bandwidth to feed a high end graphics card, just use more channels. After all PCIe has 1x, 4x, 8x, and 16x.
Did I read correctly that the external dock could charge the laptop which implies that it doesn't have a battery and needs to be plugged in. Where is the mobility in that?

 

Lightpeak might be able to manage equivalent to PCIe 2x. It is also limited by the Northbridge and would saturate that bus. I do agree that they could have used something more powerful, but a 580 GTX isn't portable. It's like carrying another laptop. Even though its intent is to stay "at home" more or less, it's also designed to be portable.

 

I love Africa. I once was at a "hotel" (I would have to cut my tongue out for calling it a hotel without apostrophes) where you had to insert coins every half-hour to get electricity, and it was just about enough juice to either run a light and a fan or charge the laptop. TV? That was down in the bar, showing football.
No wifi, and the only way to get connectivity was by telephone modem using crocodile clips (road warriors, don't leave home without them).

When I saw that the Z2 had two batteries, I was at first excited. Unfortunately, they're very slim batteries, so there's no extra power there compared to the old Z.

 

You haven't seen the powerpoint presentations some business users commit (or get foisted upon them by marketing)...
3D animations, AutoCAD zoomable drawings, you name it.

No, but when you travel, it's nice to have something to do besides the hotel bar and watching "Truth About Cats And Dogs" for the nineteenth time on the aeroplane video.

I certainly won't begrudge businesspeople for wanting an all-round-powerful PC.

 

wanna know what my ideal laptop would look like?

it's close to the 2011 Z...but it would have a "clip-on" (lockable) upgradable GPU and blu-ray ODD (that can attached/detached separately if not needed..less heat/energy...and they would be flush with the laptop if user decided to clip either or both of them on). Also give it a bigger battery (battery life is a big seller!)..add a little more weight...maybe 2.7-3 pounds..that's light enough for 98% of the people out there....I'd pay big bucks for that. Even if it's like 4-4.5 pounds with GPU and ODD....it would most probably be on a desk if they were attached...unless you game on your lap....

 

I do stay in hotels sometimes but not for the duration of the time. The hotels though do have internet. For example, my brother did a year in Uganda not that long ago for his company. They rented a property and of course had to rely on generators. I've spent up to a couple of months at a time. In the future i will be working more in lesser developed countries.
It doesn't suit my overall needs and future needs but it will to many no doubt.

 

To be honest, I would gladly trade a quarter-inch extra thickness for it not being so wide. That would have improved battery life, due to a larger volume. On an airplane tray or cramped bus seat, width matters, and ultra-thinness doesn't, unless you want to impress your fellow travelers more than actually using the thing.
But when it's clearly made as a Macbook Air competitor, thinness seems to be all important. I find that sad, but I guess ultra-thin is this year's fad.

 

Cool post, requiem. I really like the idea of a clip-on GPU because it would eliminate the hassle of traveling with a free-floating secondary item, and they could probably build it so that it would accomodate as much as a single-height desktop GPU. I'm thinking something like the slot on the old ThinkPad Advanced Dock, but obviously designed to hook into the bottom of the laptop. Even with the GPU hooked in you probably wouldn't be too much thicker than an Alienware laptop, and you could easily drop back to the regular super-thin chassis by disconnecting it.

Now I almost feel like the current Z is a missed opportunity.

The obsession with optical really needs to end. It seems pretty clear that the SA is a concession model made for people with optical hangups. It's already frustrating enough that the Z's external dock has such a hamstrung video card in the name of accomodating an optical drive. I want, like, a giant husk of self-upgradeable GPU that I can shove into the bottom of the machine while retaining the footprint of the laptop.

 

This has been discussed on this board before, but it seems that some manfactuers have found that consumers by and large actually do still want built in opticals. When it comes to thin and lights though or ultraportables of course there is more flexiblity and it's not so relevant. It is only the MBA that Apple has eliminated the optical drive. The Z is a MBA competitor and i can understand their decision making, even though it doesn't suit my needs.
As i've said before i think they should have made the SA more of a premium line. Anyway, the 15 "HP Envy was sold without an optical and then that discontinued and the 14" model now contains one. They go by sales and they have those figures. The last gen Z had wide appeal and will need to see again if this new Z has that same appeal.

It will be interesting to see if opticals in the next few years will actually be obsolete or not. Many people just want things at their finger tips which this poll seems to suggest whether it's an external optical and built in graphics, or an internal optical and interal graphics and this is not just the typical average consumer.

 

It is an understandable decision by Sony to replace the good old all-in-one Z with two models: the new Z w/o GPU and ODD and the SA/SB series.
As everyone else, business users like light weight, slim form factor, and those who care about hardware would also pay extra for a good display but – how much?...
In the US prices are lower than in the UK but anyway:
The new Z with i7-2620M, Windows 7 Professional, 4 GB 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM, 128 GB SATA Flash SSD, 13.3” LCD, 1920x1080, webcam, Intel HD Graphics 3000, Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300? on shop.sony.co.uk is GBP 1,719 = USD 2,763.
X220 with i7-2620M, Windows 7 Professional, 4 GB 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM, 128 GB Solid State Drive, 12.5" Premium HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, Intel HD Graphics 3000, Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 on shop.lenovo.com is USD 1,465.

As I have Z12 and occasionally play games, I am more interested in the SA series though, and when I read that it has only a little more powerful GPU and sort of worse screen, obviously I am not tempted. Perhaps Sony couldn’t cram more powerful GPU (even underclocked) into the SA series (without making the SA look like Alienware M11x) but the increase in the footprint and thick bezel is another step backwards. I wish manufacturers went with increased thickness but smaller footprint if they had to as well I wish there was a manufacturer who made laptops with higher screen height countering this HD bs.

 

Optical disks are still the cheapest way to transfer files for your own use elsewhere or to hand off to someone else. The cloud works fine for this, but if you are on an airplane or away from a hot spot, it won't do you any good that the file you need is "up there." Thumb drives are as good or better, but they still cost a good deal more and their very "convenient" size can be a liability - too easy to lose, too hard to label. Finally, a Blu Ray player -if you know someone with a BR RW, is the best way to get a 25 GB awesome FHD++ video to watch. If you don't have a friend with a BR RW drive, then you have to get your own, download the ridiculously large file, burn it onto a BD Rom, get it the heck off your SSD, and voila!

All of the above may not apply to all of the people, but to me they are all reasons that the internal ODD is far from a useless vestige of times gone by. As for me, I'm holding onto my Z13 for dear life! Just sold my Z11 and kicking myself for not keeping one around for parts or backup. First decent used/refurb deal I can find, I'm going back to a 2 Z1 strategy.

 

Yeah. What he said! (Hope you love your Z

 

lol I do love my 2010 Z (for $999!)...best deal/decision I've made in recent time (besides picking up a second brand new PS3 slim for $199 - right before my old fat ps3 starting having issues...got lucky with timing). Anyways, for me there is still no better laptop than the 2010 Z. Unless someone can make the laptop i described in my previous post.

 

True, CDs are dirt cheap, but they also are slow, and most of all, you get occasional coasters. And incompatible drives, especially with rewritables, where there's never a guarantee that discs produced on one random system will be readable on another random system.

SD cards have come down a lot in price, and in my field, they're currently the preferred physical file exchange medium, followed by USB keys.
True, SD cards are not as easy to label as a CD, but then again, you don't run the risk of someone using a sharpie that either dissolves the coating or smudges over onto the next CD and produces more coasters. And they do fit in pockets and wallets. And quite a few phones also lets you read and write them, unlike USB keys and CDs.

Sure, optical disks are still going to be around for a while. It took forever for floppy disks to die too. The main reason is, I think, that the CE industries, led by Sony, made a seriously brain dead choice a few years ago: BD should never have happened -- the industry should have realized that an SD card could have done all the same as BDs, DVDs and CDs, with less reliability problems. Price? Push out SD cards at the rate of CDs and movies, and the price would come down too. I hope that another company will have the guts to produce the first industry standard and launch SD movie players and movies, because I think New Sony has lost all visions.

 

This I agree with wholeheartedly. Optical media needs to die, period. If they could make 32GB SD cards cheap enough (like $1-2 each) then it could be the best physical way to distribute software. I still think streaming HD is a crock, typically there's a lot of compression and quality loss. I've noticed it between a blu-ray disc and my Comcast HD.

 

Ati graphics I hate in general, bad move by sony as they suffer from tearing and frame drop when playing back video and have basic and hard to navigate control panel..

I prefer internal gpu and don't care about optical drive as never use the things unless I need to burn a bluray but by the time it does that battery will be really low and need psu connected so what is the point of lappy being portable in first place...

They should of gone Nvidia 425M dedicated and ssd main hard drive and 2.5" option in optical bay

 

I am also surprised by Sonys changes with the new Z. I would have bet money that they were going with something similar to what kalibar mentioned (attachable eGPU dock.)

I am also surprised at the switch to Radeon. The Z series has always used the latest Nvidia switchable graphics technology. The SZ had the first generation power off/on to switch tech and the Z featured second generation dynamic switching. I would have guessed the new Z would have exploited a version of the third generation Optimus "feature" displayed in this video. Optimus has already been proven to have some optimization in place that if expanded would help with an external solution.

 

Compared to the older Z, does this now mean, that having an external powerdock, that you won't be able to use the ATI chip from the dock to output games back onto the Sony LCD/laptop?

If so, then I like my old Z. I am powering games/3d/video on my notebook screen, not a external one