What parts of the Premium SZ are actually made of carbon Fiber?

I was just curious as to what the actual parts were on the SZ that are made of carbon fiber? I tried to search on the forums but got no responses. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

 

As far as I know, it's just the lid that's carbon fiber. The bottom housing is made out of magnesium alloy, and the palmrest is aluminum. Hope that helps.

 

Varries, my SZ has a carbon fibre palmrest.

Else, chasis and lid - I agree with the lid - but my laptop's chasis is made from carbon fibre.

 

Like defcon6, I think that it's just the lid that's carbon fiber. The palmrest is definitely aluminum. However, I believe that the bottom housing is made out of hard plastic...

 

hmm... I know that my Vaios palmrest is not aluminium.

Reason: It takes metal of an aircraft belt buckle, and of a paperclip...
I did actually manage to scratch it... in one place...

But overal on my Vaio the palmrest is too tough to be made from aluminium.

Also - its blakish, not silver...so.

(European SZ71VN/X)

 

http://ph.hardwarezone.com/news/view.php?cid=17&id=4250

"Sony’s unrelenting refinement of VAIO’s ultra-polished look and feel is evident in the SZ series. In Sony’s inimitable style, the VGN-SZ18GP/C model boasts luxurious sophistication of ultra light, super strong carbon fibre display casing with aluminium hairline-finished palm rest. VGN-SZ15GP/B model exhibit equally elegant casings made of magnesium alloy which offers toughness and sturdy key touch."

 

Maybe I'm totally wrong with the SZ palmrest being made of aluminum. My apologies.

One question though. Is aluminum scratch resistant?

If that is the case, then the Apple MBPs, unibody MBs & MBPs are not made of aluminum casings since they are "easily" scratched if you're not careful with them.

 

Aluminium is quite a soft metal, so no, it wouldn't be scratch resistant.

 

The lid is made of carbon fiber. The palm rest is made of different material than non premium model which made the premium model significantly thinner and lighter than the non premium model.

 

That adds to it...
My SZ71VN/X is "The Best" of the SZ that was ever offered in Germany.

I think they never - or only for a short time at the end - came to the UK.

 

Yes the SZ7/X the premium carbon model was sold in the UK for a while. The only thing different about it compared to the carbon fibre model SZ7/C was the ram, hd size and pattern on the lid. Everything else is the same.

There is also a carbon fibre premium model that was sold in the US and i believe that is the model that SpeedwithJJ owns.

I'm not to bothered what my palmrests are made out of. I am tending to think that the palmrests are made out of AL now after reading this-scroll down for what it has to say about the palmrests. They also mention the palmrests under concepts as well. You can also colour AL.
http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArt...VOE&article=1168443958975&site=voe_en_GB_prof

 

Hmmm....

I wonder - is it possible that the earliest SZ's were built with aluminium palmrests, and some later models offer carbon fibre palmrests?

Rachuck - while this is a very nice read - I think this refers to the SZ1 series.

I mean - apart from performance changes, the SZ7 is 1.86kg versus 1,79kg on the SZ1 (both values from Sony's spec sheet) - the WWAN module was added in the SZ4 I think - or at least thereabouts (SZ3 had an HSDPA WWAN card)...
I think someone here on NBR noted that the screen got a bit thicker and lost some flex...

So there were design changes...

I think its carbon fibre for my palmrest - but in the end, your right in saying that it doesn't matter.
Key thing is we are happy with our laptops

 

No the premium SZ7 weigh 1.79kg 3.94/5lbs. The older premium SZ's model were even lighter at 1.69kg which is about 3.5lbs. The standard B range had a slightly thicker lid and the display was CCFL so that also added to the weight.


This is a premium model SZ7.
http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowPro..._cons&pageType=Overview&category=VN+SZ+Series

Premium SZ3
http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowPro..._cons&pageType=Overview&category=VN+SZ+Series

 

Ups - OK, then it must have been 1,69kg vs 1,79kg - I wonder where I saw the 1,86kg feature... I wasn't really looking at the "B model".

Just thinking... why is this issue so important?

If it is - does anybody fancy e-mailing Sony?

 

Have you ever had to remove your palmrest (upgrading HDD, etc.) and had a chance to look at the underside? I think if you examine the underside you will agree that it's aluminum.

I happen to work for Sony =)

 

defcon6, i'm just wondering.. what is the notebook in your display picture?

 

That's a Premium SZ (palmrest that is "gunmetal" color; models before the black palmrests) with a silver keyboard.

 

So if the palmrest is alluminium.

How is it so strong?

(How do I spellt he t-word? tough - something like that? Yes, English isn't my native language, but its better than my native language)

 

It depends on how it's worked. The SZ's palmrest is subjected to a a very tough anodising process, and it's a highly worked sheet of aluminium which is tougher than what you end up with on the Crapbooks. So comparatively speaking, it's scratch resistant - but once the anodising eventually wears away due to abrasion (would usually take many years of use, but perfectly possible) the inner metal would react relatively badly to corrosion, wear and other issues and fall off from there.

 

Are you sure it takes many years for the anodizing to wear away?
DetlevCM has already "easily" scratched his/her SZ palmrest as he/she mentioned in an earlier post in this thread...

 

I'm a "he"

I did scratch my palrest - but that was a paperclip...

It doesn't scratch easily - but it is possible.

 

If i paid full price i might be bothered but i paid like 60% of the rrp price so i'm not really bothered.
Some people might be bothered though as Sony had kind of misleading ads. They described the premium SZ as having a carbon fibre chasis. The outer lid is made of carbon fibre and that is about it. I really wouldn't personally call that myself as having a carbon fibre chasis.
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cach...Z71vn/x+carbon+fibre&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

 

Oops. My bad. I'm really sorry about that.

 

No problem - no way to know it except if you regularly need my posts in Off topic, check my sig and speak German along the way

Detlev = German first name
(edited, silly, silly me)

Worse things have happened - don't worry

 

IMO, most companies are like that. They tend to "exaggerate" thier product features a lot of the times to highlight the important benefits & make the whole product look a lot better than it really is.

Maybe that is what is called "good marketing," I don't know...

 

It is technically carbon fibre, although not in the way most of us think. It's basically plastic into which they throw in a load of carbon fibres chopped up into small pieces. These enhance the overall strength of the plastic, allowing less plastic to be used to get the same durability, having enhanced strength with the same volume of plastic used or being able to be moulded into more intricate shapes without compromising structural integrity.

However, it is not as strong as the thermoset 'carbon fibre' in the F1-style, woven-look sense most of us know. Advantages of carbon-reinforced plastic - can be injection moulded, so more complex shapes can be repeatably produced at low cost. Disadvantages - doesn't share the superior strength/weight attributes of 'carbon fibre', although it is a relatively strong material.

So technically speaking, the SZ/Z/TT/TZ/G and any other models I may have left out do have carbon fibre chassis - it's just that only some of them have a thermoset lid. Not as heinous a marketing spin as you may have assumed, but still - a definite amount of spin.

 

Off-topic:

Oh, I didn't previously know that! I'm into German football but haven't come across that surname yet. I guess we get to learn new things each day.

By the way, is German hard to learn? Maybe I should try to learn some so that in the future when I get the chance, I'll visit Germany to watch my favorite German football club team, FC Bayern Munich, play a match!

 

Ups... I just turned myself into an idiot... yepp... myself.

Detlev = German first name.

Silly, silly me.

I shall edit my post.

On topic: Thanks Vogelbung - good post

 

Oh, OK. I was wondering why I haven't come across a German soccer (football) player with that surname since I first seriously started taking a keen interest in soccer in 1992.

 

Thanks Detlev. And yeah - marketing wise it would have been pretty disastrous to say "Our Premium laptops are made out of fancy plastic."

But that's basically what it is. From an engineering point of view it's a good material to reconcile economical mass production and strength in products where you have to make fairly thin-walled structures.

Sony pioneered use of different materials in consumer goods: Towards the end of the last century it was magnesium, most commonly in their Walkman ranges - Sony spearheaded the mass-production use of formed magnesium alloys in consumer devices. And it seems like they're doing the same with carbon-based mass production.

The perception problem though - and probably the reason why they haven't used it more widely in other 'premium' products - is that it doesn't feel premium. Unless Sony told you it was 'carbon fibre' you wouldn't have thought it was anything but plastic - which as I said, it basically is.

And consequently, the problem with the 'carbon' is that it only really makes sense from a purely engineering point of view - and not like Apple's use of aluminium, which actually doesn't make that much sense from a purely engineering point of view but makes *bags* of sense in a tactile and visual point of view. With an Apple, your average consumer knows and feels it's metal, and it feels kind of special - despite the fact that pound for pound, it's a hugely weaker structure than the Sony 'carbon fibre'.

Which is why Sony bows to aesthetics / tactile-emotional link and aluminium still gets a look in on some of the notebooks on the area where you're most in direct physical contact with the machine - i.e. the palmrest. But this is a much more half-assed approach to the aforementioned tactile-emotional link.

There's no denying that if you line up a premium Sony carbon notebook with a premium Apple notebook - the Macs do feel more special, no matter how relatively poor the QC is (quite a lot), how inferior the internal engineering is (ditto) and how much weaker the structure is in reality (again, ditto). Chalk it down to Sony's inability to master the emotional link people can develop to products anywhere near as well as Apple can.

 

Vogelbund, can you PM me tomorrow evening? Ask me for some rep.

That post definitely deserves some, the second well informed and good post

I sadly can't give you any at the moment

Edit:
Gave you your well earned earned rep

 

Vogelbund thanks for your help.
I'm a little confused though. We pretty much agreed that the palmrests were made of AL and not cabron fibre. Are you saying that the palmrests are actually partly made out of carbon fibre now?

If you're just referring to the lid then i don't think that is a good descriptor to classify something as having a carbon fibre chassis.

 

*headdesk*

I mean the actual case - the rest of the screen surround assembly apart from the lid panel, the bottom chassis apart from the aluminium palmrest...

Clearer?

 

Thanks it is crystal clear now.