Which new VAIO???

Hi all

approximately in 2011 I have mine 1st VAIO VPCZ fully spec i7 8G ram 512SSD BD - LOVE IT

2 year latter I decide to sell it

I tried 13 inch Asus, HP, DELL over year but I return back in 2014 back to VPCZ i5 8GB ram 128SSD DVD witch works until now as good soldier

but I think I need chance


what VAIO upgrade are you suggesting


regards V.

 

Does anybody own the vaio z clamshell with WQHD (not full hd) display. If so, is there any word on the brightness levels (how many nits), adobeRGB and sRGB coverage? Also is it a matte display?
Thanks. Miss my old vaio z (2010) and have been waiting for something to wow me again.

 

daibatzu, check the reviews for the vaio z flip on laptopmag and notebookcheck, they have some of the info you are looking for. The screen, I think, is the same on the vaio z clam and the flip, except that on the clam model it is matte and on the flip it is glossy because of the touchscreen.

 

I got the Vaio Z clam with the 28w i5 chip, full Hd model for $1499....and I am very happy with it. Love the screen, the Iris graphics, the build, even the trackpad. The ssd is best in class. The only negative, in my opinion, is the lack of usb-c thunderbolt3 port.

 

I'm having a real struggle with this myself.

I have a Vaio Z Canvas and have two glaring issues...

1 - Keyboard still disconnects even after latest update. I am forced to turn the keyboard off and on to reconnect.
Also, it's not possible to use the keyboard and trackpad simultaneously. <-- This blows

2 - Battery Life is about 3.5 - 4 hours under balanced mode. If I use battery saving mode, even simple things like NES emus lag so I'm not too sure what to use.

3 - Front facing webcam is an absolute joke!

4 - Speakers stink but are about the same as the Surface line.

However...

Screen is STUPID good
Performance is fantastic
Pen is great
Stand is awesome
Ports? Yep.. That's covered
Build quality is incredible

I have been thinking about the new Z Clamshell.

These are my worries and hesitations:

1- The screen is rated at 500+nits! That's really awesome for those that like to work on the beach, but it also cautions me with concerns about black levels and color reproduction. My guess, it's no more that 70% of aRGB on the FHD screen.

2- Only 8gb of ram in the US.

3- Reports of loud/obnoxious fans. I had the last Sony SVZ series. Are the comparable to that at full tilt? (This is where the Canvas really shines - silent even with a quad core)

4- 256GB option only

5 - Iris 550 and CPU. I have not been able to find any data on thermals and/or throttling. This concerns me because if it throttles, the Iris Pro 5200 would be about the same. I have never witnessed any throttling on the Canvas. If anyone would like to post a YouTube video of their Z running a modern game, with fraps running, I would appreciate it.

 

Hello maven1975, I am not sure if the vaio z clam is much of an upgrade from the canvas. Eventhough the Iris 550 is a pretty good iGpu compared to previous generations, it comes with a dual core cpu, not the quad core like the canvas. For gaming, it can handle some at lower resolutions, but there are much better options if the intention is a gaming laptop.
I don´t know what the adobeRGB is on the fullHD screen, but I think the color gamut is great, but that is my subjective opinion. Laptopmag has a review of the screen but only states sRGB.
Indeed US model is limited to 8gb and 256gb SSD. I upgraded mine with a samsung 950 pro 512gb though. The Ram is unfortunate, but I can make due with 8gb, since it is my travel laptop, not mine main working machine.
The fans do kick in when under load, such as gaming, they are loud compared to other modern ultrabooks, but I don´t find them particular annoying, since they only kick in on very stressful scenarios. Also they are not as high pitched, thus less annoying, as my Dad´s sony vaio pro 13.
Indeed, when gaming or under extreme load, there is some throttling, since the core temp can reach 94 C. The only game I have installed is Civ Beyond Earth, which is more cpu intensive than graphics, but to limit throttling I set max cpu speed at 2.8ghz, basically disabling turbo boost...and then temps were around 84 C without any performance loss from the graphics when benchmarking.
I am not much of a gamer on pc, but I do have fifa16 which I can download, and if you would like me to test it with fraps.
When benchmarking my Vaio Z clam with the i5, it scored 3924 on PCMark8 (Home Accelerated) and 2842 on 3DMark 11.
The Vaio Z canvas, according to the review on mobile tech, scored 3314 on PCMark8 and 2233 on PCMark11.

 

Thank you for the reply!!!

That's good news to hear about the fans.

I wonder how much the 700 increase in 3D would help/translate to FPS in games.

I'm not eager to lose the Quad Core for Dual Core, but I'm not too sure I'm even utilizing it as intended. The gain in battery life and GPU performance may be with it.

Probably would be going with a Flip. This way I still have the pen functionality.

I wonder if the canvas screen/hardware is any different when it comes to the pen and drawing/art. Obviously, the Quad would help somewhat, but these reviewers just write the Flips pen off as note taking only.

Any thoughts?

 

maven1975, I have no comments on the Flip, since I have a vaio z clam. I like standard laptops, no touchscreen, preferably full hd, for battery life, etc...old school...hehe. But like I said, not much of an upgrade from the canvas z, since you all you will get is a bit better graphics performance with the iris 550, but will loose some performance on cpu side with the dual core. Perhaps it is best to wait for the next generation upgrade, which hopefully will come with a usb-c thunderbolt 3 port....which by then perhaps an external gpu will help a lot for future proofing in gaming.