Why the Low Specs for Sony SZ in Oz?

Hello all,

Over here in Sydney the highest Sony SZ we can get is the 1.83, 512Meg, 80gig hard disk version.

In the US you can spec out to a 2.13, 100gig 7200RPM, 2gig monster!

Any ideas why this is the case?

Does anyone know when Sony will make the higher spec version for the AU market?

Regards,
Simon.

 

I don't think you can spec out the SZ even in the US with a 7200 RPM hard drive. Although the rest of what you said is correct.

As for why not in Australia, I have no idea why it is speced so low but I don't think it should matter that much. Granted that it sucks to be limited to 1.66 or 1.83 on the CPU and no choice for the 2.0 or 2.16, but the ram is easily upgradeable and cheaper to do it yourself. As for hard drive, I can see that possibly being a annoyance but its changeable if you're willing too.

But yes on the principle of the matter, they should really allow you to customize it or offer more variety (Only two versions, SZ15GP and SZ18GP).

One thing I noticed is on the Australian website for Sony, they classify the SZ as a business notebook. Maybe they don't think business users need a big variety?

 

"One thing I noticed is on the Australian website for Sony, they classify the SZ as a business notebook. Maybe they don't think business users need a big variety?"

Or a gaming gfx card!

Makes no sense to me. I hope it's changed soon. I know I can upgrade the parts myself but the sony is already very expensive here without things of buying new harddisks, and cpus, etc.
I agree on the memory though, it is cheaper to upgrade that yourself.

Regards,

Simon.

 

With the recent refresh on the SZ series, hopefully Sony Australia will pick up and sell some more variations. In the states its SZ2x0 series.

 

I paid cash for the SZ18GP at harvey norman, and for the $3700 they threw in 512mb more ram to bring it upto 1gb, the 4 year extended warranty and the carry case. Was a pretty good deal for me.

I actually pefer that they only include 512mb with the laptop, It keeps the price down. They know that most people will just upgrade it themselves anyway. The processor clock doesnt really matter for most applications, the bottlenecks are elsewhere.

 

You change the harddisk by your self? Which size of harddisk that you put in it? 1.8 or 2.5 in? Thank you.

 

"I actually pefer that they only include 512mb with the laptop, It keeps the price down."

Only if you want to upgrade to 1gig. If you want to put 2gig in there it's a waste.

"The processor clock doesnt really matter for most applications, the bottlenecks are elsewhere."

Yeah like the slow hard disk, again for which there are no options in AU.

Fingers crossed Sony AU will wake up and start providing different options soon for this laptop. I really want one but at the moment it's VERY hard to pick this over the dell m1210, which can be totally fitted to my exact needs.

Regards,
Simon.

 

it's not that the laptop is lowly specced, it's that I can get the 2ghz and the 100GB+ for the equivilant price of AU$3700. It's really annoying. Also i don't have the guts to change the SZ hard drive with the motion sensors and stuff.

 

I think you missed the point with the RAM. If they allowed you to configure it with the RAM from Sony, they would charge you a large markup over the market price of the RAM. I would bet that it would be cheaper to buy the SZ with 512 and then add 2x 1gb aftermarket, than to get it from Sony with 2gb. This is the pattern with most notebook manufacturers. Dell especially is notorious for their markup on RAM modules.

I agree with the HDD part, though based on personal experience the 5400 is plenty fast. The bottleneck I was refering to was mainly the GPU, but in a notebook of this size, that really cannot be helped.

 

Its the 2.5" hard disk versions.

 

I agree with lithast that the GPU is generally the bottleneck for this laptop. However these type of laptops were not made for heavy gaming. That said, the Dell M1210 has the same type of video card (Go 7400) that the SZ has, if it has more ram or not, that I'm not sure.

As for hard drive, 5400 vs 7200, sure there will be some performance differences, but ultimately it comes down to what you do on the laptop. For the majority of the people, there won't be much of a difference because they don't use hard drive intensive applications. The easiest part to notice the difference for everyone is just the bootup time, after that it may not be as noticeable.

simon, if you feel that the M1210 is or can be better specced to how you like it why not just get it? Who knows how long you may have to wait for Sony to update or give more variety. I'm not exactly trying to deter you, but suggesting you go with whatever fits your needs if you need it now. Unless of course you don't need it now and can wait, then there's nothing wrong with that, especially since Core Duo 2 (Merom) is coming out in like 2 months.

Personally I didn't care for low spec options, I got the slowest premium laptop I could and just upgraded all the parts.

 

From what I have read, the Dells 7400 is 64/192 compared to 128/128 in the SZ. Thats videomem/sharedmem

 

I happened to stop in at a retailer in Sydney CBD on Friday 9 June and found out that Sony are launching upgrades to the SZ line-up. The machines are apparently due on Friday 16 June
VGNSZ25G 1.83GHz, 512MB, 80GB HDD $2999
VGNSZ28G 2.0GHz, 1GB, 100GB HDD $3699
Both machines are quote Go 7400 128MB Shared
So it looks like a minor upgrade of the SZ1X range at the same price point.

 

Newcomputers.com.au (no affiliation but saw it on staticice) has listed the SZ25 at 2904 and the the SZ28 at 3542, available on a couple of days.

Minor upgrades, but still nice