Will Sony ever revive the X or TT?

With 8GB & i7 specs?

 

They did... it is called the Z2

I know what you mean here... but things change.
Look at all the little U computers over the years. U, U3, UX the PictureBooks, the P

I think what Sony is trying to do is merge the Z down into the X.
Let's face it the X was NOT a success. For the most part the people that were happy with the T, TT, TX, TZ etc. were happy with the VGN-Z and the VPC-Z. I am not saying that it is the right direction but this is Sony they are going to do whatever the crap they want.

 

Sony needs a 11" entry.

 

^They have an 11", the YB. Right?

 

I think the rise of netbooks since 2008 really hurt Sony's premium, ultraportable T series line. I was pretty attached to it as well, had good memories with the TX and TZ a few years back.

Now, you can find ultraportable laptops and netbooks that can do almost all that Sony's T series machines could have done at a fraction of the cost. Sure, their screen, design or battery life may not compare, but its easy to overlook when you are comparing $600 to $2000.

 

well the failure on Sony part was not marketing the hell out of the Z. It was by far the smallest lightest offering out there that still could be used as a full size computer. It blows away any Mac in size. I got the new Z to replace the X and while it blows it away in performance and specs its quite a bit larger.

Anyone that looked at my old X was completely wowed by the size and weight and questioned why they never heard of it.

 

that mirrors the lock of marketing efforts Sony did for the Minidisk back in the late 90s

 

I am not sure the X series was available in many countries, I don't recall seeing it canada when it came out unless they were black market imports. Even to this day, I have not seen one in person, only photos.

The 11'' sony's are the YA and YB and there is some new laptop from sony on the fcc website, but not sure if this is a netbook or normal laptop.

Ha don't get me started on how sony "marketed" the minidisc in NA

 

I guess there's hope for an 11" envelope-pushing ultrabook, I'd certainly check one out - the reason I never looked at the X was because it was an Atom, and therefore unusable. Problem is though, our tech media nowadays seems to be primarily populated by adult versions of broke students. So good luck with the visibility, Sony...

 

This. When I showed my Mac fanboy friend the Z he was impressed by it and wondered why he's never heard of it before. Same goes for the X and P series. He even thought Sony copied Apple for their keyboards (we all know it's the other way around). It just drives me nuts that Sony doesn't do a better job marketing their products. Especially considering that the Z1 was at the top of its class last year and there were some really interesting computers in the past such as the T series, X505, X series, P series, etc.

I too want another 11" Sony to come out but there's no indication that this will happen any time soon. I really want to upgrade my P with something with more power but don't want to go up too much in size nor weight.

 

Wow, this thread just made me google image the lappys mentioned and wow, the x and the p are just amazing! :O
Sony really should make a new version of them again.

And I totally agree, apart from the PS3, Sony's marketing is rubbish

 

I certainly hope so, they need some small footprint premium model. Also what I would like to see is resurrected powerful G series (12.1"). That would be a treat.

 

X was definitely available in Asia and Europe besides US. But hardly anyone knew about it. All they need was a commercial that would show its size and the sales I'm sure even for such relatively expansive item would be much higher. I have sold them at least a dozen units just with people seeing it on the Metra train on my daily commute. These were professionals from IT fields threw lawyers to executives.

As for the minidisk, it was a shame, yes it had its bad parts like the compression and licensing, etc. but the form factor was amazing and the hard case protected the disk. I think part of the reason for failure just like the caddy for CD was that the music companies wanted to back a format that fevered damaging the disk and need for replacement. But thats another subject...

Well, I do not agree with you at all on performance. Face it, most users do hardly anything on a computer. It amounts to web browsing, email, and maybe some light word processing or excel. All of this can perfectly well be done on a far lower performance processor then Atom with 2GB of memory. There is absolutely no need for anything more. Do not tell me that one needs i5 or i7 with 4GB to do these tasks. Yes, for new games its way to low but the X was not targeted at kids or students. I have my X here for maybe a year and I already listed what I do with it in the Z2 thread (multiple servers, apps, dozens of browser tabs, VMs, etc.) and its doing fine, and its far more then any typical user would ever dream of doing. So from the performance point the X was far more then whats needed for your topical user and still usable for power users.

Completely agree with you on this. Sony makes awesome products for the most part. I hate how they go out of their way to hide the premium products. the X505 was something I salivated over years ago but did not have the $ to purchase back then. Ever heard of the ES audio line? like the 999ES SACD player? what about the 9000ES, R10 and Qualia 010 headphones...

 

Just buy a 11" MBA. It can run Windows, plus Apple believes in offering users first class support and regular firmware & driver updates.

The MBA design is in a class of its own, so those wanting a 11" solution should look no further.

 

I agree the Mac has great design and I like it a lot. I'm not a Mac user myself, I do own an older MacBook that is used by one of my developers for iPhone project.

Before I purchased the new Z, I wanted to compare it to the X and was only able to find one store in Chicago (Micro Center) about a month ago (again great marketing Sony) that had the new Z in stock and on display. While there I walked over to the Apple department and looked at the 11" Mac. It was nice and size looked very small and light. Until I placed my X next to it. It was far bigger and heavier then my X.

 

^Apple has done a remarkable job on the MBA's making them look and feel smaller and thinner that they are. The MBA's really aren't that thin.

 

It runs Windows as a second-class citizen. How about near-minute Windows load times (to the login screen)? Reduced reliability? Minor gotchas here and there?

The only people who say Macs can run Windows are people who have never had a proper Windows machine.

The design, and the ability to stroke the egos of the ignorant is great. The engineering sucks. The reverse is true to most extents for Sony.

 

Still usable for power users? Apparently I'm an uber-power user in that case. Or perhaps just don't have the forgiving patience of some.

I've had all of those. And Qualia was probably the biggest mistake Sony made in years.

 

Funny. I just mused about this in another thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/619237-sony-vaio-ultrabook-christmas-12.html#post8088932

FWIW, the closest thing to the T is Panasonic's J - only available in Japan.

 

Perhaps you are, or you have very little patience Wondering what you are running on your machine that has such high requirements?

You used to own R10 and 010? So what did you switch to?

I did not want to imply Qualia was great but unknown due to Sony's lock of advertising. I personally did not care for it even when driven by $3k source and $5k headphone amp. Although there could have very well been fit issues and I needed deferent size of the pads.

To be clear here, I'm honestly curious with both questions.

 

I've always needed a lot of power. These days, I can run up to 13 - 14 VMs at the same time. But I don't want a big laptop that is heavy. I prefer the ultraportable form factor. You can do a search here - it was no different going back to when I had the U70P - I just needed to run less then.

Like I said in that post I link above, Sony used to innovate in the ultraportable space. Now they don't.

 

Nothing much really. I just know that even my pocket UX's used to run circles around Z520 machines (even if they had an SSD too).

I didn't so much switch to as simply go back to just my Orpheus. These days I also have a Beyer T1 which I quite like as it does nothing horribly wrong (unlike the Q010). If fitted right, and even if fitted slightly wrong the Q010 offered top-notch resolution, but it suffered from too many other problems. Plus, it was stupidly fit-sensitive - just letting your hair grow could change the sound.

The R10, I was never really all that impressed by to be honest. TBH I would take an HD650 over it.

 

The Z isn't innovation?

 

Full Orpheus or HE60? What do you power it with? I run HE60 paired with maxed out Woo Audio GES and LCD2 with Raptor Never had a chance to try Beyer T1, kids use 250-80 and had 880. As for the 010 fit, agree although I never owned it. Surprised/shocked a little by your statement of HD650 over R10 In some circles you would be burned on the stake (disclaimer, not a huge fan of none electrostatic Senn, used to own 600 and 650).

edit: got HD maxed up with HE

 

Not really - at least not to me. It's NOT an ultraportable first and foremost. It's too big. Second, splitting out the GPU for more power was a stupid idea. The old VGN-Z and VPC-Z series had switchable. The lack of internal ODD doesn't bother me as much, but no switchable battery, etc. It was a non starter for me from the get-go.

So I'm not sure how the current Z is really innovative - this coming from someone who has owned plenty of Vaios and loved Sony design of them for years.

 

No, I was making a crack about the often-used "innovation", but IMO they've done enough for me. Besides, what's innovation?

One thing I'm not sure about is whether Sony have used the carbon overmoulding before. Looking at the sales literature, probably not since they phrase the construction method differently this time - so I'd say that could well be a new actual innovation with the Z2.

That aside, it's a definite worthwhile improvement in terms of something actually portable. I was initially pretty surprised to get 7 hours actual productivity time out of the standard unit in power saving, not some Applezombie reviewer hypermiling his Crapbook to say he gets what Apple claims. As a result I've barely carried the sheet battery, since it usually lasts me a whole working day. That to me is already an improvement over the last Z - I don't have to fit an extended battery to get real all-day-runtime, as the standard didn't quite cover it.

I do have the same qualms as you do about the GPU - although not because it's lacking a GPU. The Intel 3000 is actually absolutely adequate for the sort of non-real-time (or near-real-time) visualisation that I usually actually need a GPU for on the move, but the irony is that I can get a $700 i5 HP to run it while the $4K-spec Z will not because of the b0rked ATI-Intel drivers (and since I want to run the ATI when it's docked, I've no real choice in the matter). This is a problem. And one that I hope ATI-Sony fixes darned soon.

 

I get 7 hours of battery life out of my early 2011 MacBook Pro with 50% screen brightness, Safari with all flash blocked, and Microsoft Word. Sometimes 6.5, sometimes 7.5. So I fail to see your point here.

Anyways. I can see Sony bringing either one back as an ultrabook. I can see Sony taking the ultrabook idea and throwing Sony style and innovation into it. Apple and Sony are really the only PC manufacturers that aren't afraid to stray away from the norm and create unique notebooks. Sony moreso.

 

Sony just needs to look back at the X505 and draw some inspiration if they want to do an ultrabook. Sony's always been weird about using drivers that are sometimes non-stock. I don't miss that.

When all is said and done, my Panasonic J10 was more than your Z, but I don't have weird issues with it and I can honestly say it's the first time in about 7 years I haven't had wanderlust. Heck, I've even had 4 - 5 hours of use just doing stuff with VMs which in the past would have been impossible - even with the full processor and not a ULV.

 

I'm sure you don't.

 

Yep, your right. The 5 hours of lectures I have on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays where I have 20-30% left over each time really is a terrible benchmark. You are the all knowing. You know a laptop's capabilities that you don't own. I forgot.

The fact is, Apple's battery tests have changed dramatically. The 2010 MacBook Pros claimed getting 9 hours of battery life when they really got 5-5.5.

This year's MacBook Pros have much improved battery life - similar to all notebooks that moved to Sandy Bridge. There is no arguing that. Every review is stating that the 2011 MacBook Pros get good battery life. What is your point exactly?

 

By "I'm sure you don't" I meant I'm sure you don't see my point, not "You don't get that runtime". See my previous point regarding Applezombies sweating it out hypermiling useless configurations.

Wrong on that point. By the way, what are you doing in this thread? It's a consumer electronics maker you know, not a religion.

 

So what was the point you were trying to make?

Not loyal to Apple at all. I admittedly have Apple stock, but I have a Samsung Galaxy as a phone and when I shopped for a laptop I came extremely close to buying either an X220 or Sony Z2. My previous laptop was an HP. The only reason I picked the MacBook Pro was because I found out that I need a discrete graphics card built into the computer for when I had to work in the studio.

In fact, if I had the option now, I'm pretty sure I would pick the Sony Vaio SE... I really wish this MacBook Pro had a 1080p screen.