World's first photos of VAIO SA from CES

sorry i edited my post, i meant the Y series

in my opinion it seems more likely that they introduced the manual graphics switch to models other than the z series than for the SA to be the Z's successor, this way they would be able to advertise a much longer battery life

 

The more I think about it the more you make a valid point brawn that this could be the replacement to the Vaio Y, and they decided to call it SA, instead of YA to avoid confused with the smaller 11.6in mode.

 

I think the regular S is the successor to the Y:

The all-new VAIO® S Series laptop. | Sony | Sony Style USA

I hate to say it, but I think this SA is indeed the successor to the Z.

 

Clearly not a Z replacement.

The CEO of Sony will be on CNBC, the official broadcast partner of CES, this hour.

 

The S isn't new as it has been on sale for a while at Best Buy in the states and has an optical drive while the Y didn't, while the SA has no optical drive and has a switchable ATI gpu like the Y.

 

I hope that so, it would be a huge leap toward the premium for VAIO Y.

Anyway, time will tell...

VAIO Y doesn't have switchable graphics, it's just a dedicated graphics option.

About ODD point, PCMAG mentioned that the SA supposed to be blessed with an optical drive on the left side.

 

The SA is meant to have a optical drive on the left hand side. Although it looks quite thin so i'm not sure how that would work. They could use a slot loading drive but then right now there are no slot loading bluray 9.5 drives.

 

Huh. Well, I hope it isn't a replacement because then that would mean it'd probably be cheaper than a Z replacement and the price really deterred me from getting the Z...

 

Hmm if this in fact a prototype of a future laptop... let this thread be an indication of how consumers will react if released... I hope sony reads this forum and keeps in mind what consumers want.

 

To be honest, the plain black one doesn't look terrible. Especially for a mainstream consumer notebook. But as a Z replacement it looks hideous.

 

Finally a decent sized trackpad!

1. I'm not quite sure why you all hate it. I think the black/gray one looks good with the exception of what looks to be a thick lid.

2. As an owner of the 1st and 2nd/current gen Z's I think I can say w/o bias that I never thought the design was all that special... I think the epitome of Sony design was the Vaio TT series. That being said the current gen Z could have been much better looking had it forgone the palmrest, and had a single color option.

3. If it is indeed 13.3, I'll never buy it. 13.1 is a most amazing screen size and a huge reason I first bought the Z. It has practically all the real estate of a 13.3 incher shoved into the body of a 12 inch laptop.

 

5th . As SA price indicates (starting with 900USD) clearly this one isn't meant as Z successor.
Now, what about real next Z iteration - ZR? Any info?

I would say somewhat mid Feb, when next X series should be introduced as well.

Cheers,
Miki

 

IF this was just a design prototype of the Z successor and say, it is quite different from the final Z which is supposed to hit the market late february, they would NEVER be able to change anything from the design anymore until then. It is just too late. From that point I can only say, you WILL see this brick in stores early march.

You can bet on that

 

I hope this isn't it.

All Sony had to do to hit a home run was to integrate the palmrest into the metal body, update the spec and drop the price a little.

 

I agree that its about time for Sony to move on from the circular hinge design philosophy, and to something more "edgy" should I say.

But this...this is plain disappointment if it is indeed the Z replacement.

 

Well, I ADORE barrel/cylinder hinge, it was Sony's trademark, stand-out from the crowd. This new SA - yet another laptop IMO, really nothing special about it (design-wise).

Cheers,
Miki

 

Actually, although the barrel first came out in 2002 on X505, it's not until 2007 when it re-surface on TZ. Right now, I think I'm going to wait for 2012...if Sony doesn't deliver on their 15th anniversary celebration, well, it's ok, we won't see 2013 according to Mayans...

 

I am glad I got my Z12 and didn't wait for this SA successor!
Although the design isn't all that bad, current Z1 design is just simply better IMHO.
Well, it is each his/her own call to dislike/like the new design but some of you find it attractive so go for it~

 

Oh thank god

 

Indeed. It's officially labelled "VAIO Design Concept" at CES.

 

could have made dedicated page up/down

#epicfail sony

 

I wonder if that means there will be a brief boost in Vaio Z sales.

 

Earlier today I was doing a Google Search on the 2011 CES Show and I think it was PC Mag. that provided the following information. Unfortunately, that page is now blocked. I can't locate the source. It did state the following:

The SA was the successor to the current Z Series. It had 1600x900 Resolution, Dvd-Drive on the left side, A total of three 3.0 USB Ports framed in a color Blue to indicate 3.0, weighed a little more than the current Z, priced starting at $2249.99, and the battery was described to be much like the MacBook Air which couldn't be disengaged to save space. It mentioned something about a Carbon Fiber Lid, as well as a lid feeling and looking like Aluminum, Blu-Ray and of course Sandy Bridge.

After looking at those photos posted on the 1st page of this thread and the photo of the New 3D F-Series, it looks like this is the design platform Sony is going with in the SA Series, much like the X-Series, as someone noted.

 

Can you say fingerpring magnet? That thing is going to look s3xy for all of 5 seconds until the protective plastic is removed. I'm sure it's a good machine though, just a fan of the shiny finish. Well, until you see my cell phone. Shiny all around... underneath all of the fingerprint smudges.

 

It also mentioned that it would have a $200 Slice Battery option to give it an estimated 13 Hour Battery life - which most likely means around 9 hours of real battery life.

 

I dunno I have seen people here getting more battery out of their Sony's than estimated up to 3 or so hours more(at least on the Vaio TT).

 

Found The Brief Article on the SA Series:

 

So I take it the S is now going be price a good bit under $1000 in the sates? I know the Z would have been cheaper here in the states if it came with HDD standard like it is in Asia. But, I still can't see this as the Z replacement because it is larger and heavier than the Z. As it has been said the Z was always a 13in screen in a 12in body, and that was part of what made it great.

 

but with everyone ing when sony releases it you all will go out and buy it anyways

 

3 more new photos of VAIO SA. interestingly these concept laptops are sealed in a glass display, not on and not allowed to touch, makes me wonder if they are even real computers, they could be empty cases just for show. Sony did this for PS3 a few years ago.

 

Visually that computer is not too bad, just interested to see the specifications on it.

 

The Windows 7 Badge is 21x21 mm (according to Google). So the SA (or whatever it is on the picture) is between 357mm and 378mm in width and between 231mm and 252mm in height.

This is way more than the VPC-Z's 314*210 mm... I think I still will get the old Z.

 

^math ftw

and yes, using the keyboard size to estimate the laptop size.. this looks larger than the current MBP13

 

OMG I love that!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looks awesome to me

 

The black one looks much better than the golden one at the first page of this topic. Thus I still would have liked it more when the power button was like it was before. I think the new hinge, in the middle will be better, because there was a lot of complaining about the right hinge cracking. I think that if there were a mix of this new laptop and the old design of the Z/S series, it would be much nicer and more people would have liked it.

 

I'm wondering if Sony put the Windows sticker on the bezel to make the latter look thinner It looks like it's longer (height of screen) than the Z, which means Sony must have the chance to squeeze more in the body. I'll wait for some performance numbers before I decide to buy or not...

 

Weird decision from Sony to come up with this as the Z competitor.
I didn't really get it from the pictures, is the same screen as in the S or in the Z? Not resolution. Considering the keyboard this laptop should be a 14" or so ..

Where is beauam? or what his name is? Is this a real laptop or just a prototype that will never make it in this form to consumer (ME!)

 

My guess is that it hides the model name, which is usually in that position.

Only very minor changes (software changes, soldering jumpers, change a component with an equal dimension component and similar) will be done before it's either released or scrapped. The design and tooling for a new model is a large undertaking and big changes are simply not feasible -- it's almost the same work as starting from scratch again.
At this stage, it's called a "concept" not because it really is what we think of as a "concept", but because it's a manufacturing prototype, not ready for release, for any number of reasons.

 

What is the point showing something on CES and then forcing blogs (like engadget) to delete posts?

Is it something like Apple's "Oh look, someone just found an iPhone prototype in a bar"-marketing strategy?

 

And... ummm... did anyone notice the extended battery?

 

Yep, it's huge. That's definitely not a slice which you easily can carry with you in your bag, but more like a docking station with a built-in battery. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose, because if you can dock, you can also use mains power...

 

Wow Sony totally abused the idea of "extended" It looks like there's space for a handful of mice in there, running on treadmills hooked up to some dynamos.

 

I did, and I really thought it was something like the slate battery in the hp envy, not thing that blocks the connections...

 

I think that HAS to be a prototype... There is absolutely NO WAY they would be that stupid and release something as dumb as that for an extended battery.

A slice battery is much more likely.

 

That is a docking station for sure. Look at the piece of plastic tab that blocks HDMI and VGA port, so users would use the ports on the docking station instead.

 

I think this may be the next Z. The description of this SA Series from the 2011 CES article I posted a few pages back matches these photos that were leaked and surfaced from Japan. You can clearly see the single 3.0 USB blue port mentioned in the article and the relocation of the dvd-drive to the left. It reminds me of the X-Series. I'm sure its going to look much better in person as all the Z's successors have been. I do like the the design of the current VPC-Z. It's unique. We all know this is going to be an "e x p e n s i v e" notebook. I just hope Sony does away with the 128SSD. It should be equipped with 256SSD at the minimum as their base entry model.

 

Completely agree 256Gb standard would seal the deal even if I was less happy with the appearance when compared to the Z12

 

How true... the SZ looks much nicer.
And I think even the Z does.

 

Yup, there is never any extended battery that actually has an AC adapter port, either. The "extended battery" label on the dock probably indicate where you can store the extended battery.

 

And maybe to charge the extended battery when the notebook is docked in the docking station.