Z model in UK : Z11 or Z25?

I am looking to buy a Sony Z model, partially from the strength of this review:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2008/11/17/Sony-VAIO-VGN-Z11WN-B-13-1in-Notebook/p1

The model listed here VGN-Z11WN/B has everything I want including the 1,600 x 900 screen and the WWAN. It costs £1500 from Amazon

But, from www.sonystyle.co.uk this model does not exist. All that does is:

VGN Z 25V : Worse processor, no WWAN, lower res screen for £1500
VGN Z 25W : Slightly better processor with WWAN and higher res screen but costs £1950

Am i missing something? Is there some difference between the VGN Z 25 and VGN Z 11 I don't know about?

 

VGN-Z11WN/B is the "older" model. It's still perfect though.

The only difference I've read is the Bluetooth 2.1 on the 2 series vs. Bluetooth 2.0 on the 1 sereis.

 

Is that really it? They did a refresh just for that? Strangely, I can't find the Z25 for sale anywhere apart from sonystyle.co.uk

 

im not sure about this cuz i asked my sony store guy the same thing here. and all he could figure out was (between the Z11vn and Z21vn) that the newer version had a faster hard disk and a better bluetooth. BUT i think that the new one has the premium carbon finish because another guy said maybe the "finishing is different"....dunno though. Im still waiting here in london to buy. unlike the US, the prices here havnt dropped yet so they might drop close to christmas hopefully. thats wen i'll buy. maybe buy then there might be more news of a backlit keybord on the z.....

 

When you say drop, do you mean the Z11 ones falling in price because of the new Z25 or the Z25 dropping? Given the 25% fall in the £ i am guessing sony products are going to stay expensive ...

 

i mean drop like a chrismas sale or sumthing like that. and to my knowledge....the z refresh came pretty fast (i think the UK was one of the first ones to get the new models)....so maybe the refresh expected in jan/feb might cause the current models' prices to drop. lol but this is me being optimistic and its pretty much based on nothing solid.

 

I think the Z25's are just the customisable versions of the Z21. If you click on the ready built link on the sony style site you should find them. There's quite a few places selling the Z21 now. I bought one from Microwarehouse the week before a big price drop (£1700 to £1500! Though now it's back up to 1665.)
My version was the Z21/W and came with a 5400 rpm drive - I'm not sure but the Z25's may come with 7200 drives.

 

Microwarehouse is OK? I want to order Z21 WN/B from them, but i dont want to lose my money

 

They refreshed Z11 with Z21.

Z25 is from the 'Vaio for you' series, these can be configured by the client.

 

Well have provisionally bought at amazon.com for 1500 ish. Amazon are doing the 2.5% VAT reduction now, and because this will go through a company and I don't pay VAT anyway, this is nice as it comes as a real discout (a coupon). Can't find the Z25 for less than 1665

 

I see, they have Z21 on sonystyle but very expensive compared to Z11 on sale across the web.

 

Yes, but be careful the Z11 W/NB has the T8600 processor while the Z21 WN/B has the P9500 processor - which is a lower wattage CPU with higher clock speed.
I think the equivalent Z21 is the Z21 V/NB but I didn't check the specs very carefully!

sector - TrustedReviews.com has a price comparison showing various suppliers for the Z21 (and the cheaper Z11). I've been happy with Microwarehouse but there are other sites selling for a similar price if you are nervous (always pay by credit card in the UK for protection).

Cheers
Mike

 

Nah. The T8600 and P9500 CPUs are both rated as 25W TDP, so they should be roughly equivalent in terms of heat and power usage. You're right that the P9500 is higher clock speed but it's not a drastic difference. Most people doing normal tasks like browsing, office, mp3, video, etc, aren't going to notice the difference. If you do a lot of video encoding or similarly CPU-intensive tasks, it might be worth the premium though...

 

Whoops, I stand corrected - I thought the T series were higher power. I'd agree with your comments on clock speed not being a big difference as well.

 

I believe you are referring to the P8600 CPU rather than the T8600 CPU because Sony use P8600 CPU in their Vaio Zs.

 

Err... yes. That's what I meant.

 

SOnystyle uk has a 2.6 GHZ CPU (P9600??) option on the VGN-Z25X model and has premium carbon option.