Z12, when?

I have a Z590 now and I love it. I have been kicking around buying a new one for a few weeks now, until today, when I noticed that they're no longer available from Sony, or at least not in the configuration I want.

Is this a sign that the Z12 is coming soon?

Does anyone have an idea of when it will be available?

What about specs for the Z12? I haven't been able to find anything using the Googly.


thanks,
-brit

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/483693-go-z11-wait-z12-1-month.html

 

I read through that thread before posting, but it wanders off about other topics and doesn't give any hard evidence. I didn't want to hijack that thread. Since the Z11's were no longer available, I was hoping someone might have some good evidence now. Posting in an existing thread is not likely going to get any further information, but thanks for your excellent copy and paste action.

 

Very little will be different if anything, on the new version. If you need the computer now, buy it now.

 

Even if nothing new comes, I say wait. Having a newer build might be good reselling.

 

The new Z will be available in early/mid june. Specs will be same and/or lower than the current Z specs. What other info do you need??

 

why would the specs be lower than the current one?

 

To lower the price a bit.

 

Call me naive, but going backwards to lower the costs in the technology world usually isn't how it works. Care to explain further why the newer Z would be less powerful than the older Z?

 

Just wait and see.

You've already seen the i7's all but vanish in the Z. There are lower i5 parts that sony skipped this time around. They aren't skipping them on the Z12. But don't expect to save much or anything. You may end up just getting less for the same price....

 

The Z is not getting any slower. What can happen is that you'll get the same specs for less. Another posibility are pre-build models that have some features cut out or lowered to digg below the 1800 dollar mark.
but everyone breath easily, the Z is not going backwards.

 

Blue I'm trying to tell you exactly what's going to happen. Lower end i5's will be offered, the same i5 will also be offered (but availability is tight). I think a 540 was on the roadmap as well. There are no i7's for retail but who's to say it won't be available via CTO.

Also, in the us black will now be available on the retail models.

And there is no price drop, period. The config similar to the Z112GX is looking to be about $50 higher than the current model.

 

In Hong Kong the new Z126GG which replaced the Z116GG are identical in specs but the new Z126GG is cheaper than the Z116GG.

 

Have you seen any reviews of the new Z12, specifically benchmarks?

I suspect that some of the internal components got changed. Perhaps the SSDs, Sony is not good about informing more tech-savvy consumers about its SSDs' details. Perhaps things like "we can support TRIM for RAID" still got hidden behind "we have really, really fast disk drives!!"

 

cool, what about the option for 1920x1080 in the CTO?

 

Sorry, I have no insight into cto, only the retail configs.

 

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a current Z11 model. I got a 2.4GHz core i5 520M, 4GB memory, 128GB + 64GB SSDs, Win 7 Pro for about $1850 (no tax and shipping included) at TigerDirect with Bing cashback.

My bet for the refresh is: 1) no one knows the exact date, so you could be waiting a while. 2) the specs aren't going to change significantly.

I just got an incredible laptop at a (relatively) good price. Why wait? There will always be something newer and possibly better in the near future coming out.

 

You got a fair deal, although Z112 is available a little cheaper than that. We do know when the Z12X's are coming. They will be available in the second and third weeks of June. We also know the retail specs, pretty much unchanged with some lower CPU options available.

 

In some regions its already available...

 

Yeah and the specs I saw from Australia are almost exactly the same except for an upgrade in RAM. I don't know if the price has changed, but I'm guessing that those are probably the specs everyone will be getting if they're legit. Which wouldn't be a downgrade. I hope the US gets the PS3 deal as well.

 

Remote Play with the PS3 is already possible even for the Z11, all you need is two apps which are currently available on the Australian Sony support site:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6273058-post66.html

 

I'm talking about the free PS3 with the purchase of a new Z

 

the aussy ones get a free ps3? i hope that deal goes for canada too cause i could totally see it for an extra 200 bucks or so sincei already got one, can any1 confirm it?

 

It's quote possible that with some new CPUs to work with, that Sony chose to dial down on the CPU "horsepower" which in turn would allow them to
- provide better battery life
- cool the unit with a less obstrusive fan
- keep the cost of components lower

The truth is that the unit is already well past the zone that 99% of users will actually meet its CPU limits. So it would make sense to cut back a small bit and be able to provide other benefits. If I was in charge of this product that is where I would see the opportunity to increase the sales. The unit is so far out ahead on that one front that Sony wont lose any buyers with such a move but they stand to gain many with a cheaper, more usable unit, particularly in the "back to school" sales situation.

We wont know until we see the new revision but I wouldnt count it out.

 

Something to think about too...

Most buyers have 30 days to return the notebook for a full refund (though I suppose that might vary by location). You could always purchase the Z11 next week. Then, if you see the refresh come out in June and feel like the new model is what you want, return your Z11 and buy the Z12. Yes its a bit extra work to go through the return, etc. But you'll have your Z11 in the interim. And I agree that the Z12 isn't going to be a major improvement over the Z11, so you likely won't find the need to return it at all. We're not talking about some revolutionary new processor or an ATI 5650 (which would be so cool and would cause me significant Z11 buyer's remorse ).

 

Don't want to hijack this thread but do you think if Sony lost the Optical Drive that it could fit a more powerful GPU and propely cool it. A 5670 would be nice.

Bronsky