vaio Z133 palmrest discoloration

Hi,

curious to know if any of you Z owners are ahving discoloration on the palm rests. its hard to explain, but i did see in the i5/i7 lounge some other owners complaining about it with idnetical pictures to what my laptop shows. However, i did not see or find a solution.

any suggestions?

thanks

 

How long have you owned your Z? I owned mines for 5 months and so far so good I must say. I do have some concerns about my palmrest wearing out, but I just simply lift my hand away from the palmrest when I feel my that my hand is sweating. That's probably the most effective tactic to combat wear-outs because its the sweat that's causing the problem.

 

There isn't really a solution after it's happened. I mean you could do 3 things, live with it, get a skin of some sort to cover it, or replace it (very expensive). The best way to combat it before it happens is to put a skin of some sort over it (like my clear one).

Sure it's not the best solution and not something one would expect out of a laptop like this, but I don't mind this little tradeoff for such a wonderful machine.

 

I agree... I do have highly sweaty palms... and i do game alot... and so, i got these crazy splotches on my palmrest... but c'est la vie. Since i plan on keeping my Z for ~4 years anyways (by then it'd probably equivalent to a low end laptop) I accept that it's going to happen sooner or later. Hopefully at the end of the 4 years i can actually have the entire palmrest worn out... All back to one color! (I actually think someone here tried that... to wear out his entire palmrest... he ended up replacing it though )

 

What color is the palmrest under the paint, black plastic?

I'm planning on keeping my machine through college so ~4 years as well. I took a different approach and got the clear cover after week 1 in fears of wearing out the palmrest! lol

 

yep, black, almost glossy plastic, not like crazy glossy, but it's kinda shiny. Also I think i'm seeing slight slight slight discoloration on my touchpad right above my fingerprint reader (where i swipe my finger) I'm kinda in bad light... so... I'll have to see if i'm just dreaming it or not.

 

Thanks for your responses. I received the laptop in january. So its barely 4 months old. Here is a pic...

 

Here's a pic of mines... got mines May 4, 2010 so about 11 months:

sorry for the poor lighting

 

Mine: LOLOL



achu, You're not kidding, yours are quite worn out!

 

Wow lol. I'd be too lazy to do that to mines . And not a fan of the glossy (and it'd make my hands stick to the palmrest when i game!). Yeah i'll probably shoot Sony a complaint see if they'll fix the palmrest for me... (or send me one so i can replace it myself since my warranty dies soon)

 

btw, which keyboard skin are you using? I've been meaning to pick one up for my Z, not sure which one to get...how do you like yours? Does typing feel sticky or hard to type or is it fairly natural?

 

I got this one from Taiwan (shipping costs more than the product!):
ENJOY Keyboard Protector

I like it because the backlight goes through it. The feel is fairly natural, it's soft and smooth. I don't feel that it affects typing at all. I've had it for ~4-5 months now and it does show signs of wear where I touch it most often.


However, I was looking at Sony's skin for the SA/SB/SC:
SB SC Keyboard Skin | VAIO® S Series Keyboard Skin | VGP-KBL7/W | Sony USA

That one is also opaque so the backlight will go through it, and it's nice that it has the letters printed on the top as well. I am not sure if it fits the Z's tighter chassis which is why I'm going to the local Sony Style store some time this week (when they've hopefully got them in) to test it out. I'll report back on my experience. I'm looking at the Sony because I think, aesthetically, it's nicer.

 

awesome...let me know when u find out!

 

I bought it earlier this week, you can read about it here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/559950-vpc-z-invisible-shield-protection-2.html

 

Does the silver wear out same as the black?

 

No, there hasn't been any reports of the silver one wearing out.

 

This is how mine looks with a palmrest clear protector and keyboard protector! The top area is also protected by the same clear protector. No bubbles. Looks great. Palm rests are not sticky. Keyboard protector is not sticky. Peace of mind.



ArmourOne Clear Protector

coolskin tpu keyboard protector

IMO, tpu > silicon because it doesn't attract dust and does not look milky like the picture posted before this post. Also, its held on by the two rubber pieces on the side.

 

The custom cut protector on your Z looks pretty nice. It was a dry application for the palmrest?

 

yeah it was dry and didn't leave any bubbles . Usually I have a hard time with dry protectors because they leave bubbles, but these were easily removed. Gotta apply it carefully though with a credit card.

 

Heres an image where you can see the outline of the protector on the left side of my palm rest. As you can see, no bubbles .

 

Here's a couple more pictures. Sorry for the dust.. Its a very good cutout from edge to edge, around the hinges, and around the buttons. The buttons are also covered, but it's not noticeable in the pictures.

 

woah guys, I dunno what to say. Your Z's are all shielded with all kinds of stuff and my Z is still naked, with only a capdase screen protector.

Is the SB keyboard skin good for the Z? I don't mind if you have to slightly stretch it a bit, but as long I can actually type on it without re-adjusting it every once in a while.

Does adding a palrest protector/keyboard protector worsen the issue of the keys/palmrest incline scratching with the screen? I've read multiple reports of this issue on both the VGN-Z and VPC-Z models (the VGN-Z had more problems though)

Thanks for all the help in advance.

 

I don't have the problem where the protectors scratch the screen because I also have an anti-glare screen protector on the screen Which I recommend getting if you're going to use a keyboard protector. Not only do I not have to worry about closing the screen, I also don't get fingerprints! To clean it I just use windex to clean the protector without worrying about ruining the screen.

I've never used the SB keyboard but I do recommend the cooskin one that I linked above.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

Oh and by the way, wouldn't removing the stickers void your warranty? That's not the case for the Intel/Windows/NVIDIA stickers but there's a "VAIO Official Warranty" sticker at the right edge of the palmrest on mine. Will that void my warranty?

 

I don't think it would void the warranty.

 

the palmrest of my Z11 also got the same problem...

i think you should just live with it
it is just a laptop and you will replace it with newer and better Z few years later

I hope the newer generation of Vaio Z will address this problem

 

Removing stickers shouldn't void the warranty.

The SB skin is okay, it's just the edges that curl up, but that doesn't affect typing.

I take my kb skin off my kb when I'm transporting the computer because having the kb skin move around and touch the screen causes fingerprints to show up on the screen. I have not experienced any issues with my screen hitting the keyboard, but I'm also very careful with my computer.