Sony introduces new VAIO Z series

[kgk]

And for those of you concerned about usb3 or even firewire, it has an express card slot, so you can easily add it yourself.

That's just pointless. Thanks to the U.S. cell market using gsm and cdma, the built in card will only work with one, so you limit your options. Some people will want to use express card 3G connectors for the versatility and better signal. When I had laptops in the states I always opted for the PCI 3G cards instead of the built in ones. Came in handy when I had to switch from one provider to another. Plus, for people who travel internationally, they can't use the built in connection anyway since it's a completely different band over here. So international business travelers will find the built in 3G to be utterly worthless.

Excluding firewire isn't a big deal. Not having USB 3.0 on something like this (it's backwards compatible, they have nothing to lose) is a poor choice. Of course you can use an express slot adapter, but believe it or not, people actually use that for devices that don't connect to the provided USB ports. Crazy, I know....

[alfaunits]

I am guessing this is in response to transfer rate not any other spec. My guess is even then the bottleneck is in the raid chip, not the SSD.

I just now realized it is possible that the ICHxR is the limiting factor not the SSDs. I was thinking in terms: a single 5400rpm does like 70-80MB/s, 6.2 * 70 / 4 = 108MB/s per SSD, which would mean they are last gen crap. Hope not, but I won't hold my breath.

[Boissez]

Wow... just wow. Now if they could just make it a bit thinner...

[Katanai]

if it's so hard to read you can zoom in or zoom out , right ?

wrong! Cause get this: what if you can't? what then? Ah yeah, you'll be needing one of these:

[saaya]

they probably use really cheap and slow mini pciE ssds and then run four of them in raid0...
looks very similar to my vaio sr...
mine has a res of 1280x800@13" which is good enough really... i wouldnt say no to more... but 1920x1080?
thats really too much... whats the point?

i really wonder what the battery life is going to be... especially with the nvidia gpu running...

[WaterFlex]

Quad SSD )(

[Tech Dav]

wrong! Cause get this: what if you can't? what then? Ah yeah, you'll be needing one of these:

according to this list, the PPI will be about 150ppi which is not that great either but much better than sub 100ppi we have seen for a long time. Do you use binoculars when you read a magazine because that one is 600dpi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._pixel_density
maybe you don't know how to use the zoom feature or you never watch blu ray or some high quality material

I'll bet you blu ray will look good on this as any other 1080p screen. Increasing DPI is much better and necessary , problem is not the screen but some materials but it's non sense to discuss this since there is a zoom feature on most browsers for the internet where most materials is not high quality yet.

[alfaunits]

Who mentioned BR movie reproduction, we are talking about simple text being too tiny to read.
Plus this thing has no BR

OTOH, I've seen the 1600x900 13" Sony lappy and I can work on it with default setings (I have very had eyesight, so I think others would have no problem).

[Katanai]

it's non sense to discuss this since there is a zoom feature on most browsers for the internet where most materials is not high quality yet.

Really? Good to know, I guess. So yeah, you're right. You can use this to watch HD movies and surf the internet. Like any 300-400 $ Ion netbook out there. But how about actually, I know this might sound crazy, use it for work and stuff? How about the 50.000.000 programs out there that don't have a zoom feature and can't suffer a font size increase from the control panel because it breaks the button positioning? How about them? I guess you'll just have to stick to the default settings and build yourself one of these:

[3NZ0]

*SNIP*

Are you going to keep posting pictures of binoculars? We got the point the first time round. You have bad eyesight.

[Katanai]

Are you going to keep posting pictures of binoculars? We got the point the first time round. You have bad eyesight.

No, the point is: this laptop is ridiculous. And that can't be repeated enough.

My eyes are ok, is just that I kinda started to like those things.

[twwen2]

Holy Crap.. 13" 1920x1080 display

My thoughts exactly. Imagine trying to read text on that!

[metachronos]

Kinda surprised there's no BR option given that it's a sony machine.

[lutjens]

It's about time Sony got off their butts and released this. The 1920x1200 res is perfect...about time too. This machine would be an ideal mobile theatre unit...with the light 3lbs weight and HDMI port. Video card is a little more gutless than I'd have liked to see, but coming from Sony, that's a given.

I too am wondering about this "QuadSSD" label. I can't imagine 4x 1.8" drives...not in a compact machine like that one. Could be a mini-PCIe setup, but even with a mini-PCIe setup, I have a hard time imagining four of them in one VAIO....that would be so "un-Sony" Maybe there are two small SSD separate units on the same mini-PCIe PCB connected by a simple onboard RAID 0 controller, sort of how OCZ manages to make the Colossus work. I've never heard of this configuration on a mini-PCIe card before, so it just might be proprietary.

It'll be interesting to find out though...

[Mk]

i like it
but whats GTX330m G92?
it might be my laptop but I'm gonna wait and see what will be here comes end Q1

[alfaunits]

GTX330 is a rename of the old nVidia GPUs Donno which one exactly by heart though.

[BatteryOperated]

No USB 3.0..?

Too bad, otherwise a very nice laptop that's pretty future-proof.

How exactly is a piece of technology "future proof?"

[BatteryOperated]

Really? Good to know, I guess. So yeah, you're right. You can use this to watch HD movies and surf the internet. Like any 300-400 $ Ion netbook out there. But how about actually, I know this might sound crazy, use it for work and stuff? How about the 50.000.000 programs out there that don't have a zoom feature and can't suffer a font size increase from the control panel because it breaks the button positioning? How about them? I guess you'll just have to stick to the default settings and build yourself one of these:

repeated for truth

[XS Janus]

I agree that resolution is to high. Most text will be to to small.
Maybe there is an optional neckless feature so you can hang the opened notebook from your neck and surf the web with screen appropriately closer!

[afX]

Holy Crap.. 13" 1920x1080 display

There fixed it for you.

I mean WTF? Does it come with one of these?

No, but it comes with DPI setting in advanced display options.
Resolution doesn't necessarily have to produce small text or GUI, you simply have to adjust your DPI setting to a comfortable level. Having a larger resolution and a larger DPI on 1920*1200 can yeild the exact same size of text and GUI as 1280*800, but much smoother and detailed, its like turning on AA.

if it had a blu ray burner, I'd consider it

a BR writer/reader will be available, its just not listed

[saaya]

yours truly went over the several sony stores here in taipei, unfortunately they didnt have the new x series and said they wont have anything for at least a month... so this sounds like a paper launch. second, they had the previous version with 1600x1280(?) screens at display... for anybody with a vaio, im sure you noticed the diagonal display lines that appear when watching a fast video or moving your head when looking at the screen, right? its kinda like the screen is split in diagonal lines and they are refreshed in interleaved mode like on tv, so if you move quickly or the video moves quickly you can see the lines. its like the display is made up of two parts, left and right, and on the left side the lines go from top left to center button, and on the right side they go from top right to center button. well, the current higher display option still has those lines, and they are just as noticeable on there as on the 1280x800 screen that i have in my vaio :/

i really hope the new display wont have the same problem, cause its really annoying... the screen quality is awesome but with those interleaved lines popping up in fast motion movies it really makes it useless and feel like the display is broken...

i tried different font sizes on the 1600x1280(?) version and anything below 12 was really tiny and uncomfortable to read...
overall, thinking about it... once you adjust the font sizes and dpi in windows it probably looks a lot better than a low res display...
i just hope this display doesnt cost a lot, cause i dont think its worth that much... the display on my vaio broke after less than a year and the replacement cost me 400$... ouch...

one other thing i noticed, the newer Z laptops have smaller keyboard buttons!
its really weird, the keyboard size remained the same, but the keys are smaller and there is more space between the keys now... it feels really weird and is a very bad idea imo... id actually have prwefered bigger keys and less space between them, on the older ones like mine there are almost 4mm between all keys, on the new ones thats not 6 or even more

i hope the latest vaio Z has that fixed and they returned to bigger keys, hopefully bigger than the original chiclet keyboard...

one very funny thing i also noticed in the sony stores:
the vaio X (atom netbook) looks really sexy, is super light and looks really sweet... BUT... here in taiwan it costs the same as a macbook air! really beats me how sony expects to sell a lot of those
50.000NT for the vaio X and 53.000NT for the macbook air in an apple store next to the sony store
1550$ vs 1650$

and some shops actually sell the macbook air for less, ive seen it for 35.000NT which is about 999$

[Katanai]

overall, thinking about it... once you adjust the font sizes and dpi in windows it probably looks a lot better than a low res display...

I will say this just once more. This is my last post in this thread, I swear.
Some programs if you increase the DPI just don't work anymore.
Yeah bummer, but it's exactly like that. For example I use a program for work called Eclipse. If you increase the DPI settings the font gets bigger in the logon screen and the login button disappears down the bottom of the window. No scroll bar appears, you can not make the window bigger, tab and enter won't work because the only way to use that button is to click it. That's only one example, an extreme one but raising the DPI in general creates problems with a lot of programs, most can be worked around but the question is why should you? That's why I really don't like the idea of a 13" 1080p screen, it creates a ton of problems for the end user with little to no benefit.


Just think about it man, at that size that amount of pixels makes absolutely no sense. An WXGA running 720p content will be practically identical with a 1080p screen running HD content. The true difference can only be seen in much larger displays, hence this laptop makes absolutely no sense, other than to make epeens grow bigger...

[saaya]

yeah, and the most important point is still, even in 2d you need more power to drive all those pixels and feed them with data...
even if you end up watching the same video, im sure it takes more cpu and gpu power to drive the same video on a higher res display...
and this is a laptop where 3d is really limited... even a full blown G92 driving a 1080P display wont work too well, and this one is cut down and underclocked...

didnt know about dpi bugs... thx for the headsup!
but... eventually, isnt this what we will see? res/surface will increase to the point where we will HAVE to change dpi to be able to use it properly...
or do you think win8 will have a different dpi setting?

but overall id say yes, 1600x1280(?) on a 13" is already more than what makes sense imo... 1080P is way overkill... they should have used that budget for a propper SSD and maybe some other feature... better battery or lower price...

[Tech Dav]

I will say this just once more. This is my last post in this thread, I swear.
Some programs if you increase the DPI just don't work anymore.
Yeah bummer, but it's exactly like that. For example I use a program for work called Eclipse. If you increase the DPI settings the font gets bigger in the logon screen and the login button disappears down the bottom of the window. No scroll bar appears, you can not make the window bigger, tab and enter won't work because the only way to use that button is to click it. That's only one example, an extreme one but raising the DPI in general creates problems with a lot of programs, most can be worked around but the question is why should you? That's why I really don't like the idea of a 13" 1080p screen, it creates a ton of problems for the end user with little to no benefit.


Just think about it man, at that size that amount of pixels makes absolutely no sense. An WXGA running 720p content will be practically identical with a 1080p screen running HD content. The true difference can only be seen in much larger displays, hence this laptop makes absolutely no sense, other than to make epeens grow bigger...

it's a matter of original material not the screen and you can definitelly see the difference . Blu Ray and photos would look better and more detailed than other 13" screens. Resolution is a about density of pixels not the size of the screen but you seem too dense to get it. Just because most of the sceens so far was under 100ppi , it doesn't make it acceptable let alone a standard
Higher resolution means you see more in less space, it doesn't mean you have to have giant screens which you can't possibly watch at once. Do you realize that that bigger screens means you have to step back from it in order to see it whole ?
I mean 30" you have to be much far away than 13" to see it whole and then you don't see much either way.