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goldentreesang · 07-31-2011, 11:06 PM

Hey Guys i just got back from Sony NYC and I wanted to post some of my thoughts and impressions. (I saw the $2000 preconfig)

I liked the keyboard. ALOT. Despite the 1mm travel, it was very easy to type on. It felt good and it felt fast. The spacing is great, and the keys have a grippy texture, unlike the macbooks and imac keyboards. I typed a few sentences and made absolutely no errors when i usually would have made a few i feel. This is coming from someone who has never extensively used a chiclet keyboard. imo, keyboard is AWESOME.

I blocked out the light sensor to see the backlit keyboard. You could only tell its on if you cupped ur hands and looks through a hole. The light only outlines the letters, not the keys. Its a very subtle green, very similar to the "glow in the dark" green color. I like because sometimes I find white led backlights a little too bright. Its also probably very light on battery life. (When you block out the light sensor, the screen also gradually dimmed, which was nice)

Everyone shutup about flex. There was only noticeable flex when I applied MASSIVE pressure to the keyboard. Regular typing showed NO FLEX AT ALL.

I actually enjoyed the trackpad alot. Im not generally a fan of trackpads and will be sustaining an orochi with my Z, but the trackpad worked well. 2 finger scrolling worked well too. texture is nice, very frictionless feel. Buttons work well. Also i noticed that when ur hand are in the default typing position, ur thumb is exactly in the middle of the touchpad, so you can type and move mouse without moving ur hands. cool!

I was able to achieve a 14 second cold boot time to the windows login screen when i activated fast bios. This is with an i5 and 128, so if u get like a i7 and 256 it should be marginally shorter. See my attached picture for the disadvantages of fast bios (pretty minimal). So like if u had a wireless mouse, you wouldn't be able to use it until you logged in....nbd.
http://imgur.com/5uuWC

Tried out the booting into the web browser alone (see attached pictures as well). It kind of took a while and I couldn't connect to wifi at the store. the general experience was kind of bleh. I honestly think it might have been faster just to boot into windows. Something I won't probably use.
http://i.imgur.com/de92T.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/94l6D.jpg

Tested a bunch of pmd improper disconnects. I unplugged it with no program open. It continued to work for maybe 5 seconds and then the screen just froze. I had to hold down the power button. No BSOD though. I played a youtube video and then disconnected it. The screen froze immediately, but the audio continued play for maybe 15 secs and then stopped. Had to hold down power button. Im guessing similar things would have if the pmd lost power. I forgot to test unplugging in sleep mode. (sorry)
http://i.imgur.com/bNfi4.jpg

It wasn't quiet enough to test out the speakers fully, but i could tell that they were pretty bad. I would call them useable though if you really needed to, but i'll be using external speakers or earphones. When the volume was cranked all the way up and the windows boot chime sounded, the speakers had this like really distorted sound like the speakers were being blown out. (Like if you crank a bad cellphone speaker all the way up)

It wasn't quiet enough to see fan noise either, but i was just doing soem light browsing and 1080p youtube videos and it was dead silent as well as i could tell. Put my hands everywhere and on the side vent and its cold to the touch.

The red tint that engadget talked about is EXTREMELY subtle and only at ridiculous viewing angles. If you can see the red tint, your doing it wrong.

Screen was generally awesome. 900p very useable at 100% scaling (although the store had it on 125)

Everything was of course very fast. acrobat (the most intensive program i could find lol) opened instantly.

It was very light, especially when holding a nearby SA in the other hand. it didn't strike me as EXTREMELY light, but thats probably because i was expecting too much. Adding the sheet battery does add significant heft. And yes, its hot swappable and windows recognized it immediately. The PMD is also very thin, about the same as the main unit. And yes, its ridiculously thin.

Someone had asked me to check how far back the screen can go (see picture)
http://imgur.com/XkLgS

I think thats it. My visit pretty much reaffirmed everything that was awesome about the Z and washed away any doubts about it. It was a good day. If anyone has questions feel free to ask. Sorry for long post and shoddy cam shots, but i hope its helpful info

Also, I thought I'd contribute to the SSD discussion and say that I talked with a sony NYC rep a few weeks back and he spent a while finding the answer but he confirmed at all US Z models have gen 3 SSDs.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the Assist, web, and vaio buttons seem to be capacitive. They are activated if you gently tap it. Its not a real button. I don't think i'd accidentally brush up against them though cuz its all the way up there, so its probably not a problem.

07-31-2011, 11:06 PM	#5589 (permalink)
goldentreesang Notebook Evangelist Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: USA Posts: 594 Rep Power: 6	Re: New Sony Vaio Z speculation/news thread Hey Guys i just got back from Sony NYC and I wanted to post some of my thoughts and impressions. (I saw the $2000 preconfig) I liked the keyboard. ALOT. Despite the 1mm travel, it was very easy to type on. It felt good and it felt fast. The spacing is great, and the keys have a grippy texture, unlike the macbooks and imac keyboards. I typed a few sentences and made absolutely no errors when i usually would have made a few i feel. This is coming from someone who has never extensively used a chiclet keyboard. imo, keyboard is AWESOME. I blocked out the light sensor to see the backlit keyboard. You could only tell its on if you cupped ur hands and looks through a hole. The light only outlines the letters, not the keys. Its a very subtle green, very similar to the "glow in the dark" green color. I like because sometimes I find white led backlights a little too bright. Its also probably very light on battery life. (When you block out the light sensor, the screen also gradually dimmed, which was nice) Everyone shutup about flex. There was only noticeable flex when I applied MASSIVE pressure to the keyboard. Regular typing showed NO FLEX AT ALL. I actually enjoyed the trackpad alot. Im not generally a fan of trackpads and will be sustaining an orochi with my Z, but the trackpad worked well. 2 finger scrolling worked well too. texture is nice, very frictionless feel. Buttons work well. Also i noticed that when ur hand are in the default typing position, ur thumb is exactly in the middle of the touchpad, so you can type and move mouse without moving ur hands. cool! I was able to achieve a 14 second cold boot time to the windows login screen when i activated fast bios. This is with an i5 and 128, so if u get like a i7 and 256 it should be marginally shorter. See my attached picture for the disadvantages of fast bios (pretty minimal). So like if u had a wireless mouse, you wouldn't be able to use it until you logged in....nbd. http://imgur.com/5uuWC Tried out the booting into the web browser alone (see attached pictures as well). It kind of took a while and I couldn't connect to wifi at the store. the general experience was kind of bleh. I honestly think it might have been faster just to boot into windows. Something I won't probably use. http://i.imgur.com/de92T.jpg http://i.imgur.com/94l6D.jpg Tested a bunch of pmd improper disconnects. I unplugged it with no program open. It continued to work for maybe 5 seconds and then the screen just froze. I had to hold down the power button. No BSOD though. I played a youtube video and then disconnected it. The screen froze immediately, but the audio continued play for maybe 15 secs and then stopped. Had to hold down power button. Im guessing similar things would have if the pmd lost power. I forgot to test unplugging in sleep mode. (sorry) http://i.imgur.com/bNfi4.jpg It wasn't quiet enough to test out the speakers fully, but i could tell that they were pretty bad. I would call them useable though if you really needed to, but i'll be using external speakers or earphones. When the volume was cranked all the way up and the windows boot chime sounded, the speakers had this like really distorted sound like the speakers were being blown out. (Like if you crank a bad cellphone speaker all the way up) It wasn't quiet enough to see fan noise either, but i was just doing soem light browsing and 1080p youtube videos and it was dead silent as well as i could tell. Put my hands everywhere and on the side vent and its cold to the touch. The red tint that engadget talked about is EXTREMELY subtle and only at ridiculous viewing angles. If you can see the red tint, your doing it wrong. Screen was generally awesome. 900p very useable at 100% scaling (although the store had it on 125) Everything was of course very fast. acrobat (the most intensive program i could find lol) opened instantly. It was very light, especially when holding a nearby SA in the other hand. it didn't strike me as EXTREMELY light, but thats probably because i was expecting too much. Adding the sheet battery does add significant heft. And yes, its hot swappable and windows recognized it immediately. The PMD is also very thin, about the same as the main unit. And yes, its ridiculously thin. Someone had asked me to check how far back the screen can go (see picture) http://imgur.com/XkLgS I think thats it. My visit pretty much reaffirmed everything that was awesome about the Z and washed away any doubts about it. It was a good day. If anyone has questions feel free to ask. Sorry for long post and shoddy cam shots, but i hope its helpful info Also, I thought I'd contribute to the SSD discussion and say that I talked with a sony NYC rep a few weeks back and he spent a while finding the answer but he confirmed at all US Z models have gen 3 SSDs. EDIT: Forgot to mention that the Assist, web, and vaio buttons seem to be capacitive. They are activated if you gently tap it. Its not a real button. I don't think i'd accidentally brush up against them though cuz its all the way up there, so its probably not a problem. Last edited by goldentreesang : 07-31-2011 at 11:18 PM.