New Vaio SZ and FE series - Page 3

Yeah it has a PCMCIA slot and an Express Card slot so it can take the cards that are around now as well as being ready for the newer standard of cards when they take over.

If you look on Sony UK's website they list all the new and upcoming Vaios but the SZ isn't listed in there at all. The new FE is but not the SZ. I found it a bit strange and worrying that maybe it's not coming to the UK for a bit. Not that I'll be getting one, would love to of course but cannot right now.

Hello,

A good review (in french ) :

http://www.presence-pc.com/tests/Por...AIO-FE11S-427/

Hi there. I'm currently looking for a new laptop and my first one. I was just curious as to whether anyone here knows when the SZ or FE series will come out in Australia? Or whether I can order it from sonystyle USA and get it shipped to Australia.

Same applies to me but to Hong Kong.

"The revolutionary Hybrid Graphics System lets you easily set your graphics performance — toggle between an internal graphics chip for optimal power consumption and an external graphics chip for even more robust performance. The result is sizzling performance for a wide array of tasks and entertainment."

---thats from the sony site, sooo what exactly is this "external" gfx card? sounds pretty nice, would that mean upgrading to better gfx cards will be possible (w/o changing mobo...)?

I believe what sony is saying here is that the 945gm chipset that will apear in these sony vios has integrated graphics, and the external graphics is refering to the 7400go.

While sony says this is an external graphics card it would be more accuratly stated that it is a discrete graphics chip. In essence nothing has changed (at least with regard to swapping the video card) from earlier s series models. This is still just a GPU soldered directly to the motherboard.

In my opinion this is a wonderfull inovation on sony's part and I would love to see it show up in other laptops. The two largest consumers of power in a laptop are the CPU and the GPU. With the new pentium m's, power consumed by the CPU is becoming quite manigable. With this new inovation for GPUs, power consumtion could be reduced considerably. This might even allow (at some point in the not too distant future) those behmoth gaming laptops to get more than a hour of battery life.

I am really excited about this new laptop and can't wait to get a hold of one, even if I have to pay a premium for the new tech. When I get one I'll be sure to post a review.

so does that mean there will be a gfx card you can physically put in or take out---kinda like a flash drive thing.

will this also mean that in the future, gfx cards can be easily replaced when new and better cards come out? or will time only tell?

By external, I think they are referring the gfx outside the north bridge. Uniwill 259E also has the dual gfx design (NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 256MB + Intel GMA900). You can switch between both using a button located on the side of the laptop.

SZ's pdf has also mentioned that there is a gfx switch.
http://products.sel.sony.com/Compute...Z110B_spec.pdf

How good is the go7400 that the SZ and FE comes with? Any benchmarks?

Dual GPU is a genius idea. I also hope others copy this and start including a DVI out port.

OK, I decided to cancel my order of a Sony VGN-SZ160P/C because of the various posts I've read here and in other forums. Here's my rationale:

1. Priced too high -- You can buy a better configured non-carbon-fiber model for about $600 less (better only in that the RAM configuration in the 1GB unit would be useless in my case, because I want 2GB; plus you can choose a faster processor and extra-capacity battery, and have control over junkware Sony installs, at least AOL. Based on a FJ series pricing, US$1600 complete, you pay a US$900 premium for carbon fiber, which is steep indeed. I know most of the specs are better, yes, but the delta needs to be more like US$500.

2. LED backlighting screen -- Although this is supposed to be state-of-the-art technology, we have already heard from TX owners that there's "light bleed" around the edges, which needs to be confirmed eliminated in the SZ series.

3. Early system bugs -- Another outstanding question will be fan noise and any other "bugs" that mar early models of any line-up.

4. No shipping date -- Since Sony can't confirm shipping date, which means late February, as other sites suggest, I'm sure it will be equally efficacious to wait until Amazon.com and others begin carrying the computer.

Hope this logic helps other shoppers.

It is interesting to see that someone canceled their order.

I'm not sure your math on the premium price upgrade is accurate.
First of all, the Premium costs $2,500 roughly and a similarly configured standard costs $2,200... so $300 difference.

Not to mention that the Premium's Video Card has 256MB RAM and that it is lighter.

Your point about the screen is a valid one, I'm actually going to Sony Style to check this out tomarrow, to see if I can't get to the bottom of this, as nobody that has one has complained of it yet.

I think you made a good choice canceling, because it's apparent that you havn't researched enough for your choice to be sound.

The fan?... Um.. also this I can't confirm, but will probably have an answer when I got Sony Style, I'll bring my 7.2megapixel camera that has a sound recorder, so you can hear the fan noise level.

SonyStyle charges way too much for RAM

...tack on the sales tax (for most states)

and it gets expensive -- quick

Yeah, the RAM prices Sony is dreaming up blew me away. Is their RAM lined with diamonds or sth? I customed an FE and took the lowest RAM configuration possible (2x256). I will just buy 2gigs for $180 from Newegg or sth later on.

Stormlifter

QUOTE: "Not to mention that the Premium's Video Card has 256MB RAM"

Both the premium and standard models have 256MB of ram and BOTH use turbocache.

32MB onboard (dedicated) and 224MB via turbocache

Stormlifter: I love your 'tude, but don't get me wrong, I'm buying one, just not now. And thanks SonyVaioFan for adding several points I failed to make. BTW, Stormlifter, I configured a standard model with minimum RAM and got to $1910. And buying 2GB from Newegg for $180, will blow by the Premium in price/capability.

Mr Scary P4P: Someone claims that the Standard model only has 128MB, based on specsheets.

I thought the SZ's came with the Geforce Go 7400.
And on here http://www.nvidia.com/page/go_7300.html (I know it says 7300 on the URL but the 7400 is on there too) it says that it has 64mb of dedicated memory.

If might offer 256MB on both down the road or something but the SZ140 comes with 128MB on their Go7400 found here on the spec sheet.

http://www.sonystyle.com/intershopro.../SZ140spec.pdf

My Mistake

MY MISTAKE!!

standard = Nvidia with 128mb turbo cache

premium = Nvidia with 256mb turbo cache

I prayed you were right though, I would have ordered mine right when the site let me but I was really wanting the standard to have 256MB.