7 ms·

It's pretty funny how this has basically the same ports (besides the USB C for charging) as my 2010 VAIO Z. VGA is the most surprising one to still see. I wond

It's pretty funny how this has basically the same ports (besides the USB C for charging) as my 2010 VAIO Z. VGA is the most surprising one to still see. I wonder what the reasoning behind that is. I can't really see them targeting the corporate market.

PedroBatista 7y ago
Most projectors ( the installed base ) only accept VGA. VGA is old it's analogic and works. The target demography for this laptop are the people who actually have to solve problems that people with laptops with one port create. So they have no tolerance for more problems. ( This is a caricature, but.. )
- formercoder 7y ago
  Really? I feel like I haven’t seen a projector with only VGA in years. Could be a biased sample though.
  - cyphar 7y ago
    University campus projectors are usually VGA-only. In fact, FOSDEM (the big European free software conference) has a VGA-only policy for speakers.
    - agumonkey 7y ago
      is it because other input interfaces can cause problems ?
  - mrpippy 7y ago
    Right, the projectors themselves aren’t VGA-only (because of course they’re not—-when did you last see a VGA-only monitor?). But the room infrastructure often still is, so there’s only a VGA cable coming out of the wall.
dade_ 7y ago
HDMI cables are fragile. More than a few times this year I had to revert to VGA. Crazy really.
ekianjo 7y ago
If you ever use projectors in places you have never been to before the only safe bet is VGA.
owenversteeg 7y ago
VGA is incredible to have, yes, even in 2019. As a sibling comment says, it's "for the people who actually have to solve problems". Nearly all projectors, even new and expensive ones I've used, do not have HDMI. So there's an adapter. But maybe the damned fragile thing is broken, or it's missing, or it doesn't adapt to what you have (mini display port? USB-C? Who even knows!) or it requires power, or God knows what. There are a number of times I've had to present something, and the "non-VGA" laptop crowd was unable to, for various reasons, but a VGA port will cut the crap and get you an image on screen no matter what. It's wet? Stepped on it? Bent pins? It'll still work, dammit. Maybe your slides will have a blue tint, but you'll get em up there. I'll give a personal example. I was at a party and the movie dude didn't show. Only thing available was a banged up projector from the 90s with analog only inputs. Everyone had new fancy laptops with no VGA. Someone had a totally destroyed old laptop with water damage, screen falling off, but you know what it had? Most of a VGA port. I bent off a few pieces of a paperclip, shoved em in there, pointed that old projector at the side of a house, and filled the night sky with sixty feet of glorious analog pixels. I'd expect more support for VGA in a place like this. It doesn't just guarantee your slides will get up on screen, it's a real hacker's port, dammit!
- userbinator 7y ago
  There are a number of times I've had to present something, and the "non-VGA" laptop crowd was unable to, for various reasons, but a VGA port will cut the crap and get you an image on screen no matter what. It's wet? Stepped on it? Bent pins? It'll still work, dammit. Maybe your slides will have a blue tint, but you'll get em up there. This is also the advantage that analog signals have over digital ones: HDMI is basically all-or-nothing (especially when HDCP DRM decides it's doesn't like something), but analog VGA degrades far more gracefully. At one of the places I used to work, the HDMI-VGA adapters seemed to die surprisingly frequently, and also got very hot even when they worked.
  - jfoster 7y ago
    "All or nothing" isn't necessarily a problem. The problem is when it's "nothing" too often.
sys_64738 7y ago
Haven't used VGA since 2003.
daddylonglegs 7y ago
As well as the large number of existing installations that others have mentioned, VGA has a couple of advantages: You can send VGA signals over long cable runs (I installed a 50m run 20 years ago for example) and it's simpler than modern interfaces. An HDMI connection has to be negotiated (including HDCP) and - for more than ~5m of cable - you will need to convert it to some other standard for the long run (and negotiate HDCP at each end). The conversion will probably be a proprietary system running over ethernet cables and will be a black box when it comes to trouble shooting.
deleted 7y ago
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NikolaNovak 7y ago
In the corporate world, it's stunning how many portable and built-in projectors, or board-room TVs, have only VGA. Basically I always need to have a VGA dongle in my laptop bag unless the laptop has the VGA port itself. Outside of corporate world though, it's still frequently the lowest common denominator. Everything else has simply existed less time and been part of fewer machines. If not VGA then what - HDMI? DisplayPort? USB-C? Choices explode and you never quite have the right port / cable / dongle...
m3at 7y ago
I think it is aimed at the Japanese corporate market. I work in tech in Japan, and you would be surprised how often we have to use VGA-only screens when giving a presentation outside of the startup bubble. I would say that about 2/3 of my clients have a VGA port on their bulky laptops. So VGA definitely make sense for this market. A VAIO like this one would be on the expensive range compared to the Dell or cheaper Lenovo I commonly see though, but maybe the bulk price is be quite cheaper than the retail price?

PedroBatista 7y ago

Most projectors ( the installed base ) only accept VGA. VGA is old it's analogic and works. The target demography for this laptop are the people who actually have to solve problems that people with laptops with one port create. So they have no tolerance for more problems. ( This is a caricature, but.. )

formercoder 7y ago
Really? I feel like I haven’t seen a projector with only VGA in years. Could be a biased sample though.
- cyphar 7y ago
  University campus projectors are usually VGA-only. In fact, FOSDEM (the big European free software conference) has a VGA-only policy for speakers.
  - agumonkey 7y ago
    is it because other input interfaces can cause problems ?
- mrpippy 7y ago
  Right, the projectors themselves aren’t VGA-only (because of course they’re not—-when did you last see a VGA-only monitor?). But the room infrastructure often still is, so there’s only a VGA cable coming out of the wall.

dade_ 7y ago

HDMI cables are fragile. More than a few times this year I had to revert to VGA. Crazy really.

ekianjo 7y ago

If you ever use projectors in places you have never been to before the only safe bet is VGA.

owenversteeg 7y ago

VGA is incredible to have, yes, even in 2019. As a sibling comment says, it's "for the people who actually have to solve problems". Nearly all projectors, even new and expensive ones I've used, do not have HDMI. So there's an adapter. But maybe the damned fragile thing is broken, or it's missing, or it doesn't adapt to what you have (mini display port? USB-C? Who even knows!) or it requires power, or God knows what. There are a number of times I've had to present something, and the "non-VGA" laptop crowd was unable to, for various reasons, but a VGA port will cut the crap and get you an image on screen no matter what. It's wet? Stepped on it? Bent pins? It'll still work, dammit. Maybe your slides will have a blue tint, but you'll get em up there. I'll give a personal example. I was at a party and the movie dude didn't show. Only thing available was a banged up projector from the 90s with analog only inputs. Everyone had new fancy laptops with no VGA. Someone had a totally destroyed old laptop with water damage, screen falling off, but you know what it had? Most of a VGA port. I bent off a few pieces of a paperclip, shoved em in there, pointed that old projector at the side of a house, and filled the night sky with sixty feet of glorious analog pixels. I'd expect more support for VGA in a place like this. It doesn't just guarantee your slides will get up on screen, it's a real hacker's port, dammit!

userbinator 7y ago
There are a number of times I've had to present something, and the "non-VGA" laptop crowd was unable to, for various reasons, but a VGA port will cut the crap and get you an image on screen no matter what. It's wet? Stepped on it? Bent pins? It'll still work, dammit. Maybe your slides will have a blue tint, but you'll get em up there. This is also the advantage that analog signals have over digital ones: HDMI is basically all-or-nothing (especially when HDCP DRM decides it's doesn't like something), but analog VGA degrades far more gracefully. At one of the places I used to work, the HDMI-VGA adapters seemed to die surprisingly frequently, and also got very hot even when they worked.
- jfoster 7y ago
  "All or nothing" isn't necessarily a problem. The problem is when it's "nothing" too often.

sys_64738 7y ago

Haven't used VGA since 2003.

daddylonglegs 7y ago

As well as the large number of existing installations that others have mentioned, VGA has a couple of advantages: You can send VGA signals over long cable runs (I installed a 50m run 20 years ago for example) and it's simpler than modern interfaces. An HDMI connection has to be negotiated (including HDCP) and - for more than ~5m of cable - you will need to convert it to some other standard for the long run (and negotiate HDCP at each end). The conversion will probably be a proprietary system running over ethernet cables and will be a black box when it comes to trouble shooting.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

NikolaNovak 7y ago

In the corporate world, it's stunning how many portable and built-in projectors, or board-room TVs, have only VGA. Basically I always need to have a VGA dongle in my laptop bag unless the laptop has the VGA port itself. Outside of corporate world though, it's still frequently the lowest common denominator. Everything else has simply existed less time and been part of fewer machines. If not VGA then what - HDMI? DisplayPort? USB-C? Choices explode and you never quite have the right port / cable / dongle...

m3at 7y ago

I think it is aimed at the Japanese corporate market. I work in tech in Japan, and you would be surprised how often we have to use VGA-only screens when giving a presentation outside of the startup bubble. I would say that about 2/3 of my clients have a VGA port on their bulky laptops. So VGA definitely make sense for this market. A VAIO like this one would be on the expensive range compared to the Dell or cheaper Lenovo I commonly see though, but maybe the bulk price is be quite cheaper than the retail price?