8 ms·

What the Vaio Z says about Sony's little design problem

110 points by danshapiro 15y ago

w1ntermute 15y ago
> But Sony rarely iterates, even when it's onto something good. This is very interesting, considering that one of the core philosophies of Japanese business is kaizen, or continuous improvement.
- ghc 15y ago
  Sony does iterate...the article is just ignorant. It used three different laptop lines to prove that Sony doesn't iterate. Walkman, Discman, PS controller and even the Z series laptop this talks about all were extensively iterated products. Now whether all iterations were good is another matter entirely...
  - DanBC 15y ago
    From the article I get the impression that there were large jumps between each version of the Z series - is that incorrect? Because, to me, iteration means small amounts of refinement to a product. The examples you give, especially the PlayStation controller, are excellent examples of small refinements to an existing product.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
bonesinger 15y ago
I am an owner of this new Vaio Z. The laptop itself is amazing: the battery life is excellent, good performance, high quality screen (1080p), extremely fast (raid 0 SSDs will do that). The specs are amazing for this 2.5 lb laptop, but it still doesn't do justice to how disappointed I am with the keyboard. The travel distance is so minuscule, its uncomfortable to type on. You find yourself slapping keys but feeling like you didn't really press the key. The space bar sucks, you have to hit it pretty hard to make it register. The trackpad is pretty small and awful, 2-finger gestures only works 50% of the time. I had to disable the fingerprint reader because it would activate everytime using the touchpad (you would always hit it by mistake). Those are literally the only 2 things I dislike about this laptop, the keyboard and touchpad. I use a portable bluetooth mouse a lot (Razer Orochi) which does alleviate a lot of the touch pad issues, but the keyboard is god awful. That said, the power media dock is a novel feature, external graphics, blu ray and all...I haven't used it once haha. I think that's because I have a nice custom built desktop, no reason to use the PMD. EDIT: The keyboard is worse in my opinion in comparison to a macbook air which I owned for a year before I sold it. I just wanted to add on top that, I tested out a Lenovo T420 edge...quite possibly one of the nicest keyboards I've ever typed on.
- montecarl 15y ago
  The touchpad and keyboard on my 2009 Macbook Pro are perhaps my favorite parts. I would have never believed that a touchpad could be as good, let alone better than a mouse! Resizing and scrolling with gestures is amazing.
  - jinushaun 15y ago
    The trackpad on MacBooks blow away any PC laptop I've ever used. I don't understand why PC manufacturers don't just source the same supplier as Apple unless a) it's actually a software driver issue, or b) Apple has a monopoly on the supplier/patent/part. I suspect it's a little of both, as the trackpad on my Dell hackintosh runs much better in OSX than Windows.
    - kalleboo 15y ago
      I believe Apple have been designing their own trackpads for a couple of years now (IIRC it started with the clickwheel iPods)
  - xiaomai 15y ago
    I have been hearing this (the apple touchpad being better than a mouse) for a few years now. I just got my first macbook pro today and I'm hating the touchpad (I prefer edge-scrolling and the tap-click on PC touchpads, although I've never loved any touchpad). Am I doing something wrong or does this just boil down to personal taste? I really don't understand how a touchpad could ever be preferable to a mouse (the mouse-wheel is a wonderful invention).
    - cageface 15y ago
      You can enable tap-click on the Mac too. It's just not on by default. I find touchpad scrolling on the Mac to be far more precise and comfortable than side-scrolling. I'd say give it a week.
    - montecarl 15y ago
      I think you just need time. Why edge scroll when you could use the entire mousing surface for scrolling? I don't know why tap-click is not on by default, but you can enable it. Also don't go changing the tracking speed or acceleration on your trackpad either. Give it some time if it feels odd. Its pretty much perfect.
dmboyd 15y ago
> It's loaded with junkware, because paying two grand for a laptop doesn't get you a system that hasn't been sold to someone else. On this topic, does anyone know of any major manufacturers who dont do this with their consumer machines? I have had really bad experiences of late with Dell, Toshiba and HP, to the point where they come with what is essentially malware built in. As one example, our latest dell purchase redirects search queries, puts a link to ebay on the desktop which comes back once deleted, and prevents you from adding an alternative search provider to IE.
- nessus42 15y ago
  Yes, I know of one. I'm sure you do too.
  - dmboyd 15y ago
    Yea I've heard that the Microsoft stores sell everything crapware-free, but this doesnt help me as Microsoft stores are a US only thing
    - nessus42 15y ago
      There's a company that sells junkware-free consumer computers and also has stores in your country.
    - nessus42 15y ago
      Oops, I missed my chance for the proper witty response. I should have said: Think different.
  - redthrowaway 15y ago
    Care to be a little less vague?
    - ericd 15y ago
      I think he was talking about Apple.
ghc 15y ago
Wow, what an ignorant article. I own the previous version of this (Sony does iterate...this is the 4th iteration of the Z series), and I absolutely love it. I can't speak about the new version, but the version I have has a fantastic keyboard with much more key travel than an Air. I wouldn't be shocked if Sony messed up the keyboard and trackpad though. They have a certain talent for screwing up ergonomics in the name of looks. But really, my main issue is that this article appears to be written by someone with an agenda and little actual knowledge. The laptop's name, for example is the Z14, not that long string which is the model number. Practically all laptops, even the Air, have those model numbers associated with the specific configuration. The box for my Air has it listed on the back, in fact.
- bonesinger 15y ago
  they really did fug up the keyboard and trackpad. The 2 finger swipe to scroll like on macs barely works, you have to do it a few times to make it work. The keyboard, you can type well on it, but its not the most comfortable feeling and the space bar flat out sucks. I have to tap the SB pretty hard to have it register.
  - tikhonj 15y ago
    As I said elsewhere, scrolling with two fingers works perfectly for me, so it pretty much has to be a driver issue. In fact, I set the scrolling up to work in all directions, and it's sufficiently accurate and responsive to make scrolling sideways with the same gesture as normal scrolling completely practical.
    - zobzu 15y ago
      totally is a driver issue i use the linux driver and scrolling works like a charm much better than on the previous Z on top of that. it works as well as the mac trackpad, except its smaller. but it really works very well otherwise.
- Steko 15y ago
  "Wow, what an ignorant article... I can't speak about the new version, but the version I have has a fantastic keyboard with much more key travel than an Air. I wouldn't be shocked if Sony messed up the keyboard and trackpad though. They have a certain talent for screwing up ergonomics in the name of looks." Make up your mind? It sounds like you just agreed with the central thrust of the article -- Sony had a great design and junked it to have something "new".
jbarham 15y ago
For my money, the best "ultraportable" around is a ThinkPad X: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/x-series http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/x-series
- tdoggette 15y ago
  I love my x120e, and it doesn't need quotes around the word ultraportable.
  - tikhonj 15y ago
    I think the quotes are there because "ultraportable" is a nebulous marketing term rather than because the X1 is difficult to lug around (which, assuredly, it isn't).
- mahmud 15y ago
  For 12 years I bought nothing but Thinkpads. For myself, for others, for employers .. It's a workhorse.
- vacri 15y ago
  I loved the x-series, and recently got a new x201. The screen is phenomonally bad. The viewing angle is so poor that if I'm watching a movie on it, there is nowhere I can position it so that I don't get funny colouration on the blacks. Until then, I'd had a dream run with this series. Check your screen quality before getting an x-series...
  - tikhonj 15y ago
    You should look at the screen on the Z--it is much better than any screen I've seen on any laptop. For reference, I got the cheaper 1600x900 screen; it is exactly the same resolution as my old, cheap 17" laptop. I can comfortably edit two documents side-by-side in Emacs, on a 13" screen! It really is perfect--anything less would be really annoying now.
  - abrowne 15y ago
    The X220 with the IPS option is a nice screen: http://www.the-hikaku.com/pc/lenovo/ThinkPad-X220.html#display http://www.the-hikaku.com/pc/lenovo/ThinkPad-X220.html#displ...
tikhonj 15y ago
When getting my new laptop, I spent some time looking at various "ultraportable" including the MacBook Air, some Toshiba (I forget what it was called) and the Z. I ultimately chose the Sony because it was, by a nice margin, the nicest computer of the lot. The screen is really awesome, it's incredibly fast and I actually really like the touchpad. The keyboard is not great, but none of the options I physically touched--I never saw a physical Lenovo X1; that could be good--had particularly good keyboards. The Air's keyboard was not bad, but it had an annoying layout with small arrow keys and an odd ordering of meta keys along the bottom. Overall, I am extremely pleased with this computer and would probably buy it again, although I would also consider looking at the X1. However, an X1 configured to similar specs as the Z costs about the same and I've heard both the screen--which is really awesome on the Z--and the batter life are worse on the Lenovo.
- jinushaun 15y ago
  "The Air's keyboard was not bad, but it had an annoying layout with small arrow keys and an odd ordering of meta keys along the bottom." It's interesting that people cross shop MacBooks when looking at Windows PCs, especially given the Mac's unique keyboard layout.
  - tikhonj 15y ago
    I was not looking for a "Windows PC"; I was looking for a light, fast laptop. I wouldn't use either Windows or Mac OS unless I really had to, so the operating system doesn't really matter to me. The only unfixable annoyance I noticed on the Mac keyboard was the arrow keys; the rest could have been ameliorated by changing the keyboard layout a bit, I think (unless it's somehow codified in hardware).
    - guylhem 15y ago
      Interesting. What was problematic with the arrows compared to a PC? The inverted T is pretty standard. Do you mean the lack of home/end/pgup/pgdn ? I could point you to solutions I use like controller mate - pretty handy to remap. Guylhem
zobzu 15y ago
As a owner of a Z21 I can tell much of what is said in the article is just, simply wrong and misinformed. The author most likely didn't even touch a Z21. DISCLAIMER: I am using Linux full time on this laptop. Some people have issues with the fingerprint or trackpad on Windows - theses are software issues which aren't present on Linux. Fan: they're not loud. It's quieter than my MacBook. In fact, I can't hear it in a quiet room. It's only loud when running full speed; which is rare enough. And that's not louder than the Mac. Trackpad: it's in.. the regular spot. Software: it's loaded with Sony stuff mostly. You can remove or reinstall if you dislike it. Key travel: yes, it's shorter. No I don't see the issue with it, after having used it for quite a long while now. I switch to longer key travel keyboards and back to the Z21 without noticing. The rest is just "look, my iMac design didn't change in 4 years it's awesome, changing design sucks!". Now... let's see what the Z21 has and the others.. just plain don't. SSD: Hello raid0 SATA3 SSDs. Have you ever reached more than 500mbyte/s read/write? Heck, sometimes its going near the 1000mbyte/s sequential. Copying stuff, reading has never been faster. Non-raid0 desktop computer with the fastest SSDs are just way slower. Won't even mention Macs with their subpar SSDs. Screen: Hello 1920x1080 anti-glare screen. How the hell are others not all anti-glare by default ? CPU: Hello regular voltage i7 2620M. The air CPU suddenly look.. you know.. just not in the same range. Heat: what heat? It's extremely well extracted on the side and the rest of the system is at room temperature. Even under extreme load. A problem Apple didn't really solve by the way. Connectivity: USB? check. USB3? check. VGA out for those conferences? Check. HDMI out /w audio? Check. Audio jack, ethernet, sdcard, lightpeak? check check check check. Tell me when the mac book air doesn't need a bunch of adapters to do more than USB. higher power USB for charging? Heck, check again. Weight? Lighter than the Macbook air says enough. Battery life? Extensible well above 10H via a laptop-wide sheet. Smart. Paris-New York, no need to charge. Of course, the standard battery isn't a let down either at ~5H real time use. (they're both rated 7h and 14h max as far as I can remember, but don't quote me on that) Now with all that, what more could there be? Oh wait.. I mentioned a lightpeak port didn't I.. so yeah, a 600gr+ device can be added to the desk while you're not on the move.. bundling a very decent ATI graphic card, a bluray drive, and more ports. You can drive 4 screens at the same time, although its convenient only up to 3. (oh noes.) Oh and, does it run linux properly? yep. So it's an expensive device, but considered all the above, it's pretty decent I guess. Finally, the actual bad, and yes, there is some bad: - speaker: they work, but god they're bad. they're terrible. Not a big deal, but still, at this price... the jack is very good tho. - lightpeak will probably not take off, that said, its mostly used for the side device only and serves as USB port, so who cares. - way the laptop sits on the desk you may sometimes find positions where its not sitting properly, if your "desk" is not flat
ctdonath 15y ago
Power supplies. I've got a copier paper box full of Sony power supplies. Every product they make has to have a different battery, plug, voltage, wattage, whatever so you MUST buy a new one if break/lose it, at a princely sum comparable to the price of the device. Sony has 90% great, like awesome, design - then screws up the remaining 10% with either "meh, screw the user" or "hey, dig into his wallet" wrecking the rest. I've had two of their ultraportables, and try as I might to love them there's just one neurotic breakdown after another; my next is a MacBook Air.
- carmen 15y ago
  Vaio X has a standard DC barrel pot, ive powered it on anything from junk-heap printer wall-warts to 20-cent car-adaptors to lab bench-supplies without hassles. other things it has over the air are half the weight owing to carbon fiber vs aluminum and a smaller battery owing to an Atom CPU (a feature - can tell which code is slow), and a full array of hardware ports and slots, a matte-screen with almost 0 reflected light readable in direct sun, a fan that is off most of the time, and GPS/3G. gma500 is main problem, but Alan Cox's driver is getting OK enough to use
  - ctdonath 15y ago
    The Vaio X has been discontinued. The nearest equivalent to the MBA 13" I'm contemplating is the Vaio Z, at a cost of nearly $1000 more. Apple products have always been derided as "under-speced and over-priced", yet customers keep voting with their wallets to the contrary. Knowing first-hand how those Vaios tend to blow their superior specs in the oddest ways, I'll take the Air.
sjs 15y ago
The Vaio Z is a sweet series. If I didn't use a Mac I would almost certainly buy the Vaio Z. Last I scoped out notebooks that was the case anyway.
dfc 15y ago
Has the grammar/writing at boingboing deteriorated or am I comparing everyone to Cory? "The trackpad's in an odd spot." "This hardly trenchant criticism, especially if you're used to island-style keys." "so successful that you can walk a store and not see a machine that doesn't have one." Is this really the level of writing that comes out of bb now?
mike_esspe 15y ago
The only real problem i had with Z-series is that the keyboard is scratching the screen, if you carry the notebook in the backpack long enough. I just can't understand why Sony couldn't solve this simple problem.
cturner 15y ago
> but companies like Sony make good designs then abandon > them intentionally because they're blind to their own > good design choices. I see this pattern a lot. Situations where people trade away their strengths by trying to mimic what's glamourous. Here's one - look at the way that OS desktops compromise strengths in order to be more like OSX. Microsoft was so focussed on making Windows feel more like aqua that they compromised things where they were strong - like the way you could get around with hotkeys, or set up items in the old start menu to be launched by two keypresses. The gnome team had what was to me the best desktop environment out there and have traded it away in their quest to be the poor-man's Aqua. (Give me window switching - I hate application swiching. In what situation would I want all of my terminals to come to the foreground in front of the web browser I'm copying commands from??)
stewbrew 15y ago
The author lost me when I saw the image of the color mac. That device sucked. They should have chosen a new design for improved (and quieter) ventilation instead of sticking to the old design. That they reused the old design may have been right from a marketing perspective but it was a PITA from a user's perspective.

110 points by danshapiro 15y ago

> But Sony rarely iterates, even when it's onto something good. This is very interesting, considering that one of the core philosophies of Japanese business is kaizen, or continuous improvement.

ghc 15y ago
Sony does iterate...the article is just ignorant. It used three different laptop lines to prove that Sony doesn't iterate. Walkman, Discman, PS controller and even the Z series laptop this talks about all were extensively iterated products. Now whether all iterations were good is another matter entirely...
- DanBC 15y ago
  From the article I get the impression that there were large jumps between each version of the Z series - is that incorrect? Because, to me, iteration means small amounts of refinement to a product. The examples you give, especially the PlayStation controller, are excellent examples of small refinements to an existing product.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

bonesinger 15y ago

I am an owner of this new Vaio Z. The laptop itself is amazing: the battery life is excellent, good performance, high quality screen (1080p), extremely fast (raid 0 SSDs will do that). The specs are amazing for this 2.5 lb laptop, but it still doesn't do justice to how disappointed I am with the keyboard. The travel distance is so minuscule, its uncomfortable to type on. You find yourself slapping keys but feeling like you didn't really press the key. The space bar sucks, you have to hit it pretty hard to make it register. The trackpad is pretty small and awful, 2-finger gestures only works 50% of the time. I had to disable the fingerprint reader because it would activate everytime using the touchpad (you would always hit it by mistake). Those are literally the only 2 things I dislike about this laptop, the keyboard and touchpad. I use a portable bluetooth mouse a lot (Razer Orochi) which does alleviate a lot of the touch pad issues, but the keyboard is god awful. That said, the power media dock is a novel feature, external graphics, blu ray and all...I haven't used it once haha. I think that's because I have a nice custom built desktop, no reason to use the PMD. EDIT: The keyboard is worse in my opinion in comparison to a macbook air which I owned for a year before I sold it. I just wanted to add on top that, I tested out a Lenovo T420 edge...quite possibly one of the nicest keyboards I've ever typed on.

montecarl 15y ago
The touchpad and keyboard on my 2009 Macbook Pro are perhaps my favorite parts. I would have never believed that a touchpad could be as good, let alone better than a mouse! Resizing and scrolling with gestures is amazing.
- jinushaun 15y ago
  The trackpad on MacBooks blow away any PC laptop I've ever used. I don't understand why PC manufacturers don't just source the same supplier as Apple unless a) it's actually a software driver issue, or b) Apple has a monopoly on the supplier/patent/part. I suspect it's a little of both, as the trackpad on my Dell hackintosh runs much better in OSX than Windows.
  - kalleboo 15y ago
    I believe Apple have been designing their own trackpads for a couple of years now (IIRC it started with the clickwheel iPods)
- xiaomai 15y ago
  I have been hearing this (the apple touchpad being better than a mouse) for a few years now. I just got my first macbook pro today and I'm hating the touchpad (I prefer edge-scrolling and the tap-click on PC touchpads, although I've never loved any touchpad). Am I doing something wrong or does this just boil down to personal taste? I really don't understand how a touchpad could ever be preferable to a mouse (the mouse-wheel is a wonderful invention).
  - cageface 15y ago
    You can enable tap-click on the Mac too. It's just not on by default. I find touchpad scrolling on the Mac to be far more precise and comfortable than side-scrolling. I'd say give it a week.
  - montecarl 15y ago
    I think you just need time. Why edge scroll when you could use the entire mousing surface for scrolling? I don't know why tap-click is not on by default, but you can enable it. Also don't go changing the tracking speed or acceleration on your trackpad either. Give it some time if it feels odd. Its pretty much perfect.

dmboyd 15y ago

> It's loaded with junkware, because paying two grand for a laptop doesn't get you a system that hasn't been sold to someone else. On this topic, does anyone know of any major manufacturers who dont do this with their consumer machines? I have had really bad experiences of late with Dell, Toshiba and HP, to the point where they come with what is essentially malware built in. As one example, our latest dell purchase redirects search queries, puts a link to ebay on the desktop which comes back once deleted, and prevents you from adding an alternative search provider to IE.

nessus42 15y ago
Yes, I know of one. I'm sure you do too.
- dmboyd 15y ago
  Yea I've heard that the Microsoft stores sell everything crapware-free, but this doesnt help me as Microsoft stores are a US only thing
  - nessus42 15y ago
    There's a company that sells junkware-free consumer computers and also has stores in your country.
  - nessus42 15y ago
    Oops, I missed my chance for the proper witty response. I should have said: Think different.
- redthrowaway 15y ago
  Care to be a little less vague?
  - ericd 15y ago
    I think he was talking about Apple.

ghc 15y ago

Wow, what an ignorant article. I own the previous version of this (Sony does iterate...this is the 4th iteration of the Z series), and I absolutely love it. I can't speak about the new version, but the version I have has a fantastic keyboard with much more key travel than an Air. I wouldn't be shocked if Sony messed up the keyboard and trackpad though. They have a certain talent for screwing up ergonomics in the name of looks. But really, my main issue is that this article appears to be written by someone with an agenda and little actual knowledge. The laptop's name, for example is the Z14, not that long string which is the model number. Practically all laptops, even the Air, have those model numbers associated with the specific configuration. The box for my Air has it listed on the back, in fact.

bonesinger 15y ago
they really did fug up the keyboard and trackpad. The 2 finger swipe to scroll like on macs barely works, you have to do it a few times to make it work. The keyboard, you can type well on it, but its not the most comfortable feeling and the space bar flat out sucks. I have to tap the SB pretty hard to have it register.
- tikhonj 15y ago
  As I said elsewhere, scrolling with two fingers works perfectly for me, so it pretty much has to be a driver issue. In fact, I set the scrolling up to work in all directions, and it's sufficiently accurate and responsive to make scrolling sideways with the same gesture as normal scrolling completely practical.
  - zobzu 15y ago
    totally is a driver issue i use the linux driver and scrolling works like a charm much better than on the previous Z on top of that. it works as well as the mac trackpad, except its smaller. but it really works very well otherwise.
Steko 15y ago
"Wow, what an ignorant article... I can't speak about the new version, but the version I have has a fantastic keyboard with much more key travel than an Air. I wouldn't be shocked if Sony messed up the keyboard and trackpad though. They have a certain talent for screwing up ergonomics in the name of looks." Make up your mind? It sounds like you just agreed with the central thrust of the article -- Sony had a great design and junked it to have something "new".

jbarham 15y ago

For my money, the best "ultraportable" around is a ThinkPad X: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/x-series http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/x-series

tdoggette 15y ago
I love my x120e, and it doesn't need quotes around the word ultraportable.
- tikhonj 15y ago
  I think the quotes are there because "ultraportable" is a nebulous marketing term rather than because the X1 is difficult to lug around (which, assuredly, it isn't).
mahmud 15y ago
For 12 years I bought nothing but Thinkpads. For myself, for others, for employers .. It's a workhorse.
vacri 15y ago
I loved the x-series, and recently got a new x201. The screen is phenomonally bad. The viewing angle is so poor that if I'm watching a movie on it, there is nowhere I can position it so that I don't get funny colouration on the blacks. Until then, I'd had a dream run with this series. Check your screen quality before getting an x-series...
- tikhonj 15y ago
  You should look at the screen on the Z--it is much better than any screen I've seen on any laptop. For reference, I got the cheaper 1600x900 screen; it is exactly the same resolution as my old, cheap 17" laptop. I can comfortably edit two documents side-by-side in Emacs, on a 13" screen! It really is perfect--anything less would be really annoying now.
- abrowne 15y ago
  The X220 with the IPS option is a nice screen: http://www.the-hikaku.com/pc/lenovo/ThinkPad-X220.html#display http://www.the-hikaku.com/pc/lenovo/ThinkPad-X220.html#displ...

tikhonj 15y ago

When getting my new laptop, I spent some time looking at various "ultraportable" including the MacBook Air, some Toshiba (I forget what it was called) and the Z. I ultimately chose the Sony because it was, by a nice margin, the nicest computer of the lot. The screen is really awesome, it's incredibly fast and I actually really like the touchpad. The keyboard is not great, but none of the options I physically touched--I never saw a physical Lenovo X1; that could be good--had particularly good keyboards. The Air's keyboard was not bad, but it had an annoying layout with small arrow keys and an odd ordering of meta keys along the bottom. Overall, I am extremely pleased with this computer and would probably buy it again, although I would also consider looking at the X1. However, an X1 configured to similar specs as the Z costs about the same and I've heard both the screen--which is really awesome on the Z--and the batter life are worse on the Lenovo.

jinushaun 15y ago
"The Air's keyboard was not bad, but it had an annoying layout with small arrow keys and an odd ordering of meta keys along the bottom." It's interesting that people cross shop MacBooks when looking at Windows PCs, especially given the Mac's unique keyboard layout.
- tikhonj 15y ago
  I was not looking for a "Windows PC"; I was looking for a light, fast laptop. I wouldn't use either Windows or Mac OS unless I really had to, so the operating system doesn't really matter to me. The only unfixable annoyance I noticed on the Mac keyboard was the arrow keys; the rest could have been ameliorated by changing the keyboard layout a bit, I think (unless it's somehow codified in hardware).
  - guylhem 15y ago
    Interesting. What was problematic with the arrows compared to a PC? The inverted T is pretty standard. Do you mean the lack of home/end/pgup/pgdn ? I could point you to solutions I use like controller mate - pretty handy to remap. Guylhem

zobzu 15y ago

As a owner of a Z21 I can tell much of what is said in the article is just, simply wrong and misinformed. The author most likely didn't even touch a Z21. DISCLAIMER: I am using Linux full time on this laptop. Some people have issues with the fingerprint or trackpad on Windows - theses are software issues which aren't present on Linux. Fan: they're not loud. It's quieter than my MacBook. In fact, I can't hear it in a quiet room. It's only loud when running full speed; which is rare enough. And that's not louder than the Mac. Trackpad: it's in.. the regular spot. Software: it's loaded with Sony stuff mostly. You can remove or reinstall if you dislike it. Key travel: yes, it's shorter. No I don't see the issue with it, after having used it for quite a long while now. I switch to longer key travel keyboards and back to the Z21 without noticing. The rest is just "look, my iMac design didn't change in 4 years it's awesome, changing design sucks!". Now... let's see what the Z21 has and the others.. just plain don't. SSD: Hello raid0 SATA3 SSDs. Have you ever reached more than 500mbyte/s read/write? Heck, sometimes its going near the 1000mbyte/s sequential. Copying stuff, reading has never been faster. Non-raid0 desktop computer with the fastest SSDs are just way slower. Won't even mention Macs with their subpar SSDs. Screen: Hello 1920x1080 anti-glare screen. How the hell are others not all anti-glare by default ? CPU: Hello regular voltage i7 2620M. The air CPU suddenly look.. you know.. just not in the same range. Heat: what heat? It's extremely well extracted on the side and the rest of the system is at room temperature. Even under extreme load. A problem Apple didn't really solve by the way. Connectivity: USB? check. USB3? check. VGA out for those conferences? Check. HDMI out /w audio? Check. Audio jack, ethernet, sdcard, lightpeak? check check check check. Tell me when the mac book air doesn't need a bunch of adapters to do more than USB. higher power USB for charging? Heck, check again. Weight? Lighter than the Macbook air says enough. Battery life? Extensible well above 10H via a laptop-wide sheet. Smart. Paris-New York, no need to charge. Of course, the standard battery isn't a let down either at ~5H real time use. (they're both rated 7h and 14h max as far as I can remember, but don't quote me on that) Now with all that, what more could there be? Oh wait.. I mentioned a lightpeak port didn't I.. so yeah, a 600gr+ device can be added to the desk while you're not on the move.. bundling a very decent ATI graphic card, a bluray drive, and more ports. You can drive 4 screens at the same time, although its convenient only up to 3. (oh noes.) Oh and, does it run linux properly? yep. So it's an expensive device, but considered all the above, it's pretty decent I guess. Finally, the actual bad, and yes, there is some bad: - speaker: they work, but god they're bad. they're terrible. Not a big deal, but still, at this price... the jack is very good tho. - lightpeak will probably not take off, that said, its mostly used for the side device only and serves as USB port, so who cares. - way the laptop sits on the desk you may sometimes find positions where its not sitting properly, if your "desk" is not flat

ctdonath 15y ago

Power supplies. I've got a copier paper box full of Sony power supplies. Every product they make has to have a different battery, plug, voltage, wattage, whatever so you MUST buy a new one if break/lose it, at a princely sum comparable to the price of the device. Sony has 90% great, like awesome, design - then screws up the remaining 10% with either "meh, screw the user" or "hey, dig into his wallet" wrecking the rest. I've had two of their ultraportables, and try as I might to love them there's just one neurotic breakdown after another; my next is a MacBook Air.

carmen 15y ago
Vaio X has a standard DC barrel pot, ive powered it on anything from junk-heap printer wall-warts to 20-cent car-adaptors to lab bench-supplies without hassles. other things it has over the air are half the weight owing to carbon fiber vs aluminum and a smaller battery owing to an Atom CPU (a feature - can tell which code is slow), and a full array of hardware ports and slots, a matte-screen with almost 0 reflected light readable in direct sun, a fan that is off most of the time, and GPS/3G. gma500 is main problem, but Alan Cox's driver is getting OK enough to use
- ctdonath 15y ago
  The Vaio X has been discontinued. The nearest equivalent to the MBA 13" I'm contemplating is the Vaio Z, at a cost of nearly $1000 more. Apple products have always been derided as "under-speced and over-priced", yet customers keep voting with their wallets to the contrary. Knowing first-hand how those Vaios tend to blow their superior specs in the oddest ways, I'll take the Air.

sjs 15y ago

The Vaio Z is a sweet series. If I didn't use a Mac I would almost certainly buy the Vaio Z. Last I scoped out notebooks that was the case anyway.

dfc 15y ago

Has the grammar/writing at boingboing deteriorated or am I comparing everyone to Cory? "The trackpad's in an odd spot." "This hardly trenchant criticism, especially if you're used to island-style keys." "so successful that you can walk a store and not see a machine that doesn't have one." Is this really the level of writing that comes out of bb now?

mike_esspe 15y ago

The only real problem i had with Z-series is that the keyboard is scratching the screen, if you carry the notebook in the backpack long enough. I just can't understand why Sony couldn't solve this simple problem.

cturner 15y ago

> but companies like Sony make good designs then abandon > them intentionally because they're blind to their own > good design choices. I see this pattern a lot. Situations where people trade away their strengths by trying to mimic what's glamourous. Here's one - look at the way that OS desktops compromise strengths in order to be more like OSX. Microsoft was so focussed on making Windows feel more like aqua that they compromised things where they were strong - like the way you could get around with hotkeys, or set up items in the old start menu to be launched by two keypresses. The gnome team had what was to me the best desktop environment out there and have traded it away in their quest to be the poor-man's Aqua. (Give me window switching - I hate application swiching. In what situation would I want all of my terminals to come to the foreground in front of the web browser I'm copying commands from??)

stewbrew 15y ago

The author lost me when I saw the image of the color mac. That device sucked. They should have chosen a new design for improved (and quieter) ventilation instead of sticking to the old design. That they reused the old design may have been right from a marketing perspective but it was a PITA from a user's perspective.