Lenovo you disappointed! X301 was king, now its Sony Z turn

[ComputerMinder]

Lenovo??? Where are you?? You are behind tech!

Guys I am an avid fan of Lenovo and all my laptops have been Lenovos so far. I am a

I have the W520 and X200s, my wife has the X301.

Recently my wife wanted to upgrade her 3 year old fantastic X301 with a newer more capable updated machine. Unfortunately, Lenovo no longer leads the ultra portable computer market, and it's ashame. There is no proper replacement for the x301. The X1 is a joke with its rather low specs, heavy, not so thin and glossy display (Oh my god).

Enters the new Sony Vaio Z series :

Intel i7 CPU
Windows Ultimate
Only 2.5 lb (just 1,125g!) wow
256Gb SSD drive !!! 2 x 128Gb SSD in RAID
8Gb RAM
13.1" Full HD 1920x1080 display!! Wow
0.66" thin yeah this thing is thin!
ALSO Includes a proper ultra slim media dock which has the Radeon 6650M GPU. So this makes it a wonderful computer, when you need the extra graphics power you can work at home using the Radeon while on the road you have the Intel 3000 HD. And also Blu-Ray

With this configuration can get it for $2,600 which I am very content with the price considering what I get for it. I am such a Lenovo fan that I would have agreed to pay even $3,000 if I could get the very same configuration and specs with a comparable Lenovo alternative to the Sony Z, but it just doesn't exists!

It is with REAL great deep sadness that I am saying it, but I think my wife's new computer will be the Sony Z series, believe me there is hardly any more fanatic Lenovo fans than I am, but I am also down to earth and can't ignore the wonderful top to bottom specs the new Z series has to offer.

It's probably the Ultra Portable dream machine.Lenovo you really %$@#ed up with the X1 and didn't provide a provide replacmenet for the X301. The Sony Z is everything the X1 wanted to be and then some more. What a shame. Makes me so angry that the Sony beats the Lenovo ultra portable options easily.

Rant is over had to relase some steam. Saw the Z today and fell in love with it.

[ausmike]

yips > FULLY AGREE with ya , matey;

Lenovo = deaf ears when it comes to TRUE/GOOD ultra portables. I hear you and fully agree with your thoughts/steps and sad as it may be , I also bought a NON LEnovo Series (i bought two - Acer and also bought the Z Series- same as you plus with dock) I do happen to be lucky enough to work for a company that lets me travel a lot , and they (and me) have been avid fan of IBM/Lenovo hardware! = n NOT ANY MORE. We used to buy 1200+ laptops a year from them; now its buy with BEST SPECS for price - regardless of BRAND.

we started this program (non-lenovoshift) in july011 and seems most pple are very happy with this shift. most seems very happy with no having to deal with 'crappy' lenovo level 1 Tech Support also!!

So far we have:
for most non travellers::
DELL M6400 ( 15.6+TRUE 1080p -IPS panel with HDMI) or
ASUS workstations series
Freq.Travelers:
X220 / X220T or Sony Z series (you get to choose!!)
balh blah ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

be keen to see how the 'reliability' stats are for these Non-Lenovo items , will know soon enough , as most pple in our org do travel a lot and often very responsible pple and go far to look after their laptops in general.

Cheers

[ComputerMinder]

Thanks for the reply ! I see I am not alone. Will get the Z soon for my wife and see maybe will get myself one as well to replace my aging X200s.

[pianowizard]

The Z2 Series (not the Z1) is indeed the most amazing 13" laptop ever made. But that's not the only "best in class" laptop that Sony has -- the other is the SE Series that came out just last week. It's a highly affordable 15-incher that has 1920x1080 res and weighs only 4.4 lbs.

With Sony, Panasonic, Samsung making all these impressive laptops, none of Levono's current Thinkpads interest me at all. The Lenovo U300s Ultrabook would be mildly interesting if its screen was higher-res than 1366x768.

[ComputerMinder]

The Z2 Series (not the Z1) is indeed the most amazing 13" laptop ever made. But that's not the only "best in class" laptop that Sony has -- the other is the SE Series that came out just last week. It's a highly affordable 15-incher that has 1920x1080 res and weighs only 4.4 lbs.

With Sony, Panasonic, Samsung making all these impressive laptops, none of Levono's current Thinkpads interest me at all. The Lenovo U300s Ultrabook would be mildly interesting if its screen was higher-res than 1366x768.

Yes I am talking about the Z2 series. I just got one for my wife today. She used to have the X301, which we will sell now. The specs of this Z2 she bought (8Gb, 256gb SSD RAID0, great screen 1920x1080, Docking with BluRay + external Radeon GPU), amazingly light weight!

I am a crazy Lenovo fan, but man, only a blind man can ignore this Z2, at least with the above configuration which I got it today which is their highest. This is the dream machine, which unfortunately Lenovo doesn't offer even if you have the money to spend they just don't have the specs to match.

I may buy myslf the Z2 as well as now I envy my wife
Believe it or not the only downside I found is the lack of trackpoint, which I adore and I hate touch pads with passion.

[pianowizard]

Believe it or not the only downside I found is the lack of trackpoint, which I adore and I hate touch pads with passion.

It took me a long time to learn how to use the touchpad properly, but after mastering it, I have preferred it over the trackpoint. I used to be better at the trackpoint but now, I am much faster and more accurate with the touchpad.

For the touchpad to work well, the most important thing is to set the mouse pointer speed to the max. In addition, make sure you use just one hand, not both hands like many people do.

[ComputerMinder]

It took me a long time to learn how to use the touchpad properly, but after mastering it, I have preferred it over the trackpoint. I used to be better at the trackpoint but now, I am much faster and more accurate with the touchpad.

For the touchpad to work well, the most important thing is to set the mouse pointer speed to the max. In addition, make sure you use just one hand, not both hands like many people do.

I hope you are right. I am so good with the trackpoint.
Thanks for the tip about the max speed test for the mouse pointer.

What do you mean use one hand ? You mean use one hand for both touching and clicking R/L buttons? Otherwise I can't think of any other reason someone would use two hands with a touch pad?

[pianowizard]

What do you mean use one hand ? You mean use one hand for both touching and clicking R/L buttons?

Yes that's what I meant. Many people use one hand to move the moust pointer, and the other hand to click the buttons.

Take a look at this thread, which has an interesting discussion on touchpad versus trackpoint: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=85433 . Make sure you take the fun test that rkawakami links to on page 3.

[jdrou]

I would be more excited about the Z2 if they had left the descrete GPU in the main unit like the earlier generation.
Alternatively, with the GPU in an external enclosure they could have used something more powerful.

I prefer the trackpoint but I've been seriously looking at the Sony Z series (and the Alienware M11x) for a while now.

[ausmike]

4 Me... if S'sun, Sony etc ,,, came with TRACKPOINT...... i would never look at leNOvo again !

Love the ability to have NO MOUSE when you in seat for 12+ hrs on trans-ocean flights every few days ,,,,,,,,,,,,,ah, but tis a dream

lol

[asundstrom]

I looked at the Z series to replace an x200 tablet I dropped/broke, and am very happy I went with the x220 instead. Better screen, much better keyboard, and no perceptible difference in speed with an Intel ssd. The increased viewing angles of an IPS screen more than offsets the lower resolution - I just zoom out on web pages.