Any Sony Vaio TZ series owners here ?

[Puppy]

While I love ThinkPads, today I had a chance to have Sony Vaio TZ11 in my hands. I must confess I really liked it The display resolution (11" 1366x768) is perfect and easily readable (comparing to poor resolutions of X series). Yes, it is crappy TN panel but the contrast ratio (measured over 500:1 in the review I linked) is not bad. The size and weight is unbelievable, considering it has internal DVD drive. The top lid seemed to be fragile but the shop assistent took the whole notebook just by one corner of the display and ... nothing wrong happened. The weakest part is the keyboard quality and layout, can't match ThinkPads at all.

Are there any owners of this model ? How much reliable are Vaios ?

[epbrown]

While I like Thinkpads and have owned many over the years, I've also owned a lot of Sonys, and I currently have a Sony TZ model. The TZ line is quite impressive in form factor (size, weight, features, display) but most reviews find the performance average at best. Talking with other TZ owners, the remedies are 1) upgrade to 2GB RAM, 2) downgrade from Windows Vista to Windows XP and 3) remove the Sony bloatware. Any one of these will boost performance. Doing all 3 transforms the machine completely. The XP switch is so popular that Sony supports it, one of the few times they've encouraged using an operating system other than that shipped.

Personally, I just upgraded the RAM and removed the bloatware, and I'm pleased enough. I may do the XP change down the line, if I change the hard drive to an SSD.

As far as reliability, I've owned 7 Sony's and never had one fail (though I knocked one off a table once). That said, the US repair facility is notoriously slow; people in Europe report better service though.

[Puppy]

Any experiences with Sony Vaio TZ31XN in particular ? It is the only TZ model available over here. I don't want to downgrade to XP and I'd like to use 64 bit Windows.

I've already given up on new ThinkPad "workstation" 15" models because of crappy displays. It no longer serves its purpose. I was hoping for X series where I'm able to tolerate it a bit but the X200 preview shows it is going the wrong direction as well. Big, fat, ugly thick display bezels and no option to get something similar to 12" X61 width, a 11" widescreen model. I'll miss trackpoint but what else to do ?

BTW If there was a X61s mod with 12" SXGA+ display available I would buy it immediately.

[epbrown]

Any experiences with Sony Vaio TZ31XN in particular ? It is the only TZ model available over here. I don't want to downgrade to XP and I'd like to use 64 bit Windows.

I haven't tried that specific model, but they're all pretty much the same except for hardware configurations. Five months on, I'm still happy with the machine in its current config - Vista and 2GB of RAM.

[AvalonXIII]

Any experiences with Sony Vaio TZ31XN in particular ? It is the only TZ model available over here. I don't want to downgrade to XP and I'd like to use 64 bit Windows.

I've already given up on new ThinkPad "workstation" 15" models because of crappy displays. It no longer serves its purpose. I was hoping for X series where I'm able to tolerate it a bit but the X200 preview shows it is going the wrong direction as well. Big, fat, ugly thick display bezels and no option to get something similar to 12" X61 width, a 11" widescreen model. I'll miss trackpoint but what else to do ?

BTW If there was a X61s mod with 12" SXGA+ display available I would buy it immediately.

Sony Vaio TZ150N user here. With Sandisk 1.8" SSD and Vista 64bit, the laptop screams. Everything is very responsive. Sony driver support is not as good as Lenovo though, so beware. I don't miss my trackpoint that much (I've used the t60 and x60s for about two years)