Sony VAIO TZ Ultraportable Images and Specs Appear

<!-- Generated by XStandard version 1.7.1.0 on 2007-05-10T16:22:14 -->

News of the upcoming 11.1&quot; screen Sony VAIO TZ notebook that was leaked last week came without much information and no images. Thanks to some information from a French website retailer we now have images and full specs for the VAIO TZ11MN/N and VAIO TZ11XN/B.

The VAIO TZ11MN/N appears mostly the same as the TZ11XN/B except for the silver lid coloration instead of black on the XN/B, you get 1GB of RAM instead of the 2GB with the XN/B and the hard drive is 80GB instead of 100GB on the XN/B. The XN/B is rumored to have a carbon fiber lid -- though the specs sheet does not confirm this. No release date is set, but a summer launch is assumed.

Some highlights for the VAIO TZ11 are:

• 2.62lbs of weight
• Integrated optical drive
• Unique rounded hinge design
• LED backlight screen
• 1.06GHz Core 2 Duo processor
• Built-in Motion Eye camera

Detailed specs and images for each model are below -- anyone think that keyboard redesign looks a lot like the MacBook keyboard?

VAIO VGN-TZ11MN/N

(view large image)

(view large image)

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7500, 1.06 GHz
• OS: Windows® Vista Professional
• Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM (max 2GB)
• Hard Drive: 80 GB Ultra ATA (4200 rpm)
• Optical Drive: DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
• Screen: 11,1'' X-black LCD with LED backlight, WXGA (1366 x 768)
• Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Ethernet (1000Base-T / 100 BASE-TX / 10 BASE-T);
• Modem: V.92/V.90
• Wireless: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR support
• Microphone integrated
• Protection: Shock protection G-Sensor Hard Drive
• Instant On technology
• Ports:
  • 1 i.LINK (IEEE1394, 4 Pin), 400 Mbps port
  • 1 DC in
  • 1 Audio out
  • 1 RJ-11 Modem
  • 1 RJ-45 Direct Port (Network)
  • 2 USB 2.0 Port
  • Fingerprint reader
  • 1 VGA port connection
  • 1 Microphone
  • 1 SD card Slot
  • 1 Express Card 34mm
  • Memory Stick Reader (Duo, Memory Stick PRO duo, MagicGate)
  • &quot;Motion Eye&quot; Camera ( 20 Images per second), 0.3 Mega Pixels, max video resolution VGA (640x480)
• Dimensions: 7.8-in x .89-in - 1.17in x 10.9-in (198 ,2 mm x 22.5-29.8 mm x 277 mm)
• Weight: 2.62lbs

VAIO VGN-TZ11XN/B

(view large image)

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo U7500, 1.06 GHz
• OS: Windows Vista Professional
• Memory: 2GB DDR2 SDRAM (max 2GB)
• Hard Drive: 100 GB Ultra ATA (4200 rpm)
• Optical Drive: DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
• Screen: 11.1'' X-black LCD with LED backlight, WXGA (1366 x 768)
• Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Ethernet (1000Base-T / 100 BASE-TX / 10 BASE-T);
• Modem intégré V.92/V.90
• Wireless: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR support
• Microphone integrated
• Protection: Shock protection G-Sensor Hard Drive
• Instant On technology
• Ports:
  • 1 i.LINK (IEEE1394, 4 Pin), 400 Mbps port
  • 1 DC in
  • 1 Audio out
  • 1 RJ-11 Modem
  • 1 RJ-45 Direct Port (Network)
  • 2 USB 2.0 Port
  • Fingerprint reader
  • 1 VGA port connection
  • 1 Microphone
  • 1 SD card Slot
  • 1 Express Card 34mm
  • Memory Stick Reader (Duo, Memory Stick PRO duo, MagicGate)
  • &quot;Motion Eye&quot; Camera ( 20 Images per second), 0.3 Mega Pixels, max video resolution VGA (640x480)
• Dimensions: 7.8-in x .89-in - 1.17in x 10.9-in (198 ,2 mm x 22.5-29.8 mm x 277 mm)
• Weight: 2.62lbs

(view large image)

Link to full specs sheets (in French):

• TZ11MN/N
• TZ11XN/B

 

Thanks to SpaceCowboy in the forums for the tip!

 

GMA 950, not GMA X3100

Seems like a pretty nice machine regardless.

I assume Sony wanted to copy some Macbook touches because of its popularity, and also increase the capacity of the TZ to a dual-core processor and 2 GB of RAM to counter the Asus U1. The VGN-TZ11XN/B looks pretty expensive.

 

The TZ looks nice. I assume Vista Professional refers to Vista Business.

 

It looks okay, the keyboard is definitely MacBook style, which is a positive and negative thing(hard to remove, but less dirt accumulation). The hinge is kinda tacky though, it looks ok from the front but looks really weird at the side.

 

Hmm...that keyboard does look familliar...OH YEAH! It's similar to the one on the Sony X505 that came out WAY before the Macbook! Now who copied who?

 

looks even weird when they match silver and black at the wrong place.. i like the whole black thou... nice spec..

Liken FREN said, it LOOKS pretty EXPENSIVE...

 

I hope that the tz will have options for the new 120gb 1.8" hard drive or a ssd drive.

 

I hear it will later have options for an SSD drive.

It WILL be expensive, should be perfectly in line with when the TR, T and TXs first came out, about $2100 for the lowest end model all the way up to nearly $3000 I bet.


And according to the specs, it only supports 34mm expresscards, why not 54 as the Asus U1F can for instance?

 

I would pick it up in a second, but its probably uber-expensive.

If it were no more than 2200$ (tax in) I'd probably buy it, but im sure itll be way more.

 

Damn wanted to say but you guys mentioned already - was gonna say the keyboard looks like the MacBook lol Looks well good though - how much is it in Kilos'? Shame that the 11" is a bit too small for me I think. 12" max. min. for me.

 

agreed, aside from that it's everything i would want in an ultraportable.

 

Does this have built in optical drive? If not, how do you install Windows?

 

It does. Perhaps you're thinking of the Asus U1F, which does not have an optical drive.

 

the hinge on the new TZ looks very similar to the w3j

 

It does have a built in drive and for the laptops that do not, you use an external drive.

 

and the hinge on Asus w3 looks very similar to the Sony X505

 

And Asus at one point or another was an ODM for Sony and Apple, so ...

 

As mentioned previously, the keyboard is NOT a copy of the Macbook. Sony came out with the wafer-thin x505 years and years ago that had this style of keyboard.

Besides, I'm not too sure why people seem to rave on about the euro-pop styling of Apple products in general, but that's another rant in itself! hehe

Back to the Sony, it looks like a really neat little package. My wife has an older T-series Vaio that's getting on in years now, but it's still going strong! I'm sure this will be of an equally high standard.

 

I'm really disappointed with Sony's decision to use GMA 950 when X3100 is out with the Santa Rosa platform.

 

One reason is because of increased power consumption in the newer chipset and in ultraportables, you want to try to eek out as much battery life as you can.

 

In my mind, this is the best ultraportable you can get (the expense of it aside).

 

Ugly,expensive,unreliable, worst keybords ever, freezes all the time etc etc ... and now they come up with 11" widescreen ... even more uglier.

Sony is the worst brand for laptops. I use to own a couple SZ`s

 

so it seems that aside from the new processor and new chassis, thats about it correct? as good as it looks and the portability of it, I think I would most likely go with the new SZ when it comes out with the santa rosa platform, but of course, its not as small or sexy looking as the new TZ.

I've always thought the current tx is a bit too rounded on the edges, and when I saw one in person, it just did not impress me at all. When is this TZ rumored to be released? is it still July?

 

I think you should look at the Gateway NX100....

 

How does these low voltage processor compare to the normal ones, like the T5600 & T7200? I have a W3J, thinking of going to something lighter and has more battery life than 2.5hrs and 2+kgs! I have just purchased an Xbox 360, so all gaming has moved from notebook to console. All I will be doing is programming, so will this notebook be able to handle the workload?

 

I don't think the X3100 have a huge impact on battery life compared to the GMA950. I have no reason to consider the TZ considernig that my current laptop already has GMA950. I like design though. HP manage to include X3100 in its ultraportable. I think and hope Gateway will do the same in its Santa Rosa upgrade for the NX100 series.

 

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned one important feature missing from this spec list. Where the hell is the 3G? At least put some EDGE functionality in... Damn shame...

 

Looks like Andrew made it to CNET.com's Crave Blog!

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9718441-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt

 

damn, i wish samsung will start selling their notebooks in the U.S. That sure will reduce vaio notebook price

 

Remember that this information is from Europe, the European models have never had internal WWAN, only North American models have so it is VERY likely when this comes to North America, they will put some sort of integrated WWAN solution, don't you worry about that.

 

I agree in that we can really use more competition in this notebook field.