Last month saw the introduction of a new Sandy Bridge-enabled S series from Sony, and now we see their more powerful, full-on Z series get a boost. The new Zs have a standard (not low-voltage) Core i7, 256GB SSD, and a 13.1″ screen at 1600×900 (interesting resolution!). They tip the scale at just over 2.6 pounds and are 16.65mm thick, with a “full-flat” body, though the significance of that term isn’t really explained.
Perhaps most interesting is the combination Light Peak and USB port on the side there.I heard this was happening, but it didn’t show on the S series, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Sony isn’t exactly clear about it, as it’s only referred to obliquely (instead of the flagship feature it should be) while introducing the Power Media Dock2 accessory:
The performance of VAIO Z Series is taken to new extremes by the unique Power Media Dock2, a monolithic expansion module that links with VAIO via an optical cable. The proprietary port can also be used to attach regular USB devices to VAIO when it’s not docked.
So yes, it’s both USB and Light Peak. But is it Thunderbolt, or is it some extra-proprietary thing? Sony refers to it as “an optical cable” and not Thunderbolt, which may in fact be a trademarked and patented Apple interpretation of the Light Peak interface. So what’s this exactly? It’s not entirely clear. The port isn’t even labeled.
Apparently the Dock (or Dock2, rather) VGA, HDMI, an optical drive of one type or another, and some USB ports — in addition to being an external Radeon 6650M 1GB GPU. But nowhere is direct Light Peak accessory connectivity mentioned — so my guess is that the Z is only using Light Peak as a way to connect to this dock, and not (or not yet, anyway) as a standalone device interface.
The laptops look sexy with their angular design and carbon fiber build, and their cool “sheet battery” is also an option. No pricing, and USA availability isn’t confirmed, but we should hear more later this summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment