sony fz series

[nrmalle]

hi everyone,i am considering buying fz series with blu-ray.
i know there were some teething problems with ar series.
can onyone please advice if it is a good choice.

thanks everyone

belgrave

[tonybeard]

I've seen Imation 50 gig Double layer re writables here for under 25 euros
Also the AR 41s sports a front side bus of 800MHZ up from 667 in the AR31s and the newer chipset and graphic card which are slightly faster. That has to be impressive but don't forget the Direct X or 10 graphic cards are here already with a notebook equivalent on the way here

[laptopnovice]

I bought the FZ11Z, I was feeling flush and hunted the net for the cheapest price. Got it for £1338 which was nearly £200 cheaper the Sony's online shop price at the time. I was happy. Two weeks later it was £1299 on Sony online shop and the online shop I bought it had dropped the price to £1199. And now I see it is at £1151. This is all in the space of two months.
Apart from all that disappointment, when I opened the box and inspected the machine, the left hand mouse pad button appeared to depress into the casing a little more than the right hand one and felt as though it was not attached to the internals very securely, although it did work. Then, when I looked around for any other faults, I discovered that the chassis along the bottom front edge of the keypad appeared to be a little bent. It was not as straight as the screen lid and when I eyed down the length of the machine with the lid closed, you can clearly see it is bent in comparison. I even compared it to one I saw in a Sony Store here in the UK and that model was perfect. The online shop I bought it from (DABS.COM)refused anything to do with it and now Sony have it in for repair. I'm waiting for their report.
What I am trying to say is that my first impressions of this machine are not good and it doesn't seem to live up to the build quality I ususally expect from Sony. And I buy a lot of Sony stuf. Needless to say, I am a bit annoyed at the moment and hope Sony shine through with this.
Anyone else feel this way about this model???

[laptopnovice]

I attached a pic to the last entry of the bent chassis I am experiencing with my FZ11Z. It is difficult to get a good photo but you can just see that there is a slight bend on the bottom edge.


Don't believe me then!!!

[shearwater]

I have a FZ11Z...buy a notebook from a company that has good support!!!

[Ouroboros]

Hi from Italy. If you haven't purchased it yet, DO NOT DO IT; I have bought a FZ11Z back in Sept. and have been struggling with Sony's useless e-support on the life of the battery: it lasts nealry one hour. They have replaced the battery and without using the PC (while in powersave mode, as requested by their support team) the battery lasted 1hr42" and when reported they said that could do nothing about it as this is within the specs (which are published nowhere officially). I forked out 1,890 € for a laptop that I cannot use off the A/C for more than an hour .
As for the BD, well that's a different story but unfortunately if you abandon VISTA (preinstalled) you lose the HDMI support (as Sony doesn't provide a driver for XP) and the WinDVD BDplayer (which, as illustrated in other posts sucks but at least is free of charge).

Hope the above helps you in choosing a better laptop
Max

[Gazza90]

I have the FZ11M and I did not get the blu-ray because of screen size issue. Good advice to buy an external drive if you really want blu-ray.... AR are more expensive as some members have said the FZ is more portable with less hard drive.

[leethepee]

I have a FZ18M, its not bad but there are teething problems (which seem to be related to the graphics driver). So far I have had the following;

Camera not working - this has now been fixed,
SD card Reader - this has now been fixed,
Slideshow not working - this isn't working and I thinks its cause I set the nvidia card to "quality" instead of performance (this will hopefully will work when there are decent drivers out)
Other than that the Laptop works great, my rating is 3.5 because my graphics is rated the lowest setting (not sure why) The gaming graphics is 4.7.

Does anyone know the link for the Beta driver for Nvidia as this may help with my problems?

[mavericke2007]

I think it will be better if you get a FZ21Z instead. Yes, you will be paying for more money but you do get a better processor and also more hanrd drive space and ofcause blue-ray.

[28207560-5001778]

Hi belgrave
I would like to know,, did you ever purchase the FZ series in the end?

My advise to anyone concidering the FZ, is dont buy. I spent a lot of money on mine, and i am very disappointed. mainly because you cant put xp on it. well you can but you will kiss goodbye to all of your sony utilities if you do which will make it feel like a second hand pile of junk.
i wish that i had read this forum before i purchased.
regards
Steve

[28207560-5001778]

Hi laptopnovice
i also purchased the FZ series (fz19vn)
I am disappointed too, but mines not bent. what happened to yours in the end?
i wish i had read the comments on here before i purchased!
My problems basically stend from wanting XP on it instead of vista. Sony's support for xp is very very poor. if you want to run xp you have to do away with your FN key and most sonly utilities like baterie managment and other stuff that you really need. i cant even adjust the screen brightness or volume buttons on xp. i purchased a new hard disk so that i can have 1 for xp and 1 for vista.
the left and right keypad buttons problem is on most fz vaios, on mine the depth of button depressions is only slightly noticable. but the 1 in the sony shop near me is worse.
please let me know how you are getting on now.
steve