Dear Sony, What I Want For Christmas Is…

Dear Sony,

Work has been overwhelming lately and I’m sure that it’s no different at your end thanks to the year end orders. I’ll however take a moment to indulge in my fantasy, in an attempt to preserve whatever shreds of sanity I have left.

I have always been a VAIO fan since my first TX laptop about 3 years back. This gradually evolved to the current SZ model that I run iStyles on. Solid computing hardware has always been essential to our operations as technology plays a major role in the backend daily activities of the company. The SZ is wonderful but it’s starting to strain my aging muscles as I travel too much. The battery life is the other major disadvantage in the SZ as mine only lasts for 2.5 hours on the standard battery, unlike a TZ’s 7 hours.

I’ve always heard non-Sony believers complain and laugh at how stupid people are for buying VAIOs because they think that the laptops are simply overpriced. I feel sorry for these people as their words are based on unsustainable facts and other “I heard from A who heard from B” experiences. I’ve had laptops from practically ever major laptop vendor in the past and yours were the only one that works for me. My laptop is probably the next most tortured equipment around here other than my own body and yours not only survived, but continue to serve me well. Technically, you’ve stuffed your laptops with more than most people can appreciate but I do see the beauty underneath that shiny carbon fiber chassis as my background is not very much different from the crazy engineers you hide in your design centres.

What I want for Christmas is a Sony VAIO TZ laptop, but not just any VAIO TZ, but one that I simply cannot find anywhere else. You have got TZ models with 48GB SSD available in Singapore but with absolutely no 3.5G connectivity whatsoever. I need both SSD and 3.5G because there is unfortunately no way to stuff in my nice little Option Globetrotter 3.5G card as PCMCIA could not fit into the TZ range. Fine, I will settle for the slower Expresscard but my Novatel 3.5G Merlin sticks out bigger than two sore thumbs and completely destroys the beauty of a TZ laptop, not to mention the increase risk of accidents due to the protrusion.

I can grab a 3.5G laptop from UK SonyStyle for shipment to my home in Paris and I am glad that you’ve finally decided to make a SSD model available, but why just 32GB for the SSD? A third of that will go into the basic software and that leaves me with less than 20GB free. I need at least 32GB free because iStyles’ data is a major data hog that continually grows. Why can’t we have 48GB with 3.5G available in European models?

I dug through the Japanese on your website and found my dream models, but these are only available in Japan, with Japanese operating systems and keyboards. What will be nice is a model with a 64GB SSD and 160GB hard disk. I don’t need the DVD drive and rather have that 160GB in there. I know that you have this in Japan but they are only equipped with a local 3G standard that does not work elsewhere.

And yes, I need 2GB of RAM. The models in Singapore only come with 1GB and it’s a waste as there’s only 1 memory slot, but it’s good that you realize that 2GB should be available as standard in your European models.

It’ll be nice if the laptop comes with digital TV capabilities that work with DVB-T as well. I know that those you have in Japan work with a local digital broadcast standard but the rest of us watch television too and we use DVB-T when on the go.

Please do not keep all these yummy technology only within Japan. Just a recap – I need a TZ Duo core at 1.2GHz with 2GB RAM, 802.11a/b/g/n (yes, I know you’re hiding those n models in Japan only), 3.5G, 64GB SSD, 160GB HD, Vista Ultimate and pretty much the standard for the rest, oh and in Bordeaux (ps, SonyStyle UK spells this wrongly) with carbon fiber please. Throw in the DVB-T if it fits but that's not a must-have.

I’m not greedy and am only asking for existing technology that you have available in Japan, but just not in the right order for any model available out there. Hey, be glad that I’m not asking for a SLK like I tell everyone else! I’ll leave my little purple box on the table beside my bed. The laptop should fit in it. Thank you!

Your loyal fan