Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

OK I tried those settings (of course o the S13 it is 1600x900) And I still have the same issue. Basically the game save starts with 30-40fps on those settings. and if I continually move the cursor around that fram rate keeps up. The moment that I stop moving you see the frame rates drop down. In the case of the settings you suggessted FPS drops down to 10-14fps. All of this is with the swithc set to "speed" and luanching the game by right clicking and telling it to launch gme with high performance Nvidia graphics.


Now interesitngly when I switch the Stmaina/Speed switch back and forth , as in switch it from Speed to Stamina, and back to Speed... I get the FPS to jump back up to 30-40 with the settings. But can only maintain those FPS by keeping the cursor moving or scrolling around the map.

It truly seems that the Hybrid graphic in the "Speed" setting is taking over and switching the intergrated INtel graphics on.

Fraps is clearly shwoing accurate FPS results as when it shows the 10-14 fps it is much slower and starts to bog down while scrolling around the map. at the 30-40fps one can fly around the map without issue.

Has anyone had a similar experience before? I know in the past many people had issues with optimus.

 

Hey guys... I've been looking at the S15 for a while now and seem to keep coming to the same question. I'm debating on which processor to get the i7 3520 or the i7 3612. I will be doing some gaming but nothing else that will really put that much pressure on the CPU. I don't know if I should go with the better speed or the quad core. I'm just afraid that if I don't get the quad core that I will regret it in the future for an unforeseen reason. I also will throwing 12gb on it as well as the 256 ssd. Any direction will be greatly appreciated as I have kept up with this thread and have really enjoyed the posts.

 

Sony got my name wrong over the phone and so they canceled my order when my credit card didn't go through. Now I have another chance at ordering, but at the cost of a much later delivery date. Because I have another chance, I was wondering if anybody here got the gunmetal color on the premium S. From what people have been saying, it looks like the entire laptop is covered in some sort metal or carbon. I wanted to know what the feel was like on the gunmetal palm-rest, is it metallic in any way? It looks brushed with lines and looks like it wouldn't take fingerprints. Can someone confirm with details on using the gunmetal color. My first preference was the silver non-premium, but I don't like the silver keyboard, and was now considering the gunmetal as the alternative. Thanks in advance.

 

Got my S15 today!

Ummm...is the fan supposed to sound cheap and make a constant buzzing noise when operating? It's really loud and annoying...

 

I ordered the gunmetal S13 premium a few days ago, it started being built the 18th and I just got an email saying it shipped today (20th). It seems like a really fast build, but I did get the bare minimum on everything. I'll be upgrading everything on my own to save cash haha.

Anyway, it says it'll come Tuesday at the latest so I can take pictures of it then if you wanna wait. Or someone else can if they have it.

 

So can you guys listen to this and tell me if it's normal for this laptop?
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34897419/laptop.mp4

This is an 18 MB video. It was recorded on my phone and the volume is pretty bad, you might have to turn the volume up really loud before you can hear what I'm talking about. It's just 15 seconds of looking at the running Windows Update while the fan is buzzing at me. The laptop sounds like this all the time.

 

>DVDs
>DVDs
>DVDs

There's your problem

Definitely not normal. My laptop doesn't get like that even after hours of gaming

 

That doesn't sound right. On max fan, mine makes a mellow whoosing noise.

Sounds like a bad bearing or something making contact with the fan blades.

If I had to pick one I'd say it was the contact scenario where something internal shifted in transit. They fire these things up before they ship them off and if it was making that much noise at the factory I'd think they would have caught it.

 

Not really, because even after the DVD part of the process, it's been installing drivers and software from at least 1.5hrs.

I have a bad feeling that this is going to be a defective ssd.

 

i cant wait.... it is still processing, what does processing mean? same as being built??

 

It'll say "Your VAIO is being built" on the order page when it is

 

I found pictures on that Japanese site someone posted earlier. From those, it looks less black and very metal like. I really like it, but want someone's impression of its feel. Basically I'd like to know if it shows fingerprints and also if it actually feels rough because of the brushed metal. The look is impressive, but I use my laptop a lot and really need something that won't show any grease or fingerprints from overuse. I don't mind waiting until you get it on Tuesday or until someone else comes up who already has the gunmetal version. Thanks.

 

OK.... so how long it will take from processing to be being built? mine is S13 enhanced
QAQ anxious, going to get the free PS3 tmr.
I checked some chinese forums, ppl said they ordered from Sony China official website and they got computers 2 days after= = so jelly. Maybe i should ask someone to bring me one back from China so that will be faster lol, but you pay the higher price......... So :/

 

I have the 2011 version of the Vaio S15 w/i7 and 6630M. I was misinformed by the sales associate about the status of the computer (new vs refurb) so now I'm returning it (thankfully they agreed to pay shipping).

I am definitely still considering ordering the new model and selling the Vita. The only changes would be that I get all base stats except for having the 640 1GB.

I just want to know if these issues persist between the models:

When the fan comes on, it sounds LOUD. Loud as my five-year old HP.
Keyboard back-lights leak a lot. Very annoying to my eyes. (I might end up just not using it, seeing as I don't look at the keyboard unless I'm doing odd punctuation or functions)
Quirky graphics switching. Does it still require most software be closed and flash the screen?
The screen feels very fragile. I'm going to be using this for college and need it to last four years. Is the 2012's hinge more durable/less creaky.

Also, how's the touch pad? I haven't used one without buttons before. Are gestures fluid? (compare to Mac please) How do you right click?

 

I have to wait until July 31st because apparently a 640gb hdd on the 15'' adds another month on to the assembly time...... And I just love waiting!!

 

Also, in the event I don't end up buying the new S15, would anyone like to purchase my sheet battery? (I'm from US)

 

you really do? lol that date just sounds terrible.......

 

Damn...so what should I do? I just received the laptop today. I guess I have to send it back and exchange it for another one. :cry:

 

Yeah switching from the 500gb to the 640gb jumped the estimated ship date (however accurate that is) from the 5th of july to the 31st.... I could probably order my own hard drive, shipped it to them, and have them ship my computer back faster then that

 

I purchased mine (S13A) on June 19th and it also says still processing. I checked my visa card and the purchase hasn't gone through yet. I'm so anxious too!

 

I am gonna call customer service if the status doesn't change tmr, i purchased on June 18th...

 

Hello all, has anybody bought the white S13 or S15? How is the quality and finish compared to the black carbon fiber? Is the white made of plastic? It is hard to tell from the limited pictures? Thanks all.

 

hey everyone, I got my S15 on Monday and has been working fine TILL I found out that the computer itself does not stand firmly on a table. The right corner near user will "pop up" a little bit, I can even slide a name card in without touching the rubber feet of that area. Do you have any problems of this kind?

 

finally!! it showed it is being built just now!!

Items:1 Order Status: Your VAIO is being built Estimated Ship Date: 07/05/2012

 

Current estimated ship date is for the 13 inch is 7/17. For those who have ordered, are they actually taking that long?

 

how is anyone supposed to answer that question if we dont know when you ordered?

 

End of the bug of the sheet battery on Europeans stores... now it is at 75€ in france, so half price as it was indicated and not free...

For those who are speaking about gaming on the S15, have you the 1 or 2 GB GPU version?
IMHO, I think that 2 Go won't be better in game than the 1 GB, am I wrong? Does the really 2 GB useful?

 

From what I've read I think it comes down to how many pixels you're moving about - I tend to mostly run my laptop from my desk with 2 external monitors (using hdmi and a DisplayLink usb dongle) and I'll definitely see a benefit by having the 2GB version.

EDIT: found this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-ram-4870,2428.html - it's a couple of years old but an interesting read.

 

The S 15 model has a "VAIO Display Plus" (1920x1080 IPS) which means it doesn't have the color saturation and the Adobe RGB coverage that the "VAIO Display Premium" has. This is a let down especially that I'm considering on buying this model

 

Well, my laptop has a buzzing fan, but until I can contact Sony for an exchange, I might as well test it out and do fun things with it. Here's a few things I found out.

I was able to install the Nvidia reference drivers from LaptopVideo2Go , I used the WHQL 301.42 drivers for testing purposes. There are newer leaked ones of course. These drivers install fine with the modified .inf available in the forum post there. They support Nvidia Optimus and PowerMizer as expected and don't work any different from the Sony supplied ones. The Stamina/Speed switch still works with the Nvidia reference drivers, suggesting that whatever it does now, it doesn't require any custom code and is a built-in function of Nvidia GPUs that only Sony has bothered to enable with a hardware switch. In Stamina mode, the Geforce GT 640M LE is disabled. In Speed mode, it is enabled with Optimus and PowerMizer support.

With MSI Afterburner, I was presented with some curious options. It doesn't detect my driver version correctly, and naturally voltage adjustments are locked out. It detects Geforce GT 640M LE, and I can play with the clocks. However there seems to be some kind of hard limit on the core overclock, I was only able to OC it to 540mhz from the stock speed of 500mhz no matter how high I actually set it. MSI Afterburner lets me try to set it as high as 635mhz, but it only actually OCs to 540. This is kind of crappy and I don't know how to defeat the limiter. I pushed the memory to 1100mhz from 900mhz and ran into some artifacts in MSI Kombustor, so I dropped it to 1050mhz and the artifacts went away. The GPU reached a balmy 69C after about 20 minutes of MSI Kombustor at 540/1050. If there was a way to defeat the limiter, I'm sure we could push the core farther, it hardly seemed to be straining itself at 540 and the Fermi/Kepler GPUs are designed to reach 100C before starting to feel a bit warm. I think the Asus Zenbook Prime UV32A with the GT 620M (which is actually a re-branded Fermi GT 525M, unlike the Kepler in the S series) actually does reach 90C when you do something with it and it's just fine, though your lap isn't.

I ran around a bit of Diablo III in Act I with 1080p native res, all settings High except Shadows which were at Medium (Smooth) and no AA. I was getting a comfortable 40-45 fps at these settings. I haven't made it to Act III/IV yet where the framerate gets killed a lot more than it does here. It sure would be nice if I could OC the GPU more!

The speakers on this laptop are okay, I guess. They won't win any awards for clarity or bass output, but they get plenty loud and I guess that's something. The Dolby Home Theater doesn't seem to do a whole lot for the built-in speakers one way or the other, I'm guessing it's more for headphones.

The laptop only comes with PowerDVD 9, which is really old now. The current latest version of PowerDVD is actually 12. However I popped a Blu-ray in and it worked just fine. Sony needs some kind of software setting to control the optical drive rotation speed so it's not screaming at full speed during a movie.

This touchpad is actually too big. I keep randomly running into it with my palms while typing and moving the cursor around or de-selecting what I'm trying to select. Speaking of which, the lack of physical buttons is kind of annoying. I don't care how much much everyone wants to make their laptops look like MacBooks, I like the physical buttons especially when trying to drag stuff or right-click! Sigh.

The screen is incredibly beautiful and yes, it displays red as orange. Otherwise it has perfect viewing angles, very nice contrast, and good black levels for watching movies. At 1080p resolution with a 15.5" screen size, text is a bit on the smallish side compared to my Thinkpad T400 which had a 1440x900 resolution at 14.1" but it's not too small to read comfortably.

The screen really makes up for any number of design problems with the laptop, such as the left edge of the keyboard being too close to the left side of the laptop which isn't rounded off so typing on it for awhile (like now) causes the sharp edge to dig into my wrist.

I will say one thing about my T400: it was definitely designed by someone focused on the ergonomics of using the thing for Real Work(tm). The chiclet keyboard feels a bit stiff on my S15 compared to the T400's classic keyboard and I feel like I have to strike the keys harder to get them to register. Typing on the S15 is somewhat uncomfortable because I keep pulling my left arm in to avoid rubbing it against the sharp left edge of the laptop. I have to raise my palms up to avoid touching the gigantic touchpad while typing or I'll get input I don't want. My right hand keeps hitting the arrows keys by accident since they are lower than the rest of the keyboard. I do love the backlit keys, though there is quite a lot of light leakage around the edges of each key which is brighter than the lit up key itself.

The laptop is almost ethereally thin and light considering the hardware it packs inside and unlike some of those Ultrabooks it doesn't get very hot at all even when I'm playing Diablo III on it, the keyboard remains comfortable to touch and sitting with the laptop in my lap, I wasn't scalding my legs with it.

I need to contact Sony and get a replacement laptop on the way. Once I have one without a buzzing fan, I'll be able to decide if I can live with the somewhat awkward ergonomics of this keyboard and touchpad. The screen is amazing for a laptop, orange reds or not, it looks just incredible after years of living with the awful TN panel on my T400. The sound is merely okay but I guess Sony couldn't pack in 4 speakers + subwoofer like HP does in the Envy 15 and keep the thin profile of this laptop.

 

For anyone curious, Sony's "Rapid Wake" is just what they call Hybrid Sleep. If you turn Rapid Wake off, the laptop will sleep immediately when you close the lid like normal instead of having a 15-30 seconds delay while it slowly and laboriously copies the contents of your 4-12 GB of memory to your HDD before sleeping.

 

so the HDD is still spinning while your jostling your lappy around and putting it away?

sounds dicey. probably no issue with an SSD though

 

Just had my 'in production' mail:

Ordered: 19th June (UK store)
Estimated ship date: 2nd July - 7th July

Trying to decide which SSD to put in it... was looking at the Samsung 830, until somebody showed me this: AnandTech - The Samsung SSD 830 Review - Admittedly, that's the 512Gb model, and I'd be going for the 256Gb - but it does look a little power-hungry?

Maybe I'll stick with the Crucial M4, I've got a couple of those in other machines and not had any issues with them yet.

 

Hi there,

Seriously considering going for a S15. I got an offer yesterday, while the sheet was for free, hope they will stick to it.

2 questions:
- Which color to go for? kinda like the blue but scared it would look cheap. Silver and black are not bad as well. any advise?
- dual core or quad core? I do not do huge gaming...

Thanks
N

 

Well, I'ii use only the laptop display, no external monitor, so are you ok that the 2 GB won't give me better performance than the 1 GB?

Edit : @ vbed, thank you this was really interesting!

 

I own 2 of the Samsungs and I have tested the battery life of my Z and in my experience I can say that the Z has an estimated 30 minute increase of run time compared to the regular hard drive that it replaced. This is either speed mode or stamina mode. As soon as my wife's new S13 Premium arrives, another 512GB Samsung 830 Series SSD will be installed. Perhaps some firmware updates from Samsung since that review has helped with battery consumption. That review is 9 months old.

 

I've never had a Sony Vaio before (and the search function of the forum won't work) so I have some questions:

1. I am interested in the Sony Vaio S13 with the 640m LE. If I use the iGP though around how much battery life could I get out of it? 6-7 hours is what I am looking for with Wi-Fi on, browsing the web or typing in a word document.

2. What is the build quality like on these units? Is it generally good?

3. Anyone know when the Free PS3/Vita promotion ends? I can't order anything until mid July but I am starting college in September, so I can get in on the deal.

Thanks!

 

I don't... what?

I haven't ordered anything. I'm asking if it's taking that long for those who have already ordered.

Maybe this is a better way of asking. For those of you that have ordered, how long was it between submitting the order and shipment notification?

 

okay i misunderstood. I thought you were asking if yours would be coming in then as well.

delivery time differs depending on your location. But from ive gathered browsing this thread, the estimation is generally correct

 

My S13 Premium just arrived (London). Overall timing was:
Ordered: 7 June
Production Started: 9 June
Built: 16 June
Shipped: 19 June
Received: 21 June

Petrov.

 

I ordered my S13 the 6th, and got confirmation mail the same day.
I got shipment notification on the 19th, and it arrived the 20th (yesterday).
The delivery estimate (2-3 weeks) was actually spot on, arriving the at the earliest in that time frame. I live in Denmark.

The machine itself. Oh my. The build quality is solid. Granted, I haven't had a whole lot of notebooks between my hands, but I often use my GF's two Thinkpads, and I don't find it to be inferior, albeit a bit on the heavy side.

Now I'm just waiting for my Samsung 830 to arrive, so that I'll actually get to boot it up. It's been pending shipment since tuesday, ugh.

 

Hello all, has anybody bought the white S13 or S15? How is the quality and finish compared to the black carbon fiber? Is the white made of plastic? It is hard to tell from the limited pictures? Thanks all.

 

When I boot up my new S13 Premium, will it require me to activate Win 7 Pro, or will it be already activated? I ask because I am considering replacing the HD with the Samsung 830 - so I wanted to avoid the hassle of activating twice (particularly if activating the HDD will then require me to use phone activation for the SSD install subsequently)?

Any guidance appreciated!

Petrov.

 

Nothing too technical, but I received my premium S13 on Monday and have been loving it. I've been putting it through its paces while breaking the batteries in, and I am impressed by everything about it. Very glad I gave up on the MBA-form factor lust for now, because the performance is incredible. Between the i7, 12Gb RAM, and RAID0 SSDs, the computer absolutely screams. Installations for chunky programs like CS3 and Pro/E 5 that used to take a while whip by almost too fast to see the progress bar. I booted up the Binary Domain demo from Steam in the car the other day, and on moderate to high detail it ran perfectly smooth. Booted up Portal 2 with high settings just to see it start and I can't get over how quickly the levels load.

Keyboard and touchpad also feel nice. This is my first clickpad and I am really enjoying the change in handling from a non-click touchpad. I used to be all about discrete keys, but this feels much more natural for almost every task.

Battery life has also been excellent. In Stamina mode, I've been getting around 4-5 hours each from the internal and extra sheet batteries. The computer is also smart enough to drain the sheet battery first, so once its empty you can ditch it for a lighter computer while you charge the sheet.

Overall, I'm ecstatic, but I'm probably also not the most discerning user. I'm really impressed by the very elegant design of the machine and all the little nice touches on it. The fingerprint reader is totally unnecessary but a fun gimmick. The computer wakes from sleep in about 2 seconds. Screen looks great. If I had to gripe about something, I miss full-size arrow keys.

 

The Sony recover process SUCKS! I used a fast USB memory stick to make my recovery media. In testing, it took 2+ hours to recover from the memory stick to the SSD. It is not the SSD that is slow - it is Sony's recover process. It is HORRIBLE!

I eventually wiped the system & did a clean install - Windows 7 install took < 6 minutes.

 

Got my S15.. Loving it.

Has any one here had experience of the non Sony PSUs that are everywhere on the internet. I don't really want to spend silly money buying an original one from Sony but I also don't want to fry my new pride and joy.

UK based if that makes a difference.

 

Carefully look at all fast SATA III SSD's power usage reviews. They are all power hungry compared to a rotational drive. The Samsung is just one of the worst out there. Fast SATA III SSD's just consume more power than a regular rotational drive.

I have a 512GB Samsung drive in my daily MacBook Pro. I can't say that I've noticed any big change in battery life. I have not done any official testing - I just haven't noticed a change in daily use.

 

Ordered my S13 premium, estimated ship date 07/04.

I also ordered the Crucial 256 GB m4 2.5-Inch SSD, looks like 9.5 inches. I should be able to install this without a spacer, correct? I would be replacing the original drive. Thanks.

 

I've used the iGo range of chargers for some years with various laptops. You only need to change the tip if you change notebook manufacturer or connect to a friend's laptop. Never had a problem with them. Just bought their new smaller one and I found the best price at Ballicom. If you go for it, make sure you get the version with the 2.1A USB charging port on it. The previous model was only about 850mAh. This one can charge an iPad or similar as well.

 

OEM Windows installs use a manufacturer key, and hence are pre-activated. The key on the sticker on the bottom of your laptop is required only if you do a clean install of Windows. So if you are going to use Vaio recovery discs to restore to the HDD, you won't need to activate Windows any time. If you do a clean install, you'll need to activate once.

Yes.. it's goddman HORRIBLE! Lesson learnt the hard way. I thought that after randomly swapping 6 dvds, I will be done.. but NOPE! It still took 2+ hours to install the drivers and crapware.

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