Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

At the moment I would avoid anything with a Sandforce controller. Are you not considering the Samsung 830 or Crucial m4? They have good performance, reliability and price, in my opinion.

 

So, the only question is : Where is my hero?^^

 

Right - I'm well aware of what the hardware/chipset is capable of. I called Sony to indicate that I thought something was "broken". Their response indicated that Sony intentionally limits all VAIOs to SATA II speeds.

Yep - if we ever get full access to the BIOS, there **may** be an option to enable SATA III speeds. No one really knows until the full BIOS is accessible...

 

OK. I didn't know OCZ used Sandforce. Couldn't see it on their website. It's just that I had an opportunity to get one at a good price. I'll look at the other options.

 

Yes when I was using the Nvidia Inspector tool with the setting on "balanced" I too noticed the temps seemed to be fine, but for me while playing Civ v it was showing the GPU at 100% with the slower FPS.

As seems to be the easiest solution, setting to Ventilate fixed all the issues, and the GPU usage went down as well. Temps did not seem to change much with veintilate.

So are we to assume that the Hybris Sony setting in SPeed mode actually does more of the GPU selection then that of the optimus setting on Nvidias side?

Either way I have no issue having priotity to ventilate for Speed mode on and flipping that physical switch between Stamina and Speed mode prior to gaming. But I do agree it is not the ideal solution, and makes little sense to me.

Also not that for me I heard no audible differences with Balnced or Ventilate. In non gmaing mode the fan never seemed to run, and while gaming the fan IS on in either mode.

 

I used OCZ Vertex 2 which died suddenly after only 3 months of use. It was simply not recognized. They happily returned my SSD after some weeks.
I not only lost my data but wasted a lot of time until I got the new one. I personally vowed myself never to buy any OCZ SSD again.

Since then I've been using Crucial C300 & Samsung 830 series for my laptop and desktop and never had any problem.

 

Personnally, I noticed a light difference between balanced and priority mode, fans are a bit more audible in priority, so, that's why I'm searching for a solution. But I can live with the priority mode as it seems that it solve entirely the issue.

Edit : Stupid question, but how can I activate and English spelling corrector? Because, it's a french one that I've when I'm typing

 

You can try to search the controller with Google. Most of OCZ SSDs uses a Sandforce controller. But for example the new Vertex 4 uses an Indilinx controller. Of course it is up to you. If you make regular backups, don't think your data is too important or the price difference is worth it, maybe you could go for it. Buying a Samsung 830 or Crucial m4 is of course no guarantee it 100% will not fail.

 

For those of you who've been requesting, my 25 minute video review of the Vaio S premium S13A is live: MobileTechReview Forum and News: Sony Vaio S 13.3 Video Review: Powerful Ivy Bridge Ultraportable

Later today or tomorrow, we'll have a smackdown between the Vaio S13 and the Vaio Z too.

 

Regarding the slowdown; well, the fact that temperature is so low is amazing! Sony could easily have put more power in and having it hover around 90 degrees after five minutes of play (Asus UX32VD in graphics mode!) - It's great that it then is not throttling.

My theory; Sony Vaio SA was criticized for it's temperature and extreme noise under load. the fan was being a jetplane. Could it be that the sony designers took this to heart and thus created vaio settings that are very controversial? perhaps the current version features some bugs, and its a mistake? It seems likely that vaio control panel update could fix this?

If this is the case then it is a wonderful scenario compared to the idea that the machine having extreme thermals and throttling!

Fantastic review. These video reviews are the most detailed ones I have seen on the internet. Only anandtech strikes me as someone who puts as much effort into their reviews. GREAT JOB!

 

Thanks, luffytubby!

And I do suspect that Sony is being conservative with thermals to ensure a quieter machine (happily we can change the fan setting-- some manufacturers don't expose that option). I also suspect it might be Optimus not getting things quite right, it's been known to get confused

 

Thanks for the vid review - ill post it on the first post of the thread, save people searching!

Petrov.

 

nice thanks for the great review Lisa!

 

What SSD would you recommend to install (i'm a beginner regarding changing the hard drive). I don't need a whole lot of space, i'd rather have less space but more performance!

 

Nice review, can't wait to get mine now! That display sure looks nice, even if it's not the best one out there. At least compared to my current laptop, which is just awful.

Samsung 830 series or Crucial M4 seem to be the safest options right now. Can't really go wrong with either one, so just get the cheaper one of the size you want.

 

I've been playing around with my Sony Vaio S15 for the past few days and I'm really liking it, except for a few shortcomings.

1) The fan noise. People said the previous version had a loud fan but I was hoping that the Ivy Bridge model would have fixed that issue. Even when I use Stamina mode and am on Power Saver with a fan setting preference for "silence," I can still hear the fan. It isn't particularly "loud" but it is definitely noticeable and why should I even hear the fan at all when no applications are running?

2) Battery life. On a full charge with Stamina mode enabled and brightness all the way down I only got 4 hours (light internet usage and nothing else). I was expecting around 5 hours if all I am doing is having FireFox open with 1 or 2 tabs and nothing else.

Everything else I really enjoy. The computer runs really cool to the touch, the screen is GORGEOUS (the whole red/orange issue is really, really overblown IMO), keyboard is nice to type on and the backlight is nice, slot loading disc drive is sleek, laptop is very light, and overall a nice build.

Can anyone else who has a Vaio S give me some advice on how to quiet down the fan? I really think that the laptop should be silent if all I'm doing is browsing the net and I've set it to "Stamina" mode.

 

This maybe could be a little defect. I remembered that in the previous model (Sony Vaio SE) some noticed their laptop was louder than others reported in the thread. One actually when back to the store (don't know if you bought it online) and compared with the salesman to the demo model, and the system of the user was clearly louder. Then the user could change it for a new one, which did not have the problem.

 

I remember thinking my fan was audible on my S13 (not noisy but certainly not inaudible) when I first got it, even when 'doing nothing'. I feel it is quieter after doing the clean install. Let me check if this is true or just a rose tinted view of the world post-SSD installation....

Petrov.

 

I just switched from "Priority to Silence" to "Balanced" and "Ventilation" just so I could hear what each setting sounds like. I guess "Silence" really doesn't have the fan running and what I am hearing is maybe the hard drive or CPU or something? Ventilation is noticeably louder as I can hear the fans kick in.

I may have mistaken fan noise on "Silence" for something else?

 

This might be the explanation. As I can see in the signature, Ninjazn has a 7200 RPM drive, which could be reason for the increased noise compared to others who have 5400 RPM drives. This might also explain the slightly lower battery life as in general 7200 RPM drive consume more than 5400 RPM drive, which in turn consume more than SSD.

 

If it is the 7200 RPM drive which is causing the mild noise then I'm not really that bothered because I plan on getting an SSD in the near future. I wonder, though, if replacing the hard drive with an SSD would actually eliminate the noise altogether.

 

My S13 just arrived in the mail! I'm just waiting for it to fully charge before powering it on.

My SSD should be arriving soon as well, so I had a couple questions about disassembly of the laptop. Do I just undo the five screws at the bottom that are nested in the holes? Or do I have to undo all of them? After that the HDD is located on the bottom right correct? Is there anything else I should know so I don't ruin everything?

 

Congrats! But why are you disassembling the whole laptop to replace the HDD with a SSD? To put in the SSD you need to remove two screws for the main plastic plate (that covers the HDD bay, RAM and Battery Pack).

After you've removed the plate, then there are (from memory) 4 screws to remove the bracket from the laptop, then a further 4 or so screws to remove the bracket from the HDD (you then reconnect the bracket onto your SSD). Oh, there are two screws you need to remove from the end of the flat orange cable where it connects to the motherboard - this enables you to unplug the cable from the motherboard and reach a screw (one of the screws that connects the bracket to the laptop) that was previously hidden underneath aforementioned cable.

Petrov.

 

That's awesome news! Good thing I posted here first -__- I had to take apart my old laptop to install some RAM and it was such a pain.

 

Excellent review, thanks!
You mentioned that there is a view of the internals (RAM, HDD, Battery) in the full review but I can't seem to find it on your website. Could you provide a link?

Cheers.

 

If there is enough demand I wouldn't mind making a ODD hard drive bay swap guide. Is this something people want?

 

That would be great. It seems a simple job and will probably be a lot clearer when a user opens up a laptop themselves, but an image guide before-hand would calm any nerves (for me anyway!).

 

It would be much appreciated since it's always easier/quicker to follow guide then try doing it without one.

 

The full review will be up in a few days-- still writing it

 

wow - lot's of people here really care about the community thx a lot for the video and all the other useful information in here.

My S13A will arrive some time next week - at least that's what the sony employee told me. Can't wait! ODD caddy & 4GB Ram are already waiting here...

 

Just got my S13 premium with the gunmetal finish today (one day ahead of schedule). I can say that while it looks like metal, it is the same material as the black and silver colors. So basically it's just a preference on what you like. From what I can tell the gunmetal doesn't show fingerprints as badly as the black finish, and I do really like the look of it so I'm happy with my selection! I can post pictures later tonight if that's something people want.

A side note, I'm very impressed with the screen. People were saying they couldn't open it without holding the base, but it works fine for me!

Also, I would enjoy a guide for the ODD swap, I'll probably be putting my 500GB in there when I get my 830.

 

Does anyone know if there are any internal design differences between S13 and S13A (Premium)?

'Cause living in Europe, I'll be likely ordering the S13 with 1600x1200 display and the dGPU, and I wanted to know if the thermals and fan noise are equal to the premium version.

tl;dr: does the normal S13 get hot on the touch or the fan sound like an airplane?

 

Yes please, that would be really appreciated!

 

I'm planning to space out my upgrades a bit. Does it make more sense to upgrade the RAM first, then SSD, or vice versa?

Would definitely be interested in this!

My S15 status changed to "being built" on Friday, but ship date still shows 7/24. Hoping it doesn't take over a month to build a laptop

 

Yay, my replacement S15 has entered production! How long does that last until it ships?

 

Alrighty then, I'll make it after work today. Expect it up sometime this afternoon (PST here).

 

From what I've seen in this thread, they seem to ship out 4-5 days after they start building

 

mine already took 5 days why is so long and i didnt upgrade anything!

 

^ weekend doesnt count probably

 

According to Sony the S13A is 0.11 lb lighter and a 0.05" thinner. Looking at the pictures they look exactly the same to me. Not sure if the internal is different.

From what others say: all models are fairly cool and quiet.

 

Could you tell me which brand of SSD they use once you receive the laptop?

 

Anyone who has received there S 15.5" laptop, do you mind posting
a video or some pics of the screen. I'm going back and forth on
wether to get the 15.5" model, or the new Asus Zenbook Prime 13.3" model.
I was completely sold on the ASUS a couple weeks ago, but now this new S
series has really caught my attention..

 

Any idea if/when the vaio s15 review is coming out? I've been looking everywhere but can't find one! Your reviews for the S13A and the Z were great and so much more detailed than most reviews these days. My only issue is the "FIPs" thing... Isn't it F-P-S? sounds so weird whenever you say that but I might be wrong!

 

Hey Topper59 I would love to see pictures of the gun metal version! I'm also interested in seeing how it looks with backlighting! Do you have the extended battery? does that look weird with a gun metal color laptop but a pitch black extended sheet battery or don't you notice it?



Also, I third on the ODD guide

 

We're still working on getting a Vaio 15.5 review loaner from Sony. No idea yet on the ETA.

I am really trying to get out of "fips" habit since it seems to derange our viewers. But it's not easy after saying it that way for 20 years. Long ago I used to work for Avid (back when it was a very expensive pro tool for commercial video production) and everyone at the company and our customers said fips, so that's where I learned it. I guess no one says it that way anymore?

I've added a photo of the S 13.3's guts with the bottom cover off to our video review post for those of you who can't wait for the written review

MobileTechReview Forum and News: Sony Vaio S 13.3 Video Review: Powerful Ivy Bridge Ultraportable

 

Ugh, my s15 has been stuck on payment processed since Friday. I ordered it on 6/14. Seems like my order is taking longer than usual.

 

did u call customer service?

 

Mine was in production for exactly a week. It then took 6 days to get to me (UK)

 

Anything in particular? I can confirm that it does have the orangey red problem but tbh its not that obvious until you go looking for it. I run my S15 with two external displays so if I need true colour I go to them. Other than that it is a lovely display - bright and sharp.

 

I called and it looks like I will be one of the unlucky few who will have their computer shipped on the actual date Sony provided.