Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

1. Not at all.
2. Yeah, I found the sound quality to be mediocre. It's clear, but there's no bass at all and the volume is low. I connect it to external speakers and the output is great.
3. The fan is silent when doing light tasks. I can barely hear it when playing games.
4. It's super fast!
5. Depends on your needs. For portability, the 13.3" is about 0.6lbs lighter and has a smaller form factor. If you want an IPS/1080p display, go for the 15.5".

Nope, you don't need the notebook upgrade kit. I removed the brackets/mounts from the HDD it came with and screwed it onto the bare SSD.

The premium version is 0.05" thinner and weighs 0.1lbs lighter. It also has a 1600x900 resolution vs. the 1368x768 resolution on the non-premium. If you plan on playing games, upgrade to the 640m LE for sure. If not, the HD4000 will work fine for everything else. The screen is big enough and the laptop runs quickly. If you have $150-$200 to spare, the premium version is worth it for the higher resolution.

 

Thanks for posting Topper. The lack of Sata3 speeds was one of my big reasons for returning this laptop. Can you officially confirm with a 3rd party utility that you are getting Sata 3 and not Sata 2? Has anyone else tested their Samsung 830 or Sata 3 drive?

 

I can test my Samsung 830 now. What utility do you recommend?

Yeah, there's a fair amount of flex on my S13. Typing is still comfortable though and it's among one of the best keyboards I've used on a laptop. It must have been a bad touchpad because mine is awesome! Scrolling with two fingers and navigating back and forth with three fingers is smooth as butter. I'd say the keyboard and mouse is up there with the Macbooks quality-wise.

 

Just got back from the local Sony Store, where I played around with the 13 and 15 inch models. 15 felt nice and sturdy, and the screen is very nice.

The 13 had some terrible keyboard flex, though. I could literally push it down with my index finger(with minimal force) until it creaked around the "Enter" key and the "WASD" keys. Same with the right palm rest. Is this the case for those of you with the 13"? I noticed the mouse on the display model was pretty gimpy, too, so I was wondering if it had just seen some tough times on display/was a lemon.

 

I think CrystalDiskMark is a popular utility. 2.2 may be the latest and you can find it free on the Internet. Let me know what you find out

Thanks Nilo!

 

Are these SATA II or SATA III speeds? Even if they're SATA II, everything in Windows opens as quick as possible Windows 7 boots up to the desktop in literally 10-15 seconds as well.

Edit: I'm guessing these are SATA II speeds. I ordered my S13 from the U.S. - I heard that some other countries S series have SATA III enabled already.

 

i havent seen this posted yet, or possibly i just missed it. Might be useful for people wondering about the differences between screen options for the s13



maybe something for the firts post as well?

 

Ok I'm definetly getting SATA 3 speeds. When I first ran CDM a couple days ago I was getting ~250 MB/sec sequentials so I figured "Welp it's SATA 2 oh well". Now I'm getting SATA 3:

http://i.imgur.com/rgEXP.png

I didn't do anything different, but now it's MUCH faster! I ordered in the US if that makes a difference.

 

Trying to find out if I have a hardware problem with my new 13A. Plugging USB flash drives in the USB3.0 ports is no problem but when I plug in an external HDD with a USB3.0 cable the HDD keeps connecting / disconnecting. It works fine in the USB2.0 port but, of course, won't get USB3 speeds there. My guess is that the power from the USB3.0 ports is insufficient to keep the HDD connected. Should they have the same power output as the USB2 port? Anyone else noticed anything similar?

 

What?? I wonder how this happened. Did you install any new drivers or anything?

You should try re-installing the USB 3.0 drivers.

 

Nope! But when I put in the Samsung I freshly installed Windows 7 Ultimate, so maybe that has something to do with it? I installed only necessary drivers and programs.

Try going here and see if you need any updates:

Intel® Driver Update Utility

 

Hmm.. That's strange. I did a fresh install of Windows too and all my drivers are up to date.

 

Did either of you upgrade the BIOS or are you using the stock BIOS? That may be a difference. I upgraded the BIOS before thinking to check SATA speeds, and I am definitely getting SATA II (3Gb/s) speeds with a Samsung 830 SSD.

 

I'm using the stock BIOS.

 

Same here stock BIOS, but if I recall was the most up to date when I looked

 

which one is the best processor?

3rd gen Intel® Core™ i5-3210M processor (2.50GHz / 3.10GHz with Turbo Boost)
3rd gen Intel® Core™ i5-3320M processor (2.60GHz / 3.30GHz with Turbo Boost)
3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM quad-core processor (2.10GHz / 3.10GHz with Turbo Boost)
3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3520M processor (2.90GHz / 3.60GHz with Turbo Boost)

and should i get a 128gb ssd and remove by dvd drive for a 500gb hard drive?

 

Are reds somewhat "orangish" ? Or they fixed it ?

 

Quad core is the best, but the stock i5 is more than enough for most people's needs. There is virtually no difference between the 3210 and 3320

EDIT: Also, finally got a chance to upload some pictures of my gunmetal S13, in case people wanted to see it:

http://imgur.com/a/RTHZ1/all

 

OMG! thank you for showing us those gunmetal pictures! it really convinced me from taking the Z3... I wanted a quad i7 but this s13A looks so good and is so polyvalent! gaming ultraportable is finally a reality

 

No problem!

Well I rebooted and reran CDM, just to see what happened, and here were my results:

http://i.imgur.com/cLuAr.png

So either somethings up with Sony or somethings up with my drive, but I'm guessing it's Sony haha

 

I am most likely ordering the S13P tomorrow and have a question for everyone who installed their own memory in the S13. What ram did you get? Any specific brands to get? Do I really need to get a 1.35v stick or will a 1.5v work? I am hoping a normal Corsair Value Select stick would work, so if anyone can confirm it I would be happy.

 

Any voltage RAM will work. Just be sure its anything 1333Mhz or higher. I bought this because it's the same price as others and its low voltage and Samsung. It's also 1600Mhz so if you ever want to use it in a faster laptop you got that haha

 

Thanks . Too bad that Samsung RAM does not seem to be availiable in Sweden :/. I am thinking of getting a 8 GB module so I got a total of 12 GB. Is there any difference at all in getting 1.5v compared to 1.35v?

 

I checked it out at MediaMarkt today. I really, really like it! But...

Red is quite orange :-( Too orange to do any image editing etc. Has anyone tried to calibrate the screen? I can't find any reports online... If not, I'll see if I can go to the store and use my Spyder2express...

I really hope it will improve, if not be fixed. It's a fantastic build otherwise

 

If anyone still needs a Samsung 830 series 256GB SSD, NOW is the time!

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
$190 after promo code listed on the page.

Because of the mounting rails used to attach the HDD to the laptop's frame, you don't need the spacer to make this drive fit in the S13/S15 series. Bare drive is all you need!

 

After a long search I think the Vaio S is going to be what I'm getting.

Just purchased my SSD (the samsung on sale that everyone is talking about) and the low voltage ram mentioned above. Gotta learn how to reinstall windows but that doesn't sound too difficult.

Going to a sony store today to check it out in person. Still going back and forth on size vs screen.

It sounds like the screens are great. The sound is underwhelming but understandably so. It's light. No heat spots and runs pretty fast.

Con: No real support and drivers may be an issue after Windows 8 comes out. Might have to delay win8 adoption?

One last question: If I'm only doing some moderate gaming, the 2nd gig of vram isn't going to do much right?

 

To put it simply: nope. get the 1 gb version

 

I am planning to buy a new laptop and wanted it to be lightweight and had considered a 13.3" before. But after finding about the SE series i thought that will be better. But after reading the forums i got to know what the SE is 2011 series while the new series is S series and this particular thread is a dedicated thread for S series Vaios.
I will be buying the laptop from amazon.com only as i have amazon credit left. Can anyone point me to amazon.com links for the new S series laptops ? I am getting confused there as i see S series as well as SE series ones.
Would appreciate any help you folks can offer.
I will be reading this thread too for more information.

 

Sony has an update for the BIOS that fixes that issue

 

should i get an ssd and then replace my dvd drive with a hard drive?

 

That's what I'm planning to do. I ordered the samsung 256gb deal from newegg and will swap out the dvd drive for the hard drive. I have no use for the dvd so might as well put the original hard drive to good use.

 

$25 4gb Samsung 1.35v stick from amazon. I'm pretty sure 1.5v will work fine but I thought it was a good price for 1.35v

 

Oh god, now Samsung is producing RAM too..

 

I put an 8 gig 1.5v Corsair stick in mine and it works fine.

 

Ok, so I've read 100s of post lately.
The new 15" Envy has a new IPS panel, but struggles with faded blue colors
The new 15" Samsung 7 series has a gt640m ddr5 which is tempting... However the screen still sucks... On the other hand the new samsung 17" has a much better screen and 650m gpu and it is only 2.5cm wider than the Sony S15...

Still the S15 is the most tempting to get despite it's red/orange issue, due to its portability and otherwise nice screen...

Help me out guys, what should I choose? (Main purpose is webdesign, school and some gaming)

 

CALLING ALL S15 OWNERS

Reposting this a third time, as no one seems to have replied, and this is a vital issue. Like, when I plug headphones in it only goes in about 3/4ths the way and I cannot force it in any more.

 

To everyone saying that the laptop is silent when not playing games, are you saying that the laptop makes no noise at all? Or are you saying that there is a slight humm to the laptop but the fans themselves are not loud?

I'm concerned because I definitely have a constant "humm" on my S15 even when I'm just web browsing. It could just be the 7200RPM spinning I guess?

 

A bit of a weird question but can the S15 be picked up with one hand easily? with the slice as well if you can. I've been using a netbook for a while (my laptop broke... 3 times... teaches me for buying acer). While I miss the power of my the laptop I've gotten used to a few things like this, 8 hour battery life and the general portability etc. So just want to see how it measures up.

Also, does anyone know what exactly the battery life is on the S15 with the slice? just in general usage. I'll probably be plugged in when doing anything more intensive so that doesn't worry me.

 

Wow I'm glad you mentioned this because I just tried out headphones on my S15 for the first time now and I have the same problem as you.

Headphones only go in 3/4 of the way and unless I tweak it into the right position, I can't hear any audio...

 

I did respond to you.. here http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...y-s-series-owners-thread-120.html#post8655587

 

will it work just as good as it will if i just buy it built in my laptop from sony? or alittle slower? and you can choose to buy ur laptop with 640 gb then just add that in the cd drive?

 

I suspect this is a negotiation issue with SATA speeds. When a PC is booted, the SATA controller negotiates the maximum speed a device can handle at boot up. I'm not sure what happens during the negotiation process, but the controller can determine that a device cannot support SATA III (6Gb/s) speeds. Obviously some devices can't do that speed by design. Real SATA III (6Gb/s) devices may fail some sanity test or validation and be reverted to SATA II speeds. If this is the case, then it will be pot-luck on each boot as to what speed the SATA controller will negotiate with the SATA device.

If this is occurring, then there is probably a design issue with the Sony's and it is unlikely to be fixed. I'm not saying it can't be fixed with maybe a BIOS/UEFI update, but it is probably a hardware issue (under spec'd SATA cable to the device, too much electronic noise near the SATA cable/bus, etc.).

 

Thanks I missed that

Oh snap... So a short tally of people who have responsed. 2 have the problem and 1 doesn't. I'll be calling up Sony tomorrow

 

Send it back.. Nuff said

 

Samsung has produced PC/Notebook RAM for YEARS!

They have been production FLASH RAM for even longer than regular PC/Notebook RAM. They are the biggest supplier of FLASH RAM for Apple products (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, etc.)

 

Pics appear to have been deleted.

 

Definitely can't get it to go the last 1/4? On my S15 the socket is definitely tight but with a push the last 1/4 is possible - and returns a positive click (just trying to save you the hassle of a return)

 

Just my opinion, but I would get the 17" Samsung if I were in the market for a 15".

I would have myself, but decided my main need for a laptop over my current perfectly adequate desktop was something more couch friendly. So I bought the sony s13

 

I've pushed so hard i broke off the plug of a dummy/broken headphone I had...I tried. And note that the mic jack is the same way.

 

Damn. Sorry to hear that. Having said that makes a change for me to have the kit that works. Hope they replace it for you quickly.