Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

I cover battery life in my review over at MobileTechReview.com. My battery has averaged a bit over 6 hours on stamina mode.

 

united states.

do you guys recommend any good hdd? 750gb, i want one that doesn't take alot of battery and is fast/ no noise. and something i can rely on (i see alot of reviews saying hdd's just stop working..) thanks!

 

Thanks Pdagal. Although 40% is very dim for outdoor use, I suppose.

But maybe set to maximum bright for browsing it could last minimum 5 hours?

Thanks.

 

Is it a lot of flex (like its going to break), or just slight like it was made to be like that?

Also how are thermals and fans? I can't find a lot of reviews on the new model.

 

Hi There. Mmm, I don't see that free dock option anywhere in the Canadian site, if you have a link or something it will be great. What I can tell you is that one person here (sorry I don't remember the name) used a code given by Great Canadian Rebates (you'll need to subscribe and they'll give you an extra 4.5% back after) that will give you a CA$100 discount when you expend CA$999.99+ (before taxes). I think it's good till August.

I'm also planning on buying the S13A (I'm tired of the fan noise of my other two laptops ('05 HP Pavilion ZD8220US 17" and '09 ASUS EEE PC 1000HE 10.1") it's like my wife hair drying her hair besides me all the time, hehehe) so I'm a little scared by all the "fan noise" debate around here, I know it was a huge problem for previous models and for VAIO laptops in general, and I often use my computer in the library or in quiet classrooms, so fan noise needs to be in the quieter side. Also I'm in Victoria, BC, and the SONY store closed few months back, so no chance for me to go and check if the noise (if any) is acceptable for me, I'll need to rely on what others have said.

I was hoping some good offers or promotions due Canada Day, but apparently SONY doesn't celebrate this holiday.

One last thing, and sorry for the lenght of this post (I was basically only answering the Canadian offers thing). Has anyone substituted the ODD for a caddy (HDD or SSD, it doesn't matter which) in the S13?, I know it has been done for the S15, and that the process should be fairly similar, but a feedback on this exact model would be great.

Cheers,

Happy Canada Day

 

Backing up Pdagal, my S13 is also lasting close to 6 hours on Stamina mode at 50% brightness.

Are people using the Battery Care Function in the VAIO Control Center? If so, what do you have it set to? 80%? 50%? That might help to explain why we're seeing varying reports of battery life.

 

Nope nothing major, but the flex is noticeable when pressing down hard on the keys.

I played a couple 4v4s in Starcraft II and it was still relatively cool and quiet.

 

There are quite a few reviews coming in now...

KB flex is slight, noticable, but not like it's going to break.
Fans are near constant but usually very low RPM, i.e. not very noticeable.

Curious, was there any follow-up on this issue?

 

Good point. I did not enable the Battery Care Function that stops the battery from fully charging (to reduce charging cycles over the life of the battery).

LOL, they really are just horrid. I don't think anyone can fix the S 13.3's anemic speakers.

 

OK, I have another dumb question.

Should any 19.5V 4.7A Vaio power adapter work with a 15 inch S series?

 

Happy Canada Day indeed!

I just bought one (few days ago) online and saved $100 instantly using SONYSAVE coupon, not sure if it's still active. I couldn't find anything about a student discount either

Edit: Doesn't seem to work, must have expired at the end of june.

 

Hi Petrov. On the US website VAIO S Series PC | Sony | Sony Store USA, the model reads SVS13A190X Premium (i5) yet the one on the UK site VAIO S Series : VAIO & computing : Sony reads SV-S13A1C5E (i7). Are they both one and the same?

I'm keen on getting my hands on the gold one.

Btw I've gone thru the entire thread and I was wondering if you could spearhead the consolidation on what should be done to further improve the capabilities of the laptop into one single post i.e recommendations on the upgrade of RAM, SSD, etc.

Perhaps there could be a category or classification of sorts for interested buyers i.e students, gamers, etc and their accompanying ideal specs? That would be such a bonus.

There was also some talk on SSD and the brand Samsung came up quite frequently. Mind shedding light on that?

This in its entirety would greatly benefit one and all.

 

Well from what I've seem as long is it reads "S13A" in the model number it will be a "premium" S13.

Memory/RAM
Seeing as you're stuck with only 1 slot of ram to work with, and 4GB of 1333mhz soldered onto the board you should just get 1 4GB 1333mhz memory module from an online retailer, they usually sell for $25 or so.. Sometimes they are referred to as PC3 10600 Laptop memory. If you want you can buy more expensive 1600mhz ram, but it will be downclocked to 1333mhz to match what's onboard so its not worth it. 8GB would be lots for now and for the next few years, but if you really want to max it out you can buy a 8GB memory module, and have a total of 12GB. When buying ram you can compare the following: price, warranty, voltage (1.5v vs 1.35v), and timing (fairly irrelevant). 8GB modules go for about $45-60

SSD/Hard Drive
Buying an SSD from a third party can be much cheaper than buying one from sony. That said, sony make a SSD like no other which has RAID 0 support (kind of like two seperate ssd's working together as one for speed) and it appears to be much faster than even some of the best third party such as Samsung, Crucial, mydigitssd etc. Either way any SSD is going to be a hugely noticable speed boost from boot times to application loading, wake times etc.. If you do decide to buy one from third party the install is going to be very straight forward, much like the RAM upgrade; both are accessible from the removable panel on the bottom. I've read some things about the really high performance drives on the market being abit power hungry, so keep that in mind. Also, at this point I believe it is still unconfirmed if the S supports SATA 3 or just SATA 2, SATA 2 drives can be had for less, but it has been shown that sony's own SSD is definitely performing at SATA 3 speeds.

 

Don't for a second doubt that that people's reasons for buying a 13" could differ from yours.
Without going further into that, I think what you might be looking for is more in the performance levels of the new 17w ULV CPU's?

The S13 is a solid performer, and the battery life of the stock battery will reflect that.

 

Hi malmer,

That was my first choice, the Vaio T Series, but the battery lasts only 5 hours. Not enough fot an ulv core i5. Thats why I went for the vaio s13. Maybe it is the only choice nowadays with the extra battery. I am really confused how in 2012 there is no 13 incher with good resolution, good design and battery for 8 hours... and a Sony logo on it, of course.
I already told I am a Sony fan.

 

Wait. Which powerful Vaio ever had 8 hours life without sheet battery?
None.

IMO some peeps here are expecting too much. You need to bare in mind that new S series packs all that power and slot drive in tiny case and inside 2kg.
If you need more battery, just get the sheet or get bulky/heavy lenovo with ultrabay battery.
Hardware is envolving but there are still limits, people!

 

@pdagal

Any chance of you guys doing a review of the S 15??
I see a lot of little sibling love going on here...the s15 feels abandoned

 

So I'm curious - is the fan noise and 900p for certain better than the 2011 SA? I have read people saying the thermals are better, and the display seems better, but I've been wondering if it's confirmed.

Also, what would people say the difference in power is from the 6630m to the 640m LE? I've looked it up but haven't seen any direction comparisons.

 

Well I would expect more from an ULV notebook (not that I'm not a little sceptical).

Too bad you're stuck on a brand like that. I would personally had prioritized an ASUS or Thinkpad, but the S13 had exactly the specs I wanted. My only real personal criteria was avoiding Acer/HP/Dell.

 

I will compare S15 with N56VZ as soon as i get my Vaio.

 

As far as I know those two model numbers are for identical machines - but they are the "customisable" model numbers - so that means you can put an i7 or i5 4GB or 8GB or 12GB or a blur-ray/dvd - whatever combination you like and they will still have the same model number. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but that's the way it looks to me. When I was customizing my machine, the model number never changed regardless of the options I chose.
There are also a number of pre-configured models that have different model numbers so if you buy one of those, you can be sure that one model will be the same as the next with the same number.

As an aside, on the topic of battery life, historically from my point of view any laptop that lasts two hours or over has good battery life.....
I remember my VAIO GRX316MP with the 1600x1200 screen from 10 years ago - that only lasted 90 minutes from new and that was classed as "awesome".

 

the mobiletechreview gaming demo is up!

Sony VAIO S 13.3 Gaming Demo - YouTube

 

How do you think Guild Wars 2 will run with the 640M LE?

 

Malmer,

Thats why I bought for the first time a laptop thats not from sony a month ago. Asus U36JC... old tech nowadays with nvidia 310. In reviews it looked as the best 13 incher till I bought it. Display is awfull, reflects like a mirror. Heat issues when playing 2D games, colours are like vintage, keyboard too stiff for me. Only good thing are the looks and the battery. The plastic bezel around the screen looks like real plastic with already a lot of scratches. A month ago I spent 939 euro on it. I would sell it for half the price and buy the premium s13p but I finally will get stuck with it till next year I suppose. My fault for reading the reviews or maybe to be too sony-attached for their better screens, keyboards, etc.
Well... thats all and thanks everybody.

 

Think I'm ready to pull the trigger the S13 Premium, anything I am missing with this config?

Intel®Core(TM)i7-3520M, 2.9GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional
320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Blu-ray Disc(TM) player
33.7 cm LCD, 1600x900+webcam
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE
Security features
No Long-Life Battery
No Wireless WAN
Office 2010 Starter + Acrobat
No protection
McAfee Online Backup trial
No Adobe Creation
No Adobe® Lightroom 3
No Imagination Studio Suite

I will probably pick up a Samsung SSD off Amazon too:
Samsung SSD 830 2.5inch SATA III 6GBps 256GB Notebook Accessory Kit with Free Norton Ghost 15: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

Looks good to me. However if you're willing to take the back off to install the samsung SSD - why don't you install the extra RAM yourself at the same time? Drop the options down to 4GB only and then head over to crucial.com/uk , enter your model number and get 8GB from there ( http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=VAIO%20SVS13A190X&Cat=RAM) - should save you a fair bit of cash I reckon.
Its exactly what I've done (except I went for an extra 4GB instead of 8).

Also unless you want Norton Ghost, you can pick up the Samsung SSD for about £14 cheaper if you opt for the drive only box from Amazon UK.

By doing that you'll save yourself approx £68. Or you could also call them up rather than do it online and push to see if you can get any further deals (I did).

 

Nice protips there, thanks!

 

No worries. When I called Sony Sales Uk, the guy was really helpful. I dont think there's too much they can do with just the base premium model but I also wanted a docking station as well so he knocked some off that (although the numbers he was quoting didn't quite match up to the ones online so I'm not 100% sure what kind of deal I got there!!).

I was also pretty cheeky at the end and I just outright asked him if he would knock off £20 from the i5-i7 upgrade...and he did! So all in all I probably got around £50 off for doing it over the phone!

 

anyone find a good screen protector for the 13.3? Or does anyone know the exact mm size of the 13.3 premium?

 

I know this is probably out of topic, but I got no response when I created a new thread, that is why I will try here:

I just ordered a S 13 Premium but I'm not sure the warranty from Sony USA is international and it would work in Brazil. Can anybody confirm that, please?

Thanks!

 

youd probably be better off calling up sony / sony brazil

 

I did it, but at Sony US they told the warranty is international and would work fine in Brazil for the first year. But when I contacted Sony Brasil they told me they would not cover imported products.

This is confusing

 

Hi, thanks for this info. Would you happen to have any gaming benchmarks? I'm curious about how this laptop performs; but I'd love some numbers!

best

 

I would go with what Sony BRazil told you then

 

Sony VAIO S 13.3 Gaming Demo - YouTube

gamecheck - same hardware in 13"

 

do you guys recommend any hard drives? (looking for 640gb +, doesn't kill battery, quiet. and reliable thanks!)

 

Where would you all say is the best place to buy a Sony S Series? Sonystore or amazon? I wonder what the pros and cons would be?

 

im pretty sure you will find more information if you just google it, instead of asking here again for the 10th time

 

Often the resellers have much better price for some models, than sony online store. If you are in europe then i recomend to price search here:

Notebooks & Tablets/Notebooks with Manufacturer: Sony, screen size to 15.9", Screen resolution: 1920x1080/1600x900, CPU type: Core i7-3/Core i7-2, Graphics (manufacturer/type): NVIDIA (dedicated)/AMD (dedicated) | Skinflint Price Comparison EU

 

FYI on the order process, in case anyone's interested:

6/20 - Placed order (estimated ship date showed 7/24)
6/22 - Started building
6/28 - Status showed as "Payment Processed"
7/02 - Shipped from Yantai, China. Estimated delivery on 7/06

So their estimated ship date was way off for me. I read that for most people, their order shipped a day or two ahead of the estimate

 

Another set of dates for those interested: (ordered a mostly baseline S13A with i7 and sheet battery)

19/06 - Placed order
22/06 - Received order/payment confirmation (wasn't given an estimate that I could see)
26/06 - Went into production (with estimated factory shipping date of 02/07 - 07/07)
30/06 - Got notification of production complete
02/07 - Showed as complete/dispatched on site (no email/delivery estimate yet)

 

I am guessing that the vaio CTO factory in san diego is no longer in action and all CTO vaio's except Z are shipped directly from china?

 

I am planning to buy the S15 soon and i am buying from amazon but i have my reasons for the same (GC balance left).

 

can someone compare the physical dimensions of the 13.3 vs 15?

I'd give a hug for this info (trying to decide at work which to buy)

 

Well here are the measurements taken from Sony USA (inch) and Sony Japan (mm):

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8342/sony20s20seroes20dimens.jpg

Sorry picture is too large for forum so I won't embed it.

Note that the s13 premium has the same dimensions albeit thinner (0.90''/ 22.8mm)

 

Blu Ray Playback Question

The following are the specs and upgrades planned and I was 98% on these until I noted the comment above.

Does anyone know if these drivers can be pulled off the factory install, saved to usb, then transferred to the fresh install on the new drive? or Any other options? Mobile Blu Ray playback was a big part in choosing of this model.

Thank you for a great thread FYI. Its been great at helping me decide on this laptop and upgrade options.

Proposed Specs
------------------------------
i7-3520
4GB Fixed (Upgrading with Corsair 8GB DDR3 1333MHz PC3 10666)
Blu-ray Disc™ player
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE 2GB
500GB 7200rpm hard drive (Replaced with SAMSUNG 830 256GB SATA III)
Windows Home (Fresh Install Win 7 Ultimate)

 

I'd like to know this too. I got a blu ray drive just because it was a cheap upgrade and future-proofs me somewhat (Adds resale value, too). But I've done a fresh install and now don't have any way to use it.

 

My S13P just came in! Deleting bloatware now. Very impressed with the size. Slightly disappointed the the screen hinge. Keyboard is a bit shallower then the Lenovo E420 I've been using but I will force myself to get used to it.

 

I returned the asus and got the sony. Im much happier now. The screen is better and I got mine from the MS store so it came with a freash instal of windows.

 

Jane, I'll update my first post with some of this stuff, thanks for the suggestions. I think I covered the model number question in the first post already?

EDIT: First post updated - can people let me know if they think theres anything else really important to cover in the first post of the thread?

Petrov.