Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

Unit was ordered 2012-06-25, finally moved over to building on 2012-07-02. Sony is taking their time...

 

Yet another Question popped up after reading a german review of the most expensive version of S13A.
How ist the storage drive conected to the mainboard? The review spoke of a proprietary connector in case of the 512GB SSD (which is it by the way, it seems to be related to Samsung 830 Series) but other revies as well as the first post stress it is a normal SATA-Connector. If so, is it SATA 6Gb/s or 3Gb/s?

And can the umts-module be added on later?

Is the mainboard identical in S1311 and S13A or does the latter differ, because its chassis is thinner?

 

the connector is a combined power/sata connector that is suitable for all 2.5" drives. as far as we know, sony do *something* to lock everything but their own SSDs to SATA 3Gb/s. Some users have intermittently reported 6Gb/s speeds on their own aftermarket SSDs.. so this issue is still up in the air.

Edit, it could be that they use a propriety connector for their own SSDs. I can't confirm this though. Standard HDD models come with the power/sata connector though, enabling an after-market HDD/SSD to be installed.

 

My S15 was ordered on 20/6 and Sony just suprised me by sending an e-mail that it will be delivered on 5/7! It was still "being built" on sunday evening (1/7), and I live in Finland so I thought that the delivery would take ages.

Got the free slice battery, thanks to the temporary programming error on 20/6 on the Sony europe pages that displayed it as free instead of half price. Also got a 5% sales rep discount. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on it! I find it funny that a 15" notebook will be my first fullHD device ever. (that's 141 ppi!) Even my trusted 6-year old 23" desktop LCD only goes up to 1680x1050.

Has anyone with 3612QM and 640M LE 2GB config tried Battlefield 3 yet? I'm hoping to get around 25-28 fps with it on medium settings, as the notebookchecks benchmarked S13 with the 3520M 2.9GHz got 24.6 fps.

 

Is there any review to read for the S15 ? I know there is one for S13 but trying to find something for S15.

 

I've not found any professional reviews but as a new S15 owner, I'm very, very pleased with it. If there's interest, I might write up a longer review later today.

 

NewLaw, a review would be great. Many are interested in the 15 incher.

 

They do indeed come with PS3 Remote and Remote Play.

 

Later this evening I'll make something happen. Are there any questions people would like specifically addressed?

 

you will get much more than 25-28fps with this laptop. i'm using a 2011 VAIO SA with i5-2520m and an overclocked 6630m, and i get around 40-45fps @ 1440x900 resolution with MEDIUM settings, MSAA off, FXAA on on multiplayer maps. you will get around 50-55fps, especially if you overclock your GPU a bit; if you want more fps, drop the resolution to 1366x768.

i used to play at 1366x768 with a mix of MEDIUM and HIGH settings, but recently decided to try 1440x900 as that corresponds to the native vertical resolution of my monitor, and i must say it looks a bit better. to be honest, during firefights, the last thing you'll notice is the difference between 768p and 900p.

 

I would like to know if the battery time you are getting is as worse as some on the forum. Some report 3:40 hours in stamina mode and I think that is way too low.

I'd also like to know which wireless interface card Sony has used for the Wi-Fi. Is it a Intel Centrinio Advanced-N 6230/6300 or something like that?

Last some comments on the quality of the touchpad would be great. We now the keyboard is quite good but I haven't heard anyone about the touchpad. (maybe that is a good thing )

 

I'll answer these quick now. Battery time on Speed mode for me has been between 3 and 4 hours. Really depends on what you're doing. Haven't tested a full drain. I might try that tonight. I also like my backlight brighter than I should.

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235.

Touchpad is pretty solid. I've had no trouble with it so far and it's fairly smooth. I don't like that it's not centered, but it's a worthwhile trade to have the number pad. Not having physical click buttons takes getting used to, but no more than a few hours.

 

Can you give a review/impressions of the screen? Another thing I'm especially interested in is the performance of the 640M LE in games and the temperatures of the CPU/GPU while idling and gaming.

Can you do a full review on the S15? I'm 100% sure many people will appreciate it .

 

I will do my best. I just installed my SSD and RAM yesterday so most of my initial impressions are based on the HDD and 4gb RAM. I still need to install drivers and programs when I get home from work in a few hours but I doubt that'll take too long. Expect it before tomorrow afternoon.

 

Sorry if that was confusing, my meaning was that I turned it off myself when connected to a second monitor. This was supposed to further highlight the shockingly low battery life.

 

owners please respond,

ive looked through alot of this thread, has it been confirmed by most that the s13a has the display color issues with red etc?

 

I have read last 40 pages, but I can't find any info about what kind of memory is used with 640LE.
Is it GDDR5 or simple DDR3?

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

It is DDR3 memory. Getting 40-50 fps in Skyrim 1440x900 w/ medium/high details.

 

It's the 15.5" IPS display that had the red looking orange issue in the past, not the TN panel used in the S13A.

 

How does the new S 15 inch screen compare to the legendary Z series display?

Both are now 1080p!

 

Is your USB stick formatted to ntfs or fat32? If you don't know, just stick it in the USB slot when you boot win and right click on it and select properties - it will tell you if it's ntfs or fat32.

Either way, I think booting legacy is fine. I installed using legacy boot first time and it didnt create any issues for me. I then did another install using the uefi method I outline in the first post of this thread, but it's not materially different in terms of boot speeds or anything else.

Petrov.

 

The Z has a significantly wider color gamut and little glare but weak viewing angles compared to the S 15.5.

 

can i put a sata 3 instead of the cd drive with this caddy?
Amazon.com: Micro SATA Cables - 9.5mm SATA to SATA HDD Hard Disk Drive Caddy Adapter: Computers & Accessories

 

I'm fairly sure that's my problem. I formatted as FAT32 and then the Windows utility changed it to NTFS. Still not sure why the DVD didn't work though.

 

Any plans on detailed S15 review as you did for S13 ?

 

Would love to review the S 15.5 ASAP, but we're still waiting for a review loaner from Sony. Their review program is off to a very slow start, so I had to buy the S13A myself (I won't complain since it completely fits my needs and I'm keeping it).

 

Hey pdagal I read in (what I think was) your review that the S13 has replaced your Envy 15 for editing photos - can you comment on the S13's color gamut compared to the Envy?

 

Do you have to modify inf files to install GPU drivers?

Also, how is build quality? Hinges in the old one kinda sucked, and is the color reproduction issue fixed?

Edit: Is this a DDR3 640M LE or GDDR5?

 

The Envy 15 has a very pleasing display but there's the "reds look orange" issue and the color gamut isn't particularly wide. It's funny how a really nice looking display doesn't necessarily have a huge color gamut (the MacBook Pro with Retina is an example). I wouldn't say the Envy has anything on the S 13.3 premium display for color gamut.

And here's something I often ponder: am I better off with a near full Adobe RGB gamut display or a display that's the same as 90% or more of those being used, so I can see as my audience sees? Now, I can ask this because I do photo processing for the web rather than print. If I did print, I'd probably have a neurotic seizure, then buy the best external monitor I could afford

 

Eww... notebookcheck shows DDR3 640M LE... that sucks. Performance on those is awful compared to the DDR5 version.

 

【Mobile01】SONY VAIO S13A 手勢操作示範 - YouTube

Is this real? looks like those cool things you end up not using after the first week...

 

I don't think there is a GDDR5 small form factor notebook on the market. Even the Clevo W110e has a GT 650m with 900 Mhz DDR3.

GDDR5 = heat and power consumption, which are not good in a small notebook.

 

Not really, the GDDR3 version in the Vaios is the Kepler version, whilst the GDDR5 version is Fermi. There is no GDDR5 Kepler version.

 

I want to replace my 5400rpm drive with a Seagate Momentus hybrid drive, and since that will give me SSD-like speeds with plenty of actual space, I don't feel the need to replace my ODD with the HDD that came with the laptop.

My question is how would I go about transferring my current drive image to my new hybrid drive? If I did a clean install of windows 7, some of the sony features of the laptop wouldn't work, right? (Such as the hard switch? What else would I lose?)

If I actually do need to use my current image to keep my laptop working properly with Sony's modifications, I'm thinking I'd start by using an external HDD to put the image on, then transfer that image to the new drive? Fuzzy on details though, would like some help with possible walk-through/suggestions. Thanks in advance!

 

Hi

I would like to buy more 4GBs of RAM. Can someone tell me which kind/brand Sony has built in and if its 1,5 or 1,35V?

 

1,35V is build in. u can use 1,5 if u want to. max is 8 GB(added) + 4(fixed)

 

First week? More like first minute. It's rubbish.

 

Hmm here in Germany there are just Crucial and GEIL who offers 1.35V RAM. Is this what Sony built in if you get your Vaio with additional RAM?

 

kannst die crucial nehmen. die hab ich hier auch liegen. Amazon. Hab mir gedacht das 8 GB insgesamt locker reichen
Wann hast du bestellt?

 

I know its your fellow countryman you are talking to, but this forum does not allow you to change to your native language thenever you please.
Keep it in english.

 

I just had a weird thing happen:

My trackpad basically stopped working, as though it thought there was another finger pressed on it. So when I tried to move the cursor, I just got the zoom function. A small upper square in the left hand corner allowed me some movement but that was it. After a restart, it's now working fine. The issue happened after waking from sleep, but not immediately after (I'd been coding for 10 mins or so).

Anyone else seen this issue?

 

Thank you. I've ordered my Vaio from Cyberport. Should be here in 2-3 days.
Basic Silver-Edition with i5 and 1GB GT640M LE

Would like to upgrade because of the dual-channel mode. Guess its no dual-channel with the soldered RAM, isnt it?

 

Hi Lisa,

Good question and one I often have a think about. I do a lot of printing myself so I opted for a Dell 2711 IPS and its been excellent. But even if I was only doing web work I would still probably opt for a good colour-calibrated IPS.
With screen technology advancing (albeit relatively slowly) I believe that colour accuracy will become more of a standard so stuff edited now on an accurate display will continue to look good in the future.
Also if you were to edit on both a standard panel and wide-gamut one (with all things being equal), your audience will probably see a "better" final version with the wide-gamut one. I'm no expert and I'm probably completely wrong but its kind of how I like to look at it.

 

Sony uses Samsung modules. The RAM soldered on the motherboard are Samsung DRAMs as well. This doesn't matter one bit in terms of what you buy, it's perfectly okay to mix and match RAM unless you plan on overclocking, which you can't do with laptops anyways.

 

Hi Lisa, just wondering why is the Vaio S13 Premium does not get Mobile Tech Review Editor's Choice award? It seems you really like it more than Lenovo X230, which got the award.

Also, can you do a smackdown comparison between Vaio S13 Premium and X230 please? Thanks.

 

Hi Faceless,

You seem to know a bit about the RAM. I asked a question a few pages back and I was wondering if you might know? If there are two RAM sets (one soldered, one open slot), do they both get fed the same voltage or different? Basically if I put a 1.5V dimm in, will it be forced to run from a 1.35v supply (like the soldered slot?)

 

hello all,

i just recieved my S13 premium and it's also my first vaio ^^

i want to know if it exists a list of all the bloatware we can uninstall without compromising the stability of the computer ???

 

thats good to know, thank you suranium.

I said something like: u can take the memory from crucial. I have one of those modules lying here. I think 8 GB or ram will be enough for my needs.
Than I asked when he ordered...

 

just got my s13 in

couple of observations i haven't seen mentioned anywhere yet;

build quality is great. if your like me and were wondering about what exactly is magnesium and what is alluminium i can confirm that all the outer panels of the laptop (so all basically everything you can see or touch when the laptop is folded closed) is made from magnesium alloy.

magnesium is light and can sometimes come across as some sort of epoxy/resin type material, which is why i think there was some confusion about perhaps some parts feeling plastic. however it is definitely magnesium. i have several magnesium DSLRs so i am familiar with the material.

the aluminum is found only on the interior panels. so the palm rest etc, and the screen bezel.

the extra slice battery pack however is made from plastic

so far im very happy with it. there is some slight keyboard flex and some light bleed on the screen, but nothing dramatic.

my only real complaint is that the speakers suck..yes proper suck. however a good pair of earbuds or cans can easily remedy that.

also it seems as if european versions of the s13 do indeed come with fingerprint scanners. some other person posted that they had gotten it, and so have i.

looks like if your in the EU there is really very little reason to go for a s13a / premium, besided the slight weight and heigth reduction from the carbon. really though youd be better off configuring the s13 with all the extras and saving your self the extra dough...

havent tried gaming yet, but there are plenty of other people who have allready chimed in about that.

thats it for now, i will add more as i come across it.

 

Excellent, thanks. Has anybody tried this out, I'm very interested to know how practical these features are (and if there are any games that let you use the Remote Play feature)?

Has anyone confirmed a way of restoring the useful features (ie, not bloatware) that come with the laptop after a fresh install? I usually reinstall windows when I get a new computer, but there is quite a bit of bundled software with this that I wouldn't want to lose.