Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

I am thinking of getting the S 13.3 Premium but I have some questions that I will appreciate an answer for:

1. I cannot find anywhere the difference between the carbon fiber black and gunmetal black when customizing. The pictures show that both of them are black and the VAIO logo is gold, so I will appreciate it if you can tell me the difference.

2. Does it have good cooling and low fan noise in general or in comparison to the ThinkPads for example?

3. When I used 1600*900 HD+ in ThinkPads, it had this 'bluish' tinge that annoys me (not sure what this is called in the tech arena) but is this also present with the S13A Premium Panel?

4. How many 'real life' hours can I get from the internal battery with this machine?

5. Is there a way to get both the PS3 and the docking station (which I know has bad reviews anyway but do not know of any other alternative)?

6. Is there a real advantage from upgrading from i5-3320M to i5-3520? (I do Microsoft Office, extensive web browsing, no video/photo editing and no games)

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

The gunmetal version is more of a dark grey, not quite black, with a subtle brushed metal effect. It looks rather nice, particularly on the palmrest/keyboard area. The lid is basically black, with a very subtle brushed look, but not metallic (is the lid the same on the black version?? - possibly?)

Somebody posted some good pics earlier in the thread, if you want to search back quite a way....

 

Without any tweaks it is a slightly cold/bluish and dull picture, but with a few tweaks to levels, gamma and saturation I've got a gorgeous warm picture that rivals my £400 Samsung (TN) monitor in every way but contrast/black level.

For example raising the gamma to 1.3 in the intel gpu settings has got very nearly every square in both the black and white Lagom tests discernible.

 

Is not a single person willing to answer the mSATA question? Does the S15 have an mPCI-E port and is it electrically compatible with mSATA and supported for storage in the EFI?

 

My current GPU-Z

 

That was me haha I'll bring the link back again

Gunmetal S13 Pictures

 

Wow, nice entitlement attitude! Perhaps no one on here who owns a s15 either knows what your question means or otherwise has the answer?

Petrov.

 

Amal, what program did you use to get it to 550mhz clock speed? Me and a few others on here haven't been able to get it past 550mhz using MSI afterburner... Any tips appreciated, I'll add good ones to the first post of the thread!

Thanks a lot,

Petrov.

 

Asked for a help from someone.

It's a Bios Mod, instead of OC.

Currently being a tester for this Mod.

Will update more later.

Thanks.

 

That sounds great @Amal. Looking forward to the update!

 

I'm getting an S13. Considering that resolution is not really a big deal for me would you say that colors on the normal panel are better than on the premium one?

 

Id like to give overlocking a go.

MSI afterburner looks like a relatively easy program.

from what i understand the GPU is limited to 540mhz anyway, so thats what ill set it at.

and shader, memmory? or is it just the GPU and RAM? ive never tried this before. could someone let me know what are tolerable/safe levels?

 

Oh, thanks! No gunmetal for me then

 

I have the same exact question!

 

Can someone confirm/refute that because many people told me before that it does not has this cold/bluish tinge at all but rather has a very slight green tinge. I am starting to get confused now!

 

My wife's gold S13 Premium had a slight green tinge out of the box but after running a color calibration from within Windows 7, the greenish tinge is gone and the colors look much better.

 

But does it have the cold/bluish tinge?

 

^Not on her S13 Premium.

 

Thanks for letting me know.

 

No problem. Her S13 Premium screen is pretty good. I would not say perfect, and it is far from Z-like. But she is happy with it and unless she says something about it otherwise, then it is good enough. Her other VAIO is the SR590 with the 1280 by 800 resolution and to me that screen looks better than the S13 Premium screen.

 

If i am someone who is absolutely not interested in gaming and primary purpose of the laptop will be web surfing, movies, connecting to large screen LCD TV sometimes and some MS office stuff then will the following be a better buy ?

Amazon.com: Sony VAIO S Series SVS151190X 15.5-Inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Laptop (Black) / 3rd gen Intel® CoreTM i5-3210M processor / 4G / 500GB / Windows 7: Computers & Accessories

This one i am assuming does not have a NVidia card but i think i do not need it also. Never going to do any graphics intensive work. That speed mode in the higher specs laptop is totally useless and i will never use it i know.

I am not someone who is hell bent on having a 1080p screen so will it be wise to drop the Vaio S altogether and see another laptop with 768p resolution (whatever it is called 1366 x 768 one) ??

 

1366x768 is way too low of a resolution, especially in bigger screens, especially these days. it maybe (and i repeat, maybe) look barely okay on a 13" display (and i personally don't think it does), but if you want to go bigger, 1366x768 is too low.

 

That's the same model as the base from Sony, and if I'm mistaken, isn't sony offering a PS3 or something? Either way, I probably wouldn't mind buying straight from sony in case the warranty support is different, it's only another 20$.

I would love a 1080P screen personally. If I pay more than 800$ for a laptop, I'm going to want 1080P, anything less is just abysmal in my opinion. I could certainly live with a good screen if everything else was great (acer timelineu m5) but the Sony screen is better than 95% of the sub-1000$ market, other than the Vizio laptop, which has a pretty gorgeous display. (Maybe they're the exact same though, haha)

 

Oh i forgot to mention, i will be buying my laptop ONLY from amazon.com as i have sufficient balance. If i want 1080p but do not need Nvidia gfx and all such things then is that base model fine for me ?
Because next model is at 999 $ which means it will be like 160+$ pricier.

 

Why are you focused on the S15 if you don't care about its gfx capability or screen? You could probably save a fair bit of money with other options - perhaps try asking in the "What Notebook Should I Buy" forum?

Petrov.

 

If you don't do games or any other similarly graphics heavy work, I think the Sony would be fine for you - I see no reason for you to really need anything stronger than an HD4000.

 

Well I personally don't think he understands the value of a 1080P screen (not saying you're dumb or anything! Just wondering if you've ever seen the diff). Before I had my 1080P monitor, I was totally fine with my 1366x768 laptop screen, but now with a 1080P monitor, I would never want to go back to the bad resolutions. Once you get something in 1080P, going back is really painful, haha.

And with that point, some people just like the premium feel of such laptops, and if you have enough money for it, they can be much nicer feeling and using than cheaper laptops out there.

 

Mostly programming and some other CAD type applications, but I will just use the lab computer most likely.

Anyone have any real-world performance numbers between the i7-3520 and the i5-3320? Not sure if it really justifies the 200 or so difference.

 

id like to give this a try, but ive never tried OC-ing before

so so i put a setting of +40 on the core clock (mhz) slider?
and +250 on the memory clock (mhz) slider?

would appreciate any tips

 

You will never use msata on the curent Vaio S. Get a regular ssd, or if you already have an Msata SSD around look for another laptop, one that supports it.

 

Yes. But better take smaller steps.
Do some stress test after each step. If you notice artifacts or hickups, then you have reached the limit and you need to reduce the clock slightly.
As far as artifacts go, little pixel size dots indicate too high core clock.
horizontal and random lines indicate to too high memory clock.
BSOD or freeze can be triggered by too high temperatures.

 

I am 99% sure I am going to buy a Sony S 15.5 inch, I am just waiting until my current laptop sells, I am not in a rush. The screen looks fine to me, I have seen last years model in HHGregg. The weight is good, keyboard flex is kind of high and it is a little bit wide, too bad they can't shrink the bezel and the whole laptop along with it. My only question is, should I get the basic core i5, or the 3212QM, the 35W TDP one. I plan on playing alot of Civilization 5, and Minecraft. I really want a quad core because it sounds like the right thing to do, and I have read that the additional 3mb l3 cache helps out. Does anyone have any real reason why the core i7 is not worth getting.
I plan on getting an SSD and my own ram of course.

 

In terms of the battery life, yes. 2 cores will be better than 4 cores for the battery life.

I wasn't able to access the BIOS of my GPU using Nibitor. What are you using to mod the BIOS? Is it possible to unlock the BIOS so the GPU can be clocked the same as GT 640M, 650M, 660M depending on what your GPU can take without crashing or overheating?

Everyone should be able to reach 540mhz core (the unmodded cap) without any problems. That's only a 9% core OC.

Most people should be able to reach 1100mhz memory without any problems. Anything past that is gravy.

You have it backwards. Random pixel dots means too much memory OC, lines and random flashing polygons means too much core OC. Until the core OC is unlocked, no one should be running into problems with the core.

In your case, I would get the quad-core. Your compiles will go much faster with 4 cores, as will any CAD stuff you do when you're at the rendering phase.

 

So i need a final word whether it will be a good decision to buy the following model for around 840$, which does not have the Nvidia card and there is less RAM and HDD also

Amazon.com: Sony VAIO S Series SVS151190X 15.5-Inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Laptop (Black) / 3rd gen Intel® CoreTM i5-3210M processor / 4G / 500GB / Windows 7: Computers & Accessories

Or get this one for 999$

Amazon.com: Sony VAIO S Series SVS15113FXB 15.5 LED Notebook Intel Core i5-3210M 2.5 GHz 6GB DDR3 640GB HDD DVD-Writer NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M LE Bluetooth Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Black: Computers & Accessories

As i mentioned before, i am not going to use the laptop for gaming at all so i am guessing that the nvidia graphics is pretty much useless for me. If i buy the model without nvidia card (840 $), that would not have a stamina / speed switch at all right ?

 

I intend to buy the premium S13 model, I'm just not certain whether I should stick to the basic included processor, or go for the i7. Is the difference in performance worth $200? Same question goes for the difference between the included i5-3210M or the $50 more expensive i5-3320M. Thanks ahead.

 

I've seen most games max out the i7 in mine, but on the other hand it hits 95C and only runs without throttling in 'priority to ventilation' mode - not sure how the i5 compares

 

I am thinking about buying this from the sony store.

SVS151190X Enhanced

3rd gen Intel® Core™ i5-3210M processor (2.50GHz / 3.10GHz with Turbo Boost)
Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
15.5" LED backlit Full HD display (1920 x 1080)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE (1GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
500GB (7200rpm) hard drive
6GB (4GB fixed onboard + 2GB removable) DDR3-1333Mhz
CD/DVD player / burner
Internal lithium polymer battery (4400mAh)

$969.99 + free PS3 +tax.

Is that a good deal? Can I find a better deal elsewhere? How is this laptop, does it have any major issues that others who already own it have experienced?

 

Thanks for the non-answer it was completely useful.

 

Here's an idea, buy one, test it, and let us know.

 

I think that the Free PS3/Vita makes Sony Store always the best option..

 

Ignore......

 

To all canadian customers searching for deals on these computers from store.sony.ca, I've found a new coupon code that I've tested and saw a savings of $100 on any pc over $1000, helps considering we don't get any edu discount or free ps3/vita...

ps: enter the code during checkout

Code:

VOUCHERCODES

 

Does anyone know where I can find some type of vinyl to cover the Vaio logo? It seems to scratch really easily.

 

I really can't stand the S13A screen anymore. Graininess/pixel walk/flicking, it got issues. But to my surprise, I found that I could actually print out a RMA label from Sony store (before I thought I couldn't return it).

Anyways, the computer is getting shipped back first thing tomorrow morning. If I get my money back, I think I'll get the S15 with IPS instead.

 

its probably not been tried yet which is why you haven't gotten a response.

 

I don't have to do much/any rendering. My CAD sofware is mostly PCB design and such (i.e. EagleCad). I'm just interested in the real world performance difference of the i7-3520 (dual core) and i5-3320. Is it truely worth the $200 difference?

 

I'm in college right now studying software development, I'll be running vm's, oracle and mysql, eclipse, and a bunch of other things and I feel comfortable with my choice of 3320 i5. According to intel's site the 3210 lacks some of the virtualization technology that the i7 has. The 3320M has all of the same features as the i7, and for me it was only a $50 upgrade. Also considering alot of applications cannot fully utilize the quad core I think the $200 would make a much greater impact on real world use if it was spent on a SSD.

Edit: Considering last semester I was doing all of that on a Penryn Core 2 Duo w/ 4GB of ram, even the base i5 would be a substantial upgrade from Core 2 Duo.

 

I managed to scratch the surface of my S15 while removing the "intel inside"-etc. stickers from it. I used a sponge that was a bit too rough for the surface and now there's a spot with tiny scratches on my right hand side.. If anyone else attempts to remove the stickers and the sticky residue they leave behind from their laptop, use oil! (Some forum said baby oil, I used standard cooking oil) After trying everything else, it finally worked and got them off.

I'll try to smooth the surface later today and see if I can get my scratches to disappear..

The S15 looks much sleeker without the stickers imo.

 

^ Yeah, the stickers ruin the look of any laptop.. Removing them was the first thing I did on my S13.

Earlier I said that I don't really notice the flickering/graininess on my screen anymore, however now I have another problem with the display.. the left side is slightly (but noticeably) brighter than the right side. It's not a problem when watching videos or gaming, but it sticks out when browsing.

Again, this isn't a flaw big enough to return the laptop, but that's just because there just doesn't seem to be any competition for this combination of performance and size (and looks, I really like Sony's style). However, calling this display "premium" is wrong, and looking at the advertised features for the premium displays (Adobe RGB, high brightness/contrast) I think this might also qualify as false advertising..

 

^
True. I wonder who came up with the idea of labelling the S13A screen as Vaio Display Premium. It is only a marginal quality upgrade over last year's SA panel.