Official 2012 Sony S Series Owners Thread

The UK Sony site is now offering the S13 (and maybe the S15 - didn't check) with the free battery slice. Much better deal than the previous one (which was £50 for an extra 8GB RAM).

 

I guess everyone else notices the "pixels" or graininess? I don't know why the SA3 does not have any of this and it is also an LED and Matte (Anti-Glare) display.

Does the S15 have this as well?

PS: This "pixels" or graininess only occurs on lower resolution displays like the 1366x728...

Also, when comparing the SA3 to the new SVS, it is like night and day, very noticable. And the whites are better on the SA3, especially when looking at the Google home page.

 

I hope the silver S15 comes back on amazon soon. There was one but it is sold. I am looking specifically for the one without the Nvidia GPU. Don't really need that.

 

Hi Everyone,

I just made my decision about my next laptop being a Sony Vaio S. Even though I read most of this gigantic thread I could not answer all the questions in my mind, therefore could not make my final decisions. Any answer to these questions are highly appreciated :

1. Most important question question is shall I pick 13 Inch or 15 inch version ? I know that it is a trade off between mobility and CPU power but I still need to know the differences between build quality, screen quality (forum mentions 15 inch has IPS screen but with a color reproduction flaw)

2. In the forums I read that the empty RAM slot supports max 8 GB of ram. Has anyone tried to install a 16 GB module in the empty slot ?

3. In the original post Samsung 830 and the Crucial M4 was recommended for SSD upgrades over the original hard drive. These SSD drives are a little slower than the most recent competition (I suppose they are very stable). Can you recommend a faster alternative to these SSD drives please ?

4. What is the difference between 13 inch and 15 inch model in terms of fan noise and heat emission ? What is the difference between i7-3520M and i7-3610QM in terms of gaming performance ? How much slower are the games on 1920*1080 screen compared to 1600*900 ?

5. Have anyone tried both 13 inch and 15 inch models ? If you have, how do you compare them ?

Thank you all very much for the valuable information.

 

Interesting, as mine is still in the build stage would I have a good shout at requesting this new offer be included with my S15? Am I right to think that I am entitled to any new offers within a certain time period after making a purchase (in the UK)?? I doubt I'll really need the slice battery, but if it's going free

PS: What's really frustrating is that if I had waited another 2 weeks I would have got the slice battery for free and the total cost would've been around £30 cheaper (at myself for being impatient)

 

Received my S13P earlier today, removed HDD and installed Samsung 830 256gb SSD which was a piece of cake even for a novice. Reinstalled Windows by previously making recovery disk on USB, deleted all the crapware and other programs recommended by Petrov. Unchecked the majority of programs in startup in MSCONFIG, Laptop boots up in no more than 10 seconds, programs start up instantly. Never had a SSD before, Probably the quickest and nicest laptop i`ve ever owned. Screen to me seems pretty good. Not perfect though. Is there a way turning the contrast down without adjusting brightness?

 

Hehe snap! Ive just installed my extra RAM and Samsung ssd, all without any hiccups so far.

Currently installing windows 8 preview, although I went for the ISO option rsther than USB

Got about 17 of the 20 drivers from the front page downloaded but still missing the ones I linked to a while ago, hope they aren't important!

 

That was the one thing putting me off installing windows from scratch, even downloaded all the drivers ready, but then thought i might mess it up. So glad I went for the S13P instead of the sager 6110 11"

 

I wish I knew the mechanics behind display technology better, but I have the sense that screens are built to work at the native display, and that rescaling is really all algorithmic. As an anecdote, I noticed on the S15 that if I switch it to 1600x900 looked gross, but if I leave it at 1980x1020 and fiddle with Windows DPI settings (to increase text size), it looks great. If you're OK with your 1600x900 resolution (or almost, in your case, it seems) then I don't think it's a defect at all that lower resolutions look grainy.

FWIW you have part of an answer: On the S15, FHD is awesome (remember it's IPS) and lower resolutions are pretty bad. In any case my whites look good.

If there's anything you want to try or test on the 15" just let me know!

-Matt

 

So I got my S13A up here in Canada a few hours ago. I'm at work, so I don't have wireless access. All I've done is turn it on, let the battery charge, and play around on the desktop. Some initial impressions:

- What a slick looking machine. The size, the finish of the materials. Just feels.. Nice. Expensive.

- The screen isn't NEARLY as bad as everyone is saying it is. The vertical viewing angles do suck. Horizontal is pretty good. But things like.. Grainyness? Seeing pixels at notmal viewing range? Give me a break people. The worst one is people talking about the flickering in the top right corner. Yes, it is there. You know how I was able to even notice it? By staring at JUST the top right square inch of screen, with my face about 6 inches away. THAT'S how noticeable it is. And I don't have poor vision either. It's at least 20/20, maybe better.

- Having the 1600x900 resolution on this size of laptop feels quite amazing. I know it's not FHD, or Retina, but for someone who isn't used to everything being this tiny.. I love it.

 

I have very less knowledge about the DPI and resolution stuff. I want to ask that if i say buy the S15 and then i feel that the overall text is tiny for my liking, can i get larger text without lowering the resolution.
Because if i have to lower the resolution then it defeats the purpose of a 1080p screen. Is this done through DPI settings ?

 

Just wondering Remlap, do you actually notice the "pixels" or the graininess of the screen?

And if you right click on the home page and then click on screen resolution, it states my monitor is: VAIO_LCD. Shouldn't it be: Mobile PC Display?

PS: Where can I change the settings for my trackpad? I want to know how to go forward and backwards between site on web browsers.

 

In Windows control panel, there is an option, "Make it easier to read what's on screen," which allows you to rescale text and buttons to your liking (there's also a custom DPI setting on the same panel). If you change the DPI, the screen resolution stays the same (I assume it simply resets the drawing size for text/UI elements), which is crisp and clean. No artifacts. I'm finding that with a mix of DPI tuning and a little bit of Ctrl-+ in Firefox and Chrome, things are great.

-Matt

 

I'm pretty sure the 3-finger gesture is on by default. Navigate a few pages through a website, then swipe your 3 fingers left (back) or right (forward). It also works inside Windows photo viewer.

You know I read your screename as RUN-ORDEE. Just realized it's RUN-OR-DIE! LOL

-Matt

 

Thanks for that. This is what i was looking for.

 

Are there any other gestures available by default other than three finger left and right?

 

Well so far, so... Ok.

Windows 8 installed fine and all of the drivers.

Had the battery incompatible issue which i fixed by searching the thread and disabling isb utility from running.

Had to get the fan and hardware diagnostixs from the US support site, but i still cant seem to find a fan control anywhere in order to set the fan speed for gaming

And the last really wierd issue - this forum crashes internet explorer all the time.

Cant work that one out at all, i use ie on my desktop and at work with no issues. All the other sites ive tested work fine!

 

Not sure what's turned on by default, but some options:

- 3-finger flick
- 3-finger press (launches desired app)
- pinch-zoom and rotation

A feature I like is "Right Button Zone" which allows you to fix the size of the virtual right-click corner -- in my case I make it as small as possible, leaving most of the clickpad as a left-click and then a 2-finger tap for right-click (which seems to be default and fixed, I can't find the setting for that).

Another nice feature is SmartSense which suppresses palm touches while typing, but also allows you to designate the size/shape of the region that ignores touches.

I seem to recall the Samsung NP700Z5C had a better set of configuration options -- a lot more gesture control.

-Matt

 

Where is the options/settings page?

Also, does anyone else notice the pixels/graniness of the display?

And does everyone else have VAIO_LCD when they go into Screen Resolution? I thought it should be Mobile PC Display as what my SA3 has listed....

 

If you don't already have the touchpad icon in your system tray:

Control Panel -> Mouse -> Device Settings (last tab) -> Settings (button) -> Configuration menu

-Matt

 

I just saw something that might cause me to return this thing.. Down on the bottom right of the screen, JUST above the bezel (as in, close enough that it could almost fall underneath where the bezel meets the screen) there appears to be a tiny.. I don't know what to call it.. Chip? Scratch?

Upon first glance, I thought it was just a tiny fluff or piece of dust. But it's actually an issue with the screen itself. Now.. Is this going to bug me enough to bother with Sony customer service, and have to wait another 2 weeks to get my laptop?

I'm reminded of an anecdote my Dad told me a couple times. A friend of his bought a brand new car. Right off the lot. Within 3 weeks, he was driven so crazy by trying to keep any little bit of dirt/scratch off of it, that he allegedly told his wife "take this hammer, and go make a small dent somewhere on my car so I'll stop worrying".

Maybe I should just leave it? Knowing that my laptop has a tiny flaw to begin with might make me less OCD about keeping it at 100% quality.

 

Hi All, I've had an S 13 premium for a couple weeks and thought I'd share my impressions for those thinking of buying. I bought the SVS13A16GGBversion with the 256GB Sony SSD, i7 3520m and 2GB 640m LE graphics. This is the only S13 Premium model you can buy in New Zealand and you cannot customise any model when buying from Sony NZ unfortunately.

I replaced the optical drive with a 1TB Western Digital Blue drive using this caddy converter: 2nd HDD / SSD Caddy for Sony VAIO SVS, S13, S15 (2012,VPC-) [OBHD9-SATA-SATA-NF] - $42.00 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks
The process was not that hard but I'm not a great attention to detail person and it was fiddly to install.

This laptop is really fast in day to day use with the Sony SSD 900MB+ reads and 600MB writes. I've used the bios mod to clock my graphics to 950Mhz and managed to play every game I've tried on 1600x900 at medium or better graphics.The games I have tried include Diablo 3, Path of Exile, GTA IV, Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Rage, Saints Row 3, Mass Effect 1,2 & 3, Dragon Age Origins and Rage. BF3 and Saints Row 3 hit low 20s FPS quite frequently but the other games all stayed at over 40FPS.

I find the screen to be interesting. Blacks are not great and the viewing angle is really picky in my opinion. If you get the angle right it looks ok browsing and very nice in games. If you get it slightly wrong it seems to lose all contrast so images look very drab. The matte coating is very pronounced and once again depending on the angle you view the screen at it can look very grainy and pixilated with any light coloured content on the screen (so that's most web browsing and document use). The grainyness is not really noticable when gaming. I went into my local JB HiFi and checked out a bunch of laptop screens yesterday. It seemed that the screen was better than most of the cheap Dells in there, and worse than the Apple laptops. This is a little disappointing considering the only Vaio S Premium model you can buy in New Zealand is $3199NZD (2591USD). For that price it would be nice to have a screen at least comparable to the non-retina macbook pro laptops in terms of contrast and viewing angles.

 

That was Totally Wicked! - YouTube

 

Forgive my frequent posting today, and especially if this is old news, but I stumbled on an S15 review worth posting:

Sony VAIO S Series 15 (SVS15113FXB) Review | Multimedia Notebook Reviews

 

The biggest con seems to be the weak speakers.. anyone found a good solution for that.. I did try bass management.. not much diff thou..

 

Just wondering, for me, on the right hand side, I notice that words are abit blurrier and darker than all the rest of the words. Is this due to the bad viewing angles or due to screen banding?

Also, I noticed that the graininess and being able to see the pixels are due to the anti-glare coating? Are there any settin to minimize this? Like changing settings for color?

Don't know why when comparing my older SA3, that screen does not have this issue, but the colors are not as vivid.

 

Where is the Bass Boost function? I uninstalled the Realtek audio drivers and it automatically installed the Windows stock drivers. Now in Enhancements I have the options Bass Management, Virtual Surround, Room Correction, and Loudness Equallization. I don't see the Bass Boost option.

 

Sorry.. I meant bass management..

 

Hi everyone. Awesome thread, have read through alot of it and have taken the leap today and purchased an S Series. This is my first post here!

I am in New Zealand and our model numbers appear to be alot different. My model is a SVS13A16GGB. It appears to be the premium model. It has the 1600x900 screen, i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and the gold VAIO logo.

Anyway, I am really happy with it so far, am just currently reinstalling windows to remove any bloat.

My main question I have at the moment is with the factory SSD option does it allow me to swap it out in the future for a different SSD, say if something went wrong with the SSD once it was outside its warranty period. I have take the back cover off and the connector appears to be a proprietary style one, not a standard SATA connector.

If it is a proprietary one can the ribbon be changed to a SATA style one?

 

After reading this extremely useful thread and instead of waiting forever for the Gigabyte U2442V, I took the plunge and ordered a black S13P (SVS13A15GG/B) with the sheet battery pack. I also plan to install a SanDisk Extreme 480GB SSD and a Seagate Momentus XT 750GB HDD.

I have a few questions:

1) Win7 setup: Is it better to clone the setup from original HDD to SSD and then uninstall those Sony "bloatware" that I don't need, or just install a clean Win7 from scratch (from Sony's recovery disc?) or install from the Sony recovery discs to SSD?

2) Can I use a 65W adapter ( mCube Lite Overview) instead of 90W as I remembered reading that the S13P actually uses 60W or less.... I need to get 4-5 adapters as I travel a lot for work and prefer to have spare adapters in all the locations I travel to.

3) Anyway other ways to add 3G WWAN and the option is not available in my country?

4) Thinking of changing the wifi card to Bigfoot Networks KillerN-1202 as I have very good experience from Alienware M14x... Any comments?


Thanks in advance!

 

hi all, anyone have 3g wwan in S15? wwan connection is interrupted if i plug in the ethernet cable in lan slot, anyone have a solution for the problem? i need to use 3g connection whit the lan slot cabled and active!

 

Me again

Does anyone know if you can OC the ram to 1600 Mhz?

Is getting the SSD worth it? I never really use the ODD in my current laptop so I would take the 640 GB HDD and put it in the ODD bay and put in the 256 GB Samsung 830 or the Crucial M4.

Any student discount on the s15? (US)

 

well i got my s13 prem in 3 days and well i am in general impressed! yes the screen has its downsides but in my opinion is also very good, jsut takes a bit of getting used to, better than 1366x768 ones. Love the track pad already

Okay down to business...

I play a game called World of tanks, which is more single core cpu intensive, but graphics card does help alot.

Basically by going from high graphics settings to med my FPS really only changes by like 5 (30ish range on both settings). I got GPU-Z and gpu utilization is about half on either. I am running stock bios, priority to ventilation, and the i5 cpu. Is the cpu my bottle neck you think? How would i check, i mean my desktop gets much better frames, and it isn't all that much faster base clockspeed...

any input would be nice!


Also at idle does the fan supposed to be running? i mean not too loud but if you listen for it, or perfect silence you can hear it.

 

As far as the SSD worth it question. That is entirely up to you. A mini-van holds more people and costs roughly $25k new. A sports car holds less people but is faster than mini-van. It costs roughly $50k. Both will get get you where you need to go. Are you willing to spend the extra money on something faster and sacrifice space?

If you are just a casual user (browsing, MS Office processing, streaming music/videos) then no i "PERSONALLY" do not think its worth it. I can wait an extra 10 - 30 seconds for my PC to boot up. I can wait the extra time for programs to install.

(although i'll admit the speed is addicting, once you go SSD you will never want to go back to HDD be warned!).

Personally i'd wait at least another year or so until prices come down. Both Samsung 830 and the M4 are highly reviewed with very minimal fail rates.

 

I just checked the .edu site (I check every hour! ) and so far, nothing major going on there (mostly free sheet battery). But last year Sony had a back-to-school promotion in early August (and another mid-late September) so hang in there.

Actually, if you're biting your nails, maybe you can call in and see what the CSR's say. I've seen over and over on this thread that speaking to a live Sony human opens doors to savings.

-Matt

 

Does that apply to Reps for Sony Canada?

 

Well if you trust my foggy memory, what I recall from this monster thread is that both US and CA buyers have had similar experiences (different deals, but similar responses from the CSRs). And I live by the "It doesn't hurt to ask!" rule so give them a call! And report back what you hear.

-Matt

 

Hey, Sherlock, how did you get that 30 % discount on the premium edition of the s13? Thanks a ton mate. Please do answer me, it'll help me tremendously

 

Hey Matt, I'm in exactly the same situation as you and am checking every hour ;D What do I say to the CSR's? Also, what's the result of your Series 7 vs Vaio match up? Cheers mate

 

It was actually off of an outlet one... outlet items from sony are NOT USED! they were just configed by probably one of us fickle NBR users, and then canceled before shipping.

So basically talked to rep via online chat, i think the 30% was not intended for the newer models just older ones. i ordered the next day and had to "remind" them of the chat to get the discount. Hope this helps:

 

Oh thanks a lot mate! Will let you know if I get lucky as well, once again thanks

 

Sherlock this is going to sound silly, butt how did you get in touch with an online rep from sales? The people I've gotten through to have only told me to call up

 

Same here, no online chat for sales. If I do find an cheaper laptop with Gunmetal, can I always refund the customized one I have now? I called Canada Sony and they said they can't return CTO laptops...

PS: Am I still the only one that finds the anti-glare coating that produces the graniness and pixels really annoying?

Also, who else has keyboard flex? It is alot more visible in day light and with the backlit keyboard turned on.

 

How to get to an online sales rep... simple sit there trying to customize if its sometime between i think 10 and 5pm CST you can get that pop up and then there ya go chat away... if it doesent come in like 15min try going back to store main page go sit in customizing a laptop again.

In the US BTW, if its location specific. And make them feel like their in control.

And @ screen, yeah its a bit odd but i think ill get used to it, i still like it more than my 1366x768 im typing this on at work. i can see the same grid like pattern if i look close the glossyness just hides it/covers it up.

Keyboard flex... never really looked at it before in laptops soo, not too much help, but yeah mine does seem to flex... is it noticeable? not really could be too that im adjusting to the smaller keyboard.

I would still recommend this machine...

 

also too side note within 30 days of purchase if the price drops you can get refunded the difference... so bear that in mind too.

 

So I finally got my vaio s13p and am loving it so far... but for some reason when I have the computer turned off and I press the web button, it just boots up the computer and loads the internet explorer. I haven't done any restores or anything to the computer yet, just finished burning the recovery discs actually

Edit: Didn't realize it before, but that's what the button is supposed to do. Didn't know we didn't have the quick web access feature in our laptop. I feel that's kind of a waste of a button though... Why put a button to open the web browser when you can just turn on the computer and open the web browser? -__-

 

So I just had a lengthy conversation with a CSR and I unfortunately wasn't able to get a 30% discount on the new models, but she told me that Sony usually updates their promo's and offers on Saturday at midnight. make of that what you will

 

So i just received my new S13 P. No special added configurations. I am coming from a Sony Vaio Z-720D (1600x900 screen as well) and I have had it for years. It hasn’t once failed me and has been one of the best laptops I have ever owned. I felt time for a faster notebook as i like to render HD videos and some Photoshop.
First let me say that this laptop is Beautiful! Very smooth and sleek. I personally love the giant track-pad and the keyboard. Even with its 7,200 HDD, it’s still a fast notebook. Spec wise and features it is amazing. I ALMOST love everything about it except for ONE thing.

The Screen Quality!!!

Umm, i am not happy with it at all. The viewing angles are legit crap on it. You have to be directly in the center for best viewing. If not, it's either washed out or "blacked" out (depending what way you are looking). I was hoping the reviewers here were somewhat wrong as to how bad the screen is, but i was wrong. But i needed to see it for myself. The whites and blacks compared to my old vaio Z is off by miles (Picture Below). Sadly the pixels on whites are very noticeable to me.
Now as far as the screen, i can maybe classify that as a "personal" opinion, because my other friends and relatives they think it’s amazing, keep in mind they aren't use to high resolution images, and maybe those of us that are complaining are picky. Regardless I do think for the price of over 1k for this notebook it should have a better screen quality.

This is as best of a natural picture i can get with my DSLR camera to compare white background on google's homepage.




PLEASE, do not base your purchase based on my opinion because this is a beautiful and awesome machine. Especially for the price and specs.
Today I played with the Asus UX32VD, and MY GOODNESS. That screen is extremely dreamy!! Top-notch and full HD 1080p. I love the plain look of the Vaio S 100 times more than the Asus, but I think I’m going to be returning this Vaio and get the UX32VD. That or put it on the classified to give someone a chance to get this laptop for the price that I paid $1,100.
I’m sure if you are coming from a lower end laptop the screen will not bug you at all.

 

Z owners are a spoiled bunch

 

can anyone who OC'd the 640m LE attest as to whether it has effected battery life, and if so, how much?