Official Sony S11/S12/S13 (2010) Owners Thread

Perhaps people are best off getting their information relating to the S series from actual owners who can give all the information people require...

 

Because of the GC and the high WA.

ROTFL. BTW, I never watch TV, do you?

PS: the SSDs you considered in that table are pretty old and probably targeted for cheap systems (and most likely they are the same drive).

 

... is the word distinguishing beliefs from reality.

But you are right - so you stick to your "job" as an owner and I'll stick to mine as an eventual future owner, who is still not affected by the "what I own is what's best" virus everyone of us has in different degree. ok?

I bet impartial people do appreciate both.

If you have any particular drive in mind, I'd be more then happy to investigate how it compares to others - this information would be valuable to me too as I am also looking at SSDs but still haven't had the time to check specific models.

 

Actual owners or not, gracy's posts about (for example) the cpu and hdd benchmarks are of more use to me than any other owner's opinion. Since I want to base my choice on facts aswell, instead of many different and confusing opinions.

 

Not for me. The posts and the conversations they've provoked have been really informative.

Looks like I'm going to take the plunge and order one. Wish I could configure a Y series with UMTS/everywair but doesn't look like this will be possible.

Thanks for all the info everyone

 

Where are you from? Here two Y models are available, one of them comes with the everywAir module.

 

The UK. The Y series overview page actually makes everyWair a key feature but the sole model available doesn't include it and isn't configurable. I phoned up and the sales guy said he's certain it is not available.

Where are you? - fancy getting into the xport business

 

May I reply saying "I don't know, look at TV advs"? I'll go for a x25-M 80GB, IMHO is the best choice, great performances within a decent price. Sony usually takes SSDs from Samsung (like Apple and Dell), not bad but not good either, I do prefer the Intel one. You could start reading the storage section at http://www.anandtech.com/storage/. I don't know whether you were referring to me, but let me explain what I meant before (here, because I know you don't reply to PM). About the CPU dispute, I just wanted to say that there is no "clear" choice (and that even though it's an entry level CPU, i3 is not bad at all), and maybe we agreed about it, but it makes no sense comparing CPUs without taking into account your needs and your money, people should find the CPU that fits that requirements, not the one that performs X times better than another on a whatever site/list. You can find and use all the reviews you want to support any idea you have, you'll always find someone that thinks the way you think, just consider reviews for what they are: a user review, a considerable one, but still a user review. But there are many users out there and no absolute truth. About this I agree with Steve, I'd like to hear daily user's point of view too, which is often better than reading some numbers without the right context, considerations and filtering, as you did with the SSDs table you posted here. That said, here I am for constructive discussions, hoping not to hurt or annoy anyone, you too.

 

In Italy, but I'm afraid you'd not like much our keyboard

Uhm, I'm re-thinking about buying from sonystyle: I'm a bit concerned about dead/stuck pixels and it looks like shops are not going to change the notebook for a single pixel. Any experiences with dead pixels and sony style? Might it worth the extra money and wait?

 

(As a software developer) I'd still prefer a higher res screen but understand it's not a common sight for 13" laptops. I find it's usually easier to scale up, browsers do it well and now Windows 7 is pretty good at it, too.
And regarding the never ending issue re low vertical angle of the S display, I was using it today and I had the laptop sometimes on a sofa and if I was standing I couldn't see clearly what was displayed. Maybe Sony should have targeted the S for the ones who could do with a privacy screen when using public transport (I do)

 

I've got a dead pixel on my first gen Z, am going to call Sony about that actually to check their policy but AFAIK they won't replace the screen just for the one.

 

I have made great experience with Samsung HDD - that's the oldest one I have and performs just as good as when it was new. Never had a single problem with it. (Talking about mechanical HDD). As far as I know though, Sony S comes with Toshiba mainly.
Intel X25-M is in fact one of the best as far as I know from what I've read. I also would have it in mind when I start looking for SSD. Still not sure how it compares price-wise.

User reviews and experience is something very valuable!! I never said the opposite. This said, they have something which is a huge disadvantage - Objectivity

The only way to see how something performs in comparison to the rest is to let them compete! To do this, you need to put them next to each other under the same conditions and impartial jury and let them show which one is better. People call this a "rally" in the "real" life or a "benchmark" in the computer world.
As valuable information as an user could give you (no doubt), he could never be impartial and objective, neither have the ability to compare. Saying that something is "good" means actually nothing, because "good" for you might not be "good" for thousand other people and vice versa.

The best way to choose a product from all available is to look in which order they crossed the finish line and then look at the number next to each one and decide for yourself how high you would or can go. And you are right here to say that it is strictly individual! I never said i3 is trash - it is there to satisfy the needs and/or financial abilities of certain people, as well as each other CPU or product. Maybe you understood me wrong - I'm not against i3.
One needs to consider though how long and for what he needs the notebook.

We are all different... but to see how different - we would need a benchmark, and not friends who know us to say how "great" or "bad" we are

I'm glad that obviously there are people here who are as well interested in the scientific facts and comparisons and not only in X's or Y's point of view.

This said I am thankful to all of you who shared personal experience with the S, as this is really something one can not alwazs read elsewhere.

P.s. to answer your question about the HDD ranking ist - the numbers are the speeds the drives achieved under same tests.

 

The main point of focus in a multimedia system is screen, sony used to be a multimedia machine but with new E,S,CW... it is not any more.Some may say S is a business notebook but then the case is the same with Z and you can't compare displays.

They are luxury because they need to be treated consciously.Thus not all people can afford them.You may pay a bit more on thinkpads but they will last longer.

You can find good looking machines elsewhere too(like HP 5310 and Acer 3935) and like you say S is not a multimedia laptop nor a real business one.

Not knowing about a thing doesn't mean that thing doesn't exist!

 

How can calibrating the screen improve the viewing angles?

Thanks Steve for not posting photos of your S! I didn't mean you have to man! easy...

How much you've been paid for this job? I need to apply it

 

Benchmarks can be useful to get an idea about items behaviour on that specific aspect being tested, but may not be fully descriptive. On the other way, while arguing, you can use and show the benchmark you prefer. Objectivity, justice, meritocracy do not exist in their purest form, even reviews can be "bugged" or incomplete, and certainly evaluable.

As long as you know that people can be wrong it's fine, you'll try to read their comments with the right prospective. Looking at all the different opinions here I managed to get an idea of the vaio S even before seeing it. And one of the first thing I said on another forum after touching the S with my hands was "my impressions are similar to the ones showed at notebookreview". I do prefer to build my own opinion evaluating sources, trying to take them into account in the right way. Be careful, there are lots of thing you would never discover with a simple benchmarks. When 9 person out of 10 tells you something is good, probably you'd better believe them, while a single "reliable" reviewer can be wrong.

Some time ago I tested a couple of routers with expensive professional equipment. Well, it's been somehow hard because it's difficult to reproduce always the same behaviour/results. Often test result must be interpreted, understood, you can easily find scientific papers with different conclusions starting from similar data and results. That's what you seem to ignore, evaluation, not just testing

However, I'm not against benchmarks, but it makes no sense staring at numbers without reasoning on them, like you seem to do sometimes. Since we already exposed our opinions and we are going off topic, I'd prefer not to talk about this again (but obviously feel free to reply)

 

How do you know that?

 

If you knew what I do for a living, you would have been more careful with the above Let's just say that as I have a lot to do with testing prototypes - stuff that won't see blue sky in the next months or years, I have a very good idea how benchmarks, evaluations and testcases are structured and what the workflow of a prof. evaluation and testing is However you should know that evaluation is only important for finding the reason for a phenomenon... you need absolutely no evaluation for the fact that 3 is more then 2, do you
That's why I trust numbers more then words - because they need no evaluation.

As for the need of user's opinion - you say nothing different than me, that both benchmarks and user's experience are important. Nevertheless you can't put a professional view under question while you believe single users who might or might not have touched another notebook in their lifes to know what really counts. No one has more experience and better eye for defects than a professionalist... take it from someone who has a few years experience in this field, even without calling myself professionalist in what I do.

I can only suggest you and the rest to read both prof. benchmarks/reviews AND customers' feedback, but put a spell on the first!

P.s. The world is "numbers". Believe it or not - your brain can be measured in numbers.... numbers is the only thing that counts... as counting without numbers is impossible the rest is just as subjective as any color seen from different eyes, without being measured in numbers.
That's all on this subject from me. Everyone is free to trust any source he/she wants.

Btw I still haven't read much about the Qualcomm module of the S? Is it working smoothly?

 

I've been member since October 2009 with 82 posts ,she has had 76 since feb 2010. Now I understand what she means when she says competition is good!

No honey that's not true.numbers lie like statistics do.

As I've always said you are my little genius!

 

Stop spamming

 

Who is spamming dude?He or she,,,you look so angry

 

I've had this machine for nearly a week now and haven't had any battery drain....

 

I merely presented you with an alternative look on a different market... You said Lenovos and HPs were well know, which obviously doesn't apply here.

I still think people are way too sensitive on the screen issue, I compared it to an ASUS G70 and an Vaio SZ and everyone said all screens are about the same (well quite smaller but quality wise). The ASUS oversaturates colors due to the Splendid program (if you want a similar boost, turn up DV in Nvidia's control panel), the SZ pretty much has the same display as the S other than resolution and slightly better viewing angles. Keep in mind I had tweaked the color settings. As you guys would say, this is subjective

I would put the Z as more than a business machine. It comes with a fairly powererful graphics chip 330M, one of the best 13.1" screen, SSDs by default, GPS and cellular network (whatever it is called in each country...) built in, higher specced CPUs which alone sets it as a mobile powerhouse. The Z perhaps is one of the most powerful laptops in the 13" category that has a balanced mix of everything. Likewise, being the flagship of Sony, it is destined to be packed with features and its price tag accurately reflects on that. The S series easily could have gotten a better screen or a G330M or even SSDs by default, however they would then simply make the Z look overpriced, hense how the S has gotten relatively few upgrades over the SR other than the hardware platform.

Just my opinion. Anyways those lingering on the S should really just see it in a store to see if they like it. I went, I did, and bought it (after lots of comparisons ).

It helps color reproduction and a good brightness/contrast/gamma profile is equally important for text and general viewing?

The quantity of posts is largely irrelevent if the quality is useless. Not saying that what you post is not good, simply stating those more posts doesn't mean anything but a larger e-peen.

Perhaps you should condense your posts instead of double/triple posting.

What I got from the store clerk was that Sony won't let you officially exchange it unless it is in the middle of the screen. Buying it in stores is better as the clerk offered me to check the laptop first for defects, if there was, then he would get another one. Don't VAIOs all sell at the same price (well they are all basically official Sony stores)? At least here the website and its stores are the same, with the store tossing in a great deal of small extras.


SSD wise, I'm waiting for the next generation of Intel drives which should arrive Q4? this year, which would be much faster than the current ones as well as bring prices down (smaller fab). The other new drives would be the OCZ Vertex and a few others with the new Sandforce controller (a few reviews had their samples die on early firmware though....). Their performance seem pretty solid, prices are similar per gb to Intel ones.
The V series have crap writing speeds (40mbs) but its read speed is well enough to benefit the end user greatly. You won't always be installing or reformatting things on your laptop, which is why read is typically more important than write for laptops. Intels seem to have better drive wear leveling, or so they claim. Most even entry level SSDs (from a reliable brand) can beat a 5400, sometimes 7200rpm drive due to minimal seek times, even lower power consumption (+low heat output), better read speeds, and typically better random read/writes, though this is highly dependent on the controller used. Also theres its silent and shock proof.

I randomly want to say, the G310M seems to be quite overclockable, considering its in a laptop.... Mine reached 730/1710/850 easily and temps under 67c ...

 

It seems that quite a few mobile GPUs are good overclockable... I made such experiments with my ATI some time ago - it worked pretty fine in combination with my Pentium M overclocked by 33%. That's why I'm not really concerned about the 310M being a mainstream, taking into account that I also play games once or twice an year max

 

Laptop chips usually are hindered by poor cooling (RAM/VRM in addition to GPU) and usually worse selection of components (RAM, power regulation) as well. Previously, two VAIOs (SZ and L) that had 7400Go's could not be overclocked past 3% before artifacting, their idle temperature was pretty high as well.

Overclockability is mostly a draw of luck though, some work great, others don't

 

Oops! I'll post some later this evening

 

Hmm, I had my ATI overclocked by about 25% before it started crashing. But I could use it that way...

Of course the temp increased but only slightly.

Anyway, we argued whether the S is a business notebook, but I think we don't need to argue that it is NOT a gaming solution, so the GPU is more then fine as it is

 

Anyone tried to put Ubuntu on to their shiny new S yet..?

 

Another fresh prof. review:

http://www.itpro.co.uk/620758/sony-vaio-vpcs11v9e-b-review

" ...The screen is otherwise excellent - it's bright, with bold colours and excellent viewing angles."

LOL

 

"Another fresh prof. review"

 

The statement is factually correct.

 

exactly - do you see now why I like numbers more then words... because what's good for Dave Stevenson (the reviewer) might not be good for others and vice versa...
...and yet I still believe Dave more than an end customer

Benchamrks are based on numbers and 5 > 3 for all

 

about the problem of preferring a matte display instead glossy, I bought a film Vikuiti ARMR200, and results are simply perfect.

I have found this on-line shop with a on-line configurator: http://www.protectionfilms24.com/custom-sizes.html?pid=3

I have order the same size of the Sony privacy filter VGPFL16 (294 x 166 mm) and it fits exactly in the screen.

As I have suspected, the high brilliance of Vaio S causes an excellent result in applying this film. So there is not any need to stress backlight.

I strongly recommend this 3M filter to anybody wishing a matte display. Results are excellent for indoor and outdoor.

 

Hint: sarcasm

Could you please stop chasing me? I instead see that you are failing in carefully reading other people's words (and it has nothing to do with computers), maybe because you're too busy to make people think you're right [1], getting to wrong conclusions. That's the main reason I won't reply to you any more about this. Sorry for being rude

BTW, I suggest you not to take assume that your interlocutor is ignorant, stupid and doesn't know as many things as you.

Great, I hope to find it somewhere here.

[1] That's why I laughed when you said "I am just presenting facts", it sounded like "I'm showing you the truth", which is a lot different than saying "this is my opinion, based on/because of...", like I did.

 

One question that came to my mind: What is the standart warranty for the Sony S in europe? I noticed it is 2 years but local/international? I couldn't find more details!?

 

In the UK the warranty is 1 year unless it had as standard Win 7 Pro or Win 7 Ultimate installed then it is 2 years. For the extra cost, typically £50, it is worth upgrading just for the extra 1 year warranty

 

wow... odd.
I don't care about the Windows (if I had the option I'd purchase without OS), but anyway, here they write 2 years warranty... couldn't find details though.
Is the 1 year in UK international or local only?

 

Gracy123

If you pm me I'll foward the Sony Guarantee booklet for the UK

 

Yeah, I just ordered the exact same product as well, I will post pics and video when I have received and installed it.

 

How of interest, would the film help the verticale viewing angle ?
I've been playing some more with the S display settings and I found that the higher the brightness here the more narrow the vertical viewing angle is.
For instance, at 100% on this very page, the top of the background colour for editing this post is clearly darker than at the bottom.
So my settings are:
Brightness : - 2 from max

Nvida settings :
Brightness : + 27%
Contrast : + 37%
Gamma : + 0.93
Digital Vibrance : + 6%

Still not perfect but it's ok-ish.

I better not thing too much of that screen or I feel I will be replacing this laptop with a Z by the summer!!!

 

So which one did you use ?
The one from the website you posted or the Sony very own VGPFL16 ?

 

He has ordered from the site, by entering the Sony privacy filter's size.

Does it not make the screen too dark though? We use 3M privacy filters at work (not sure about the model... you just put them in front of the screen when needed) on the T400 laptops, but they really somehow make everything much darker and strange (especially when being used for a few weeks and are not perfectly flat anymore) and tire your eyes... I usually feel like if I am using one of those "Anti-radiation" filters that were popular 10-15 years ago...

But I guess there are different sorts of filters!?

 

Check out this video I made on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Mv-sJTNyw

It shows my Sony S hooked up as an HTPC at home.

 

Thanks for sharing.
BTW I'm quite sure to go with the s11 f7e (core i3, intel GMA). In the end it's probably the best compromise of performance, portability and price available here, at the moment. Now, I'll do some careful budget planning... (I'm still a student, until april at least )

 

A question about both i3-330 and i5-520: I'd like to know the minimum frequency the processors will run when in idle. Thanks

 

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47341&processor=i5-520M&spec-codes=SLBNA,SLBNB
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47663&processor=i3-330M&spec-codes=SLBMD,SLBNF

 

Ok, never mind, found them.

i3-330M: 0.933 GHz
i3-350M: 0.933 GHz
i5-520M: 1.2 GHz

So it looks like i3-350 is a i3-330 with a higher multiplier, probably the same power consumption but a little bit more powerful when needed.

 

yes. Now I can play much more with brightness, and angles become better.
Some angle effect it's unavoidable in any laptop and still there is some angle effect if you move the head. But now it's better.

not my experience. I fear it happens in displays without enough bright or with bad flims. As the S model has a brightness very high, there is not any noticeable effect. On the contrary, now my eyes are happy.
The film is not an artifact as privacy filters but a very thick film. It is not something to put when you wants but an stable thing.

It was my experience before. Now I have same black, up and down. I need to move my head or the display more than before to note same effect.

Well, the point is not seeing a miracle but now it is a matte display. It doesn't mean angles are missed but the common distortions of glossy displays now are vanished.

well... I fear many critiques are not right. The glossy screen is excellent, much better than many other laptops. In my case, mostly I work with texts, and glossy displays are not good for this tasks. It is not a problem of the S display but of any other glossy model.

If we put a video or a game, the S glossy display is wonderful. You can read some blog reviews about that. If I'm not wrong, the Z display has a treatment to get a matte display but it's the same display of S model.

Before purchasing this film, my concern was if maybe the film would cause a "granulated" effect. However there is not any noticeable effect. Results are much better than my expectations.

The only visible effect is when the display is off. Screen is absolutely black with a little blue/violet effect. When the display is on there is nothing to say. I have been in a Sony Store looking the Z model but I wonder with this film mine it's better.

I use the film of http://www.protectionfilms24.com/cus...zes.html?pid=3
They cut the film according my specifications. I have order one unity with same dimensions of Sony filter VGPFL16 (294 x 166 mm).
It fits perfectly.

Only precaution is when you apply the film. Be in a clean environment and careful with the floating dust, wool sweaters, etc. Apply slowly as this video shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-JcyOKAsNY

Despite the film comes to be applied from the horizontal, my experience is it has been easier from the vertical in order to fit quickly.

it would be good to see . Before applying, check if the vertical applying can be better for you. Make some relaxation, have fiber cloth and pincers at your side.
After applying, I discovered an evil bubble just in the corner. I have solved the issue by carefully catching the film from that corner using pincers.

good luck!

 

Could you take a few pics of how the screen looks like with the filter... maybe from different angles?
That would be great!

 

Thanks very much for your answers
Can you remove the film after you've fitted it ?
I will probably order one too.

I was just a minute ago playing with a MBP 15" unibody with original glossy screen and whoever says the S display is as practical as any really should put two laptops side by side.
Yes, the S series display is very nice for video/photo editing, although one has to wonder how accurate the colors are, its limited vertical viewing angle is frustrating.
For instance on the MBP I had to move my head up by at least 30 cm to start getting some discomfort, with the S it's much less especially with a black colours where colour washout occurs *very* rapidly, even horizontaly.
Anyway, I may order one of those films and hopefully it will help making the S screen a bit more uniform.

Daniel

 

When buying from sony style (I'm going to place the order as soon as I chose between i3-i5), does the notebook come with windows already activated? How many DVD are required for cloning the system (without the office suite option)?