Official Sony SB/SA/SC/SD Series Owners' Thread

Oh of course, you got yours delivered first but not actually got your hands on it yet wasn't it?

That's weird then, since that's identical to mine apart from the graphics card, so who knows what the delays were down to.

 

The anticipation here is killing me...ordered the non-custom, standard config black SB with the 2620m cpu and the 6630 gpu on 3/16 and my order is still processing. Glad to see people are starting to see them arrive / ship. Can't wait

 

Hey guys kinda off topic, but cant order online in Canada and i only want the basic setup as im just going to throw a ocv vertex 2 120gb into it. im just curious about the battery as im only going to be using it for school and im wondering if the batterypack actually doubles the battery life and really only adds one pound, sounds like a no brainer to me

also how is the backlit keyboard and fan noise as im so use to my Asus G1s which when she gets hot sounds like a vacum.

and also will it be a big diff between a 15.6 inch 1680x1058 to the res on the Vaio CB

and would you recommend anyother laptops with great battery and a sandybride processor on a 13 inch display, cause im either thinking wait for an updated Asus u36 or grab the SB

thnaks

 

I received my laptop today , the sheet battery is awesome , it doesnt add much to the laptop and the weight is pretty low. I will probably always have it attached. With both battery's at around 50% i have 6 hours and 40 minutes of time left .

 

thats the same spec as mine but mine is white and 4GB RAM. Ordered 3 days after you so hopefully mine should arrive soon.

 

what country are you guys ordering from?

 

Congratulations on your new laptop!
Could you please post some pics?
Thanks!

 

Can someone make a picture using the Notebook outside? I have to see if its good or not !!!!

thanks!!!!!

 

Photos Please! Thanks.

 

What are your general impressions so far?

@ people asking for pictures - what do you want to see that isn't in any of the pictures already posted online?

 

I know haha, its unbearable to know its just sitting at my dad's house, unopened.

one thing that i think got my order through quickly is that i didnt order it on the website, i called up sonystyle in the uk a few times because i wanted to try and bargain a better price (they werent keen because it is so new, but after a few emails and 2 calls i managed to get about 70 -100 quid off my spec). i also paid for it over the phone. maybe that speeded things up.

 

Nicely, I didn't even try that since it was such a new model!

 

well as they say in the world of the internet, pics or it didn't happen

or pics or gtfo XD

 

You want me to go to the effort of taking & posting pictures just to prove to you that I've bought a computer?

 

yeah - I do too actually. get on with it.

 

i'm kidding, chillax, post photos if you wish, if not then that's fine.

 

Guess your sarcasm detector was broken on my post as well...

I will take pics if anyone desperately needs to know anything specific, but it seems like rather a lot of effort having to find my flatmate's camera (the one on my phone is weak) and figure out how it works since I've not really used it etc etc

As for proof, this do? (since it's a lot easier to achieve without getting up!)

 

Actually, would it be able to grab a screenshot of the vents at the back, with the screen up? I'm curious to see how much space hot air has to get out. Also, what are the temperatures like (especially for prolonged intense usage)?

 

I will add pictures of the vent to my to do list for the weekend.

I'm going to give it some more intensive CPU/GPU/temperature etc tests, as quite a lot of people have been asking me questions like that. I just haven't had the time to look into it properly yet what with work.

Subjectively, and briefly: it gets warm at the back same as a Mac, given the similar design, the right hand half of the wrist rest gets hotter than the left but not unbearably so (it's mainly the difference that annoys me!), the fan doesn't spin up fast very often and doesn't seem to run for that long when it does. This only based on light/moderate usage pretty much exclusively with the Intel graphics though, I haven't had the chance to do a great deal with it yet.

 

Pictures !,
https://picasaweb.google.com/117558...?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6zjIWcr4ndUQ&feat=directlink

 

wow tnx so much anychance someone could grab a quick screen on the windows Experience Index?

Tnx

 

How about the charger for the slice battery? Can be it be also used as a spare charger for the notebook or does it use some other kind of connector and / or different voltage // amperage specs?

Thanks for the picture btw!

 

The charger is a little box you can just tick on. the port on that is the same as your laptop. so you can put in your laptop charger. They only give you 1 charger though, so if you want them both charged you got to put it on the laptop.

 

Thank you for the pictures. I know this is a pretty subjective thing to ask, but how does the keyboard feel? Is it flexy, mushy, strong? I dont know if you have ever tried an ASUS keyboard, but those things are unbearably flexy.

 

When typing its not flexy at all, if you push on it hard enough it will flex, but you won't feel it and you won't see it until you start looking for it and push quite hard. The travel is a little short but i can type on anything so it isn't really a problem for me.

I added a picture of the experience index to the album !
( https://picasaweb.google.com/117558...?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6zjIWcr4ndUQ&feat=directlink )

 

Thanks, much appreciated. What is your take on the quality of the screen?

 

Good effort on the pictures man

How much RAM have you got, just 4GB? My WEI comes out as 7.1, 7.5, 5.3, 6.4, 5.9 which isn't that much less on the graphics card (although I appreciate WEI isn't exactly a good way to measure it).

What do you think overall? I'm liking it more the more I use it, I think we shall get along fine for a few years. Will definitely pick one of those slice batteries up when I can afford it, although it's pretty crap you only get the one PSU.

 

The screen is a like most other laptops in viewing angles, not very good, especially vertical. Black isn't really that black as well. But the half matte display works ok, its not a mirror but it still has a little glare in it and the screen is very bright, brighter than my other laptop and probably bright enough in combination with the half matte coating to use outside.

I just have the 1 4gb, i was gonna get another 4gb stick for 40€ aftermarket, then put in a ssd and this laptop will fly.

I like the laptop, its very light and small and still very usable, the backlit keyboard is very nice and the feel of the bottom half is also very good. The screen is very flexible so i feel like i am breaking it, but i think it should be fine.

Btw the USB 3.0 port is also a always power on port, i put in something when it was off and it started charging . Im going to take a look if i can switch the odd with an ssd, so i have 80gb ssd + 500g hd.

btw, take a look at my serial

 

Tnx for the WEI,

did u get the basic SB with 4gb ram and the 512Mb vid card with the i5?

 

That's good to hear (especially in combination with the slice battery) - hadn't seen any mention of that. My experience of the backwards compatibility of USB3 ports on my new desktop w/ USB2 devices has been decidedly mixed, but this uses a different controller I think.

 

Great pictures!

I was wondering, how good the build-in speakers are. Would you describe them as acceptable or a total ear destroyer?

 

im in the UK, as I think are all the people posting about receiving theirs.

 

I've just checked for you, and they sound like laptop speakers.

Seem to go reasonably loud for this size of laptop, which is the only metric of any worth when it comes to laptop speakers.

 

No, i got the 6630M, i5 2520 and 4gb ram. I am from the netherlands btw.

 

I don't think nutral is - he's somewhere in mainland Europe I think.

 

Thanks a lot! As long as you don't say terrible, I'm fine with it

 

I would definitely say terrible, but then I've never heard speakers on a laptop that could be described otherwise, so don't let it put you off!

/pretty serious audio nerd

 

hmm question how is the vent in the back, in your photos it appears like it is covered up when the screen is up, how warm does it get ??

 

They are pretty bad, as they are very small as well, still you can watch some stuff with it, it doesnt get painful to your ears like other laptops do.

Btw the jack input and sound card are pretty good for a laptop, i put in my in ear headphones and there is no noise at all, other laptop usually have interference with internal components like my old laptop. but this one is fine, i also connected it to my stereo set and the quality is pretty good. clear sound.

 

Guess i have to check it out when it hits the stores.

For me, notebook speakers are terrible, if you prefer watching a movie muted, like on my xps 1530. It's nothing, which you can get used to. Just pure agony

 

Btw i found out the lcd screen goes to a refreshrate of 40hz on powersaving mode and the odd gets turned of completely.

 

It took me a while to figure out what that was - looked really weird. Fortunately you can make it stay at 60Hz!

 

I've got question about well-known battery problem. Does this problem apply to new VAIOs?

Thanks in advance

 

What battery problem?

 

I just played call of duty modern warefare 2 on maximum settings with 2x AA, ran very smooth and also got a kdr of 8-1. The laptop gets warm. The cpu reaches 80 degrees and the gpu around 72. If i would stress test it it could probably end up higher.

 

Congrats to nutral and SSSSSSS.
Thanks for the pics nutral! Looks like you will be able to get what Sony was claming battery life wise. I was shocked to see 15 hours remaining at 99% on your pics. That means it will probably go for 6-7 hours on standard battery on power saver mode.

Are viewing angles too bad ?

 

those are pretty good numbers for 13'', mine is a 16'' and I get worst results, and the gpu is granted a 4670m GDDR3, so it should be hotter.

 

I mean battery drain. Something like this:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/299109-official-vaio-z-battery-drain-thread.html

 

Hi,

I followed this thread for a long time now. I'm looking for a light, durable 13.3 inch laptop (no gaming) and the Sony (or Toshiba 830, Lenovo T420) might be the one. The problem is you can not get the SB series in Germany yet. For me it is of utmost importance to have a touchpad which works very well. I recently bought the Asus U36 but I returned it because the touchpad was crap. Especially two finger scrolling, which worked very well on my macbook, is important for me.

So my question for the SB owners is: how well does the touchpad work?

By the way, the Toshiba Portege R830 is listed in Germany for €1,600 (!!!) whereas the Sony SB can be pre-ordered for €1079. But you can get the English version of the Toshiba for $899 only and English version of the Sony for $999. Does any one know how comes the Toshiba is so expensive in Germany?

 

I like the touchpad, but I don't use any of the multi-touch features. The edge scrolling works well - you don't have to be nearly as close to the edge to do it as on my old laptop. The buttons are fairly average, but I use tap to select anyway.

All the Vaios I've owned have had really nice touchpads, and this is probably the best one so far. Probably my only complaint is the size of it, I'm not sure why it needs to be so enormous!

Edit: oh, and the buttons wrap round onto the front edge of the laptop rather than just being on the top, which is annoying with how/where I tend to have my right hand when I'm reclining on a sofa. It's a minor annoyance though as I don't seem to be pressing the buttons accidentally.