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

Does anyone know if you can buy a 13.3" 1600x900 panel to replace the one in the SB? and if it would be easy?

 

yeah you can, its pretty easy

 

Prove it

But yea, it shouldn't be too difficult as long as everything fits. Looks pretty tight in there, at least thickness wise.

 

Guys, don't cycle your batteries down all the way to 0%. That is a good way to ruin them.

Unlike the old NiMH batteries which you were supposed to do that to, you don't want to do that to these LiIon batteries, it depletes them very quickly that way.

 

Ordered my C300 128GB from Newegg, the price was too tempting to resist!

So... C300 in the hard drive bay, and Corsair in the ODD tray... should be pretty nice... and quick.

 

Are there any 1600x900 or 1920x1080 options available now, or do we have to wait for the SA to come out and order one of those screens?

 

you have to wait.

also be warned everyone that the SA although having a better resolution than the SB it's show being a VAIO Display Plus just like the SB (well even so it could be a better one than the SB) so unless that info is wrong or they change their ideas it won't have the same quality as the Z. (or the glossy MBP)

please enough of the MacScreens already.

 

@benny90, what sort of caddy are you going to use?

 

Benny, whats the right way to cycle these? before i destroy mine

 

yes it was, you are welcome!

 

so no one else experience jittering or deinterlacing issues when using external monitors?

 

Not much of a choice on anything out there right now, not many ODM's make those resolutions in 13.3 inch screen sizes. I'd wait for the SA screen to become available... if it ever does.

Here in the US they don't label it as a Plus display (SB). It's just marketing mumbo-jumbo so you shouldn't take it as any more than that. The SA screen is obviously going to have a higher resolution. It will be a better screen for sure, if Sony's other top tier screens are anything to go by.

Probably going to wait till Newmodus comes out with their's. They are supposedly currently designing one. It'll be probably a month or two before it becomes available so I might go with something else if any pop up between now and then.

lol, just don't completely drain it and you'll be good. I usually don't go under 10% or so, just right when Windows keeps annoying you to plug in is usually when I do. That makes sure that it won't be unreasonably depleted by completely draining it. There are some pretty decent articles out there about LiIons and the proper way to treat them, do a Google search if you want to read up on it a bit, it's pretty interesting read.

 

what i mean is to break apart the idea that the new S series, either SB or SA, is a premium laptop. It Isn't! its Sony's consumer line. May be with a more demanding costumer than the average joe in mind but it's still consumer grade. It's not at the Z (aka top tier) level.

I hope it does have a better screen since it will have the better res, makes complete sense and you have to keep in mind it's supposed to rival the other ultraportable's so i should be a bit better. but i wouldn't hold my breath for something much better than the SB's.

 

Sigh, kinda having buyer's remorse. Don't really dig this comp as much as I though I would. Just played with my MBP for about 20 minutes browsing the web and the extra screen res (1440x900), full matte, better colors, 2 finger scrool, SMOOTH scrolling not blocky, just overall has a nicer feel using it. I am by no means an OSX/Apple fanboy, but the MBP just seems better still. I also took a swing by the local bby to try the Air out again. Just seems better than my SB :/. I am just not a fan of how windows runs on a mac for my C# programming I do and hate glossy screens with clickpads.
/double sigh.

 

bob6789x its easy, just don't program on C# anymore! quite the job, go be a CEO or something! or you can even use linux instead of windows! or you can even give me your SB and i will program for you!

problem solved.
(rotfl)

 

Ok, just took a comparison shot of a viewing angle test, both from identical distance away which means the VAIO should have the advantage being a smaller screen so it is further away for its size. It lost HORRIBLY.

The SB


and now the 3 year old 15" MBP


Both tests were taken in Windows 7 Pro using Firefox 4 with full brightness. Also did test shots at lower brightnesses and minimum but they show about the same if not even worse for the sony.

 

lol thanks! I've been eyeing it since I got the email with the deal in it a few days ago. Remembered to pick it up when I saw your post.

 

lol its their business line, I don't think anyone sees the SB as a top product. The SA though, is to slot in where the Z is from what has been said, I would say a Carbon Fiber chassis $2000 notebook would be top teir.

 

Push the screen back, it's not supposed to be sitting straight up if thats how it is sitting, needs to be leaned back a bit. I know my screen doesn't look like that though, so I can't really complain. I know when I first got it I wanted the screen to sit up, and the colors definitely look washed like that.

If that doesn't help you I'm sure it will help someone.

 

anyone having issues with a slower internet connection?
my wireless adapter wont get more than 19mbps
when my old notebook got 70+ and my desktop got close to 100

 

you can buy an Audi TT for about the same as a Porche, still its nothing compared to a R8 which is the top tier.
And even if the said Porche is slower than the TT people will still buy them because it offers different things.

SA will NOT take the place of the Z.
bob6789x is proving my point, he is trying to compare 2 different things with each other (the matter of the screen). Mainly due to the inexistent of the true product he wants. At least for the price he'd want.

The SB has the best out of all consumer grade displays from what i see, but people just seem to think it is supposed to be at the level of premium products...

like the Mac's i.e., why can you play games easily in the SB? well it gives you an AMD6630, what does the MBP give you?
Why is a MBP more expensive than say an Asus with better CPU,GPU,etc?
maybe, and this is just a wild idea, money goes into the better screen for example and some other stuff like that besides the AppleTax...

you want the best CPU? sure, just don't expect it to last 14h or be ice cold with the fan stopped or ninja styled. That is why QuadCores only go as low as 14'' PC atm..


you have to know what you value and want out of the machine and choose accordingly.. if the product you need does not exist then just make it!
get a 13,3'' MBP screen and shove it to the SB, there problem solved.

Now comparing this notebook to a thinkpad or the Acer (don't remember the models) is one thing, since they fall nearly under the same specs, but comparing to a G73/M17 r3/etc is pointless i.e..... Still many compare to the Z,MBP,etc...


I've read all 127 pages of this thread plus 235 on another (and some more) so i'm sorry if i come across as an idiot, but it gets tiring to read the same things over and over...
No one seems to mind that Sony has on its Site that the SB has a mic jack when some have been finding it doesn't, which is a bad case of wrong advertising but the screen? Sony should die for making it so bad. xD

 

Actually it should be straight and your eye level should be in the upper 75% of the screen by most ergonomic standards. If your above that THEN you tilt it back to make it equal. When pushing the screen back It makes the bottom looks ugly then. Also the top of the screen gets REALLY dark just about anything beyond 10-15 degrees tilted back.

 

Well all I can go by is how my screen wants to be placed, the ergo stuff kind of doesn't matter if your not looking at the screen's hotspot. And the way that picture looks is the screen looks like it is leaning a little forward. And it's sweet spot is slightly tilted. I'm just going by mine and I said that to possibly help, if your screen suck then sorry, but mine certainly doesn't. It's definitely not tilted back 10-15, but honestly who would do that anyway?

 

Well i dont entirely agree, 13" MBP is now 1,000$ which is 400$ cheaper than what i got this SB for, the main differences being i7 vs MBP i5 and the deciding factor for me is the dedicated GPU. now that said i am trying to assess the cons and pros of having this dedicated GPU vs having the same laptop but with much better screen and for 400$ cheaper... i am starting to question myself (weight has been a factor as well SB is actually .6 lbs lighter!)

 

I would actually pick the same config as yours, and fit my SSD in there.

VMs are quite CPU intensive tasks, as compiling programs. The gpu is just for games.

 

Just even a degree or two past 90 and the top of my screen inverts in color. Also when looking dead on it has like a circulur effect where the upper corners are darker.

 

Ok, I guess I'm really not getting what or why your getting worked up over? Not really sure who said the SB was a premium laptop or compared them to something wrong or something?

The SB is supposed to have a mic/headphone jack combo, not its own port. The people that have tested it did so with a iPod combo headphones with a mic on them. No one has tried a standalone microphone yet so the jury is still out on that one, which is why no one is freaking out about it, and the fact that many people don't use external mics.

Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Judging by the comments and seeing it myself, I really do think there might be different screens floating around.

 

Interesting. That's definitely strange as I know mine looks good a little tilted, with even color and lighting. I wish there was a simple way to see who manufactured the screen in each of our SB's as I would guess they would be different.

 

ipod phone/mic combo should not work, however the regular headphones with a mic should, and i did test that and the test did fail

 

Did you check out the drivers? I'm sure that the hardware is there as it is a common item, maybe try downloading a new driver for it? I'm going to take a look at the device settings and see what I find.

 

frankly i've spent all my efforts trying to get rid of the flickering on my external monitor, its annoying the hell out of me and i cant figure out why and where its coming from. its present regardless whether i'm using dedicated and integrated gpu, and i know its not the monitor as mu work dell works just fine with it.

 

Check out this piece of thinly sliced bliss:

Lenovo Thinkpad X1

I've never been a big fan of the Thinkpad look, but this one is pretty sexy! Looks like it will cost an arm and a leg for the pleasure though.

 

HDMI or VGA? I know another guy was saying he was having some issues with VGA, I tested mine on a 1080p LCD with no flicker, what monitor are you using?

 

both HDMI and VGA; i'm using Acer while running it @ 1680x1050. the weir part is that flickering is not persistent, it only occurs when i'm typing or moving the mouse which tells me this is a hardware issue!

 

I changed mine out with a Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 and it's pretty blazingly fast. If you want more speed then that would be the route. $25 for faster wireless, and if you have 5GHz band you gain that too, which is what I'm on right now.

 

mine should come in a couple of days, but I'm honestly not so sure about this computer based on this thread.

 

Don't just go by what you see here. There are a ton of us that are more than happy with our SB's!

Just know that like with any forum, a lot of the people come here to find answers to their problems or vent frustration with an issue they are having, not as many come just to say how happy they are.

 

very true Benny, if i was completely content with my sony i would of never looked for this forum. now i'm trying to collect as much info as possible to make the decision whether to keep it or not. frankly this laptop is quite good, and as meticulous as i am with these things, i'll find faults in every laptop there is to be there.
bottom line for this laptop is it was a really good attempt by sony to target users that a fairly tech savvy and therefore very demanding of their PCs. now add on top of that the need to make it portable and have a decent look and it really becomes a multidimensional task. so while i think the laptop has mat the hardware/practical demands of the users it did lack a bit on the user appeal/user friendliness. so al in all hardware/weight combo is definitely one of the best out there (i think only sony z series beats it) now the price tag... i think they could drop 100-200$ of the price to make it worth the money or user that money for the screen. again this is my humble opinion

 

One workaround for this is a USB wireless headset like the Asus Travelite HS1000w which works great for me.

 

For people with Sony SR series and SB Series how does the screen compare to each other?

Besides the resolution
Thanks

 

Well said. Don't take my rants as meaning the laptop as a whole is terribad. As he mentions, there could be various screens. I had my dad look at the screen and he laughed at me that my 1200 dollar notebook looks worse than his $599 DV6000 series from almost 4 years ago. The screen on mine is absolute rubbish. I am about to return it, but really don't know if I want an exchange or just buy something else. Really no other good 1"ish laptop I've had my eye on in similar budget range.

On the contrary I like many things on the laptop, but so far the cons are weighing in heavily. As I do a fair bit of web design along with programming, the color simply just can't fail this bad. I have a hard time distinguishably edge lines on stuff as the color inverts at only a few degrees of angle. I REALLY don't want to do this, but the MBA is looking like one of few options available for a decent thin and light notebook, also has a decent screen and a slightly better res. I'm sure I'll receive major flak for that comment, but it all comes down to personal taste. Part of my problem I think is I have just become so acustom to the apple track pads to the point I just second nature use the gestures. 2 finger scroll and right click is so convient, and the smooth scrolling for casual browsing in OSX is a delight. A MBA with sandy bridge, matte, and non-clickpad would easily make me shed 1500 on one in .0001 seconds. Some say that is the new Samsung laptop that just came out, but something about it just doesn't rub me the right way.

 

Sorry for being a bit late on this but where is the like button?
On a side note, not to really bash apple but has anyone else noticed that their stores are always teeming with people and smell like gym socks? Certainly takes away from the apple experience but maybe it's just that one store.
Can't wait for mine to come, fedex says it went to memphis then to winnipeg then back to memphis. Yay fedex.

 

For people with fan noise problems, try setting this option in the VAIO Control Center to balanced. It's weird, but it even starts spinning up more often/loudly on Silent mode.



Oh and I'm also one of those happy users with my €900 Sony Vaio SB. (Although I'd prefer if the fan wouldn't be active all the time. But I guess it's necessary in this small housing)

 

im at a loss at which vaio programs/drivers are essential. i give up on the fresh install. all of them seem to be intertwined some how, so frustrating

 

I sold my previous laptop because it was noisy ... apparently the SB is also not for me

Leaves only one option Asus jc36, shame it has no backlit keyboard

 

You mean u36jc. Shame it is not Sandy Bridge and has a horrible screen. No comparison to Vaio SB screen though some people are whining about that too.

 

Got a chance to watch Tron: Legacy for the first time today on the SB. Very good movie, actually better than I expected! Not to mention Olivia Wilde and Beau Garrett...

Everything looked good, colors were accurate, blacks could be better but not bad. Overall very happy with the way the SB handled the 1080p HD codec without a hitch, as expected, and 100% silent the entire time.

Definitely recommend watching the movie if you haven't yet!

I think I might be stuck in the Grid now!

 

I wouldn't complain without reason. I am almost 100% positive that the screens must have variance. Mine is worse than other sub 1k notebooks that are years old.

That does make mine run quieter at idle, but doing much of anything makes the fan start speeding up right away.

 

I don't have my SR anymore for direct comparison but from memory, the difference is slight, with vertical viewing angles probably better on the SR. Color saturation is the same IMO. The SB is better for outdoors with it's semi-matte screen though. The SR was my screen benchmark and the SB did not dissapoint.

 

I have never seen a laptop with dedicated GPU that works entirely or mostly with the FAN off! It is just not doable!

So if you want a dedicated GPU - you have to live with some FAN noise which doesn't need to be disturbing however (I'm very happy with the noise level of my Vaio S11).

On the other hand - you want a completely silent machine - get one with integrated GPU - it should run without fan cooling under light usage.