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

+1, although I only got the 6200

 

So it's going on 3 weeks since I placed my order for CTO in Canada...it's now almost 2 weeks since I was told I should receive my laptop. Has anyone managed to either speed up the process or gotten some sort of compensation for these ridiculous wait times? I feel like if I don't get something from Sony for this I definitely will have gotten shafted.

 

sony us just took out their Z series again. i think there might be a realization that fully loaded SB for 2,5k is terribly close to a fully loaded z that has a much better screen. this is either predatory pricing (on their own product lines - thats just retarded) or one of the products is mispriced (I would say SB should be cheaper )

 

Haha me too! 1080P video looks good on this. Agree on the black level but still not bad.

 

Man that Intel 1000 card sucks . I transferred an ISO file that was several GB and max speed I got was 5MB/s and averaged around 4ish. Plug in my gigabit cord to the switch and I was getting 95MB/s max with average above 85MB/s for a different ISO. This was using wifi-N only at the 2.4GHz which was VERY close to the router with a 130mbps full link speed 5 bar signal. I also did a transfer of my Oblivion ISO's and those were on my desktops SSD so it went SSD to SSD over the gigabit network and I was averaging 120MB/s which I think 125 is the cap on gigabit as that is 1000mbps.

Side note, first transfer the fan was normal, the fast transfer on the cord(wifi chip turned off even) made the fan spin up and it slowed down after the transfer was done. Seriously, why is my SB being annoying with the fan and has a bad screen. I am seriously trying to find a reason to keep it now as I don't want to deal with the return.

 

So no louder kick ins of the fan at all? Man I get it by watching youtube! And right palmrest gets quite hot though I have ssd.

 

Of course I mean the noise when having the discrete card turned off! Some other small laptops do turn their fan completely off at idle.

 

I don't know about compensation, but I was told it would ship today...I'm hoping its true

 

Hi there, I tried the followings with success:

-Noted down my OEM key and downloaded retail Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit iso from Digital River.
-Downloaded & installed RT Se7en Lite - Beta (build 2.6.0) for windows 7 x64. Then slipstreamed windows 7 SP1 into the retail iso.
-After creating recovery media, I secure erased the SDD in VAIO (VPCSB1S1E/S-Later added 120 GB Intel G2 SSD and 4GB of ram) then installed the OS.
-After further updating the OS. I began installing device drivers:


First installed the following:

AMD Radeon (TM) HD 6470M 6630M and Mobile Intel HD Graphics
Bluetooth Driver

Ethernet Driver

Graphics Driver Registry Patch

Intel Chipset Driver

Intel Mobile Express Chipset SATA AHCI SATA RAID Controller

Intel SATA Driver Registry Patch

Intel Wireless Display

Intel Wireless LAN Driver

Intel® Management Engine Interface

Realtek High Definition Audio Driver

Realtek PCIE CardReader

Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller

Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device

Touchpad Driver

There are three critical applications that need to be installed in some order for the hotkeys work properly, I've gathered all drivers & applications & information from Sony support page except an application named "VAIO Hardware Diagnostics":

1) Sony Notebook Utilities

-Must install all drivers
-Must install Sony Shared Library

2) VAIO Smart Network

-Install All drivers
-Install Sony Shared Library
-Install Sony Notebook Utilities

3) VAIO Care

-Install all device drivers
-Install Sony Shared Library
-Install Sony Notebook Utilities
-Install VAIO Location Utility
-Install VAIO Hardware Diagnostics


Therefore continued installing in the following order:

Sony Shared Library
Sony Notebook Utilities
VAIO Smart Network
VAIO Location Utility
VAIO Care

 

So I just called again and they didn't really seem to have any idea what was going on...they said they are going to call me back (likely today) after they hear back from the production team.

 

Does anyone know what brand of RAM comes with the laptop?

 

4GB is soldered to the board. I don't remember if the chips had a brand or not. I upgraded with a crucial stick that had Micron chips on it.

 

Okay thanks. I was going to buy the same brand of RAM for consistency sake but I guess it doesn't really matter in the end

 

Ok, I have now had my new SB (i7 & 6630) for a few days. Here are a few details/minor complaints.

First of I want to state I did run all the updates (expect the PlayStation one) using the Sony updater (including a BIOS).

When just using it to surf no issues, fan quite lap cool. The two physical issues are:

1. The power button is too close to the DEL key. I turned off the laptop twice by accident. I resolved this by changing the power setting to do nothing when the power button is pressed while plugged in.

2. The front corners are very sharp. When laying down and trying to type they tend to dig into my wrists. Just have to adjust I guess.

Temperature and Fan:

I also tried playing a couple of games, Civilization 5 and Dragon Age II. The fan started quite in Civ, but as the game progress to where there was more detail to show the fan kicked in and does run pretty loud. The laptop had a few warm spots but nothing to worry about. I did find the exhaust a little uncomfortable temperature at times on bear skin when wearing shorts. I also tried the game in stamina mode, seems to run fine in DX9, same temp issues.

Dragon Age II had issues for me hanging (had to power off) until I changed the DX11 to DX9. That too does run the fan all the time.

Over all the laptop is pretty good and worth the 45+ days to get it.

 

Sorry, I couldn't help but laugh about your problems, perhaps you shouldn't delete so much ^^

Ah nice, and everything works fine? (including the stamina-speed switch, the light sensor and the fn keys?)

I'm receiving my Intel 320 ssd soon, so I guess I will follow your guide.

 

hi all, enjoying the commentary. I ordered a CTO SB last monday, the 18th (I'm in Canada). After the 'limited' feedback from the small number of new owners I decided to go to the local Sony Style store and have another look at the the SB. yep, screen is pretty bad, general poor quality and really bad with any vertical angle changes. What I'm more concerned with is that when holding it with any movement the screen vibrates (wiggles?) pretty easily. Seems a real nuisance. My usage would be sofa, bed, starbucks, etc. so I'm definately concerned about it. This was mentioned previously relating to usage in a moving bus, subway car, etc. It got my attention in the store.
So, knowing that here in canada there is no 30 day return period on CTO's I decided to preempt the process and cancel (my order is not to the point of shipping and payment has not been made). Was told 'no go' once a window of a few hours has passed. Totally stonewalled. Couldn't even talk to a supervisor. Has anyone else run into this? Is this legal.
Seems pretty absurd for a company as large as Sony. Do I really have no recourse? What if I 'refused' delivery?

 

I just talked to Sony and was complaining furiously about the ridiculously slow delivery times and little knowledge of when it would be delivered. They gave me the option to cancel my order because of this. I ordered a CTO on April 6th.

Edit: Supervisor isn't in until Wednesday, you can e-mail [email protected] and ask a supervisor to call you.

 

So has anyone in Canada actually received their SB CTO yet? I'm so tired of waiting.

 

So is the SB and SC basically the same laptop? Can anyone comment on the display quality of the SB and the SC relative to a MBP? I have a 13 MBP and the love the display on it.

 

This is all anecdotal since how people feel about a display is one of the more subjective aspects of laptop ownership.

Having said that, my last laptop was a sony z, and my gf has a MBP 13"(unibody.)

The SB screen isn't as good as either of those two. That's not to say its absolutely abysmal but compared to the MBP the only point i can give to the SB is that it's not glossy. Viewing angles are not as good as on the Macbook and blacks are not as deep. What looks black on my gf's computer, looks grey on my SB. It's not unusable, but compared to the Z and MBP it's definitely cheaper feeling.

 

I think somebody mentioned previously that they recieved theirs, and I 100% agree with you that this is getting ridiculous. They say it should ship later this week but who really know

 

Posted in error ... Admin .. please delete

 

Folks,

I'm in the middle of my decision to buy or not buy the SB with i7 and AMD6630. The information that has been circling around on this forum is pretty good (I have read all post starting from page 60+ onwards, not that I remembered everything I read).

I heard a lot of negatives about the SB while I'm trying to justify my purchase, I was wondering if some of you are looking for the unicorn, i.e. perfect PC?

Let's discuss all the pros and cons in its own merits, and let's not talk about vaporware. What's comparable that are available on the market right now (at least in the US) are:
1. MBP 13 inch.
SB has the AMD6630, this is one of the main reasons other than weight and extra long battery that I'm looking for. Pros for the MBP: probably better screen, although resolution wise is NOT (1280x800 vs SB's 1376x768)
2. Asus/Acer whatever
Build quality and battery is inferior to the SB, what else? cheaper than SB, but the Acer is also not available in the US (I think).
3. T420s/T420
That independent NVS Nvidia card, is it as good? There's no 9 cell battery option. T420 is good battery and NVS card, but it's not the same lightweight. If I were to spend $1300, I don't want boring Thinkpads. (style wins)
4. X220
No independent graphics card, battery is as good as the SB. No i7.

Both the thinkpads put them at the same price as SB (with i7 config) unless you managed to snag one during the recent EPP sale.

Seriously though, I don't know if I can trust "this display is worse or better" comment, as on paper they are the same spec. I'm not trying to sell you one or another, like I said I'm in the process of justifying my purchase as well. Did I miss anything above?

Fan running? Sure the MBP is hot as well, plus there's no independent graphics. As someone mentioned you can't have lightweight, extra long battery, independent graphics while running super cool. And cheaper price than all of the MBP and Thinkpads (build quality). I wish there is a laptop like that, too.

Please enlighten me.

 

I haven't actually got my SB but it is in transit

Here are the details of my SB CTO

I upgraded the processor, video card and added the sheet battery. I didn't bother upgrading to blu ray as I hardly ever use DVD's. And I can't see me caring about blu ray in the near future.

--------
Customization Details

13.3" VAIO Display with LED backlight (1366 x 768)
Large Capacity Sheet Battery
500 GB Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
No Fresh Start
Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 day subscription)
Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter (32-bit)
AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB VRAM) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
Intel® Core™ i7-2620M processor (2.70GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.40GHz
CD/DVD Player / Burner
Adobe Bundle(Free - $448 value)
Bolt Black
Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium
4GB (4GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
--------

My Order date was April 8
The original estimated shipping date April 14

When I logged onto my sony account (April 14) to check on the status of the order the shipping date was changed to April 25 (also got 2 emails stating this)

Logged onto my sony account on the 22nd, and to my surprise the VAIO had been shipped. I went to the fedex web site and cut and pasted the tracking number, and it had been picked up by Fedex. I was happy.

Later that day I checked my email, and I had gotten 2 emails from sony the first was a shipping confirmation email and the second was an email saying my order was delayed and rescheduled for the 25th (basically the same email as the one they sent me on the 14th), little confusing but since I already checked my shipment (seems sony has some issues with their software)

Actual shipping date (from china) was April 21

Current Status of my order is that it is in transit with Fedex

The Estimated Date of Arrival for my VAIO is April 27

I can't wait to get it

 

Automatic brightness settings working (Just tested).
Stamina-Speed switch working (Tested)
All Fn keys (Mute, volume, brightness, display, zoom) working (Tested)
ASSIST, WEB, VAIO hotkeys tested and working.
The only thing missing is some VAIO Hardware diagnostics items under VAIO Care utility. I couldn't find the "Hardware Diagnostics" software on the support site.

 

Sweet,
Finally pulled the plug and placed my CTO order with Sony Customer Services.

A while back on this forum I'd mentioned buying at a price that was unattainable after the SB actually went live (not just test CTO) for SonyStyle Canada.

Anyhow, unusually diligently of me, I screen grabbed and printed out the CTO order that I'd made from the pre release CTO test order page where it was Free upgrade to slice, $50 for a bluray burner, i5/i5/i7 processor upgrades etc and I'd managed to build a system for $1079 which according to the Sony Spring into Vaio splash page was also eligible for a $200 discount - SOLD!

I stopped thinking about the 3830TG and figured at this price it made sense - $879 for a decent sony with great free upgrades... why not!

Anyhow, couldn't actually order due to errors so I emailed Sony Customer services to ask what was up?

Had an immediate response that the system wasn't available till April when I would be contacted to order with whatever offers were available then...since then the pricing changed, orders were cancelled etc etc.
As promised, in early April, Sony Customer services called to ask if I did want to order as the laptop was now available... the build price they offered me was into the $1400range for what I'd previously thought was only going to cost $879. I let them know I was disappointed and they asked me to send through my screen grab, print out and they also pulled my 'stuck' config from my Sony account. They promised to see what they could do

Long story short, today I ordered a White SB with i7, 4gb, 500hdd, 6630, Blueray burner and slice for $1109+hst. Sadly they couldn't honor the Spring200 coupon and I was so impressed that they'd been this prepared to help me get the laptop I wanted that I wasn't going to try and push any harder.

So, I'm very impressed with Sony's customer service.. now I just hope that I'm equally as impressed by the laptop (768 pixels aside)!

I understand that I'm in a fairly unique situation here, but if you were one of the ones who had a confirmed (then cancelled) order from the pre launch CTO site at the cheaper pricing structure or like me managed to screen grab configs that included the upgrades, then why not give it a shot if you're still in the market for an SB and get in touch with Sonys customer service team.

In all fairness, I've over ordered what I need from a laptop, and actually spent $400 more than I could probably justify, but hey, I saved $640 so I should be happy right ?!

 

5. the e420s by lenovo
I5 and 6630 amd gpu, and a better screen although it is a 14 inch and its about .2 inches thicker than the sony with about a hr less battery life.

 

That's pretty impressive, at least it puts my fears that they will cancel my order to rest (somewhat). Now I just have to hope that they'll actually ship it! I think you got a bit better deal than me with the blu-ray burner, mines 1080 with just a reader.

They also really don't seem to be budging on the SPRING200 coupon

 

It is legal, they tell you you can't cancel your order after an hour when you purchase it. I think the CTO return policy in Canada is quite absurd though.
Your situations with late shipments are also quite ridiculous.

Like area306 I'm getting mine on the 27th (I ordered on April 14th though). I feel very lucky now... It's in Winnipeg in transit so at least I know it's in the country.

 

thanks for your input.

so you still need these sony utilities?

this is close to what is done with the "fresh start" option.

=/

 

The law allows you to cancel your purchases before a reasonable amount time has elapsed, after which, legally you are stuck with your purchase. This allows people to change their minds after they had time to think about it.

This is known as a "Cooling off" period, (I don't know how long it actually is but you can always search the net for it)

I don't know how this applies to Sony's CTO policy, but that policy won't override what the law says.

Hope this helps you out.

 

Well I received a $673 credit today from Sony to bring the price of the new CTO I had to order back down to the same price as the original CTO SB I ordered when the prices were wacky on the Canadian site. Good start. Still waiting to get a ship date and the manager who gave me the credit is supposed to be trying to speed up my order, So we will see. But glad they honored the original price.

 

Anyone here from the US willing to purchase a Black Keyboard skin for the SB for me?? They dont have them here in Canada and I cannot order from the US site. We can do payment thru Paypal. Thanks

 

Ok, another issue chalked up to my list of things I have been disliking about the SB. I am sitting here and just a minute or two ago my SB (charging and sleep mode) just spun up its fan like it was on. It stayed on (lid closed and all) for nearly a minute before re going back to sleep. It happened yesterday, but didn't think much of it as I might have bumped it. This time though just confirms that my laptop wakes up for a minute randomly during sleep. This is just ridiculous. I am probably going to call Sony this weekend for a full return/refund if I don't have a change of heart soon.

 

I would report the issue to sony, and since you are so pissed with it just return it

 

+1 man, it sounds as though your not going to be happy with it, return it!

If you don't like it now, you probably won't, no reason to hold on to something you don't want/like. If I didn't like mine you can bet it would be sent back to Sony tomorrow!

 

i had the same issue, could not figure out what it was...

 

hmm i guess i'm a rookie: so i took my SB apart and realized that regular hardware set up does not have enough space for 2 SSDs... now thats a pain since "regular" i.e. affordable SSDs are around 200$ for 128GB if i was gonna go for anything around 256 price goes up exponentially. any advices what set up should i go with if i want to use SSDs?

 

Pissed is a bit strong of wording for my attitude towards my computer. I have got used to the fan noise quirks and other minor quibbles with the louzy trackpad, but booting up while sleeping with the lid closed?! This unit has gone from not really worth 1200, to defective in my mind. Problem is I work full time and go to school 20 credit hours right now and never free to call until they close. That is why I am waiting till the weekend when I can get some free time.

Positive things I like since I guess I haven't mentioned them enough and everyone thinks I 100% hate this comp...

1. Thin and lighter than most equivalent specced comps.
2. Great battery life (getting 9ish hours when using slice or 4-5 without).
3. Lightning fast except gaming performance which I knew the 6470 wasnt a champ at.
4. Looks classy compared to other competing laptops.
5. No glossy screen. 6. Has better wifi range than my MBP (both using N). 6. Stays cool and doesn't burn my balls when using it on my lap.

Missing others, but there is a list of things I like and a list I dislike, but for 1200 dollars I was hoping the list would be skewed to more likes than dislikes.

Also I am hesitant return because I bought a RAM chip and SSD for it from newegg. I can use the SSD in my MBP I guess, but the RAM chip? Don't think newegg takes RAM back either.

 

I have a 160GB one and I will say it does take a lot of consolidation of your space. When I made the switch to SSD on my desktop I had the luxury of a 2nd physical disk to store big files. On the laptop I slimmed my music by dropping loss-less and using MP3 format and cutting out non-essential apps I only use on occasion. I could probably live with 80GB if I wanted to live real tight to the cap of storage, but I prefer to have extra leeway.

 

if you are in US you can call them anytime (just called them and got my RMA, no questions asked)

 

Do you know of any other competing laptops I should take a look at? I have looked at the U36 Asus for a while, but decided against it for some reason or another, can't recall it atm. I am kind of leaning on getting the 13" Air since I am multi-OS friendly and hold no grudges against either OS like some fan boys and haters. Also, not a fan of thinkpads with that damn trackpoint, DAMN YOU Lenovo. Just ruins the sleek look of the laptop and puts two annoying clickers on the top of my track pad, UGH.

 

I am in the US. Thought it was 10PM EST was the closing time. Or is that only for tech support?

 

I've returned RAM to newegg (tried to put 4gb in an old Vaio TZ, chipset wouldn't take more than 2gb.) They took it back, though i had to pay for shipping (since it was due to my error) back to them so i didn't get 100% return.

 

they are open till 12am EST, here is the number: 1-877-865-SONY (7669) option 4

 

frankly, i dont think there is anything that is up to par with SB when it comes to hardware, however that doesnt mean that i'm going to settle on the SB. they thought through well what users like us would demand from a laptop so have to give it to them for the thought, however execution was below par, so its either they are going to address those issues later or the competition is going to see this "nitch" and try to get in on it as well. either way i think waiting another 3-4 month will payoff in a higher quality laptop with pretty much the same specs.

 

I am kind of hoping the Macbook Air comes out this summer or sooner than later with sandy bridge (even ULV would probably be ok with me) and I could scrape by with Intel 3000 graphics just knowing how much more portable an Air is than most notebooks. Only thing to fix then would be that damned glossy screen. That is one of my 100% not gonna happen things. I refuse to use a glossy laptop as I see different lighting situations many times a day. Would have to get a filter to put on it.

 

How does the Toshiba R835 compare against SB?
I was following the reviews for the Toshiba on amazon and newegg and all of them are very good. Even the expert review from cnet, znet, pcmag and laptopmag rated the laptop as very good.

 

I'm really relieved that Sony is actually honouring the prices for those people who ordered when the pricing was off, that was actually one of the main factors when I decided to pull the trigger. I called Sony up again today though and ranted at them for a while, but it still seems like they haven't sorted anything out and as far as they know my laptop is still being built...it's going on 3 weeks now since I ordered, even with the delays from the earthquake in Japan surely it wouldn't take that long to assemble would it?

 

dsadak
why don't you take out the ODD? that way you could get a HDD there instead..




Sony clearly advertises that the SB has an Headphones+Mic Jack which some users are testing and only feed audio, not picking up any mic input.
This is Sony asking for us to get some price cuts or refunds imo.

UPDATE: in Sony.de (sony's german front site) there are models which claim the mic jack (included on the headphones jack i guess) but there are also a couple of models which DON'T wth?!
why do i have the feeling Sony is doing the same thing OCZ did with the Vertex2 NAND's.. forget just several screens i think we may be getting several products that differ in more than 1 aspect even if both have the same specs... *ak's panic laughs echo*

If people weren't so obsessed with the Screen Quality (which Sony advertises right if there are not several screens going around,unlike what it seems btw) they could demand some explaining from Sony and eventually get this doubts out and/or get something from Sony since they seemed to have lied...