Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

Note: link below added

UNIFICATION POST SONY VAIO F11 SERIES – ISSUES, FIXES, TWEAKS, REVIEWS


I just ordered an F11 from sonystyle. This is the replacement for the FW series. Mine should come with i7-820 Nvidia gt330 1gb 1920x1080 4GB ram and base hard drive.

ship date is Jan 14th.

 

Congrats! Some wonderful specs! Are they called F11 through out the world? Just thinking this thread may be better titled VPC-F Series or something that helps everyone.

Look forward to your feedback on how the new F stacks up against FW.

 

Hello all...I'll be ordering the F series tomorrow. It'll also be a replacement of the FW590 (which i'm returning next week)

Specs are:
i7 720
Win7 pro
8gb ram
320gb 7200rpm drive
1920x1080 display
grey color (Black reminds me too much of thinkpad days)

Do you know if the 820 will consume more battery than the 720 or will it have negligible differences?
(Though i'm plugged in most of the time, when i'm not i'm still working heavily in autoCAD and photoshop so it'll be quite some extensive use of resources.)

Also, is it worth getting the bluray writer (for future) over standard read only?

I am curious too how this new one will perform for my tasks as well as other user experiences. I am currently using FW590 with a 2.8IC2D, 320GB 7200 drive, Ati 4650 and 8gb ram. So far, it is consistenty exceeding my needs.

 

Ordered an F11 yesterday. i7-720,4GB ram,320GB HD,1920x1080 screen, and backlit keyboard. Ordered the black one, looks sleek judging by the pictures. Got my FW same day new one came out, didn't even open it. Returned it asap, hehe. Excited for new one to arrive.

 

No i5 version of F11 yet (there is no mention of i5/i3 series by Sony @ CES 2010, source: press release)
And i7 costs more
As i5 (dual core) costs less than i7 (quad cores), hence i5 versions of F11 should cost less and they should stop selling 5200 rpm HDDs with 7200 rpm HDDs. Blue-ray disk should be optional

But look wise (design/keyboard) F11 series looks fantastic. I love it. But have to wait till REAL reviews comes

 

An i5 version of the F11 is already available. Have a look at for instance
https://www.sonystyle.nl/SonyStyle/VAIO-notebooks/F-Serie-16-4/

Cheers
Erik

 

I'm seriously annoyed Sony did not put a better video card in the F11. This is hard to justify against other alternatives in the same size class with much better graphics.

 

I am also annoyed at the fact that Sony didn't put a better graphics card in their how about ati 5870 they had that in the original fw series.

 

I ordered my F-series CTO model as soon as it was available for ordering:

Specs are:
i7 820QM
Win7 Ultimate (which did not allow the "fresh start" option)
8gb DDR3-1333 ram
500gb 7200rpm drive
1920x1080 "premium" display (seems to be some ambiguity in the term "premium" as applied in the European markets)
Blu-Ray burner
Black

 

i cant wait for all the review!...

 

Can't wait for the reviews. I'm getting one, the next chance I get which woull be in a couple months.

 

The other alternatives from other manufacturers using the quad core are having heat problems, if I recall correctly from reading around some of the reviews. Flip over an F and the FW and you'll see that Sony has introduced more ventilation holes on the F -- for a reason.

And remember, there will be "refreshes" every three or four months. From the history with the FW series, each refresh will improve the power of the video card. So, just hang on a few months and the model will likely integrate a better card. That's all part of the marketing and development game that every manufacturer plays to keep us interested and coming back for more.

 

Agreed. This is a game that every manufacturer plays. And as long as the consumers have the discipline to not jump and go ahead with an upgrade, everytime they see slightly improved specs in a newly released model, they can avoid losing money.

Bottomline, this new F-series will be constantly refined in its lifetime, with newer and better features arriving like clock-work every 3-4 months and that is a fact of life. Frustrates the people who bought the version with the earlier specs but that is how technological products work.

 

technology always improving. one can never get the latest gadget.

 

I ordered mine yesterday with these specs:

Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
320GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Blu-ray Disc™ player
16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
Fresh Start
Keyboard Backlight
Standard Capacity Battery

I didn't know if the difference in speed between the i7-720 and the i7-820 was that much of a jump to validate the extra $300 or so for it.. what do you guys think?

~maria

 

Actually the turbo boost only goes up to 2.66

 

@freedom16 Turbo boost for the 720 is up to 2.8GHz

Also, does anyone know if backlit keyboard applies in the UK too? It's just a bit strange that there's absolutely no mention on it on any of the sony sites here, unlike in the US...

 

Even here in the US, the backlight option is not part of the regular list of options that you choose when you deck out the F. It is part of the secondary list of things you choose, in the following page, where you get to choose the extended battery etc.

People who are not paying too much attention in the secondary page, might just miss it.

 

Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant - in the UK we don't get a 'secondary' list in the configuration, so no option to choose extended battery, backlit keyboard etc. Is the default going to be backlit or no backlit do you think?

 

In the US, the "default" is no backlighting. You have to deliberately choose backlighting, to get it....at additional charge.

But you never know. There are country-specific differences and in the UK, they might very well have backlighting across the board and hence does not popup as a separate option. Might be worthwhile to call them up and re-confirm.

 

Actually, the way it has worked for the FW precursor model refreshes in the States is that each refresh cost the same as the previous one (once, even a few dollars less) yet the specs improved substantially, with the possible exception of the last refresh which had minimal improvements. So waiting it out a bit sometimes pays off with Sony.

 

The trick is to buy the best that you can buy TODAY, hopefully with high enough specs to last you for the next several years, and then not be continually checking out the specifications of every slight refresh that comes along like clock-work, every 3-4 months. The only modification I would make to the "TODAY" argument is, if the manufacturers are on the cusp of going to a totally different generation of products, like say the Intel i3/i5/i7 situation now, where it was a wiser decision to wait for a few more weeks and go with the next generation products.

In another 4-5 years, when you are ready to upgrade, look at what is available THEN and then go with the best specs that you can afford THEN. The models that came in the intervening 4-5 year period is immaterial ! Saves a lot of heartache and even more importantly - money !

 

This is exactly(!) how I deal with it. It is simply impossible to have the latest specs. Just take processors. Within 2 years at most there will be 32nm core i7 processors instead of the 45nm with even lower power consumption. In any case, I definitely wanted to have the latest generation of hardware in the system and the blueray writer and core i7 definitely cut it.

Usually, I am only up to date let's say 6 months before I am going to buy something. I only learned about core i7 perhaps 6 months ago and before that I was totally out of touch with hardware developments.

Buying a laptop for the next 4-5 years results in a bit over the top specs for now (like 8GB memory, and core i7) but will be just enough in 4 years time. In addition, these specs open up more opportunities like effective use of virtualization. Now, I have to reboot my laptop to run windows instead of linux, but then I won't have to anymore. Also, you only live once and I am really looking forward to enjoying some real computing power and a really good screen. Moneywise, it is cheaper to buy a good laptop every 4-5 years instead of a bad one every one or two years.

 

I don't think the battery consumption will be significantly more than the 720. The processor is less than 10% faster so I would not expect a significant additional battery drain, if any.

Conversely, I would seriously consider the price performance ratio of 820 vs. 720. It is not that much faster but for an additional 50-100EUR I would probably do it. Paying additional 300EUR is too much for me to justify the performance gain.

A similar consideration applies for SSD versus regular hard disk. SSD will be faster but it is really expensive. Combine that with a lot of memory and performance of your laptop with SSD and regular hard disk will not differ that much (most data will be cached anyway). I am opting here for the midlife upgrade and going for the max in memory.

I think a bluray writer is definitely worth it. I already have a need sometimes to backup huge amounts of data and the DVD medium is simply too small for that (unless I want to play disk jockey ).

 

My only modification would be to say "buy the best that you can buy when you NEED to buy one" -- in other words, waiting is always going to offer advantages so never buy before you actually need it.

 

Exactly right. In fact, I started updating myself about the latest things (SSDs and the differences between them, SSDs vs HDDs, the new generation of Intel processors, differences between DDR2 RAM vs DDR3, differences between DDR3-1066 vs DDR3-1333 etc) around 3 months back, shortly before I started shopping for a replacement for my several-years-old Lenovo.

I was seriously debating between the new-F-series vs the new-Z-series and finally decided on the F (to be quite frank, I am still a bit torn about what the Z brings in terms of portability/power versus the sheer performance and relatively higher hit in portability that the F-series brings especially since I will be living with my choice for several years ). Once I have the new laptop in my hands, and I am satisfied with its performance, I will no longer be spending any more time in going through the technical minutiae of these models or even looking at other models, till I am ready to buy another one, several years down the road. There will always be something around the corner that will be better/faster/sleeker/lighter and no point in losing sleep over it !

 

Agree. If my Lenovo could hang on for a few more months, I would not have minded waiting. But it is pretty much ready to give up the ghost, after having served me well for the past several years. I am just surprised that it hung on for so long.

 

I debated over this: i7-720 vs i7-820. The price difference is $300.00 USD. If it's not that much faster to validate the extra $$, the i7-720 should be ok combined with a 7200 RPM HDD, nice size RAM (6GB) and good graphics (1GB) card right?

 

I think the i7-720QM is a good enough chip, being a quad-core (like the i7-820QM), with the key difference being that the 820 has 8MB of cache, while the 720 has 6MB of cache.

Both chips have the same TDP of 45W.

Among the Intel i7 Quad-core Notebook chips, the i7-820 is positioned in the middle and flanked by the i7-720QM on the lower-end and the i7-920XM on the higher-end.

The 920 is mainly meant for gaming notebooks due to its extreme nature and comes with 8MB of cache too (like the 820QM) but has a higher TDP consumption of 55W.

All 3 of these "Clarksfield" chips are optimized to take advantage of fast 2-channel DDR3-1333 RAM that the F-series natively comes with (than the slower DDR3-1066 or the ancient DDR2-800 that the older FW-series had).

Just some tidbits to chew on.

 

thanks for the input everyone! I went with a Grey 820Qm with 8GB ram and blu ray writer. LOL! To all in the States I justified this with my upcoming tax refund.

 

let us know ur input of ur new notebook when u get it!...

 

Whew, good tidbits there! Thanks!

I ordered my F with the i7-720 and it says ship date is 1/18/09 - I can't wait!

I think I should be fine with this selection... (I hope I don't change my mind for the i7-820)

 

I know what you mean. But I believe the 720 is a good enough processor for most applications.....especially for a $300 discount !

 

My ship date stated 01/14 but it actually shipped out on 01/11....and it shipped out of San Diego, CA which would be closer to where you are located. In other words, if you are lucky, you might have the laptop in hand by the end of this week.

 

Oh nice! The sooner the better!

Would you happen to know if my specs are going to support this "virtualization mode" I've read about?

[edit] figured out it does support VT

 

I just ordered my F11 today Sony said it shipped today. I saved enough money on a discount to get express shipping. So, I think I'll have some fun playing with it this weekend. Sony evidently has some pre-built configurations in stock, I've never had a custom machine out of the factory that quickly. I technically ordered it at 11 PM last night...but it was 12:03 AM when I hit "place order", so it still counts as same day!

I really wanted to get a Vaio AW-series laptop. I was really dismayed to find out Sony dropped it. Plenty of refurbs on the site, but just nothing with the right specs to justify buying one over the F11. Oh well, I suppose I could've waited to see Sony replaces it with; but I'm impatient

Besides, I've been wanting to get into dinking around with Blu Ray encoding since BR debuted.

I can't wait.

 

So what are your specs?

 

Fedex just dropped off my F11. Wooot.

 

give us ur feedback!.

battery life, fan noise, how often does the fan kicks on, heat

 

pics or it didn't happen

 

So far been using it for about an hour. Chatting/web browser/music/etc. Not getting that hot and the fan is very quiet.

 

Love the screen. Went into sony settings to turn off auto brightness and its very bright/crisp/etc. About the same as my Samsung 24" LCD in terms of brightness. Kind of in the middle of matte and glossy. Would say its just right.

 

when can we expect some photos?

 

I only have iphone camera atm, so quality kind of sucks.

http://i45.tinypic.com/210a7at.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/s4z7t5.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/14t6gp0.jpg

 

thanks mate, is the case colour black as in the 'premium black'?

 

Ordered Yesterday $1659 before tax. Thought that the Fresh Start would avoid the Bloatware so I don't have to do a fresh install. I wonder if I can later install any proprietary sony software...? Ship date is 1-19, so the wait shouldn't be too bad.

* No Additional Video Editing Software
* Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GHz
* 16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) with NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
* Fresh Start
* No additional Office Software
* No additional Photo Editing Software
* 6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
* Blu-ray Disc™ player/burner
* No additional AntiVirus Software
* Keyboard Backlight
* Standard Capacity Battery
* Black
* No Engraving
* Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
* 500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)

 

This is just regular black, U.S. version. Choice of grey/black.

 

How do you like the build quality & overall look & feel? What's the keyboard like, is it weird typing off center with the number pad? Do you have to use the function key to operate the volume controls? Ordered mine yesterday, sorry for all the questions?

 

oh yeah....hows the touchpad and the keyboard... response wise?
never used a laptop with the touch pad off centre, how does it feel and does it feel uncomfortable?

 

Build quality is excellent. Keyboard is very nice, easy to type on. Don't really notice the keyboard is off center, doesn't feel much diff than if it were in the center. Volume controls kind of suck with fn, would prefer some regular volume buttons like at the top with play/pause/etc but not a big deal. There is stop/play which is kind of like mute.