Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*

I think the battery thing is luck, you guys should check your max capacity to see if it's near 5000mAh or not though.

I'm getting 2 and a half hours no problem out of this Vaio. The last one barely got 2.

 

@ MelodyMaster,

I've been using an m-audio fw audiophile interface connected to a ricoh chip inside my asus laptop for about 3 years, I'm sort of hoping the vaio will be ok as well..

EDIT: btw do you seriously reckon the i9 you mentioned would go inside a vaio f? that would be incredible..

 

EDIT: re: the "whistling fan" which mine has always had - I've decided to simply wait until Sony is competant to absolve the issue & employ tech's that don't destroy customer's laptops, in the meantime I'll tolerate it.

 

Good to know, I think Firewire is firewire, only certain older programs that used to include their own hardware, such as Cubase, should have any problems.

F-series with the i9 are definitely going to be offered in the June refresh, that's 100% certain, as well as 1 Gig video cards. There's no particular reason why the i9 won't fit in current motherboards, but that's not an absolute guarantee. There will be compromises, i9 won't be the holy grail of chips, single-threaded programs will probably be less optimized.

 

I reinstalled my Nvidia drivers from the Sony support site as the resolution to my 'Driver has stopped responding and has successfully recovered' issue (directed by Sony online tech support.)

This issue already started with my default Nvidia drivers before taking a stab at overclocking. So far after 4 days, no failures using autoCAD and Mass Effect 2. Also, my fan is running quieter again (sounds like it's off quiet) and though the occassional fan whistiling occurs, it is infrequent.

 

If I could keep it within $500 including labor, I think i'll go for the switch. Either that, or i'll buy the new F11 with the lowest spec possible except for screen and GPU and salvage parts from this F11. I need a backup computer and my unibody 13" macbook pro just doesn't cut it other than being a netbook.

 

Yeah well I was born it the '80's, you switch to being an 80's collector, you let me know I'll fit right in...

EDIT: I mean with your collection. Nothing else.

I thought the 330M was already a 1 Gig card. And would the i9 be overkill for many people? I think you're right when it comes to compromises, but 6 cores? That's overkill, and I might like it. I'd rather see them put money into making the screen better though, and save the processor upgrades for another generation.

 

"1 Gig card" is how they refer to the GT330 currently, or future Fermi premium card. Right now the GT330/1 Gig is NOT readily available, theyr'e saying it will be back to a regular option in June.

Everyone else will be offering the i9, imagine the Sony-bashing in this forum if the F-series DIDN'T!

And it's not a matter of "Putting money" into the screen, that's silly. The cpu is fixed pricing, and covered by the customer's money. A more expensive screen will likewise be paid for by the customer - so it may be OFFERED yes, but it's not an either-or.

 

I read this at http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

' Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely.'

And from the NY Times:
If you were primarily using the computer as a desktop machine and had it plugged in most of the time, there's a chance the battery may simply need to be recalibrated.

Running it off the battery for a short time and then recharging it usually doesn't keep the battery's power meter in sync with the actual amount of power stored in the battery cell. To fix this, most laptop makers recommend that you calibrate your battery at least once every three months.

Check your laptop's manual or the technical support area of its manufacturer for specific instructions, but the calibration process basically involves first turning off your screensaver and other power management settings that put the computer to sleep. Then fully charge the laptop before letting it run all the way down until the computer shuts off automatically.

Once the battery has fully drained, you can charge it back up again and restore your screensaver and power management settings.

Might be helpful.

 

:confused2: Some Vaio_F Series owners compared the battery charge statement when fully charged vs. some hours later. Apparently, the battery is discharging by itself, even with the notebook shut down.

Is it an error in reporting the true battery state or is there a real problem we should worry about?

Here are some tests by 3 of us; To no End, mangosango & I. Feel free to do the same test using your Vaio_battery meter or with the free SIW 2010 utility on your F & report back with a screen grab.

.


I tested my F twice, #1 with the battery charged @ 100% then checked 8 hours later booting on battery. Test #2, I unplugged while @ 100% to make sure the reporting was not skewed then shutdown & rebooted 12 hours later, showing 82%. Plugged the notebook & re-checked the reporting, same 82% which is strange as it's the exact same figure as To no End which could indicate reporting skewing but then mangosango's report below shows from 79% battery charge to 64%.

.



The real test would be when the battery shows 100%, unplug & let the F run until the battery is drained & check how long it operated. Then charge again to 100%, turn off, unplug, wait 4 to 8 hours, boot & do the exact same test and compare battery life difference if any.

I would suggest to try the free & already included in the F: Windows 7 PowerCfg to Evaluate Energy Efficiency. It's fast & will not affect your system in any way but you could be surprised by the errors it may report.



How to do it on the F: Start > search: cmd > right click > run as administrator > type exactly & only: powercfg -energy, hit Enter and wait for the report to be produced (1 minute).

Note: when going to the report's path, I could not open the html doc with neither Firefox, Internet Explorer nor Google Chrome. Copied the report to My Documents & it then opened fine. Start > search: energy-report.html > right click > Open File Location > copy to your folder, Open the copy in your browser.

See my most recent powerCfg Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report with 9 errors to get an idea of what it shows.

My first report showed 15 errors including one related to the Realtek R2.43 driver which I downloaded from a non-Sony site (I did not follow my own advice). Will explain that & the Fix in an other post.

I would suggest to run the test twice: once with your system as it is @ the present and once with these settings so we could compare our results:

S1 > Vaio_Control Center > Power Management:

1- Battery > Default (battery Care Function disabled)

2- Power Options > Default

3- Settings for Behavior Lid > Default

4- Vaio_Power Management > Balanced > Restore Plan Default

>>>> unplug mouse, network/web connections, no peripherals at all and as Windows Experience, run at idle.

This by HP_Support confirms Fishon suggestion: Calibrating the Notebook Battery. I could not find a similar article on Sony_Support so I posted this: How-to: VAIO_F_Series Battery Charge Drainage Gauge Fix

Ouf, really hope this helps.

 

I see ...

59,94 (59) is logical to ONLY NTSC standard VIDEOS. What about PAL standard. Is 59 Hz logical for European PAL standard?

59 Hz makes sense for only NTSC videos but Sony forgets the PAL standard. F11 is not for videos especially NTCS standard.

 

Machine #2 update: power brick light flickers, but this one doesn't produce clicking noises.

And I want to lock sony's CEO in a room with a squeaking spacebar being pressed regularly.

 

Unification Post #2 http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5992644&postcount=554 > Squeaky Spacebar FIX.

I unsnapped my spacebar to take this photo, it took about .3477586 sec.



"power brick light flickers" - that's normal up to a certain point. Could you post a video about yours?

Sony_VAIO_F Series Premium Black European Version - VPCF11Z1E/BI (w/ Avatar playing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGM366GcjgA

Sony_Vaio_F11 (F Series) Review UK/EU Premium Black - Part 3/4 (display & viewing angle) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEvJCu06cg8&feature=channel

Looks like a real piece of cr@p!

 

I do not think so.. 100% RGB true color and better contrast of Vaio Premium Display should not be worse than glossy one ...

Anyway...

 

Please help me I think there is a bug in Vaio f software or Nvidia drivers that are installed.

Sometimes (many times) after I reboot nvidia settings unlock my color calibration to lock "other programs control the color "

I want to lock "use nvidia configuration" in nvidia control panel.

I have checked in vaio control center "dont use color profile"


anybody find a solution to this?

 

Software!

Unification Post #2 http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5992644&postcount=554 > Screen Color Calibration Srosenfeld’s calibration to prevent auto stuff.

 

Thank you , I see I can use an alternate profile from spyder in the link you give to me, but I like my nvidia color settings but seems to be a bug that many times this settings go away.

I want to lock my nvidia settings but it doesnt work.

 

Is the European glossy screen the same as the screen on the US F11's?
Because I want to use the calibration-profile that is posted on this forum.

Thanks in advance.

 

Pretty sure it is in the states.

 

There's also a 50 Hz refresh rate, remember. 25 X 2. The 50Hz setting "sticks."

 

Thanks for the quick answer, but the remark you make about "search" is incorrect. I'm reading this thread since it started and I didn't found any post were clearly stated that the screens are different in the same country. This last thing could also be a following of the fact that my english isn't that great.

 

There is a WORLDWIDE shortage of the GT330, Nvidia's yield is less than 2%..it's not available on Canadian CTO at all. What they're saying, and I'm trying to get it through to you for the third time, you're being obtuse, is that there will NOT be a shortage in June. Even US CTO has had the GT330 delisted for a while, right now it's two weeks delay. It is STILL short. Only Newegg and some Canadian prebuilts seem to have a good supply of GT330s.

 

So can the f11 display play Pal DVDs at 50hz refresh rate ? I thought the display was locked to 59hz for everthing. and what do you mean by 'it sticks'.

 

Jeesh, pay attention. Someone said that setting 60 Hz doesn't stick and it goes back to 59 (not my experience) well, when you set 50 Hz it STAYS at 50 Hz. SO, there is 59Hz for North America, and 50 Hz for most of the rest of the world, "Sony" hasn't left anyone out.

It's in Nvidia control panel..

 

There may be a shortage but the full res screen & GT330 are available on the US CTO. I dont see why we cant get the same just across the border...sort of ridiculous...

 

Ok, I've had the F119GS for a week (feels longer) and here's my updated comments:

The screen is lousy, It's not nearly as bad as my grey unit's display but it does have black shading bottom to top. It was hard to get a good angle while watching "House" last night (6:14, a GREAT episode!) Mangosango's screen is better. But it's usable for most things.

BDrom is horrible, but it's been replaced by a hard drive and I can choose an external optical drive as needed.

There's no fan whine, except when it's accelerating. Overall the system is very quiet, with an idling fan and SSD (the add-in Hard drive makes some noise, but it's ok..)

Battery life is decent, three hours with internet surfing and other light use from a 100% charged battery, NO discharge while in Hibernate. I DO find that sometimes it's not possible to reconnect WiFi after it wakes from hibernate, (even when "repairing" the connection) so the system has to be rebooted anyway.

Bluetooth problems for me appear to have been the Razer proClick mouse, it no longer works properly on the desktop either. It's within Amazon.ca's exchange warranty period so I'll send it back. VAIO Care was very good at recovering damage caused by crashes of the Bluetooth driver, an advantage of the so-called "bloatware" still included with Fresh Start.

Build quality is great, no flex in the case, some in the lid. The hard drive and memory covers both made a loud "tap" when touched, but I put bits of felt under the edge opposite the screws for both, no more noise.

The GT330M is excellent, I didn't record results but attempted overclocking went way beyond Mangosango's before Mass Effect had errors. Furmark was still good. I had it up to 850/940/1700. Temp was 85 degrees. Right now as default it loads 650/800/1430.

Backspace key squeaks, space bar squeaks if pressed on left side, well whoop-de-doo-hoo-hoo.

It works twice as fast in Premiere as my water-cooled Asus Maximus system with Q9450, despite comparable and even lower benchmark results.

Overall this is a great machine, and a keeper. Once it ages a bit I'll consider updating the display and CPU. But for what it has, including Premiere and Win7 Pro, and adding the Pinnacle 950Q and second hard drive, and using the (Ricoh) firewire port, it is a full Turnkey editor at some $2000, an absolute bargain..

.. Steve ..

 

The US CTO does not consistently offer the GTG330, it will run out again. We have the GT330 in prebuilts, but with 1600 X 900 screen. Newegg.com has a fixed allocation, even if they don't use them all, also Canadian CTO had a fixed allocation, that allocation has run out and Sony can't magically find more. Any they provide will be a short-shipment to Newegg, or less for the refresh. Sony knows what they're doing, it's Nvidia that fell short (yet again, they've screwed Sony in the past...)

Occasionally, once a week or so, Sonystyle.ca DOES offer the GT330, but it's run out in minutes.

And the 310 or 211 is not terrible, half the speed in Gaming maybe, but still a damned good card for 2D and multimedia.

 

The 330 was available on the UK site the last few weeks I checked and I ordered mine last week (due for dispatch between Mon-Fri this week) so seems like it's ok over here.

 

Have you tried switching off the wi-fi (wireless) button and the switching it back on, instead of re-booting ?

 

Hello everybody! I'm reading this forum starting January, at the begining and I took the decizion to buy a vayo F11. The problem is that I can choose between a US model that someone who lives in USA can buy me, and a EU model, at a comparable price, but with Italian layot keyboard, which will annoy me because I don't live in Italy. The American model can be a CTO (i7@1,6,6gb,500gb@7200,330gt,premium full HD,backlit) and the EU model is the same except the the premium black finnish, the mat LCD, hdd with 320 gb@7200 and the lack of backlit. Makes the deal to choose the mat screen instead of the backlit keyboard? Is the American version better in any way?

 

The consensus is that the EU premium screen is much better than the one offered in the US. I would choose the one thing that will make you more happy, a better screen or a back-lit English keyboard. Either way this one heck of a great computer regardless of which option you choose.

 

Tried two 3ds max 2010 benchmark test files from 3dspeedmachine.com

Test 1 (floating teapots around flame in a sand-like room)
3ds max 2010 64bit SP1 > mental ray 3.7

*I took the file from the 3ds max 2010 SP1 32bit SP1 mental ray 3.7 page since I seem to download a maya binary file? in the 3ds max 2010 64bit SP1 > mental ray 3.7 page. The test file looks the same but unsure if slight tweaks were made to the file.

I tested this on my 3ds max design 2010 64bit SP1.
Results: 17min 22.6sec for a 1024x1024 mental ray file.
Edit: 13min 37sec to compute final gather points. Th remaining is rendering time.

Comparison benchmark results from:
3ds max 2010 64bit SP1 > mental ray 3.7

i7-920 2.66-3.8ghz (x1 CPU - 4 Core) custom desktop - 12GB 1242mhz Ram - Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896mb Ram - Win7 64bit
8min 20sec

Intel Core2Quad - Q9450 2.66-3.2ghz (x1 CPU - 4 Core) custom desktop - 8gb 1333mhz Ram - Ati Radeon 4870 512mb Ram - Win7 64bit ultimate
12min 2sec

Test 2 (Single tree w/ 2 plant and flower external *.png files)
3ds Max 2010 64 Bit SP1 > Scanline Renderer

I tested this on my 3ds max design 2010 64bit SP1.
Results: 3min 36.7sec for a 640x480 file.

Comparison benchmark results from:
3ds max 2010 32bit SP1 > Scanline Renderer (64bit benchmarks not available)

Intel Xeon 5000 Sequence E5462 2.8 GHz (x2 CPU - 4 Core) Macpro desktop - 16gb 800mhz Ram - NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512mb Ram - WinXP 64bit SP2
6min 54sec

Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 2 GHz (x1 CPU - 2 Core) Qosmio laptop - 2gb Ram - Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 256mb Ram - WinXP SP3
9min 31sec

Final Note: GPU during testing was not overclocked.

 

Battery issue added to unification, with a potential explanation (Thankyou user "FolderTree" for the PM).

Added some other things too. My Vaio still rocking strong. One item I have noted is that the fan seems to be always on now, even on battery while the CPU is throttled. Of course, it is spinning very slow, but when I'm reading an eBook in adobe reader, and have turned off most background processes, the fan is still whirring away, something I wouldn't expect.

When I play "Torchlight" on max settings, the laptop gets hot. The WHOLE thing gets hot, and that's when sitting on a cooling pad. I believe that Sony should take a page out of the ASUS notebook design manual - and design some larger fan orifice with slower RPM for quieter and perhaps better airflow. The more I use the laptop, the more convinced I am that it is a very portable desktop replacement, and nothing like my Core 2 Duo laptops of the past 3 years.

 

Yes. Nada..

 

>>

Just fired up my machine after having it off all night (with a fresh 100% battery).

85%.

Ugh Japanese math. You guys are even worse than Apple apologists when they have a lemon computer and decide not to exchange it lol.

 

OK here is the question. Do you think it is worth trying to exchange my laptop ( whistling fan, morse code and battery drain) and risk getting dead pixels or other issues in another one?
Oh and as for explanation provided in the unification threat concerning battery drain - I simply do not buy it. There must be something wrong with power management or kind of shortage or this is one heck of power button keep alive function because mine just consumed 20% of battery within 6 hours and now is on the 80% and does not charge any higher.
ALso tried the trick with remove battery push on button to let the current disappear in capacitors and then insert battery again - still the same. That means if I charge my lapppy, leave the battery in for about day and a half it will be gone like completely.
I'm trying to like this lappy but really the more I use it the more I'm bothered. Still have 3 days to decide whether to keep it or return it.
Why Sony made a such a great laptops as far as specs,screen ( in EU ) and price point and again mistake with battery drain, new mistake with fan whistle and new issue with morse code. I hope they fixed those dying capacitors in the vicinity of CPU as they used to have in previous line.
Just do not understand. Potentially this is the holy grail of laptops if you do not game. I love the screen so much and now can see how bad is my Samsung screen but man those issues, why ....

 

I'm guessing it won't charge more than 80% because you probably have the battery care function enabled?

Go to vaio control center > power management > batter > uncheck "enable battery care function" (should be the first radio button on that screen, right underneath the charging performance graphic).

 

Wait so it was stable at 850/940/1700? That's pretty good. I haven't tried anything besides furmark between 650/800/1430 and my high overclock of 775/948/1705.

I haven't gotten my hands on a full copy of FSX yet, but I'm trying to see if I can get a copy soon.

I've been playing around with the settings in Crysis some more though, and I've gotten it to about 29-45 fps (without fraps) while keeping as much of the visuals intact as I could. The FPS with fraps is view-able in the video (about 17-28 fps).

Old Config (better visuals): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8_z1ci52Bs
New Config (better performance): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKuWeBJULgU

The gained performance comes at the loss of a bit of visual quality though. SSAO (ambient occlusion - basically makes the lighting/shadow effects prettier) is now turned off, and the shader/postprocess effects are turned down as well. Shadow resolution/update rate is lowered too. I turned up the HDR to compensate for some of the reduction in detail, but I think I went a bit overboard....

Still, i think its a good combination of visual quality/performance. Keeping in mind that high-end computers can just now begin to max this game out @ higher resolutions, an average of ~30 fps @ 720p is quite good, I think, for a laptop.

Oh, and another thing. The color settings keep getting switched back to the defaults when I run Crysis. I think this has to do with the fact that Crysis has it's own color settings (gamma, etc), but does anybody know how to prevent this from happening?

 

well, dead pixels is extremely rare, and You Won't get the morse code in a new machine.

 

I never used battery care in the first place (disabled it when I first set the machine up, I double checked yesterday that it was indeed off).

15% power use for being off ~10 hours for me is not really acceptable. My old laptop uses that much sleeping in that period of time!

The moaaaan whistle moooaaaaaan whistle sound of the fan is beginning to remind me of a bad porno or something XD

 

Ok, but is there any other diference between those two? I read something about the wi-fi card and does the european version have the morse code noise or the loud fan? And the transferjet technology or whatever is called is available only on US models?

 

Apparently, transferjet is optional and not standard... aaand

I have yet to see/hear of an F series that actually came with that lol.

 

lol transferjet. I doubt anybody is going to use it... atleast in the near future.

 

Yeah, I forgot about this feature. You have to have a transferjet camera. Is anyone using this technology? If so, please post any sort of info.
TransferJet spec has a physical peak transmission rate of 560Mbps

The Science Of TransferJet FYI http://www.sonyinsider.com/2009/03/18/the-science-of-transferjet/

 

Makes more sense to me to have an eye-fi or wifi camera.

Transferjet requires an expensive camera, and a very, very expensive memorystick.

With any luck and Sony's expertise in making computers it probably results in electric shock and flashing screens or something lol.

 

Anybody with fixed high pitch noise under Linux?
Any suggestions?

 

http://www.sonyinsider.com/2010/03/12/pictorial-sony-store-nagoya-opens-today-in-japan/
This store opened on 03/12/2010. Look at some of the Vaio options, accessories and support desks. If you speak Japanese, it looks like great place to get your Sony info. Interesting pics- check it out.

 

Great I'm not the only one who perceives this as a serious design/production/construction flaw. And I have pretty much the same 8 hrs Samsung on sleep - around 20% battery used on sleep not turned off like Sony.
Also does anyone noticed this rubber distancer on the left hand side of the keyboard gets in a way when using CTRL key. AT least for me I found this rather annoying. This rubber part is a bit elevated and whenever I'm pressing CTRL I feel kind of discomfort. Hard to describe.

 

After adjusting your monitor profile, why not add your vote in the Sony_F_Series Owners Display Poll?

*****

To get the very best out of your Vaio_F_Series' LCD monitor, a colorimeter can do wonders for optimizing brightness, true colors, contrast & saturation. Many F owners noted the poor results with the F's default Sony_monitor profile & auto settings. If you can't afford a colorimeter or don't see the need for one, you could try some of these profiles to see how different your LCD may look with just a few teaks. Naturally the optimal results is obtained with a custom profile made for YOUR specific hardware variations with said colorimeter.

Free monitor profiles created by Vaio_F owners in this thread using various colorimeters devices & software. YMMV because of normal differences between hardware, even for identical GPU, monitors, etc.

For the US 1080p and EU 1080p semi-glossy:

- slrosenfeld’s monitor calibration profile & how-to install (made with Spyder3Elite) Note: there's a typo in step 6, path should be: C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color

- Gandalf_The_Grey's monitor profile (made on a EU F semi glossy 1080p with Spyder3Elite)

- count_schemula's monitor profile (made with Spyder2Express, the newer version is the Spyder3Express)

- Joe Bleau's monitor profiles (made with X-Rite i1display 2): Profiles_Joe_Bleau.rar 9 profiles @ different color temperatures, including Native_5900K_2.2_109cd-m2.ICC which is made using the US F's native white point & low brightness setting following Damien Symonds' i1Display2 calibration recommendations:

Follow slrosenfeld' how-to or this one with screen captures to try the profiles. On my Vaio_F11, Native_5900K_2.2_109cd-m2 is the most accurate color representation profile so far. I want accurate for photo editing, I don't care for pretty. I also included two electronic GretagMacbeth ColorChecker charts (sRGB & Adobe RGB color spaces) so you can verify the end result:





Give this a try on your US 1080p if you don't have a coloromiter like the i1Display2 than can measure Luminance: Fn+F6 several times > to set to the max brightness > lower to about 109 cd/M2 by going down two clicks with Fn+F5.
-----------

For the Euro, UK, Australia, India & Japan Premium matte (anti-glare) 1080p display:

- matt800's profile (made with Spyder3Elite)

- Cheek's 3 profiles (made with X-Rite i1display 2)

Note that if you buy a colorimeter to get the best of your F viewing experience, you can also use it on other computers & charge your friends some $ or drinks to recoup the investment.

OK, any EU Premium1080p owner who wants the US backlit keyboard gadget, I'll trade you my US F display, throw in a bottle of premium Costa Rican rum & pay for the shipping!

A good read: Monitor Calibration: Who needs it? Talks about the more affordable Spyder2Express as the X-Rite i1Display 2 and Spyder3Elite are pricey.

This is fun: X-Rite Color IQ Test. Could you even see 100% of the Adobe RGB color space?



*******************************

US glossy vs. EU Premium Displays

ALL 900p (16.4" - 41.6cm,1600 x 900 pixels) F LCD's are glossy. I don't know if they are identical or not, I did not see any model # nor a side-by-side comparison, nor color space coverage data so far.

What can be found on some prebuilt models & as an option in some Sonystyle worldwide sites is a 1080p display (16.4",1920 x 1080 pixels):

- in EU, the Vaio_Display Premium LCD is matte (anti-glare) and covers 100% of the Adobe RGB color space.

To learn more about color spaces:

- Color space: "...A color model is an abstract mathematical model describing the way colors can be represented as tuples of numbers, typically as three or four values or color components (e.g. RGB and CMYK are color models)... This "footprint" is known as a gamut, and, in combination with the color model, defines a new color space. For example, Adobe RGB and sRGB are two different absolute color spaces, both based on the RGB model."
- RGB color model: ...is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.



- RGB color space



- Adobe RGB color space "... encompasses roughly 50% of the visible colors specified by the Lab color space ...It was designed to encompass most of the colors achievable on CMYK color printers".
- sRGB color space: "...is a standard RGB color space created cooperatively by HP and Microsoft in 1996 for use on monitors, printers, and the Internet".
- sRGB vs. Adobe RGB by Ken Rockwell, photographer: "The same old-wives-tale about Adobe RGB having a broader range of colors has been circulating on the internet since the 1990s...".

In the North American market, the consumer is driving the glossy finish & the low price point is a very important criteria. Go to any big box store in USA with laptops on display & try to find a non-glossy screen for notebooks in the same price range as the F and with a similar sized LCD. My take on why the F 1080p is semi-glossy in North America.

I would say that my US 1080p display is semi-glossy compared to some high-gloss laptop displays I've seen. While it does not cover 100% of the Adobe RGB color space, the coverage is wide enough for me to do critical photo editing & once the monitor is calibrated, the color representation is brilliant with accurate true colors, proven with X-Rite Colorchecker charts both electronic on the desktop vs. a physical one hand held next to the F's display like this photo from the interesting (especially if you use Photoshop) Introduction to Color Management article:


"A monitor profile's accuracy is checked against a physical sample".

Very few people could say which monitor covers 100% or not of that Adobe color space in a side-by-side comparison. I would like the EU display but I love the US price point.

By fluke, for their EU F Premium Display review ( VPC-F11Z1/E), notebookcheck.net used the exact same software & colorimeter as I did for my US 1080p! ( X-Rite i1display 2) So finally we have a way to compare these displays & their Adobe RGB color space with a visual representation.

Their end result report screen grab for EU 1080p matte vs. my US 1080p semi-glossy:





This is as close as I could get to Notebookcheck's Native 6000 K white point & 197 cd/m2 luminance as with Fn+F5 or F6, I either get 161 or 220 cd/m2 but compare the color space: the black triangle represents the actual LCD's coverage of the color gamut, much wider on the EU. The cd/m2 set to max on mine: 248.4 vs the 265 cd/m2 reported in their review but that's way to bright for daily use anyway.

Edit: This notebookcheck.pl VAIO_F11M1E / H review in Polish is just out & contains my US 1080p LCD's model # as seen in the Vaio_F_Series: How To Remove the LCD + Webcam Angle Correction post: LQ164M1LD4C.

From that article & this is quite interesting as it confirms my gamut test above and that the EU 1080p non-premium is the same as in the North American market:







Note that I measured a higher maximum luminosity of 248.4 cd/m2 with a contrast ration of only 128.833 to 1 (248.4 / 1.8) for the exact same LCD model: SHARP LQ164M1LD4C.



I've never seen a notebook review so far where the brightness distribution was perfectly even. Here are for example some screen captures from reviews by notebookcheck made with pro grade luminance measurement tools:

 

I have one of those nifty 23" Cinema displays on my desk...

Just scored "perfect" with a 0

Guys try viewing this:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/white.php

My F's LCD went to 249, I can (albeit faintly) see all the way to 254 on my Cinema display. Kinda sad about this test XD