Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge

Yes exactly, it's for antenna. You can also see a slot for B-CAS card next to the Blu-ray drive, which will give you access to the digital tv.

As it was already answered, your guess was right Non-glare to be precise


I'll most probably order the white one. I would surely prefer the Premium black as I don't like silver plastic in general...but this computer is supposed to be my wife's one
Just the rumors about Vaio M stopped me from ordering right now.

 

Thanks. I will look at the notebookcheck.com review.

I just checked and the computer has been shipped (hadn't this morning) - I guess I have the 'buyers jitters' or excitement for this computer - now I will wait to see the computer - don't plan on returning it unless the screen has something obviously wrong with it.

 

Can I upgrade to the higher graphics card (GT330) with the same screen (1600x900) later?

 

Unfortunately most laptops have the GPU soldered to the motherboard. There are some brands which allow for it. (not sure which though)
bottomline is no. it cannot be upgraded later on. It's now or never

Edit
or the next time you get a new laptop

 

Yeah upgrading the GPU is impossible. Some Acers and MSIs allow it, it's called MXM.

 

Okay thanks. I should have checked this forum before ordering. I was trying to get the basics right with the intent that upgrades can be made later - don't know why I clicked on the lower end display - was debating it in my head through the last minute. I guess with 2 yr ADH protection the bill was getting steeper!!

I will have to decide after I receive the computer and see how my applications Revit/CAD/3DS photoshop etc work.

 

@Phil..

ah that's it!! MXM...thanks I need to look into that as well.

 

Call now and change your order. You can do it very easily.

 

Exactly right! Just look at it like an investment. You will have to wait a bit longer before you get your laptop because of changing your order, but at least you will not have to worry about whether 1600x900 was right.

For me the reasons to go for 1920x1080 were:

• Playing blu-ray in native resolution
• Better screen quality
• Possibility to have more on the display. If fonts are too small, DPI settings can fix it and good software will not have any problems with dpi settings anyway. Besides, on a higher res screen smaller fonts will be more readable anyway so you would probably not increase DPI by that much to compensate for higher resolution.
• The difference between 1920x1080 and 1600x900 isn't that much. It is just 20% x 13% larger.
• low additional cost for 1920x1080

 

The first things that I will do are:

• Startup and go into bios (I believe using F2)
  • enable intel vt
  • check that it will boot from DVD
• Backup partition table and the recovery partition. It appears some people are using Acronis (trial version). I will go the hardcore way by putting in a DVD with linux and starting up the rescue system and create backups on an external drive.
• Start windows for the first time (I think you need to start windows first if you want to use acronis, but that doesn't apply to me), and create recovery disks.
• Check if you have the high pitched whining noise. If so apply the instructions from this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5748529&postcount=546
• Display setup. Have a look at the following links (all gathered from this forum thread): http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5776772&postcount=1376, http://www.imaging-resource.com/ARTS/MONCAL/CALIBRATE.HTM, http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html#Gammabox,
  and http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5784440&postcount=1572
• Now dual boot setup for linux begins for me. I have some more detailed steps for that which I will leave out for now.

Registering your laptop is also a good idea.
And when you are done, perhaps look at the manual (or earlier if all else fails )

 

In Denmark the sony.dk site have been showing three versions of the F for the last month or so. One I5 and two I7. Not until yesterday did the three versions show in the danish SonyStyle site, though with at slightly higher price on the I5 compared to the sony.dk site.

Now they have just raised the price on the sony.dk site, so it matches the sonystyle site.

So in Denmark, the price have just been raised. It should be noted that none of the F versions is on sale in Denmark yet.

 

Thanks for your responses guys - this has been helpful.I will call them up.

With the sony style US no longer taking orders at this time, I may have to wait a while I suppose.

 

Just found this great forum - great info here !
A quickie: the price differential between the SonyStyle exclusive option of the higher speed 7200rpm HDD and the standard retail 5400rpm versions is very high. I will be using this laptop with an external eSATA 7200rpm HDD - using the Sony's eSATA high speed port, to edit HD camcorder footage. Would the 5400 rpm onboard HDD be a problem in this config, or should I go for the more expensive 7200 onboard HDD ? Would there be a big performance hit with the 5400 ?
Thanks, if anyone can help.

 

High where? It's only $5 difference at Sonystyle.ca or .com.

 

Go for the 5400rpm. Some 5400rpm HDDs are actually faster than 7200rpm HDDs.

Look at the WD 500GB/5400rpm outperforming the Seagate 7200.4 here:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17010/4

If you happen to get a slow 5400rpm HDD it's easy to upgrade yourself.

 

Thanks guys - the price differential between a retail 500G/5400rpm with 8G memory and the SonyStyle ditto 7200rpm version is around 200 UKP here in the UK !
Anyone using the eSATA port yet, btw ?

 

You are of course right in this but the hard drives are most likely from the same manufacturer and then the 7200RPM drive is faster. Also, the price difference in the Netherlands between the 500GB 5400 and 7200 RPM drives was only 70 EUR. Of course, that is more than the price difference in a shop for 5400-7200 drives which is about 30 EUR but is still acceptable.

So, I'd say, either (1) choose the cheapest option you can and buy another drive elsewhere, OR (2) get the 7200 RPM and just leave it at that. My strategy is to go for the 7200 RPM and replace it some years later by an SSD when the prices have become acceptable.

 

In the UK the 500/ 7200 option is only on the SonyStyle site. They say it's their exclusive. Shame the shops are not getting it..

 

Well I saw Sony using various HDDs (brands) in the same line - Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung.

As it's already said before...I would (and I will) go with the cheapest option and replace it by myself for something I like - SSD or Scorpio Black/Blue.

 

About the screen,please take care about that:

Vaio f (v) series
41.6 cm LCD, 1920x1080+ webcam [ + £ 30.0 ]
41.6 cm (16.4") VAIO Display HD1080 (1920 x 1080 pixels) (16:9) + built-in "Motion Eye" digital camera (0.3 Mega Pixels)


Vaio f (x) series
41.6 cm LCD, 1920x1080, webcam
41.6 cm (16.4") VAIO Display Premium HD1080 (1920 x 1080 pixels) (16:9) + built-in "Motion Eye" digital camera (0.3 Mega Pixels)


Only the full hd in customizable (x) has the premium screen in the (v) series is NOT premium like the 1600x900 one

 

Sony uses several brands for 5400rpm drives. The only 500GB/7200rpm that is widely available is from Seagate. Which happens to be a relatively slow drive.

There's a small chance Sony is using Hitachi 7K500 which is a lot better than the Seagate but it is not available in Europe yet.

Most likely the 500GB/7200rpm is Seagate 7200.4.

 

I want to buy a Vaio VPCF11V5E from www.sonystyle.nl
I'm thinking about the following configuration:
CPU: i5-520M
Memory: 4 GB (2 x 2 GB)
Harddrive: 320 GB (5400 rpm)
DVD+/-RW Drive
Display: Full HD (1920 x 1080)
GPU: 1 GB GeForce GT 330M
Windows 7 Home Premium
909 Euros

Does anybody know what kind of warranty I get from Sony?
Is it wise to upgrade to the Blu-ray player for 50 Euros?
I don't want to upgrade the harddrive because I want an SSD next year.

 

On the page services it says one year warranty.

But by European law Sony has to give two years warranty.

 

I think it is 2 years standard warranty.
For the player, I upgraded to the BD writer because I also want to use for archiving stuff.
Otherwise, how big is the chance that someone will pop-in with this nice movie on a blu-ray disc in the next 4 years? Perhaps watching avatar in 3D this year? Also, there is a chance that in the next years more and more software will get published on blu-ray.

 

I think someone said that the cost of an aftermarket blu-ray player or writer is very expensive, so the upgrade cost of 50 Euros (and £50GBP in UK) is a bargain really.

For me, this is also the main reason for getting the system...there are very few other laptops on the market that have blu-ray readers or writers.

matt
(where did all those flags come from?!!)

 

Hey everyone. So I've been messing around with the laptop for a while. I can't quite remember where to go to adjust the brightness settings, because there don't seem to be very many options under the control panel. Is it on the Nvidia settings? I also can't remember if there was a way to set it up that works best, determined by someone on this forum. I could look back at the previous pages, but that would take forever.

 

hello. i have been using my new f series for about a week now. i love this laptop aside from the whining noise... but i do have one question. i know for windows 7 it is standard that when you place your cursor over a tab on the taskbar that is running behind the window you have open it is supposed to pop up and show you that window. does anyone have any kind of delay when doing this? mine can take a good 5 seconds to show... any feedback would be great. thanks alot

 

Woah really? Are you sure this applies everywhere? On their page it states one year warranty and the standard from HP and Dell is also one year in the UK.

If this is true I won't purchase that extra year tomorrow!

 

Well it is true that it's a European law. But sometimes there is a difference between being right and getting your rights.

I have heard that Dell has been repairing laptops that died in the second year.

 

Good point. I hear Dell are pretty flexible, but researching Sony Support seems to reveal quite a few horror stories, although most seem quite old :S This will be my first Vaio laptop, my last was an ASUS and before that HP and warranty service (required for both) was trouble-free.

Link to Sony EU warranty:
http://support.sony-europe.com/repair/warranty/index.aspx?site=odw_en_GB

It states one year, but also includes the following clause:
"Consumers have legal (statutory) rights under applicable national laws relating to the sale of consumer products. This guarantee does not affect statutory rights you may have nor those rights that cannot be excluded or limited, nor rights against the person from whom you purchased the product. You may assert any rights you have at your sole discretion. "

Quite interesting. If they refuse to repair defects you can raise that section of your agreement even if outside the 1 year period.


If you read Sony's actual warranty, it is very very vague. It gives them leeway to deny repair for pretty much everything and also requires you to be responsible for transport costs (not even Dell asks that). Should I be worried? Any experiences in the UK recently here with warranty support anyone?

 

____ ____

 

I have a question for anyone who owns the Vaio F series. It's not for me, but my brother wants one but he wants me to check it out. I went to BestBuy today and checked it out thoroughly. It seems to be a nice laptop, rather BIG though and hot due to the Core i7 but my problem about it was the screen. It's HORRIBLY washed out. I tried all kinds of calibrations and came to the conclusion that it's just a low contrast cheapo screen that Sony uses.
I know for the most part you have to pay $$$ to get a good Sony and they are notorious for cutting corners and the customer gets burned one way or another but I am very disappointed how low contrast and washed out the screen is. There's a premium option on Sony's website, is that any different? I have a Macbook Pro and the screen has an incredibly deep contrast and large vertical viewing angle. I thought the Sony would be the same way.

 

Use Amex to buy....they'll double the warranty and give buyer protection.

 

Appreciate this, it will be interesting to see how much your profile will differ from my custom calibration once I get the Spyder 3 Express. It's really great news that our displays are quality once they are calibrated appropriately.

 

I have an order in (delivery date 2/9) which includes the 1920x1080. I think the screen have taken over as the top issue on this computer, now bypassing the noise issue ( since there is a workaround). I too have been to BestBuy and I agree the screen looks horrible. To the people who have made the adjustments with their screens, by using the Spyder, honestly, compared to other top Windows computer screens, how does the F compare?

 

Photo by Melodymaster of the 7K500 he removed from his F here :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5767105&postcount=1093

 

I have the "premium" screen and I used the Spyder settings posted by slrosenfeld found on post #1572 (see this page: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=448894&page=158) and it made a huge difference in the quality of the display. Makes me want to shell out $80 for my own Spyder and fix the other LCD screens we have.

 

I would really appreciate it if you would post your dual-boot set-up for Linux ASAP. You made a joke about wiping Windows 7 with OpenSuse, but Ubuntu is my distro of choice. I bought a Sony VPC11F at BestBuy Friday night on an impulse (a $1,450 impulse), and really want to make sure I can make Ubuntu 9.10 work acceptably on it before my 14-day return window closes. Not that it matters, but I have a preconfigured model with the i7 720, 6 GB DDR-3 RAM, 500 Mb. 5,400-rpm (no choice) HD, 1920x1080 display, nVidnia 330M, and Blu-Ray player only. Probably could do better price-wise online, but have to know if it will work with Ubuntu as its primary OS. I expected display problems, but without trying an actual HD installation, my 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10 live CD wouldn't recognize the wireless card, and wireless is the only kind of network available to me, so it's a potential deal-killer.

Windows 7 seems nicer than my old Vista nightmares with an HP Core2Duo laptop that now runs Ubuntu exclusively, but I want to see how fast the i7 is for computation-heavy scientific applications when I don't have to have my 60-day trial of Norton Anti-Virus running constantly in the background.

 

But are you completely happy with the screen? Gloss vs. matte can be subjective, however, how does this screen really stack up to the other $2k Windows laptops that are on the market? I bought one ( in order status) and I want to like it too, but I think we are all looking for objective observations, and most importantly, comparisons to what is currently out in the market. Next to a Dell Studio at BestBuy the screen looked weak. But with the Spyder adjustments we are looking for an objective comparison- how does this screen really stack up?

 

@slrosenfeld - Post # 1572

Thanks for that, the screen is looking much better now, reduced blues and no more white-washed effect.

 

"the quality of the display" remains the same... it's the calibration that lets you get the most out of it.

 

Actually, before someone else calibrates their screen, if its not too much trouble, I'd like to request before and after shots if someone has the time. Considering that there are those of us who only have the display models in BB to go off of -- and they are poor looking next to other display models, it would be appreciated by myself and possibly others here as well.

 

For this to be a valid comparison, the camera must be to set to manual for the white balance and exposure otherwise the automatic settings whill change the exposure and compensate the WB differences between the two screen settings.

The viewing angle must be the same for both images so a tripod or setting the camera on something solid is recommended. Also using the self-timer will avoid motion blur.

 

Yes, I am completely happy with the screen. Mine also has zero dead pixels, which is a first for me. I'm not sure how to give you the objective opinion you want short of taking this into Best Buy and comparing it to an unadjusted Vaio as well as the other models that are in the store. Even then, it would be subjective as we'll all have different opinions as well as different preferences. Someone posted awhile back that it's a shame these companies do not use something like Spyder to adjust the screens to optimal BEFORE leaving the factory. It might make things easier at the store. As I mentioned in a previous thread, this laptop was for my wife, and she's already in love with it, so that's good enough for me.

 

Is anyone else contemplating sending their new F back for repair? I contacted Sony about the irritating whining sound and they said they will send me a shipping box to send it back for repair. I love this machine but am worried about the noise any other opinions would be greatly appreciated.

 

tjcat: I was originally thinking of returning mine, due to the fact that I still have the high pitch intermittent (morse code) sound that does not go away even with the "fix". I am hoping that there will be some kind of official release/fix from Sony about it soon. This is my first laptop so I don't know what "normal" sounds are. If Sony is accepting a return due to the noise...it does make me wonder tho, it makes me think they know it's an issue, but who's to say that a replacement one won't be the same???

I have decided to keep it for now, if I returned it and waited to re-order, they are on back order for a month in Canada and don't think I could wait that long for a replacement. Also zero dead pixels on mine :] (I am sick of looking at the one lime green pixel stuck on my old desktop).

 

Did you see the easy whining fix here?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5748529&postcount=546

 

Has anybody had a chance to compare the premium screen of the Sony F with the screen of the Dell studio XPS 1645 (LED-RGB or WLED) as for brilliance, colors and contrast ?(I know that the Dell has a pretty reflective screen)

Thank you in advance

 

But Phil is saying that the Hitachi might not be used in Europe, only Seagate.. I agree the Hitachi is a very good drive.

 

The RGBLED screen on the Dell studio XPS 1645 is the best screen I've seen on a Laptop, brilliant colors, depth, saturation, blacks & contrast. I had one for a few days before it developed malfunctioning keyboard & the dreaded "throttling". It's just amazing, nevertheless the calibrated screen on the F is really good.