Official Sony VAIO F Series i5/i7 owners thread *Part 3*

Too bad you are coming to this conclusion. I've had mine since January and it's been great for me.

 

As it has been mentioned NUMEROUS times already. Compared to other brand notebooks, the F12 is really not all that bad. No matter what you buy, a fridge, a car, a tv etc. there is always a chance that there will be something wrong with it. That is why products come with manufacturers warranties.

If you want it, buy it, I don't want to hear blah blah blah it sucks five thousand times over and over.

If there is TRULY something WRONG with the laptop you purchase, you CAN return it. DEFECT = RETURNABLE.

It is a budget - high endish notebook. You pay for what you get.

If you don't like the webcam or the screen or the keyboard or the speakers or the blah blah blah blah...then why don't you all just go make a CUSTOM laptop, where you can pick and choose each component to satisfy your needs???

 

I don't know where you guys are getting your information.. The GT330 doesn't EVER use system memory for rendering to the GPU. It has the 500meg or 1 Gig onboard and that's IT. It purely uses its own discrete GDDR3. And 1 gig is more than the F-series' GPU will ever need. Lucky's original question is meaningless, the GT330 can not access system memory, it doesn't share system ram. Notebookcheck: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M

 

Nice
Thanks!

 

As I said above, that information is wrong. The OS manges memory assignment, of course, but the GT330's memory is not part of it. The GT330 does not, can not, use system ram. It manages its own memory.

 

My F12 arrived 3 days ago and now finally I can tell what are the differences with my previous F11.
Both have an i7 (720) CPU, a Premium matte display (1920x1080), 8 GB 1333mhz RAM, Nvidia GT330m 1gbHD 500 GB (7200 rpm) and Blu-Ray burner.

The biggest hardware difference is the Blu-Ray burner. The one on the F11 was made all of black plastic, while the one on the F12 has metal parts and feels more solid.
I don't remember well, but it seems to me they changed something to lock the battery better.

The fan on the F12 is running at a more continious speed. It still slowes down when you hold pressed down a key of the keyboard.
The version of the bios is now R1100Y6 on the F11 it was R02..... I don't remeber the rest of the numbers.

There are some slight differences in the appearence of some Vaio software. Nothing special. Now it's less probable that somone formats his whole HD recovery partition included, when he just wants to return to factory settings. When you make the recovery disks now there is an option to control that there are no errors.
The F12 has Office starter and Evernote for Vaio included, my F11 hadn't.

The display seems to be the same quality, no light bleeding and no dead pixels. The factory calibration of the F12 screen however is defintely worse then the F11. I installed the icc color profile for the europeen matt screen made by matt800. Foto's and immages are now looking great, but the colors in the browsers, especially red are still too bright.
Somebody know how to fix that? For example the red of the adobe logo at ww.adobe.com is almost blinding me with his fosforescent red. It's really annoying.

 

WHAT its only 1.3MP? -.-

 

The envy use HD webcam...not sure what is the resolution or pixel. Maybe 720P.

Just get HP envy, I'm through with the F. Disappointed twice and not planning to get disappointed for the 3rd time. Spec wise, it is better and price was is almost the same.

Not to be negative to the F12, but we here to let everyone know how is our experience with the machine and discuss it. The F sure is a performance/budget machine, at least that was my believe but again I wasn't sure anymore, for the same price I could get better PC like envy. What satisfy people who spends thousands of $$ is a computer that works without any defects and apparently I have the F12 doesn't deliver it. How one can accept to look at screen like that?

Yeah man,go with envy..it has HD webcam, I supposed maybe 720P

 

In all fairness I didn't see a thousand posts saying it sucks. One forum member had issues with his display and decided to go with another make and model. He posted a few times about it and that might have alot to do with him updating everybody on his issues with this model. A number of posts back there was discussion on the display issues and viewing angles and whatnot. Another few posts were about how the display looked to potential buyers who were just stating their observations. I think it's informative and good to know.

As for webcam, one guy asked how the webcam was. I answered him honestly with a post where another person gave a personal review on it in a thread discussing the qualities of it. I also then gave my personal feelings on the drawbacks of the 1.3 MP quality compared to the 2.0 MP standard now with other brands. As you know, I have a CTO in progress and this is my take on the webcam and how it affects ME. If I purchased it, I have every right to talk about it. Good or bad. This is hardly anything to be worked up about. He asked a question and I gave him some information to try to answer him. That hardly means either of us have to now make a custom laptop from the ground up. If that logic were to be applicable then 99% of the people who ever owned a laptop would be doing that. There are always pros and cons to every configuration to every model and to every maker. That is why there is discussion about it and why people need to weigh both in choosing what to purchase.

This is a thread discussing this model. Potential buyers have a right to discuss F1290 related specs. Just b/c somebody points out a drawback doesn't mean it's a bad thing. It's good to help people make informed decisions. I'd rather 1000 posts about negatives that help me make a better purchase decision than 1000 posts singling glory and praise. Or even 1000 posts where nobody mentions any drawbacks. If you don't like it, it's fairly easy to just gloss over the offensive posts or skip them entirely. I'm sure alot of people are grateful for this kind of information. If those guys didn't discuss display issues it would have seemed like there weren't any. I know with Sony LCD TVs that they tend to suffer from clouding issues. People in AVS Forums and such welcome such information from others b/c it helps give some kind of indication as to the variances in the product that can turn up.

Lighten up?

 

Then buy the envy and don't look back!

You have seen pictures of my screen. A new poster today also posted that his new F12 had no screen problems. I am sure that some people do have screen problems, but if it was the norm, there would be huge returns and the production would be halted.

Just for my own piece of mind, I went to the HP site and looked at the Envy 17. It looks to be very similar to the F11/F12, but with a larger screen and a better webcam. (I am not terribly fond of my webcam either) The base processor is not as good as the Vaio's.

So, I configured it just as I configured myu machine 3 months ago...840QM, 8GB RAM, 1GB video card, 1080x1920 screen, backlit keyboard, wireless N, Power over eSATA, DVD R/W (no Bluray). The price with tax was a whopping $500 more than I paid!!!!! A full 32% more than my F11's price, and I did not even look to see if shipping was included...it could be MORE!

I have worked on, troubleshooted and repaired many computers. While not all HPs are bad, a majority of laptops I have seen with MAJOR problems have been HP or Compaq branded. I have seen multiple motherboard failures and hardware failures (hard drives, optical drives, video failures). You are correct though, most of these had better than average displays.

I have posted several times that I have been a Dell fan for well over a decade. I also am NOT a fan of the Sony corporation. The only Sony product that I planned on buying was my camera, and only because Sony SLRs come from the fantastic Minolta heritage. The PS3 that we purchased for our kids has been perfect and when I needed a new computer, I scoffed at a Sony Vaio. This F11 changed my mind. Since February, I have now purchased SEVEN F11s. All are working perfectly. No glitches. No problems. Acceptable displays. None of these computers has had a "morse code" problem, a light bleed problem or a fan problem. They are all in use at least 8 hours a day. Mine is in use closer to 18 hours a day, and is only powered off when updates neccessitate a reboot.

Go ahead and talk about your screen problem on two machines. The 1600x900 displays on the church machines do have a narrow viewing angle. The 1920x1080 screens have been better. The fact is that I can take a photo of my screen from an angle and make it look poor. I can also put my face 6" from the screen and at an angle and see light problems all the way around. Yet, at a normal 24-28" distance from the screen, with my head somewhere near the center of the screen and the screen tilted to the correct angle, my screen is perfect. I mean perfect. There is no light bleed. There is very little difference in brightness from one area to another (common on many LCDs), everything is crisp, clear and bright. Of course, I also calibrate so it looks its best.

I am ecstatic with this machine and I am happy with the base machines that I purchased for the church. I would not spend the additional $500+ for the envy 17, even if I liked the screen more.

 

I can second Wills price comparison, I got my Vaio for about 1500, i built a similarly built Envy 17, heck i didnt even upgrade the processor to a 740 and it was 2,000 bucks. Honestly, new_vaio is just a pissed off poster (he has a right to be mad) but the problems the Vaio does have are rare, fixable, and not detrimental. Unlike HP...where that thing will heat up like a toaster and a multitude of other complaints.

Back on the screen - many people here do calibrate it, however the screen is still amazing (1080p one) with factory settings and the vast majority dont do calibrations.

 

Yes,I do see your screen was good. I also bought the cooler master U2 that you recommended, the F seems bigger then the notebook cooler...however it still accommodate it. I believe the envy is more expensive before, but right now they lower the price of it. Plus with coupons, bing cash back, etc. You can get hundreds dollars off with HP direct.

The other thing I noticed is, when you put F on the cooler master the light bleed is less severe...not sure if its because of the angle, but it still unbearable to my eyes. I think the person who just got the F12 is not getting the glossy one, its a matte display I believe (I remember he applied matte color profile).

I did fix computers as well, I personally like SONY the most back then. It was about 4 years ago, that's why I'm getting SONY but right now the product went downhill in quality.

The reason why envy is better:
-Far better screen
-Aluminium body
-DX11 Graphics
-HD webcam
-2 HD bay for envy 17
-USB 3 and Bluray for envy 17

From my experience, the computer that always having issue usually low ends HP,msi and dell's. I never tried Asus before.

The early envy have issues, especially heat. They make a major changed for generation 2. I dont think you can fix a light bleed from CCFL without replacing the whole screen.

I do believe also HP have lots of complaints on their lower end PC, I'm looking people comments on envy forums. Seems to be the envy 14 dont have issue. Majority people probably have higher toleration on the F screen and do not use it to watch movies, the screen is great under normal Aero desktop.

 

How exactly do you know the majority of people dont use the F to watch movies? I also fail to see how HP can have a FAAR better 1080p screen than any other 1080p screen, besides some minor details.
MANGOSANGO! How do you like gaming on your F?

by the way, so far all your posts keep going on and on about how Envy is better, go their forums, you're borderling troll now. We got your point 10 posts ago.

Btw, ive had about 3-4 HP laptops in the family and they all heat up.

 

In this case I don't know how accurate this is but overall this is common. Not all displays are made alike. It's the same with flat panel TVs. You can look at a dozen 1080p models and they will all vary quite a bit. In fact differences can be drastic even if they use the same panels made by the same manufacturer. For example, Sony's Bravia line of LCD TVs had clouding issues while Samsung LCD TVs didn't. Even though the panels from each brand are both made by Samsung. Yet the Sonys tended to have sharper PQ that Samsungs couldn't be calibrated to match.

I have 3 HPs. Two of them kept shutting off on me all the time randomly due to overheating. One of them, I had to keep pressing on the upper right of the keyboard in order to start it until it eventually refused to turn on anymore. The one I'm using right I expect the same fate to befall at any time now the way it keeps shutting off.

I will never even look at HP again, even if Envy has better specs and is a cheaper purchase. I can't worry about it overheating to the point of failure every day I use it.

 

Yeah i know what you're talking about, but he's making it seem like the difference is between earth and sky. When...it's not. as for TV's i like Sony's better for different reasons. Samsungs major drawback is the glare, so rediculous. My aunt has one and she cant watch it in the morning cuz of the glare on the screen. I digress, my point was to say that while the screens may be different HP's screen is not something miraculously better.

On heating - yeah i have to make it a point to lift and hold the laptop in the damn air so it doesnt shut down on me.

Btw, if there's something wrong with the screen we have warranties for a reason - send it in and tell them to replace it. Same for fan, morse code, any problems.

 

The reason why envy is better:
-Far better screen

It may have a better screen, I can't comment one way or another. But the VAIO has a 1080p 16.4" screen, what more can you ask?

-Aluminium body

Sounds nice, but I'm pretty impressed with the design and construction of the F series tbh.

-DX11 Graphics

Why is this so important for a laptop? It's still a laptop, not a desktop rig. Even if it's technically capable of DX11 are you really going to be using those features? I would much rather push higher resolution and AA/AF instead of my laptop choking on DX11 effects. Leave the latest DX versions to the desktop.

-HD webcam

I would never make a laptop purchase based on this. I have no idea if I'm even going to be using this a lot. Sure a nicer webcam is a bonus but I wouldn't list it as a major feature. You can always buy a separate webcam. And many of the latest smart phones are featuring nice 8mp 720p cameras, which I'll hopefully have soon.

-2 HD bay for envy 17

Seems highly unnecessary. This is still a laptop even if it's a desktop replacement laptop. Who needs two harddrives to cram into such a small space? I'm counting on SSDs to continue dropping in price. I will eventually replace my single HDD with that.

-USB 3 and Bluray for envy 17

USB 3 is a nice feature and it would have been nice to have on the latest F series, but the F series still has an eSATA port. I don't care much about blu-ray to be honest but how is this a special feature of the envy, blu-ray is sony's technology after all.

 

I think the Envy has 3 USB ports + 1 combo USB/eSATA port.

I think he listed Blu-ray b/c it's a default config on the Envy while on the F it's an option. Which is absurd since it's included in the higher cost of the Envy and you can add it as an option to the F and have it still be comparable in price. Therefore it isn't really something that makes the Envy "better".

 

i'm in the market looking for a laptop ... comparing the envy 17 to the 1290X. more bang for the buck is obviously the sony, but i'd rather have an envy 17 for the few extra hundred. only place where i'm stuck is i want bd-r capability, which the envy 17 doesn't have yet.

the sony is a really good value, had a look at one in person @ best buy, it's nice. but i want to ask if there's any real drawbacks with these notebooks i should look out for ? i heard about the recent recall for overheating. was told by sony that it doesn't affect these latest 1290X models.

one other drawback is i can't install a second hdd in this as i can in the envy, so what max drive size does the motherboard support ? say in a year that i want to install a 750GB hdd (if they are available as 7200 rpm), would the laptop address this drive fully ? how about 1TB ? more than likely when prices drop a bit, i'll snag a 512GB SSD, so swapping out hdd's is something i may do if i buy one of these.

it's a tough call for me, because i don't mind spending the extra 200-300 and getting an envy 17 when bd-r is offered on it, but in the end, i could go with the sony as well.

 

HP's have a common tendency to heat up like crazy, no matter what anybody tells you about them...it's a nightmare. They also tend to break down in about 2 years (various problems). I've had/have 3-4 HP in the family so I can tell you from experience.

Now as for the F...no real problems. You may get some lightbleed on the screen but many don't have that problem and I think that's covered in the warranty. The heat is great the laptop is one of the coolest laptops on the market.

It's up to you, Sony had no real issues that make a significant impact you're getting the most bang for your buck. HP has a very bad track record for long term reliability and stability. Joe Bleu can probably answer your question the best though.

And about the recall, no one in the over 1000 pages of these 3 threads ever reported overheating issues. In reality the problem might have been mostly the C series that they replaced. Some F did have incorrect temp reports but nothing remotely major.

 

I think it depends on what is your perspective and tolerance of a good machine. Everyone is different.

 

What are your reasons as to why would you rather get the Envy?

But is there a potential problem with battery drain in the F series?

 

I don't have my vaio yet so I can't say for certain about battery drain, I don't think it's a problem at all or a significant one lol where's joe when you need him?

 

My power settings are at maximum performance. I get about an hour out of the battery. On balanced power settings I got over two hours.

This is a very high performance, quad core, Intel overclocked machine. To expect a ton of battery life comparable to a much lesser dual core is wishful thinking at this point. I have no doubt that it will happen within a year or two, but right now...

 

AFAIK so far in this thread, there has been no posts on battery drain on the new F12s. However, there have been posts regarding the older F11s and battery drain (during off/hibernate/sleep/standby) and/or not being able to charge after a full discharge issue that seemed to affect all the other series in their lineup as well, such as Z. These posts can be found in the Official Sony VAIO F Series Owners lounge *PART 2*:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...ony-vaio-f-series-owners-lounge-part-2-a.html

and for the Z series, here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/299109-official-vaio-z-battery-drain-thread.html

others:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/423924-sony-battery-drain-fix-request-thread.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/465569-vaio-cw-battery-drain-information.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/475874-new-battery-drain-findings.html

If you do a search in the forums yourself there's more on this, as well as an internet search.

 

has anyone tried hibernating/shutting down the laptop with battery settings set on power saver? that could alleviate it somewhat.

If im not gaming and im using the laptop on battery power and not AC, i always put it on balanced or power saver, why leave it on high performance when you're doing menial tasks?

 

What's the latest updates about fan stucking @ 100, morse code, bad screen...

 

Things I consider issues with my Sony:

* The power brick was a poor choice and can cause the lights to flicker a lot
* For the money it REALLY shoudn't have the hypersensitive alps trackpad it has
* My screen has a small cluster of dead pixels which I plan to get fixed
* The front edge of the case has a mold line on the front that leaves a sorta sharp edge (not a HUGE deal but damn)
* The optical drive door is not tightly attached and rattles sometimes when you're typing
* not offered with a matte screen, not offered iwth an IPS screen, and the screen it comes with has a very narrow viewing angle (but great colors!)

MY BIGGEST PET PEEVE OF THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!ONE!!!

THE @#*% LID! ?! My laptop is only 3 months old and I HAVE RATHER DRY HANDS and there's smudges that I can't really clean off and stuff...

Can anyone suggest a polish?

Battery life:

Playing games: 1.5 hours
Web surfing: 2 hours..with screen brightness on lowest setting maybe 2.5
Zombie-ing: About 3.2 hours

 

The fan is fine, they fixed morse code months ago, there was a slight build adjustment, bad screen well it's still possible like with all laptops but the majority of people who post here dont have the problem.

Dead pixels are covered in the warranty i assume correct? So screen troubles = free fix.

As for battery life, it's an i7 processor these things are beasts, even HP will have similar battery life. If you want a longer use get a i3 or i5

 

gonna return my f127fdb for the f127fxb

btw for those of you in canada sony seem to have plenty of f series in stock..if its not in the store like my f127fxb that i just ordered they get em shipped in within a few days...

 

Futureshop.ca also has the F127FXB in stock. Earlier this week they were only available in Vancouver area FS stores, but this weekend they are starting to be in stock in the GTA, (Greater Toronto Area). Bestbuy Canada has the F127FDB in stores. And, as you said, the Sony store carries both versions.

 

Anybody know the difference between the F12 - VGP-AC19V46 power adapter and the F11's VGP-AC19V16 ?

 

Why the hell I keep getting spikes, freezes you guys name it, when I'm watching a movie. Of course not all movies do that but it's anoying. I've tried different movie players, separate codecs but nothing worked. At some point the movie freeze and I don't know why :| . I noticed that this happen on movies with bit rate above 1000 kbps. All movies are working fine on my desktop with same OS, same player.

I really don't know what's causing this. Please help :s

My laptop

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 – 740QM, 1.73GHz Turbo Boost 2.93GHz, 6MB L3 Cache

Graphics: Processor: NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M GPU, 512MB of dedicated video RAM

Memory: 4GB DDR3/1333MHz

Hard Drive: 500GB, 5400rpm Serial ATA

 

I received my F12 (VPCF1290S, Canadian, glossy premium 1080p) laptop about 4 days ago and it's a great laptop. I must say though, the viewing angles from the left/right are not bad. However the up/down viewing angles aren't good, as many people mentioned. Everyone else about the laptop is perfect.

Which colour profiles are you F12 owners using? I'm currently using Gandalf's semi-glossy EU F11 profile, but it seems to be very very slightly green. It would be awesome if someone could share their colour profile specifically for the F12 glossy premium 1080p (US/Canada screen).

 

Are you running on battery power? The i7 clocks down when on battery power and if you're using a media player that's CPU intensive (such as VLC) it could explain it. Although 1000 kbps is a pretty low bit rate, not even DVD quality. Try another media player?

 

Please stay on-topic in this thread, thanks. Some debate about which model laptop is better or not is OK, just don't take it personally. People have different opinions . . .

 

I'd like to know this too, in advance, which color-profile is...the most admired/recommended for the US/Canadian 1080p screens? (i dont need a program or anything to install them right)

 

Hey guys, I bought a VAIO E from Futureshop today (ATI 5450, Core i5 450, Blu-ray) for $999 Canadian, but I just noticed the F series is available on Sony's online store for about $150 Canadian more with a Core i7, nVIDIA 330m, 7200 RPM HDD and backlit keyboard. I'm considering returning my machine to FS and ordering the VAIO F from Sony. I wanted to know if the VAIO F can output HD Audio over HDMI (from a Blu-ray disc, or otherwise)? It seems like the better bang for the buck.

Thanks!

 

i've owned 2 hp laptops in the past, most recent one i got for my wife (dv6t) and it's not bad. no heat issues with it, it's a core i3. but my wife has a tendency of leaving the laptop running on the bed, which i see could be a problem because hp's have all their vents on the bottom.
haven't had a hardware failure with these laptops yet, so can't really speak to that. one thing i have against hp's is all the bloatware crap installed on them. can't stand that.

as for sony, it would be my first venture into laptop computers made by them. personally, i tend to buy higher end laptops similar to the envy or mackbook pro. from that pov, a laptop like the vaio F series looks big and clunky, plastic body isn't really something i like due to lack of rigidity. but the value for what they offer is so good, that i'm having a hard time not considering it as a formidable candidate. i figure, if i can get one with a 1.86GHz core i7, all the bells & whistles, for less than 2K, i would be set for at least a few years.

does anyone know: what write speeds are supported for BD-R/RW ?

 

form-factor, performance. i like laptops that are made from metal and glass rather than plastic. envy screen and touchpad are glass, body is aluminum. i also like neat/clean looking machines, examples of what i don't like would be the EA/EB/EC series, or the outgoing HP dv line (with chrome trim).

the F series looks clean enough and simple enough that i wouldn't have a problem buying one.

i also like the dedicated display on/off button, surprised no other laptop makers bothered to think about it.

 

speaking of dead pixels, what's sony's policy ? i can tolerate 1 or 2 or 3. but more than that i get irritated.

 

what i like more than the F is the Z series, but no way i'm paying 3K for a 13" laptop. if they made one in a 15" or 17", i might think about it ...

 

Yep, metal looks cool even if... for example, an Envy_17 owner reported here up to 45°C/113.4°F for their palm rest

I presume that high operating temperatures are not part of what you define as "performance".

Note F data for the same tests in that post.

 

no, i didn't say that. in addition to build quality, i next look for efficiency, performance, etc. so i'm not just shopping for something that looks cool, i'm looking for an all-around absolute best for my needs. the F qualifies, the Envy sort of qualifies, i won't even bother with dell as they are worse than HP.

i would've bought a dv7t se if it had a higher-res screen.

but for now it looks like the F is what i will probably buy. so, should i consider spending the money on a warranty ? what write speeds does the bd burner support ?

 

The F actually has a steel support chassis, with the motherboard and connectors mounted on the centre sheet, technically that is the actual chassis. A metal case will protect against intrusion damage, something actually attempting to poke through the case into the insides, and will probably less likely crack if the whole laptop is dropped, but the actual insides, the electronics, are just as solidly protected from flexing and breaking with the metal chassis as with a metal case.The case squeaks a bit when you attempt to bend or twist it simply because the inside of the bending arc travels more than the outside, thus the two mating parts of the case HAVE to slide against each other a bit a bit and make noise.

One laptop I saw has a dedicated on/off button for the touchpad, THAT would be nice! Typing without accidental brushes against the pad sending the cursor off to foreign territory.

 

Does anybody know if the F series is able to output HD Audio streams via HDMI when playing a Blu-ray disc? Thanks.

 

Yes it does. But like all HDMI stuff it's fussy about the monitor and cable used. The laptop outputs audio over HDMI, but the player has to support that as well.

 

I've tried Media Player Classic, Media Player, VLC and KMPlayer. I'm not on battery power but the CPU stays for most of the time at 931 Mhz. Hmm, can I do something to keep him at 1.6 Ghz all time ?

 

Hi buddies
I want to buy vaio F series and in my country Iran there`s to kinds of F series notebook.
the first one is made in usa that comes with DVD+RW and second one is made in china that come with blue ray.
all model`s LCD are 1600 * 900 except one model.
F115FX/B comes with 1920*1080.
do u recomend to pay extra money for higher resolution,I mean do u easily notice the differnce between this two reolution in picture quality?
the spec of F115FX/B is core i7-720qm 2.8 ghz-6mb cache
6gb ram
500gb hdd 5400
blue ray drive
16.4 WXGA 1920*1080
geforce 330 graphic
OS win 7 HP
& made in china

 

I know where you are, because I've been there.. but I think you're worrying too much. The F series doesn't get awesome battery life, but nor will an Envy unless you lug the "slice" battery around.

The envy looks nicer, but I'd rather own a macbook pro when it comes to looks. HP kinda screwed it up with the chocolate brown palm rest and the little divots all over the case.

The Envy has an awesome keyboard, and the F has a similarly awesome keyboard.

The envy is known for its annoying trackpad, but I don't think the F's trackpad is all that much better.

They both have kinda ghetto power supplies for their price.

The Vaio TOTALLY owns the Envy in terms of heat production, but the envy won't fry your lap either. I used the first gen i7 Envy 15" at Frys and that machine had been on for ages (evidently).. it didn't feel that hot, even after 30 minutes of trying game demos on it. Hotter than the Vaio F, yes, but not hot enough to cause burns or anything.

The Envy has 1 USB3 port.. the 17" is better and all but for the $$....

If you can get the Vaio F for $1300-ish think about it

- from the dude that had an Envy 15 on order and REALLY wanted one.


OH here's one final thought, sorry for the tldr type post: You consider an asus g73? They're huge but everyone loves the battery life and cooling system on them (it seems).

 

I just can't choose between F series and E series. Buying a laptop is pretty pain in the ***