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

does anyone agree with the review on pc pro regarding the F12, it saying the screen isnt one of the best as well as giving 3 out 6 for value for money.

 

the screen isnt one of the best especially if they didnt have the eu premium screen and even then its nothing to write home about...with regards to value for money it shouldve gotten more stars..ive yet to find another laptop with the same specs for a cheaper price..

 

Yeah, I think u shouldn't get F12 cuz they gave it a three star value rating. Almost got snookered into seriously answering your question. omaroo you are the best. Keep asking those questions! Joe Bleau should be back soon...

 

PC's most W.T.F. games

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I have been having a terrible customer service experience ... anyone else?

I placed my order on the 3rd of JULY and it still has not arrived.

I have talked to customer support 5 times. Been elevated to "level-2" support ... and after all this .... still haven't gotten a straight answer.

They now "think" that it "may" ship in August. OMG

Why can't anyone give me a straight answer at SONY customer service? Is this their way of keeping their customers on a leash? Don't explain the problem so the don't cancel the order and they'll eventually get it?

This is terrible ... I just sent an e-mail back to them today asking for a free hardware upgrade of sometime for having made me wait a month. jeez

anyone else have this type of experience?

 

Thanks very much for that, very useful info. I'm just waiting for word that some funds are arriving & I'll then order, hopefully on Monday, the last day for free blu-ray, unless they extend it again.

Cheers, Dave

 

Back in Dec 09 I made a Dell Studio17 CTO order and they claimed because of the i7, or blue color, or blu-ray, there was always a delay and kept pushing back my delivery date. Eventually I just canceled the order and I have to say they were very nice and professional about it. Is Sony telling you anything specific as to why there is such a delay? Have they pushed back your delivery date? Usually they tell you the reason, have every interest in keeping there delivery date promise, and will gladly let you cancel and order if you are inconvenienced. When it's ready for delivery most Sony's are coming in sooner than their expected dates. Please give more details.

 

Unfortunately not.

Everytime I have called customer service, they gave me a the same shipping date of the 13th.

Then they gave me a revised date of the 22nd.

Today they said it would be shipped "maybe" the 30th.

I just haven't gotten a good response. Everytime I ask a question they give me completely non-sensical answers.

IE:

Q: So can you confirm that my shipping was upgraded so that I can get the computer a little faster considering there has been a delay.

A: You can also check your shipping status online ... is there anything else I can help you with? Thanks for calling Sony Style.

Seriously, I wish I would have recorded these conversations. I really wanted this computer, but I might just have to do as you say, and cancel the order.

 

That's my point. It looks like it's playing on a 120Hz TV. VAIOs are 60Hz, which mine is set.

When I put in a DVD, it plays super smoothly, so quick as if it's being filmed right now. I'm not sure of any other way to explain it. But when I play a normal Bluray mkv file...it does not play the same way. It plays as it would on a normal 60Hz television. This is why I am completely confused.

 

NTSC movies plays att 30 fps
Pal 25 fps
Blue ray 24 fps

Is your monitor compatible with 24 fps?

 

I think you are confused between frame rates and refresh rates. Since its an MKV file it could be codec/interlace issues. Try playing the same MKV using mplayer or VLC? Try to describe more.

 

Sony must be short on a specific component of your laptop. I would not be happy if they did not provide me with any specifics for the delay. But really, does it matter what component they are waiting for? State what country you are ordering from and post your CTO. Wait to see if others who post here are having your issue as well. Take some more time to shop and consider other laptops and/or confirm your desire for this one. I do not think this is a precursor to bad Sony support for you. Sony's support is usually good. Keep an eye on this thread. I'm sure others will respond to your issue as well.

 

Cool sounds good.

I'm ordering off of Sony Style USA and it is to be shipped to an Address in the USA.

Originally placed order on July 3rd, 2010

Current response level from Sony. "I expect the product to arrive on 07/30/2010, and your order will ship shortly thereafter."

If anyone else placed their order within this time frame ... please let me know if you have had any similar issues, or found out if it is indeed a component issue.

Customization Details

* Intel® Core™ i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
* 16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080)
* NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
* No Fresh Start
* LED Backlit Keyboard
* 6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333 (Reg. price $150.00)
* CD/DVD player/burner
* Adobe Bundle ($448 value.)
* No Engraving
* Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
* Black
* Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
* Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
* 320GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm) (Reg. price $55.00)
* Standard capacity battery

Update**

Online it now says "YOUR VAIO IS BEING BUILT" est ship date 8/2
wow - a whole month.

 

If it says its being built it will ship very soon. Either today or tommorow. Ordered mine on June 30th and it got here July 12th. I had the same configuration save you have 6 gigs of RAM and a 7200rpm drive, mine is 4 gigs and 5400rpm.

 

Guys so isnt the EU premium matte screen one of the best due to the RGB adobe screen, because it seems to me some people are saying its nothing special.

 

Oh man ... that would be a dream. Did your ship date say that it would be really far off in the future? And then did you still get it really fast?

so if it says ...

* Items:
* 1
* Order Status:
* Your VAIO IS BEING BUILT
* Estimated Ship Date:
* 08/02/2010

You are saying that yours said something similar but you got it much faster?
Well I guess you still had to wait about 13 days for yours.
With the current estimates ... that would be about the same for me ... either way I would be happy if I got it next week ... but all in all ... I think I'll end up waiting a month from date of order.

 

This is from Powerdvd's help file. Hope it helps explain what is going on.

TrueTheater Motion: select this option to enable frame rate upsampling, from 24 fps up to 60 fps, to make panning scenes, particularly in action movies, play more smoothly. The Smoother option will double the frame rate of the original movie content, while Smoothest can improve the frame rate of DVD content to 60 frames/s or 72 frames/s, depending on the output frame rate of your display.

 

I can say after what I have seen so is the premium matte screen absolute better with or without the 100% Adobe RGB then any other screen. LED bg-lite have a blue ton, RGB-LED has a red tone, ccfl gives a warm and a natural tone across the screen.

Yes I like to take picture, edit them and publish them. I also edit videos, effects, 3D, I help others as a councilor and it is important to me to have a great screen that I can calibrate correctly when needed.

Sony's screens do need a calibration.

 

This is a bit late, but temp results on my Vaio F. Ambient temps were ~ 70-75°F. I had the back of my laptop propped up about an inch or so off of the ground.

I ran furmark for ~ 1 hour 30 mins with an OC'd graphics card (730/915/1515 Core/Mem/Shader)



*EDIT* Also, Joe Bleau is banned? Huh?

 

Hi. I have the sony VPCF11Z1E/BI

but i cant find a site to download new drivers. Can you help me?

i want drivers for audio,vga,wireless,alps,etc...

 

VAIO : Sony Europe

Clicking on the link above gives you the UPDATES to original drivers and applications. There is a second tab that gives you all of the original drivers and applications.

 

I know this. But i think there are newer drivers. laptop2video has newer vga drivers. What should i do?

 

Excellent! I was just going to post a complaint about poor design - not only being limited to only 2 USB ports, but having the ports where you mouse. I keep hitting my flash drive as I mouse - poor design, indeed! But having a USB port on the left of the keyboard addresses both issues.

 

lundstrom.emil, im really confused now, i dont know whether the premium UK screen is RGB and whether it is indeed oine of the best screens. I really need a top notch screen, reading reviews have said different. Anyone in Europe give me some information please on how good the screen is.

 

Looking for a matte screen protector for my F Series vaio 16.4 inch can someone recommend me one?

Oh yeah I fixed a headphone problem with my Vaio by uninstalling the Realtek Drivers and once I rebooted It manually installed some kind of sound driver and sounds the exact same .. minus the weird static sounds.

Not really sure if Realtek offers much but I cant tell the difference.

 

I really really like SGPStore.com

I have one of their crystal films for my HTC Evo ... it is amazing. I used to use invisible shield and the SGP ones are incomparable.

Sounds like you would want the anti-glare one

 

^Thanks a lot man!

Edit: How do I select what size screen I have.. I don't see it >_<

 

Well all the F series screens are the same size ... so it's just one size fits all

If you just pick one that is made for F series or even FW it should be the right size.

 

It didnt say if it was f series though I dont think lol..

 

You are not confused. You are being extremely indecisive and contradicting with yourself.

Read the specs or just go to the shop and see for yourself. Are you going to ask everyone and expect 100% positive review before you get one? Everybody has different perspective and fault tolerance.

UK screens has no bleeding problem, and if it mentioned RGB then you got it. How good do you want? Images popping out, 180degrees viewing angle?

If you really want a perfect laptop then the F series is not for you.

 

Anyone know if there are any problems if i install the latest driver from Nvidia for the 330M? It's 287.15 or something

 

I installed the new drivers I haven't had any problems.
I don't play much games on this though.

 

omaroo, come on man!! Nothing personal, but how many times and for how many months can you ask the same questions over and over again? I mainly lurk and your repetition shocks me. You're paralyzed by indecision but that shouldn't make you forget the answers you've received repeatedly in this thread(s). Your non-subjective questions and even the subjective ones have been answered long, long ago, repeatedly, but you're still asking them. By being so unsure of yourself, you may end up buying something and not being happy with it due to constant nitpicking and worry, and not even due to a defect in the product itself. In other words, from powerful insecurity.

You've been asking people for subjective opinions again and again that you need to find out for yourself. Others have suggested that you go to the UK/European Sony sites and read. The questions on specifications and configurations can be answered there. Have you checked them? Also, it has been suggested by others that you go to stores and check things out for yourself. A Sony Style store, an electronics store, a computer retailer? Have you done that yet? This way, your own eyes and your own ears can make the decisions, that in the end, only you can make.

There are two 1080p screens available for the F12 in the UK. A standard 1080p, and a premium 100% RGB 1080p. I'm in the USA and I know this by reading this thread, googling answers, and by spending TWO minutes on the UK site. Two minutes. Just by reading the site you should see this.

Here is a link to the Sony Style UK site. This page lists three F12 models and two leftover F11's. If you look at the first F12 and the model immediately to its right, you'll see that it lists "pro grade Full HD screen" while the third F12 states just "Full HD screen". This should tell you that two 1080p screens exist for purchase. The "high contrast" and "color saturation" icons on another page should give a clue as well.

F Series : VAIO and Computing : Models : Sony



In answer to whether its RGB or not, you should already know this by reading this thread as well. But, to give you more reinforcement, here's a link to the Sony Style UK press release from January. Read the fourth paragraph under the picture.

http://presscentre.sony.eu/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=5460&NewsAreaId=2

To quote it, just in case:

"Movies, games and your personal media collection are brought to life by the professional-grade 41.6cm (16.4” Full HD VAIO Display Premium. The anti-glare screen offers full 100% Adobe RGB coverage for the truest, most vivid reproduction of colour tones you’ve seen from a notebook computer. Other VAIO F Series models feature a high-quality VAIO Display with Full HD 1920x1080 resolution."


As to whether it's good enough for you, here's my take. From my reading of this thread(s), the UK and other European users with THAT screen have posts that seem to suggest a very positive opinion of the screen, overall. Words like beautiful, stunning, great contrast, minimal bleed, better viewing angles, etc., seem to show up often. You might see someone get a defective or lesser version now and then, rarely, but that's to be expected with any mass-produced product. Overall, the UK/European screen sounds wonderful and you should be very happy that it's available to you. Look at the North and South American posts on the only 1080p screen available over here and you see many more complaints about the screen and others who are satisfied but list it as average or below, and just a few who are very satisfied. You've got the good one available over there. Take advantage of it. Some here even want the make and model number of the European RGB screen. What does that tell you? In the end, you need to go and see it for yourself, as only your eyes can make the decision for you. Reading and re-reading these threads and asking the same questions over and over again is not going to rid you of the insecurities you have over this and any computer purchase. Only your eyes and ears and hands on the machine will make the final decision.

Just buy it.

 

hey mango you using a laptop cooler by any chance or just propping it up an inch on something?
also ive been noticing that joe hasnt been posting anything in the last couple of pages...kind of odd

 

oh i read this and thought u wanted it for your F series! lol

if you meant you wanted to buy one for another model then they should have that too.

 

I remember reading a ways back that Joe is not allowed to post for a week. Not so much a ban as a time-out.

 

No i wanted one for my F series lol but i didnt see F series listed on that website

 

Yeah, why did Joe Bleau get banned? His tutorials have been amazingly helpful.

 

What is your experience with bluray discs, not files?

 

I already replied on this question here
I'm doing graphic design for work, so I really need a very good display with a very wide color gamut. That's why I waited a month to get replaced my defective F11 with a F12 in stead of choosing another laptop. Once I had seen the EU Premium screen in real live, I wanted just that screen and no other.

I guess the reviewer on PC Pro didn't turn of the automatic light sensor and made the review with a brightness of 16% of something like that. That's the only way to make colors more dull on this screen.

See also the poll about the quality of the F12 screen.

I don't understand why you don't just order the Vaio F at Sonystyle, so you can try the laptop yourself and see if it's also perfect for you. Sonystyle gives you a trial period from 7-30 days (depends on country) and if you're not happy with it, you can return the laptop with full refund of your money.

 

Guys what do you think can we play Mafia II with this laptop? The demo will come at August 10th and I'm really looking forward to know if you guys able to play it

 

Mafia II (Mafia 2) System Requirements

those are the mimimum specs for mafia 2...the f series is capable of running the game although not at max settings..

 

I am really looking forward to that game too, but I think I am going to just get it for Xbox 360 and then I don't have to worry about specs. I still will try out the PC demo and see how it runs and looks. It looks like it will run ok, just not at max settings like egemenbor says.

 

Can someone tell me the latest vga driver to download that suit to this laptop?

 

I've noticed improvement and FPS increases in all games.

Haven't tried one yet! I don't own one since I do not have any HDTVs at home. haha

I wish there was a demo Bluray disc the laptop came with lol

 

When he comes back ... let's all be sure to post how much we love the Vaio .. and especially mention that we don't think pressing a key during a game is something a user is likely to do

 

That's what my order status said the night before it was shipped out.
No way in hell it will take 13 days to get to you once its shipped. Mine shipped on either the 8th or 9th and was delivered on the 12th, only because there's no shipping on sunday. I got free 2 day express shipping since I talked with a sony sales rep online and he was able to get it for me (which was good, considering he couldn't give me any more discounts other than what I was already receiving). If your laptop hasn't already shipped by the time you read this you could try talking online with someone to get express shipping.

Either way, I think you'll get it next week. Be sure to come back and tell us how the display is.

 

DON'T use Laptop2Video drivers on the F-series!! Get the driver from Nvidia, video drivers have been well-covered in this thread.

 

Displays OEM'd for the FW will indeed work in the F-series, providing an upgrade in quality in the process. The Inverter will need to be changed to a two-lamp unit. This has been done by several people in this thread.

 

Back and forth name calling, the thread was getting too heated up, it wasn't just Joe involved. It was pretty nasty until thankfully it was all deleted.