Official Sony VAIO P-series Owners thread

I am running W7 RC 7100 on my P588.
Everything is working fine.

 

Cool, Windows 7 works?

Did you have to download any drivers?

Can tell us what the performance is like compared to Vista on the P? Thanks.

 

I just spent all day yesterday getting windows 7 rc1, all my software, music, photos cached etc, and it has more than paid off.

I dragged and dropped all the windows 7 folders off a cd onto a mem stick, (didnt even have to make the mem stick bootable) then in my powered up into vista vaio p installed windows 7, (it put vista into windows old) that took about 45 minutes. downlthen downloaded all the original and updated drivers/software off club vaio. installed the ones i could.

Checked device manager and noticed about 9 unknown items (i think 7 of them were the wwan and gps) and just clicked update drivers and pointed to the windows.old\windows folder and everything installed fine!!

then did all the windows updates after i installed office 2007.

then copied all my music and photos over and opened wmplayer so it could cache all the thumbnails etc. (that was the time consuming bit!)

then i defragged.....

i must say that windows 7 on the vaio p s on vista from a great height,

internet explorer is very smooth, my divx files play smooth (640x322 i think somewhere along those lines)

Boots up in half the time, Aero even works fine but you notice it being faster if you have basic theme on.

Copying files and detecting external drives is so much faster.

the only problem i had was deleting the windows.old folder which i got around by deleting a few files at a time (around 500 meg a time) otherwise if you try and delet the whole lot it just seems like it isnt doing anything.

I got my vaio p11z a few days ago and rc1 is definately the way forward, vista will just you off and just doesnt work on the 1.3ghz with 60gb hard drive model, not sure about the ssd ones.

the one thing i havent sussed yet is the vaio window organizer button, im not sure if the media bar button did anything other than being an s2 key or not in vista.

What a machine, im very very impressed!!

 

anybody know where i can download vaio media plus? i cant extract it easily from the recovery partition.

 

What is a decent price for a used one?

I see a lot of them on eBay for $600-800, but they never really specify WHICH model it is.

 

The new models are here:

http://notebookitalia.it/sony-vaio-p21-e-p29-refresh-5513.html

Needs translate, is in italian.

What is this?

http://www.computercityhw.it/comput...46888T02EIME3OO70WE&pid=ZCN21541&did=804&sr=0

 

So the new P29 will have the Intel Atom Z630??

I will definitely pull the trigger on this one...when is this model expected to be available?

 

Atom Z630, is that Dual Core? Mhz?

 

I really don't now, made some research but nothing. From what I understood form the above link is a dual core, but no info about the mhz.

Could be a typing mistake as well, maybe is the Intel Atom Z530 Silverthorne? 1.6 mhZ it makes more sense than a dual-core in the P series. But in the other hand why upgrade a model when you don't refresh anything? I remember that the high spec P19 has 128 GB SSD and the 1.6 mhZ cpu. I hope we will see a dual-core P29.

 

A guy on this forum talks about it.

Seems logical, Atom 330 is the dual core of the Atom 230. Z630 is the Dual Core of the Atom 530. That would make it 1.6 GHz.

Or it could just be a typo

 

do you have any idea when the updated processor p series will come out in us i am buying a computer in the summer and i want to get the p series do you see a chance of a summer release of the updated p series in the us

 

The Z630 is real? Link

I hope so, want a dual core netbook! Wonder if this is Pineview?

 

Lots of leaks on that page!
Vaio FW with ATI Mobility M-96 LP 1GB and lots of new CPUs.

 

http://www.sonyinsider.com/2009/04/07/update-on-vaio-p-refresh/

 

hey guys are there any updated driver for the p series coming out i am buying a p series in the summer i went to sony style on sunday it would not even load a youtube video at a decent speed or even naruto shippuden hulu video intel claim its made for hd video 3d graphics ? at ces i saw a dell mini 12 on tv playing quake iii at 30 fps and hd video intel needs to supply new drivers so the gma 500 can at least play hd video why cant the p series play quake iii at 30 fps or hd video is it the motherboard or the driver?

 

i typed in download vaio media plus on google and all these sites came up and said you can download it for free

 

any idea when a p series with a dual core atom will come out in the us and is the updated p series the same size or thinner/a little wider because of dual core cpu

 

Most probably in June they will come out the refresh of the P series. I think it will be exactly the same size, because is not the stlyle of Sony to redesign a notebook so early. For sure the processors will be better and more hd storage, but as for dual-core atom...let's hope so, is nothing official yet. Fingers crossed!

 

thanks for the info i will get my p series after school ends on june 15 maybe later depends on when the p series update comes out

 

I will wait too. The new models are just around the corner, it was from quite some time the rumours for the refresh of the P series: Here they speak about the new ‘Poulsbo’ US15W chipset...does anyone knows what is about and what a difference would make on performance or video playback?

http://www.netbookchoice.com/2009/0...-to-feature-as-yet-unannounced-z630-atom-cpu/

 

i read that the the new chipset is supporting hd formats possibly h.264 blu-ray

 

last year intel said pineview atom would be fall 2009 but now they are saying q2 2009 in summer just like the new p series is supposed to be released in the us

 

Where do they say that? I am waiting on Pineview for a new netbook, and if the Pineview released is pushed up then that is great!

 

i am buying the p series and i want pineview dual core on it i want to at least play runescape or quakelive maybe even world of warcraft

 

So, no dual-core for the P2x. In the sonystyle of italy, germany, france you can see that nothing changed from the previous models. I mean the only upgrade from P11 to P21 is from 60 GB hard drive it goes to 80 GB. The top spec P19 becomes P29 without any upgrade on the specs! Just 100 euros discount and the headphones incuded..The CPU is always 1.6 ghZ Z530 with 128 GB SSD.
And me that I was expecting some upgrade on the CPU...So the Z630 was a typo. Guess I will wait for P part 3!

 

Is a bit strange that Sony refresh this series without any significant change, except the storage of the hard disk.

I like the P but I read too many problems about video performance and I will just wait longer to see what the fall will bring with Windows 7 coming in. Hopefully then Sony will update the P on the cpu or more colours or even the weak intel gma 500. What do you gyus think?

Question to the owners:

Are you satisfy from the P so long in terms of performance, battery life, design, build-quality?

 

I have the P11Z here in the UK and now since ive installed and tweaked windows 7 im more than happy with it, Battery i get about 2.5 hours with wifi enabled and max brightness web surfing + office work. Performance even with a hdd is good, 632x354 movies through media player is excellent. Even adobe photoshop CS4 has good performance for what i use it for (enhancing photos taken) ie8 RUNS SMOOTH APART FROM OPENING A NEW TAB TAKES ABOUT 5 SECONDS BUT I HEAR PEOPLE WITH BIGGER LAPTOPS HAVE THIS ISSUE, firefox has no problems opening new tabs.
Mobile broadband connection is solid and has better reception than my phone (touch hd)
Build quality is rock solid, feels very sturdy!
I dont mind the mouse nub on the go but when at a desk i use a bluetooth mouse.

 

will the us p series get a processor update 1.6ghz maybe 1.86 ghz

 

I would guess not.

But it's possible since Japan already has it.

 

Link

 

Great find Jayayess1190!

I like particularly this one:

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/img/pcw/docs/170/035/html/06.jpg.html

A tiny TZ! But I am kind of confused about the specs. So what is about this P29 and the refresh in the european countries? When we gonna see the Z550 and the 256 GB SSD in US or Europe?

 

Wow, great news indeed.

I like these new colours, go here to see how many options you have:

http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Special/Computer/Vaio/Design_sim/P/index.html

It was about time Sony decided to released a XP cheap model, and for who wants more a Z550 cpu and a big storage SSD of 256GB. Imagine if they could really put Nvidia Ion inside there!

 

I definitely like the black one, although the XP ones are a little bit short on function, without webcam and GPS. To me, I may still get a Vista one and downgrade to XP, assuming Sony has appropriate drivers to enable these functions in XP, but simply remove the hardward so the XP version can be cheaper.

 

when do you guys think these models will be in the us

 

It is really too bad we cannot customize Vaios like you can in Japan, all those color options for the P look sweet, but we will probably only get a few of them. I really like the all black P.

 

I just saw that shortly the Vaio P will get Wimax!

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/13/vaio-p-gets-whole-new-lease-on-life-with-atom-z550-processor-ss/

Could be possible that will get also the Ion graphics anytime soon?

 

Forget Wimax, the Z550 is whats important.

 

Yeah, me too I can't decide to buy it now, or wait for the fall when will see Ion inside netbooks. But I don't know if the P series will change the GPU at all, most of the times the CPU takes an upgrade and some minor features as the storage of the hd/ssd.

 

I doubt the P will get nVidia Ion in it, that uses _way_ more power than the US15W chipset. 18W vs 2,3W is a huge difference. Sure its faster but the (fanless!) cooling of the P will never be able to keep it cool enought.

And who uses the P for gaming anyway? Thats the main advantage of the Ion platform, gaming performace. The poulsbo system provides h264/wmv9 1080p decoding, I can watch x264 encoded mkv files in 720p/1080p so video is also no problem.

 

It's down to $699 now at Staples.

 

My P29 pre-order at SonyStyle Store Germany just changed to 'order being processed' so perhaps I can finally get my hands on it within the next couple of days. According to the system I will receive shipping details within 1-2 days...can't wait.

 

Could you make a mini review of it?

Thanks

 

where the heck are the new us models!?

 

jack sparrow,

Can you tell us whether videos play decently now on the refreshed P? 1080p videos especially and also YouTube (full screen). Thanks!

 

the new us model don't have anything new just the same processor but a 64gb ssd and the 1500.00 p series only adds a 1.60 ghz intel atom so dumb why cant they have a 2ghz model or are they just waiting on intel pineview i am so pist i wanted to buy this computer in december

 

New P with 128GB SSD and Z530

 

I don't own a Vaio P man, sorry!

From what I read to the pocketables.net forum, yes the P series play smoothly vides in full screen.

@davis1234

why don't you order from japan that they have already the 2.0 ghz option?

 

Since P has Z520/530 with GMA500 it will play 720p and 1080p mkv smoothly.

Youtube HD and other heavy flash will not play smoothly.

 

I don't know if is totally correct what are you saying. A lot of users reported that is out a new atom driver for the intel gma 500 that improves a lot the performance of the P. Maybe before was like that, but hopefully for the owners of the P, intel did some good job. Of course, you can't play Wow in this machine.
I will wait for next refresh in October with W7 installed and dual-core Atom.

 

What makes you think there will be a dual core Atom?