Official Sony VAIO TT Series Owners Thread

I looked at one myself this weekend. Very nice machine. I would config one about the same as yourself. 17.5% VAT is a real killer. You can save yourself a nice chunk of change at the airport.

 

I got the TT 3 days ago and I really like it a lot better than the TZ. TT is much cooler and can sit on my lap for a few hours, and it would just be luke warm. I originally bought the TZ and returned it because of the heat on my lap. I don't know why grisjuan said it is larger than the TZ. I did not compare the dimensions, but my TT was sitting right beside the TZ in the store and they are the same size. Maybe he meant the back is a bit thicker, but I think that is how they make it run a lot cooler. See my thread for first impression.

 

The dimensions I found online are:

Sony Vaio TZ: 10.90 x 7.80 x 0.80-1.17 @2.70 pounds
Sony Vaio TT: 10.99 x 7.87 x 0.93-1.20 @2.87 pounds

Given that the Centrino 2 SFF chipset was supposed to be smaller than the chipset in the TZ, I was expecting a slight decrease in size/weight.

 

if you're buying the TT in australia, sony centre are offering 3 blu-ray titles and a 16G microvault with your purchase while stocks last

cheers to cloud7 for pointing out pdf on sonycentres.com.au

 

ugh I would have liked the TT more if it weighed less =(

 

That is why TT runs much cooler than TZ. I think Sony increased the size of the cpu heat sink, and the fan. The hinge is bigger, avoiding the overheating problem of TZ, hence bigger dimensions and weight. Looking at these dimensions, there is no way one can tell TZ is smaller by just looking at it, nor does it feel lighter.

 

I will call them later as i am not at home now.
I was wondering though is there any point in this laptop having HDMI? I thought that you needed a dedicated graphics card iin order for HDMI to work?

 

does anyone know of any website that has pics of the vaio tt next to the z?
would like to get a rough idea of the two side by side.

I have seen the video on laptopmag which was quite short. Looking for something more detailed.

 

Rachuck, the newest Intel x4500 is very powerful - I don't know if it works with HDMI or not - but dedicated graphic cards in laptops are starting to face stiff competition.

 

yes intel 4500 HD is indeed capable of watching HD movies via HDMI

 

I realize the TZ and TT are close in dimensions. I was just expecting the TT to be smaller and lighter than the TZ.

Since the TT is not tiny as I'd hoped my incentive to buy it was reduced and I went with an x200s instead ($600US cheaper with a 1.86Ghz processor, standard 2.5" hard drive which is easily replaceable, and 1440x900 screen).

Sony Vaio TT : 10.99 x 7.87 x 0.93-1.20 @2.87 pounds
Thinkpad x200s: 11.60 x 8.30 x 0.80-1.10 @2.43 pounds

 

Congrats. It has a good name.

 

lol and a plethora of problems already discussed in a VERY big thread on lenovo lol

 

Exactly. This is an "UPGRADE" of sorts to the TZ, and with Centrino 2 I dont know why Sony could not have made it more slimmer and lighter.. especially for 11" !!

 

I don't mean this to sound defensive ;-)

I think it is likely there will be a thread with complaints about the TT once sales increase. There are a few for the Z already. I think it's pretty normal.

I wonder what the sales figures are for TT/x200/x200s? If there are more x200 and x200s sold I would expect more complaints.

I've had 3 Sony laptops, and every one had major problems that required trips to the San Diego service center during their lifetime.

 

I completely agree!

and I just meant right after its release and people getting their X200s they started posting - with the Z it took some 'careful' inspections of problems - actually looking for them in some cases, and some purely can be 'lived with' - like battery drain

 

Go here for comparison pictures.

http://downloads.conics.net/sony-TT_vs_Z/

 

Well i bought one and chose the one that i said that i would. I also got a 5% discount as well.
I think that these things (the black ones and the premium carbon one in particular) are seriously good looking now. I will upgrade the ram myself of course when i get it. I may also upgrade to Vista Ultimate as well for about £40.
I just have to wait about 2-3 weeks to get it now. It was 2-3wks when i orderd but shortly after i looked again and i saw that the waitng time had gone up to 3-4weeks well i hope that i don't have to wait that long.

 

Congrats on your new purchase. How much ram do you have, and what do you increase to?

I have 3 GB ram, wondering if I should make it 4 GB, knowing that Vista it cannot be used. Right now, I turned off pagefile, and use ram instead to make it run faster.

 

Hi TZ300 my laptop will come with 1 single 2GB stick and I was planning to increase my ram to 4GB but i don't know now i may just shoot for 3GB instead.

 

Some one here said the screen of TT is less bright than TZ. Here is the reaseon:

My TT screen has ambient light sensor. When I turned it on from standby, the screen is very bright (with AC plugged in). After 1 second or 2, the screen is less bright. I like this. I remembered I have to turn TZ down every time.

 

thanks, that was just what i was looking for.

 

TZ has 945GMS chipset which supports maximum 2GB on single channel.

 

Just to confuse everyone, these may be the model codes for some upcoming Asia-Pacific TT models:

< VGN-TT series>
VGN-TT17GN/X,VGN-TT16GN/B,VGN-TT16GN/N,VGN-TT16GN/R,VGN-TT16GN/W,VGN-TT16LN/B,VGN-TT16LN/N,VGN-TT16LN/R,VGN-TT16MN/B,VGN-TT16MN/N,VGN-TT16SN/B,VGN-TT16TN/B,VGN-TT16TN/N,VGN-TT15GN/B,VGN-TT15GN/N,VGN-TT15GN/R,VGN-TT15L/B,VGN-TT15L/W,VGN-TT15SN/B,VGN-TT15SN/N,VGN-TT15TN/B,VGN-TT15TN/R,VGN-TT15TN/W
http://extra.sony-asia.com/vaio/irsp/ap/index.html

Note: B = Black, R = Red, N = Gold, X = Carbon, W = WHITE??

So maybe we're in for a white TT soon

Sorry if it's already been posted.

 

TZ300 have you checked your battery life yet if so what kind of battery life are you getting?

The screen should be fine for me to write papers on for long periods of time. I will be using it to write my MA dissertation. It might take a while for me to adjust from going from a 13.3" screen to a 11.1" screen but i should get used to it. I used a 10.6" 1280x800 notebook for a while not to write essays on i might add. Hopefully i will really like it.

Compared to my current laptop the cute factor , battery life and the form factor are all + for me. These current ULV processors also do handle productivity tasks well so the performance of the laptop should be ok.
The SZ keyboard is nice but a bit to noisy for some places but by itself that is not enough of a reason for me to part with my SZ.

Is there no TT owners thread? Not to many people seem to be buying one anyway.... I checked my email and i read that my laptop should be being made from the 11th-17th of November.

 

Congrats Rach!! I cant wait to see ALOT of pics AND a review SO far I wish we had comparison pics with Z and TT (NOT gold colored it ruined it lol) in black

 

couldn't agree more..the gold coloured TT doesnt look good and seems toyish imho.

 

No, I have not tested it yet. I'll do it today and report back. Currently I put it on 50% charge and power saver mode.

 

Well, I turned on my TT at 6:15pm, it is now 11:51pm (5.5 hours) and it is still showing 2 hr (41%) left. I left it idle for about an hour. So I guess it would be 6 to 7 hours. This is on Power Saver, with LCD on auto ambient light sensor adjusted. I also have 78 processes running (did not do clean install, just uninstalled a couple of programs, and removed some from startup). Most of this elapsed time was spent on surfing and watch the election results, with a little bit of system tuning.

I think if I clean install and reduce the processes, it will run longer.

I have to end this battery test now, since I have to get up early, and you Americans have elected a new president. BTW, he is just coming on stage for his acceptance speech, so I'll wait till he finish. Congrats, this is history in the making.

 

Any of you guys that owns one of these TT's, I was wondering if the BIOS will allow one to boot an OS from a USB flash or USB cd/dvd drive. I'm edging towards buying the model sans any built in optical drive, and knowing I can boot from something external if need be (especially as I now have to contend with Vista *sigh*) would go a long way to re-assuring me that this is the right way to go.

Thanks in advance,

SkyGuy

PS, anyone get the silk black? Any thoughts on whether this is a better color scheme than Carbon fiber?

 

They gave me a 8GB USB which is readyboost. Can it be used for booting, if so, how to do it, or give me a link for instructions.

I think I have the silk black (since Sony Canada has just this TT180C). The surface is mat and looks a little like grayish black, not like jet black. It looks good though, but without premium carbon black to compare, I really don't know.

 

Just thinking...

To boot of an external HDD/Flash drive this would hve to be the primary boot source.

So: Plug in device, start laptop and see if it shows up in the BIOS so tat you can select the computer to boot from that. If that is possible it should be possible to recover the OS from an external drive.

QUestion though: Wouldn'T you find a CD/DVD drive useful? In max. powersaver mode it gets swiched off.

 

Recovery centre only allows recovery to C: drive, not the usb.

Bios allows booting from "external device" or "network"

So, how do I put OS onto my usb?

 

I don't know why you wnat to run an OS off a slow USB drive - but can you make the USB drive the C drive?

 

I am just trying to test it for Criserie.

 

Which has better battery life? TT15 or the TZ37?

 

Thanks for quick replies guys. I'm thinking the option to boot from "USB Device" should be in the BIOS boot menu... somewhere. If I can boot from USB I can easily boot Linux/knoppix from DVD/FLASH drive, which can be very handy. Internal DVD/Blu-ray drive is useful, but 320GB of HDD + 256 SSD has me drooling. I spend a lot of time on the road, and extra storage seems more useful than an optical drive. Additionally, the Blu-ray ain't cheap, and I have no desperate need to watch Blu-ray disks on the road, and if I really need to load software/boot from DVD, I can pick up an external DVD drive with USB for less than $100 usd, methinks.

Right now I'm using a Samsung q45 (not available in North America to my knowedge) and it has support for booting from "USB something" in bios.

Pretty sure I will get one of these vaio TT's REAL soon, just trying to decide which configuration.

I think silk black will be my color choice.

Thanks all,

Cheers,

criserie

 

To TZ2300,

It sounds like you need an external device that is bootable. Readyboost isn't relevant here, this is a feature that allows windows vista to use your flash memory as virtual/swap memory.

Being able to boot from a USB external device is useful for rescue and utility operations. I doubt Vista will allow you to do something like this, but knoppix certainly will. It will be much faster off a flash memory USB device than anything blu-ray/DVD/CD related.

Hope that helps,

criserie

 

DVD could be faster than flash.
It will depend on the architecture of the laptop.

And if your USB ports run of one internal port and your DVD runs of the central HUB or is even directly connected to the mainbord it could be faster.

 

I just bought a Sony Vaio VGN-TT190 James Bond edition and I am struggling to downgrade the OS to Windows XP. As the laptop came with Windows Vista Home Edition preinstalled and with no XP media, I ordered on Sony website XP downgrade discs.

The two original Sony DVDs that I just received are labeled as XP recovery discs for Sony Vaio TT-100 series. I tried to use them today, but unfortunately I get a message that they do not work with my computer model. Is there any why to make it work? Has any of you successfully downgraded its TT to XP using the discs that are shipped alongside Vista Business? How are your discs labeled? Any help much appreciated!

 

Why do you want to downgrade? I have not ordered the discs yet, but not intend to unless there is an advantage.

 

I just do not see any added benefit of using Vista for my own purposes: I just need an ultraportable computer for word processing and office tasks. Vista just uses too many computer resources as compared to XP and slows down the machine.

 

Have you tried uninstalling the programs that you will never use, and stop those that loads at startup? That will speed it up at boot. Once it settles down after boot, it is fast.

 

Cam someone who has TT Blu ray tell me what model is the blu ray drive and does it connect via IDE or SATA I know it is a panasonic Ultraslim

 

i got VGN-TT180 with Blueray and 4 Gb ram as GIFT still brand new Boxed didnt open it yet...!! its around 2900$
and im usin now the Z570.. i dont know wat to do should i use the TT and sellin my Z570 or the TT and use the Z570 ?
wat do u think guys which one is better..?
i 'll post some pics letter..

 

Since it is a gift, why don't you transfer the gift to me

 

Mat****a BD-MLT UJ232AS

Not sure about the connector though...don't feel like popping the thing open and voiding the warranty just yet.

 

this is my VAio TT 180N

 

Fantastic pics! - thank you!

Can you please do a front - zoom up - but whole from top in white light if you can? (I had a Z, and I am trying to contrast with the overall look - it looks like a baby Z so far with lesser screen lol!)

 

Yes, Sony Taiwan just announced TT15TN that comes in white this morning. It is the only white TT available currently. Looks very nice.