Official Sony Vaio CW Core 2 Duo Series Owner's Thread

I bought my CW retail in the US (California specificially) and my laptop is equipped with the intel 5100.

 

Really? I don't know why Sony is so confused about the specs of this laptop, first the DDR2 and DDR3 situation and now this, really frustrating if possible can the rest of the owners identify if their laptop comes with atheros or intel wifi card? you can find out by going to device manager. Please and thank you!

Loraenn: well Centrino2 sticker refers to having an Intel processor and intel wifi card but what I have read on sonya own website it says it has a atheros wifi card. Atheros is a company that makes wifi cards just as Dell , and broadcom do. Atheros is a so so brand in my point of view it's not as good as Intel wifi cards as they are more supported and have better features. it's nit neccesarily a bad thing, so no need to get worried. It's just a user preference such as mine to have intel wifi cards as I can use them with different frequencies and it gives me the best and real N speeds since I download Akita and use my Internet bandwidth for several things. Didn't mean to worry you

 

Can anyone post a video of their sony CW?

Thanks

 

I pulled the trigger on a CTO at my local SonyStore today. I was able to get $200 off with an ecoupon code. I noticed signs in the store advertising a $100 gift card with any $500-999 purchase, and a $200 gift card on any purchase over $1k. I asked if I could get the $200 card with my CTO purchase. At first they told me no, that it only applied to in-store models. But after a few minutes of checking around, the manager offered the $200 off ecoupon, which was even better than the gift card to me.

I got the P8700/4gb ram/GT230 Nvidia/320gb HDD/Blu-ray/extended battery/Win7 pro w/fresh start for $919.99 after the coupon. I'm curious why they offer Blu-ray on a non-hd screen.

I went in, intending to get red, but fell for the white color instead. The red looks ok, but it's more like lipstick red, and I was expecting it to be more of a burgundy red similar to what's on the other Sony models.

Mine ships 11/2. Can't wait.

 

Any news on whether they will offer a decent resolution screen anytime soon? 1366x768 is pretty much the only thing holding me back.

 

Hi Electrobuzz.... i will buy this machine tomorrow, but do you have the ecoupon...... can you share the ecoupon with us

 

Sorry, I couldn't get the ecoupon code. The manager pulled out a book and scanned a barcode in to apply the coupon. It populated the discount code on the online order form with an alphanumeric code that started with E, but that's all I saw before he clicked to the next screen. My paperwork only says "Promotion applied. $200 off VAIO computers." no code, sorry.

 

Hey i was just wondering, can you pick up these laptops at retail stores, i checked out BB but they only have the CW in white and I was hoping for black or red. What about the Sony Store?

This is a bit of an afterthought however as I already bought one on Newegg lol.

It seems though with this aforementioned coupon I could have gotten a better deal...

Also, is there much difference between the t6600 processors and the others, i know the p7550 (i think i'm wrong on the model) is similar but consumes a little bit less power. Anyhow just curious. Thanks for your help.

-Joe

 

If u check out the video in page one i believe of this thread, the Sony rep basically says that while it does not come equipped with an HD screen, the HDMI output allows it to be a mobile blue ray player....guessing the rep is alluding to taking the laptop with you on vacation where they (the hotel or villa) may have a big Television but no DVD let alone BlueRay to play your movies.

IMO though, at the point where your hooking up your laptop to an HDTV, I'd somewhat assume you would already have a blue ray player or PS3 to do the job lol

HDMI-out is nice either way though .

 

very disturbing;
however the specs say 802.11 a/g/n. If they respect the wifi specs, 802.11a should only work on 5GHz band even if the 11n supports both 2.4 and 5 GHz.
So if for some reason 11n only works on 2.4GHz, try to do it on 11a if there is no way to switch the frequency.
I also upgraded my router to dual band and I count on using the 5GHz band for my future CW notebook (i Hope).

The FW series manual explains the above 11 a/g/n specs and bandwidth so I presume the notebook should support the 5GHz band but I found no where any mention on how to change the bandwidth and/or the standard mode.

Any vaio owner can say how to set the wifi standard a/g/n in any vaio please ?

thanks
nalooti

 

I was wondering if anyone who picked up the model at Best Buy could give an in-depth impression and some photos or a video? If you get a chance I would definitely appreciate it!

 

Posting once again, this question is for anyone who ordered from sonystyle store......

I noticed my shipping date changed from 10/27 to 10/29....then once again it changed to 12/8!!! (it does say the computer is being built)

Anyone have a similar experience? I called sonystyle customer care and they couldn't tell me anything and put in a question to "secondary support". The rep said I would be emailed within 24 hrs with more information about my question. Me thinks because its the weekend they wont make the 24 hrs and I'm not holding my breath.

 

it doesn't come with a hd screen?

Also are there any formal reviews for this laptop?

 

is the 'blue' colour actually blue? because sony US says its indigo/purple...

i hope it is indeed blue because sony uk automatically changed my colour to blue even though i chose black....

 

It's purple! The colors on the Sony website are misleading. The Indigo that looks bluish online is definitely a solid purple. The red is brighter than the darker, richer red that it appears online. I guess the pink is close, I didn't pay much attention to it, and the black is pretty much as it appears online. The white is surprisingly nicer than I expected. It's a pearlescent white, similar to what you see on higher end cars.

They all have a glossy finish. I noticed the red, purple, and black showed every fingerprint and smudge, which I didn't like.

 

The specs, at least on BB's site only say wireless b/g/n, so no a for the 5 GHz. Not sure if i can update it manually.

 

Hmm. Maybe it varies between regions but I thought the red was pretty dark on this model (saw it both at frys and microcenter). I thought it was closer to maroon than it was to say a cherry red.

 

"HD" = 720p which is typically the term used for 1366*768 so it'd be considered HD. Therefore, the CW comes with an "HD" screen by the common definition used for 16:9 laptops.

1080p(which is typically 1920*1080) is considered "Full HD"

And I've heard of an NBR review of the CW coming along.

 

!!!!

what should i do???? i ordered a black yesterday but sony changed mine to "blue" automatically after i had already purchased it!

 

Could anyone post pictures of their White CW? I've looked at the pictures online, but there's quite a difference between what's on Sony's website vs. what's on, for example, NewEgg.

I actually considered going for the Indigo, but am now thinking I would dislike the fingerprints that would show. Hope you get it changed Bogeyman. Just call up Sony! It's ridiculous that they would send you something that you didn't order.

 

hmm seems when i try to actually access my order on the sony website it takes me to a "whoops something went wrong!" page and redireects me to the homepage -.-

 

Useful info, thanks.

I'm not concerned about not having a "full HD" screen, it seems like overkill to me on a 14 inch laptop. I also see lots of moaning about the refreshed HP Pavilion laptops (DV6t) which have the same resolution 1366*768 on a 15.6 inch screen. Again, not an issue for me.

I'm about to order a CW, the blend of portability and feature set is ideal for my needs, just wish I could get a blu-ray equipped version pre-loaded via a retail outlet with a 2 year warranty, rather than having to customise it and order via sony style UK.

 

OK folks, some purchase advice required please. I'm looking at two CWs as follows:-

First is the standard UK retail model, but it does come with a free 2 year warranty via John Lewis or a Sony outlet.
UK price £699.99
Model # VPC-CW1S1E/R
Intel core duo P7450 2.13GHz
4GB RAM
320GB hard drive
Nvidia GT230 512MB graphics card
Standard Optical DVD drive
Windows 7 Home Premium

Second is a customised model via Sony Style UK website. Same as the retail model but with an upgraded processor and added blu-ray playback. This only comes with Sony's standard 1 year warranty.
UK price £809.99
Model # VPCCW1X5E
Intel core duo P8700 2.53GHz
4GB RAM
320GB hard drive
Nvidia GT230 512MB graphics card
Blu-Ray DVD drive
Windows 7 Home Premium

My usage is largely web browsing, uploading and viewing photos and HD video from a digital camera, MS office type applications and watching DVDs. No real requirement for gaming.

2 questions :-

1) Processor difference is +£50. Given my usage requirements, is the performance difference between the P7450 and P8700 processor worth the extra spend and worth sacrificing the additional year's warranty?

2) Blu-Ray is another +£50. I'm questioning whether or not blu-ray is worth it for me. Additional £50 sounds OK for blu-ray capability and I do have a HD TV to connect to. Worth it or not? I don't have any blu-ray discs yet as I have no player so it could be a good way of entering blu-ray world fairly cheaply.

All advice appreciated.

 

thanks for the reply.

I also read in a US Sony support page (when I was looking for the manual) some hilarious specs like 10/100Base-T (and not GigE) or as you said b/g/n, etc. I suppose Sony hasn't yet put everything in order regarding the CW in their sites:

1/ there is no manual on-line ! (I checked US and some European Sony sites); I wonder how some owners can resist not having one unless they are given paper documents... Drivers are there however.

2/ I can't imagine such a poor specs like not having 11a and/or GigE in these days for a new laptop even in this middle market segment (hey $900 is not cheap!). Maybe there are very different specs depending on the model and/or what you customize but seriously, nobody would want 100Mbps while 1Gbps is usual. Same for 11a: these chipsets are ascendant compatible; I see no reason to disable 11a. So I presume there are mistakes in some web sites.

However, nothing prevents future buyers to check these things before buying as I'll do.

I'd really appreciate if some owners give us their feedback regarding Wi-Fi and Ethernet specs and how they can configure (if possible) the Wi-Fi bandwidth.

One question: how do you know for sure the exact specs of a customized vaio ? I mean listing all components doesn't show lots of things (e.g. HDMI version, Ethernet speed, Wi-Fi standards and speeds, etc.). So usually I check a random preconfigured vaio of the same serie and I presume everything not customized is the same as a preconfigured one.

nalooti

 

I can confirm that (at least the BB model) DOES have gig ethernet. I bought it thinking it didn't but was glad when I saw it. That made up for the lack up 5GHz wireless support to an extent.

 

1. Not really. The 8700 is only marginally better than the 7450 and since none of your tasks will likely ever push your CPU to max anyways any performance gain is mostly likely not ever going to be seen.

2. It depends. If your TV is 1080p and you really want to have blu-ray movies it can be convenient. Plus you can then watch the blu-ray on your laptop while you travel even though it would downscale to fit the 720p laptop resolution.

Overall it really depends on your need/want of blu-ray. Given that a stand alone blu-ray will at best be equal in price to the upgrades in the custom model, its really up to you. One thing to note is that if you don't care about blu-ray on the laptop and only want it for TV out, a stand alone blu-ray player may be more convient for use than moving your laptop next to the tv.

 

Thanks for the input. Re blu-ray I think you are correct in that a standalone blue-ray player would be a better option for watching movies on a HD TV. On that basis my interest in blu-ray on the laptop would be to provide portable blu-ray capability ie. if I build up a collection of blu-ray DVDs to watch at home, it would be good to be able to watch them when out and about, as opposed to being limited only to standard DVDs when using the laptop.

This of course is on the assumption that blu-ray DVDs can't be played at all on a standard DVD drive, outputting at lower resolution?

 

Blu-ray discs can not be played on a standard DVD drive. It's impossible.

If you don't already have a large collection of blu-ray discs then you should also consider the cost of building up that collection. (If that's an issue at all)

Also, downloading HD movies online is becoming more popular and this is even more convenient than carrying around your Blu-ray discs. (Although I'm not sure the quality is comparable??) ^_^

 

yeah it seems that the problem was on the website not on the actual order.
anyway i got em to cancel it so i could reorder it on the white laptop cos it looks better, fingerprints might have been a issue for the black, and i wanted to buy warranty as well. but they ended up ordering it twice so now i gotta phone them up again, and get that cancelled -=.=

 

paying £120 for an extra 2 years warranty is a reasonable/ok deal right?

 

Price wise it is reasonable. General rule of thumb is don't ever exceed 25% the cost of your pc on a warranty.

Are you purchasing the 3 year or 2 year enhanced warranty? I'm not sure of the pricing on U.K. site so I can't tell from your post, but if you don't already know this, you don't get an extra 2 years if you buy the 2 year enhanced warranty, because it runs concurrent with your standard warranty. (At least that's how it is in the U.S.) So, you're covered for a total of 2 years, not 3.

Another thing to consider, again, I'm not sure how it would apply to U.K. customers, but some U.S. credit companies offer free additional coverage (usually 1 extra year) if you put the entire purchase on your credit card.
That's what I'm planning to do.

 

Thanks, thought so re my blu-ray question. Glad to have it confirmed tho

Hadn't considered the downloading point but that's a fair point.

Think I'm sold on going for the cheaper non blu-ray version which comes with a 2 year warranty. That decided, now I need to choose a colour! Wife likes red, I prefer white.......decisions, decisions

 

Yes it is, in my opinion.

Something else to think about - it depends what spec you are after. If you go with the model available in UK retail outlets (John Lewis, Sony stores for example) then you get a 2 year warranty as standard. That has te P7450 processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard disk and the NVidia card with 512MG graphics memory. No blu-ray though, which I've just decided I don't really need.

 

Are you sure you get 2 years warranty as standard?

Comet are saying only a year on their website.

Thanks


Martin

 

All depends on the retailer. Definitely 2 years at John Lewis and Sony Style stores. And at the same price as Comet too - £699.99.

 

Yes, only advantage of Comet I can see is 5% or 8% off voucher code and quidco.

oh, and they have all the colours available to order.


Martin

 

JL had all the colours available earlier today.

Worth also noting that Sony Style is noted as "Coming Soon" on Quidco...so, if you are interested in buying a customised version of the CW via the sony style UK website, it may be worth holding out and checking Quidco regularly to see what % discount becomes available. Quidco were however unaable to tell me when this would be updated (I asked them yesterday). Cheers.

 

Yeah I asked quidco too and got the same message about Sony Store.

I've ordered from Comet at the moment with the 8% voucher (added a digital camera to make the order up to £700)

I am tempted to customise one, but the only thing i'd add would be Blu Ray and I may just get a drive at a later date if I really want it.

 

Only a bit lacking on the CW is a backlit keyboard and it'd be perfect But then again you don't see a 14" with a mid-range GPU that often.

 

Good deal. Re customising I'm in the same boat. The model available via retail stores is pretty well specified in terms of processor, drive, RAM, GPU etc. I was expecting it to be a "base" model but it's definitely not. Certainly meets all my requirements. Blu-ray would be my only possible addition but I concluded last night that this was not a priority as in reality I'm unlikely to connect my laptop to the TV (the 2 HDMI ports on the TV are already used) and I'd more likely buy a standalone blu-ray player whenever I eventually refresh my "home cinema" set up. For portable usage I'm not convinced that a 14 inch screen warrants a blu-ray player anyway, my kids will be happy to watch their normal DVDs on the CW screen

 

Hi
i would like to know how the people who already own a Vaio CW, rate the picture quality of the Webcam with only 0.3 MP. Most Notebooks have a webcam with 1.3 MP.

So there must be a big difference, or am i wrong?
Cheers

 

I made a mistake before, the CW does actually have an Intel 5100 AGN WIFI not the atheros wifi card. I have no Idea why Sony is so confused about this model, 1st the mixup with the RAM being DDR2 or DDR3 and now this. when you go to the products page on Sony Style they say 5100 AGN , and on specs it says Atheros.anyways, you might getting such speeds due to the wifi card, might not just assuming, anyways if you want proper speeds you can manually upgrade to either 4965AGN or 5300 Ultimate card MIMO N. both these cards use 3 antennas wherby the 5100 card has only 2 antennas as all G wifi cards do. to get real N speeds you need all 3 antennas and to do that you need either 4965AGN or 5300 card.
If someone has experience and isnt too shy to open up their new CW to manually upgrade the card, please do a step by step guide on how to do so, and where you installed the 3rd antenna.
Its really weird becuz i know all VAIOS that came with the 3945ABG card had dualband 2.4GHz and 5 Ghz as shown here on VGN-FE890

anyways i think if you upgrade to the 4965 or 5300 then you will get the Dualband 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. but i cant be sure of it please confirm with another member on this forum becuase im not aware if the Sony Wireless switch utility has been upgraded and its not included in the new version, ill go tomorrow to check it out and get back to you guys on that.

 

I went to BB yesterday to play with the CW. It's a very nice computer. For the money ($800), you get a laptop with very good specs. 4gb DDR3 RAM, 500gb HD, Blu Ray drive, LED screen, HDMI, Firewire, Bluetooth, Wireless N and it weighs around 5 pounds. I'm really considering this or a 13" Macbook Pro. The MBP costs a lot more and the it only has a slightly faster processor.

Can somebody who owns the CW, take a photo of the power brick and post it. Also a photo of plug that connects to the laptop. It looks from the video on page 1, that it has a ferrite core near the connection.

 

I bought mine from BB and it had the atheros wifi in it.

The brick looks like most other bricks and the plug seems to be pretty normal.

I do miss the magnaplug thing my MacbookPro had but the Sonys plug doesn't seem to stick in super firm, so if you did trip over the cord i think it would come out fairly easy.

 

I have the white CW from BB, I exchanged a 13' Macbook Pro for it, here are my impressions:
The Sony is well made, the Macbook is engineered in a different league. For instance the touchpad on the Mac is a reason to NOT use the external mouse, (it is that good) There are superlatives for the MacBook on every item that you touch and see, why did I return it?
Value is part of the equation, $400 difference, the Sony has much bigger HD, GPU, BLuray etc.the next model up in the Macbook range is still "underspeced" compared to the Sony, $700 difference!
The features alone are not everthing, the Sony IS quiet, the Macbook=silent
I cannot tell any difference in the speed of either one, It should be mentioned that by default the Windows OS will put the computer in "hibernate" mode (sleep then hibernate-useless) after a predetermined period, whereras the Mac merely sleeps, you can change the Windows PC to never hibernate, and it will spring to life instantly just like the MAc!
Big difference in battery life, roughly double, Sony does a bit better than 2 hours, MAc 4-5 real world useage
I like the Sony, for the price it beats the other mass marketed laptops, the white finish is practical,(it is actualy halfway between white and silver) does not show smudges, and the keyboard is visible in dim light (being white as well) the power plug is in the back of the notebook, very good! Sony makes there own screens, and from straight on the contrast is tack sharp, just a bit better than the competion. My CW has a dim area in the center of the screen, maybe just this one, (I might switch it for another)
The other reason for "abandoning the MAc" is the OS, Windows is more intuative, especially the windows 7 upgrade.
Overall, if money did not matter, I would have probably kept the Mac,(the hardware would be the reason-not the OS) we all have different values

 

Sorry for posting that question again but can someone please answer!!!

What are the specs of the Large Capacity Battery. Is it a 9 cells battery that will stick out of the laptop or just a standard battery with a higher performance?

 

I don't know if it's 9 cell or not, but it is larger and sticks out the bottom, which raises the back up to angle the keyboard towards the user. I think it's the same battery used on the NW series, not for sure though.

 

would definately be interested to read if someone is willing to open it up and post a guide to upgrading the wireless to dual band N!

 

I checked out CW BestBuy version the other day. I did not like the casing material. Especially on the side of the CD-ROM, it had a huge amount of flex, and felt cheap.

 

Hi,

could any of the owners answer some questions, since I would like to buy the CW thru a webshop and would like to have some kind of feedback before:

-fan noise under office/browsing and full load/gaming?
-quality of screen, max brightness and contrast (similar to MBP?)
-is difference between standard and LED backlit screen obvious?
-does screen come with Sony-like anti-reflective coating though its glossy?
-overall gaming performance (with GT 230M), Cyrsis, NFS Shift etc playable?
-build quality of keyboard?

Thanks in advance for your comments!

Marc