Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

Can the fan speed be reduce in BIOS, that way if it runs all the time, at least it could be a little quieter and eat less battery?

 

My order status changed today after receiving an email saying my shipping date will be between the 30 and the 5th of december.
On my Profile o know see its not in production anymore ...
hopefully the long wait comes to an end !

 

My green text disappeared too and had the delay email when I checked this morning, just checked my Sony account and now it says...

" Your order is being shipped.
You can track it on our shipping partner's website (only available for some carriers)"
Can it be true? Please please please Sony!

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Finally the 15A can be ordered again in Holland (although only in the education discount store). So I've ordered the 15A with i5 and SSD, can't wait!

I really appreciate all the great posts on this forum so I'll write a small review here when it's delivered.

 

Everyone is shipping but me!!!!!!!!

 

I got the same shipping date yesterday (30.11. - 05.12.), but after I sent an realy angry E-Mail, the status changed today to "shipping" (or something like that. In german they write "Versand"). :thumbsup: But until now, I didn't get an E-Mail with a trackingnumber.

Config:
Intel® CoreTM i7-4500U 1,8 GHz
Windows 8
256 GB SATA Flash SSD
12 GB 1600 MT/s DDR3L-SDRAM
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 735M 2 GB
39,5cm LED, 2880x1620
Ohne Stylus

Location: germany

 

Fellow owners, a question.

If one buys a Flip at a Best Buy, but fails to buy the extended warranty in the allocated 14 days trail out period and something goes wrong with the device what are the options (lets say the fan does become a jet engine?) Does one
A: Take it back to Best Buy and them look it over. (i assume one has to pay since the protection plan wasn't bought) or does regular Sony warranty work there.
B: Take it to the nearest Sony Store for troubleshooting/replacement?

TS

 

I assume Sony would look at it under the normal 1 year warranty whereas BB won't want to know you unless you purchased some kind of Geek Squad protection plan. Although BB will probably swap it out for you if something is broken on it.

 

I checked in the bios of the Flip15 and I couldn't find anywhere to adjust fan settings.

I bought mine from Best Buy and on initial setup the fan was on full blast all the time and it was decently loud. About as loud as my work laptop a MB Pro when its fan goes full tilt. I got the bios update and it does seem to calm the fan down. I haven't done any extensive work on it yet, but I haven't had the fan come on at full blast like it was doing before.

I am upgrading the ram and hd, the back cover is a pain to get off. I noticed it split on the thin part of the headphone jack hole. Memory is an easy swap, although the chips I got from Fry's were DOA. Ordered a different pair from Newegg as I saw the samsung chips in the laptop were PC3 12800 4GB, so getting a pair of 12800 chips to bring it up to 16GB. Also ordered an SSD to install. The HD isn't as userfriendly to remove in this laptop. There are cables stretching over the top of it. I haven't tried disconnecting everything yet, but as long as those clips come off easy it should be ok.

So far I have mixed feelings about this laptop. I'm using it as a desktop replacement and it is my first personal laptop and my intro into Windows 8. Right now I hate how the quality of websites seems to be vary. Sometimes the text is clean, other times it isn't. I can't scroll on web pages using the touch screen without it suddenly highlighting random blocks of text. I've played a lot with the settings on the trackpad and multi guesture. It is hit and miss. I've tried clicking and dragging a window and suddenly the window slingshots off with momentum.

I've had cases where my palm activates the touchpad enough to cause zooming. While I like the sharp clean edges of the design, in practice it is a pain (literally). I like to lay on the couch with a laptop on my legs and the edge of the flip cuts right into my stomach. I'm hoping to use it more as a tablet when like that so hopefully it will be less of an issue. Right now there are too many issues with the touch screen. More settings, configuration perhaps?

I also don't like how the indicator lights are underneath the front lip. They are useless.

I would hate to return this laptop as it covers nearly everything I was looking for. I'm hoping it is just items I need to get used to and basic customizations that will make me forget about my old gaming desktop.

 

I never got an email with the tracking number. I got it when I phoned Sony to find out what was happening & to ask for some compensation for the delay. At the time of it changing to "shipping" it meant it was shipping from China to the EU Warehouse - but even then Sony had the tracking number for the UK delivery so I was able to track it once it had arrived in the UK and been handed over to the courier.

 

So after MUCH deliberation I have decided to buy a Flip 14 The price was simply too attractive to resist

I bought it on November 17th and the ship date was November 19th.
I right away realised that this was too good to be true and sure enough it didn't arrive. Now it is the 26th and I still don't have it.
One quick call to Sony and apparently there was a natural disaster

Has anyone heard of anything like this?
I heard about the typhoon in the Philippines... is that it?

 

How is the touchscreen, owners? I mean, is it reactive and fast? Because I saw some videos where the pinch to zoom was not good looking good...

 

I have the 13A and the screen is really good, very responsive with basically no lag. However, some browsers are not optimized for touch, such as Chrome, so there is lag in chrome. But that hasn't got anything with the screen to do, the responsiveness in explorer and pinch to zoom is super.

 

Not unless Sony suddenly decided to move their factory to the now flattened central Philippine islands in the past couple of weeks. I think they were just trying to get rid of you. Typhoon Haiyan had no effect on China and as someone who watches the Japanese channel NHK World, I can certainly say there were no reported disasters in Asia other than the typhoon. Consider yourself fortunate, it seems that now the 15As ordered early October are starting to be shipped out that it must mean they finally have their arses in gear.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

The support might be referring to a fire that happened to a production site or a warehouse not sure anymore... I remember some people already had this answer before

Envoyé de mon Nexus 4 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Hummm I had this feeling we will have to push them again to get real info on the tracking N°.

That is a really awful process , never any news from them ... Also I remember that i already purchased a vaio online and this situation never happened.

I am just a bit surprised as I don't think it was written anywhere being a pre-order...

Envoyé de mon Nexus 4 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

I've ordered my 14A yesterday, and it was shipped today!

 

Don't forget that it requires low-voltage memory.

 

Are you sure? ]

Well, I've had my flip (13A) for around 10 days now. I really don't know what to tell you guys. I love this thing, it's absolutely perfect for my PhD student lifestyle. I'm running it cca. 12-16 hours a day, nothing very demanding, but dropbox sync, mendeley, and a couple of other things are always on. What I've seen so far is that the notebook has a couple of shortcomings, but nothing I'm really concerned about (fan, keyboard, etc.), in truth I have to wreck my brain to remember what they are to list them for you. All the other quirks are software related, most of which SONY has nothing to do with or about. 8.1 is what it is, I quite like the metro part of it and can't wait to do away with the desktop altogether -- would be nice to see an option in Win9, desktop lovers could perhaps do the same with metro... The fact that some software are jumping between the two gives me the creeps, but this has nothing to do with the flip, either. The same goes for many programs that don't handle the touchscreen or the bad very well. I've always loved my tiny notebook mouse but now it's gathering dust in the corner. The touch controls are so convenient on this thing!

A question to those of you who are having problems with the screen not registering touch: aren't your fingers calloused/cold? I have extremely cold hands (esp. in winter), and I find that once I touch the screen 'resistive style', pushing my fingertips on a bit, it solves the problem. So does a double tap. IDK if it's because the touch controls need to wake up or something, but this works every time.

Apart from that I think me and my 13A were made for each other I'm tiny in all respects, and in every mode this sits in my lap perfectly. I try not to wedge it in in any way, I mean even when sitting I keep it in my lap, and it has virtually no weight to speak of, so it doesn't slide. I bought a (outrageously expensive) skinny sleeve for it at FNAC, which I keep in my page bag and simply slip the flip in. I've gotten so many compliments at work I'm concerned someone will pinch it.

I've noticed two manufacturing errors on my flip, though. I'm not sending it back, I'll keep using it and if they get worse or bother me more than now, I'll use my 4 year warranty. (For me it's not worth the hassle now, esp. if I have to wait another month.) But these might be things pickier customers might want to watch out for. No.1 is a 0.5 mm patch on the screen that is a lot brighter than the rest, but I can only see it at full brighness, with a white background and looking at the screen from the top -- in short I would probably never really see it if I didn't know it was there. No.2 is the back of the main hinge, which I can press on the right end and make it 'click'. This annoyed the hell out of me at first, but my husband said I should just stop clicking it and hey, problem solved. Anyway, these are not major faults, so I'll keep them handy in case I need to have the screen/chassis changed.

If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer. I'm working on my 'review' of sorts, but it will be more like a 'what it does and what it doesn't' sort of thing.

Cheerio

fs

 

Yes, I'd second that. Not had an issue with the touchscreen on the Vaio - but by the time I'm using it, I'm nice and warm. I have had the cold finger problem on my smartphone, so it figures.

My main gripes are still with Windows 8.1 - but I'm getting used to it & finding ways to make it all work for me.

Other than that, sometimes, particularly when coming out of Sleep mode but not always, the fan makes a very loud grinding/whining noise. This can last for up to around 10 to 20 seconds (typically closer to the former). Once the machine is fully awake, the sound goes & never returns. But it happens enough that I try to avoid starting it up in a meeting as it would be so noisy & embarrassing (so I will now wake the machine up beforehand and just close the screen while walking to the meeting - upon opening the screen I've yet to experience this noise problem). I have contacted Sony about this, but they are yet to come up with a sensible answer.

 

Well,my 15A is apparently in the Netherlands. Hopefully that means delivery tomorrow or Friday since it's only just across the water! No tracking number despite asking Sony though.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Congrats!!! I'm glad you are enjoying your Flip, and thanks for the post.

It sounds like you use it a lot on your lap, which is what I would like to do as well. When I went to BB, they had the 13' and the 14' on displays, and both machines were really warm at the bottom, mainly at the back left corner. I checked many other laptops in the store, and most of them were not that warm, and many of them were even cold. I find those warm temperatures to be very unconformable in my lap and I don't want to have to be using a cooling pad. Can you tell me what is your experience regarding this?

If anybody else would like to chime in, please do so. Is the warm temperature is not an issue, I think I will order, probably a 14.

It looks that all the other "issues" can be solve, or they are not that hard to live with.

By the way, sounds like a lot of people wish they could navigate windows 8 like Windows 7. Well guys and gals, you can!

Have you heard of the "Classic Shell" (free) or "Start8" ($5) applications? They both make W8 look, feel, and work similar to Windows 7. You get a real Start button and real Start Menu when on the Desktop. You also have the option of booting directly to the Desktop instead of to Metro.. These third party shells have made Windows 8 usable for countless people. The start menu has an icon to go Metro as well. It is very easy to switch back and forth between Desktop and Metro. So, you get to use the shell for productivity and when you feel like it you can play with metro to learn as you go. Hope this come handy.

Cheers

 

FedEx has just delivered my 14A )))

I ordered it on Nov.14. I got the email saying it had shipped on Nov.22, so 5 days ago. That's not bad at all. But like I said earlier, my original order (via Sony store) was cancelled on the advice of a Sony rep, because of problems I had on their site while ordering. This person re-did my order over the phone and said he was putting a priority on it, so perhaps I did get mine sooner than if I had ordered via the website. Who knows. I am not opening the box right away because I need to buy the SSD before I do anything else ; Black Friday just around the corner so hoping to get a great deal.

To answer a question about where these are built : it says "made in China" on the box. So what's the deal with the Philippines ? That's where the major Sony call center (support) is located. So yeah, typhoon Haiyan is very much on their minds over there. Sony has plants all over Asia, but not in the Philippines (Malaysia, Thailand, China, Singapore, Korea and, of course, Japan).

I'll probably fire up the Flip friday or saturday night. I have to do this when the daughter sleeps (her X-Mas gift).

Edit to add : @legzam358 : thanks for quoting me on Classic Shell ;-) >> http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...lti-flip-pc-owners-thread-53.html#post9462034

 

You guys are making me jealous.

I ordered my 14A about 3 weeks ago and my expected delivery date is December 9th. Only about 3 more weeks to go.

I ordered mine in Pink which is why it's taking so long. So hopefully I get it before christmas.

From the sounds of it, it sounds like quite the unit and I'm glad I returned my vaio duo 13 to wait for this.

 

Mark

Sorry about that credits and kudos to you for the info about Classic Shell!

Please know that I was not trying to take credit for it, or any other bad intention. I have this info in my notes, and when I saw that people were complaining about W8 a thought I would share the info. I've got many other notes, from different forums, and it gets overwhelming some times, my head is spinning some times. I should probably keep a record of from where I get the info and who is the author, but like I said, it gets crazy with all the info floating around. Again, please accept my apologizes, my only intention was to spread the word around to help others, I hope you understand.
Thanks for the helpful posts.

 

I do the same thing, as I too have mentioned both Classic 8 and Start8 on numerous occasions. and it gets even harder as threads get bigger and posts get posted across numerous threads, forums. Sometimes it hard to keep track or remember who said what first. I did a accessory list just for that purpose, but with software and tips i don't, i just apply them as the are suggested.

TS

 

So Sony are recommending that I do a full recovery to try to sort this whining fan business. But their email doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that it will definitely do the trick. Given the hassle of doing this - having to reinstall all the apps & put all my files back on to the PC, I'm loathed to do it unless I have a better feeling that it will be successful. Has anyone gone down this route?

 

No worries folks. I have been known to do it myself. I've been on forums for years so I know how hard it is to sort every piece of information you come across.
@legzam358 : I just smiled when I read your post because the info sounded familiar lol. And no need to apologize ; I've come across a bunch of professional forum *thunder stealers" so I can spot one when I see one. You are not one of them
I agree that we need to post about tips like this as often as we can, because W8/8.1 are really putting off a lot of people who just don't need a *touch* operating system (Metro), or would really like a real Desktop when they work on one from a touch or non-touch device. Just a couple days ago I came across an old friend who does IT for our local school board : he said they were in meetings that day to discuss migrating hundreds of computers from XP to W7, because W8 (8.1) was hell with Metro ; I mentionned Classic Shell and he gave me a puzzled look. He didn't know it existed !

========

@jadzia2000 : now you are making ME jealous with that pink Flip, hahaha. As I mentionned before, I wanted the pink 14A as well, for my daughter. When I tried to order it a few weeks ago, the Sony store kept throwing errors (unspecified), so I called Sony and the guy in Toronto told me they had run out of pink bodies at the plant, He also told me I should order another color because he couldn't garantee I would get a pink unit before X-Mas. Problem is, the pink option never went *out of stock* on the Sony store, but just showed a slightly delayed ship date, as you have noticed.
Bottom line: I think the guy in Toronto didn't know what was really going on so now I have a black Flip. My daughter won't mind black at all, but the pink would have made quite a splash. I hope you get yours on time and I know you will enjoy it )

 

Hi Mark,

I will get my 15A next week.
I want to upgrade my hdd to ssd as well. Do you know what type of SSD should I get?

Thanks!

 

Just received my 15A via Fedex yesterday! I ordered on Nov 21 and got the fastest shipping possible. Played around with it all last night and I have to say I am extremely happy with the purchase.

I have not noticed any lag with the screen or touchpad. I also barely hear the fan ever unless I am using graphic or processor intensive programs/games. I was afraid the fan was going to be super annoying but they either fixed the issue or it was never as bad as people made it seem, either way I am pleased.

The laptop does get a little hot underneath but not unbearably so. I had it on my lap in tablet mode for at least 2 hours.

I have had no issues thus far and love everything about it, best laptop purchase I have ever made!

 

Hi there handrow

SSDs are pretty standard, from what I know. One member here tried to replace his HDD with a larger hybrid HDD and it didn't fit ; it didn't fit because the Flips require thin drives (7mm) and some of the larger HDDs can be 9.5mm thick.

What you need is a SATA III drive (also known as SATA 3 or SATA 6 Gb/s). There are still some SATA II drives out there, so be sure to look for it. The one option you have is size. 128GB is too small for the 14-15 Flips because of all the installed factory partitions. A 256GB drive would be OK, but you would probably need to have an external drive for heavy storage (lots of pictures, movies, lots of music, etc...). An external drive is always a good idea anyway, because you can also store backups/images on them too.
I'm going for a ~500GB drive, because I have the $ for it and like the extra space. Sony are just asking a ridiculous price for the SSD options here in Canada, which is why I'm buying and installing myself. There are 750GB and even 1TB SSDs available now too, but they are pricey.
My two personal favorites right now are : the Samsung 840 EVO (500GB) and the Crucial M500 (480GB) ; both are highly rated, rugged and fast. And they are 7mm thick of course. There are other good SSDs out there, those are just my favorites.

 

Does opening it up to swap out the SSD void the warranty?

 

Thanks for the explanation!!
is this the right one? i just wanted to make sure i make the right purchase.
Amazon.com: Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Single Unit Version Internal Solid State Drive MZ-7TE1T0BW: Computers & Accessories

 

I am not ashamed to say that I would have gotten the pink color one if the other two were not available. If anyone questions it I'll just tell them "what of it, don't make me whip out the Flips jet engine and blow you away" lol

Well I posted my lengthy review of the Flip 13a over on amazon, but I won't know if they accepted it for publication.

Edit, it just went live. I probably missed something but eh, my fingers are now on ice.

TS

 

Very good review!!!:thumbsup:

From your review:

"Settings for certain things are all over the place, some in Microsoft Control panel, and others in the VAIO Control Center etc. Placing links to them in a folder helps but at first glance/search it wasn't easy finding them."

If it is not much to ask, would you give us a list of the Microsoft Control panel and VAIO Control Center settings you are talking about and the steps to gain access to them? That would be tremendously helpful for a lot of new owners.

Thanks for the review!

 

Yeah sure, I'll get on it later once i get home. But from the metro side I may have to try to replicate getting to the controls. (I don't use metro) On the desktop side I use Classic 8 start menu and had placed the apps in a Windows Vista type folder. Either way, I'll do a write up tonight of where and how to get to them.

TS

 

That's a terrific drive. I'm jealous now
Prices in Canada are higher than US prices on most electronics, unfortunately for me :-(, but that's a decent price for you, on a large and fast drive.

Now I have to ask :
1) Are you comfortable with opening the Flip's case ?
2) Are you prepared to clone the existing partitions onto the new SSD ? Or perhaps you have your own method of getting an operating system on the SSD ?

I have to ask, just to be sure you are ready to make that move.

===============

LOL. Or... tell them you'll slice them up like cheese with those sharp edges

The pink looks really hot. I also saw on another Sony store (European or Asian, I forget) that they make a "Red series" for certain VAIO models, but not the Flip. Wow, there's nothing like a screaming red aluminum ultrabook. Well, maybe a pink one

 

Thanks for the review twospirits!

Are most folks in agreement about the flip mechanism being well-built? I'm a little apprehensive about it.

What about the NTrig digitizer -- does it work as well as the Wacom for writing? I loved the feel of the Wacom in the Surface Pro, but I haven't tried NTrig. Judging from the reviews, its fewer sensitivity levels might matter for art, but not writing?

Eagerly awaiting the arrival of my 13a! Shipped Nov 25...

Replacing a 2011 Mac Air, so hopefully Win 8.1 is nice, I've been on Linux or Mac OS since Windows XP, haha.

Very interested as to whether anyone has software to read digitizers with Mac OS to maybe try Hackintoshing it. Last I saw someone was having to take apart the screen to get this to work. RAM/HD upgrades, sure, but I'm no where near brave enough to do this!

 

I don't own the flip, but I think this video review will give answers to your first 2 questions:

Sony VAIO Flip 13 Review - YouTube

 

Thank you!!!

 

Thanks! She demonstrated the flip mechanism and pen much better than other videos I've seen.

 

Okay as mentioned in my review on Amazon there are settings all over the place, Some in the Microsoft Control Panel section, Some in the Charm / Settings / PC Settings and some in the Vaio Control Center,
The Charm / Settings / PC Settings as well as the VAIO Control Center basically duplicate whats already in the MS Control Panel but present it in a more condense simplified way.

For example
In the Vaio Control Center you have the following settings, where an X is a simplified copy of the setting in the MS Control panel.

-Power & Battery which has settings for
-X- Power plans
--- CPU Fan settings
-- Battery Care
-X- Lid Open settings
-- Power Savings display refresh rate
-- Intel Smart Connect Technology
-- Battery Power Low/sleep setting

-Input Devices which has settings for
-- Touchpad
-- Keyboard Backlight
-X- Active Pen & Touch actions
-- Pen Button actions

-Image Quality settings
-- External Display resolution
-- Display Color Modes
-- X-Reality for Mobile settings

-Sound Quality settings
-- Sound effects
-- Microphone settings-Hardware
-- Usb Charging mode settings

-Network
-X- Network Sharing
-X- Network Profiles

-Other
-- Send data to Sony setting
-- Don't Show again setting
-- Vaio Control Center restore setting

Now if one goes through the Charms / Settings / Change PC Settings, the PC Settings panel appears and this has a few settings not found in the MS Control Panel but has a simplified duplicate version in the VAIO control Panel such as
General / Screen / Adjust Screen Brightness
General / Advanced startup

So basically a setting can be in either one of those three control panels. I basically downloaded Fences from Stardock and created individual Fences (folders) on the desktop and created shortcut links into the Fence folder for settings that I know that I need to change so often. Or one can just create a regular desktop Folder and place links to certain settings in it.

TS

 

Since I have to stick with 128Gb SSD, I will simply instal clean W8.1 and activate it using the key that came with computer. Win8.1 drivers are also available ASAIK. This will save up 80% of space wasted by those partitions/recovery files.

 

Can you please elaborate? What do you mean the key that came with the machine? I might have to look in the box again as I seem to have missed that... (I have a 13A.)

 

Here's the link to a survey they sent me. IDK how it works and whether you'll be able to fill it out. The best questions are at the end.

[SONY SURVEY]

 

I got this "survery" too. But this damn formular dosn't work correctly. At some Questions you can choose a number and n.z.t. . That's nonsense!
At some other Questions you chose n.z.t. and your selection from a other Question changes. This formular is like the rest of the process: CRAP!!!!
I just fill out the comment field.

 

Did you guys get that survey because you bought directly from Sony? I don't recall ever getting a survey.

Something dawn on me this morning, and one that I didn't touch upon previously but the power button should have been next to the assist button or at least on the side of the display. To me its used more than the assist button.
Too bad there isn't a way to swap the Assist button for the power button via a hot key assignment.

TS

 

I think we got it because we had contact with the support.

 

OEM computer (often?) have product keys embedded it the UEFI firmware. So if you reinstall Win 8 you don't have to enter it.
I tried it already on my 13a - worked like a charm.

I'd suggest to extract it though and store it somewhere else - just in case.

 

I have absolutely no idea how that works but I remember reading about it in one of these forums... It's beyond my skills but I'll let my hubby loose on the the flip he'll know what to do.
...
Talked to him. He was nodding. So the only question is where we're getting the 8.1 software from... Have a hunch...