Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

I don't have art rage. But from what I've heard it is inferior as professional art/graphics software. However, if you just want to have some fun with it, non-professionally, I guess it will be great.

I don't know about Photoshop Elements. But in Photoshop CC you can draw with the pen, so I'm pretty sure that will work in elements as well. However, my experience with the n-Trig pen in Photoshop CC is terrible. I'm assuming it will work just as awful in Elements.

 

I just picked up the n trig pen to give it a go. Got it open box price at best buy for $33 I will do some playing around with it not expecting too much out of it though

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

Why not? Works great (just not with photoshop)

 

You don't have to have the Sony one. An active stylus from any NTrig device will work. I've been using this one: Amazon.com : HTC Stylus Scribe Digital Pen for Flyer, EVO View 4G, Jetstream Tablets (Bulk Packaging) : Computer Digital Pens : Computers & Accessories and it's under $10.

CJ

 

You do know that Sony has WinTab drivers for Photoshop available for download now, so you can get pressure sensitivity.

 

the refresh models are listed for pre-order on the sony.com site

 

Yes I know. But its still crap. Pressure sensitivity works, yes, but otherwise its unworkable. Simply panning the canvas just jumps it outside of the screen. Simple finger gestures dont work (zooming, rotating). Has nothing to do with n-Trig, everything with photoshop.

 

Just noticed that. I seriously hope that they fixed the two issues. They did it with the Duo 13 so I'd like to believe that they would do the same for these.

 

4th gen Intel® Core™ i5-4200U (1.60GHz / 2.60GHz)
Windows 8.1 64-bit
Features: 14.0" Full HD IPS touch display (1920 x 1080), 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD, Intel® HD Graphics 4400, HDMI® out, USB 3.0, NFC, Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 12


$949 for this sounds too good to be true, coming from Sony. More likely a 500 GB HDD with 16GB NAND cache.

 

Here are three issues that are making me debate whether to return the Flip 14. I've been searching for solutions but have had no luck.

1) Ctrl+Shift+arrow shortcut does not seem to work. I use this shortcut often while typing and it seems to have been disabled on the Flip's keyboard.
2) Hinge has a crackling sound when converting from tablet to laptop mode. Seems to be bunched up tape or possibly the ribbon cable near the rubber hinge
3) Tinny sounding audio from the speakers

I'm debating whether to send my unit in for repair for #2 but I'm not sure they'll notice the crackling sound. Also, is the tinny sounding audio normal? If anyone has any advice, let me know!

Thanks.

 

My 15 does have a slight crackle sound sometimes when flipping it.


Also my n trig pen is defective it wrote before touching the screen. Will have to make another trip to best buy tomorrow

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

1. Ctrl shift arrow does work on mine. I dont know if it is possible to change/set the shortcuts in windows, but google it and you will find out.

3. The speakers are just crap. Thats no flaw of your flip, but a flaw of the flips in general. I dont mind, as I use external speakers when listening music.

 

FYI that was before they sold, they announced the 11A a few weeks ago and sold like last week iirc

 

I hope we will get the refresh edition in germany too. Hopefully everything will be better.

 

Ah, nice. Im not going to use the pen anyway!

Time for order!

 

Haha, wrong quote?
But anyway, why buy a flip 15A if you're not going to use the pen? Not attacking, just curious Other than use as a drawing table, I can't really think of another use in which the flip meganism has enough added value to justify the price. If you want the tablet kind of use, then 15.5 inch makes no sense, and I would opt for the 13 inch or a vaio duo.
If not using it as a drawing table, nor as a tablet, I would save me some money and go for a regular ultrabook with touchscreen.

 

Hi. My first post.

I just got flip 14 with hybrid drive shortly after Christmas, and I actually got to start using it a couple of weeks ago. I have been following this thread with an eye to problems I may encounter.

Two so far:
When computer wakes up, mouse pointer often is not visible. Hitting Ctrl-alt-del brings it back. I have tried the fix - devmgmt.msc, human interface devices, USB input device, Power management tab, uncheck allow the computer to turn off - this didn't work. Does anyone know of another way to take care of this problem?

The other, more drastic problem, is that occasionally the screen goes berserk with opening applications, or one time, it looked like someone was touching the screen very rapidly all over its face (I could see the circles that come up when I touch the screen, but my fingers were no where near the screen). I have heard of this problem, but have not run across a working solution. I did the recalibration of the touch aspect of the screen.

Any help would be very, very appreciated.

take care,
Craig

 

Hello everybody!

I'm new to this forum, thanks to all for great info about the device!

Sorry if following question was already asked, but I couldn't easily find it:

I'm considering purchasing 15a version, with GT 735M 2GB and I'm hesitating between 1920x1080 and 2880x1620 display.

As I'm now also buying a new display, I'd like to ask about maximum possible resolution for external monitor of flip15a. I'm considering Dell U2713HM, which has a 2560 x 1440 resolution. Will this work with the notebook? Is anyone of you using the flip with external monitor with this high resolution? (Somewhere I've read that the output is limited to 1920x1080...)

If there is the no limit, does it count for the lower resolution flip version too? Is it possible to have the lower resolution flip 15a version (1920x1080) and operate at the higher resolution with an external monitor (2560x1440)...or just the higher resolution flip will work?

Then... what do you think will Sony selling of the Vaio actually mean to customers, do you think difficulties with warranty and repair are more likely to be expected, or is it a unnecessary fear...

Thanks a lot for any hint...

 

I'm also trying to figure out various things about the 15A as like you I plan to buy one
I have learned on the TabletPc forum that the 2880 x 1620 is super nice and that it works perfectly with the stylus.
Main problem seems to be that the owner tells he cannot run farther than 4.5 hours, with display at 30%...
when others running with the 1920*1080 can go up to 6+ hrs at 50% ???
so I assume that this resolution is a big power eater; is it?

About the resolution you can have on an external monitor, it should be related to the GPU...
so going with one Nvidia 1 or 2 Go, looking at the card's specs it should allow to push such pixel quantity pretty easily... but who knows?

Another thing, some of you are waiting for the "refreshed Flips" but as long as I understand, there's no "real" refresh,
apart of having Win 8.1 and few software/drivers bugs solved, what else is there in these "refreshed" machines ????

Thanks for your help

 

hi there i cant say for sure it is the screen but i guess its a good chance it is...i cant get an answer off anyone..maybe changing the hybrid drive for an ssd will be the answer...maybe goin for the i5 instead of the i7...can anyone on here with i5 i7 and the hires screen post your average battery life...would really help people make the final choice

 

As the previous two posts I am also thinking about getting the Flip 15 since it meets all my requirements. I missed the deal that Sony had two weeks ago where they were selling the SVF15N18PXB for $1599. Now I am wondering If I should wait for the refresh or wait till the SVF15N18PXB goes on sale again. Looking at the spec sheet for the refresh for the difference I only notice win 8.1 and Photoshop. which I really don't need. hopefully the refresh also fixes all the issues that are mentioned before.

 

I'm absolutely certain that resolution is a resource hog, in smartphones it always is, so I presume the same goes for ultrabooks.

And no, I haven't seen any other changes, though some hope the new line-up won't have fan issues and some other hardware problems get solved too. Personally I'd rather see it done with my own eyes, nothing is confirmed until the reviews are out or the first preorders delivered.

andya147: Try searching this topic, or the one over at TabletPC, I remember the screen resolution as well as the different drive options (and how to change them) having been discussed quite thoroughly in one of these two places. I guess those early birds who bought their machines last year are no longer here because the novelty's worn off and they've either solved their issues or got on. I still am, but I have almost no idea about hardware, so sorry.

 

I have 2880 and very nice but also very small all (text & icons), for normal laptop use 1920 is a better fit in my case at least.

 

Hi klapka,
You're right, the flip output is limited to 1920x1080 max for external screen.

However you can push higher.
There is an intel exe file to customize your own resolution...
I'll try to post it again. I actually made a post on that quite some times ago.

You need to know also that the flip don't have display port : only hdmi...

Also pushing the screen res higher is not native therefore could be risky for your computer...and might damage it... Not too sure bout that.

I work on an external Samsung with 2560x1440 without issue since 2.5 months now. The only thing is that the 2nd screen pops a warning window every time I plugin the computer, saying I am not running at native res.... Bit annoying but not a problem really...

You might want to know that win 8 is not handling hi-dpi really well... On my setup I chose to have my laptop screen @ max res 2880x1680 and 2nd screen @ 2560x1440 and windows using 125% scaling.

Its tiny ... Very tiny on the laptop and quite large on the external screen... This create a not so great environment as there a lot of difference between both screen displays....

You could actually choose that windows handle the scaling automatically but then everything start to be blurry ....

Basically either you have crisp displays but with different size aspect or you have blurry screens....

I am actually wondering if the 1980x1024 resolution is not enough for the flip and more confortable to extend with external display... But well I couldn't resist to try the big one .... My eyes are actually getting use to small & tiny things....

Hopefully win8 will finetune their scaling methods in the future and resolve those blurry screens.

Hope it helped.


Envoyé de mon Nexus 4 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

It's probably because some user are using economy mode, others normal mode or even high performance...

Moreover, users can customise energy modes with personal settings... Giving even more probabilities that 2 users will report different battery life...

Also, switching between the 3 modes gives you completely different battery life time... I ran 6+ hours on economy mode with the 15a ssd 2 GB ndiviA @ 2880x1620

If I switch to high performance... It runs 3/4+ hours....

Also this depends a lot of your usage :
Wifi / Bluetooth eats energy... Some softwares also eats energy in the background....

IMO the 2880x1620 is a nice screen but I am not sure it is worth it just yet. Win8 don't handle hidpi very well : see my previous post. I think this laptop @ 1980x1024 is more than enough for the next couple of years, time for the highdpi resolution to be mature enough...

Finally, I really don't think the hidpi screen is draining the battery much or at least significantly to be THE reason to not choose it....



Envoyé de mon Nexus 4 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

I think CustomModeApp.exe in c:\Windows\System32 folder is the one you're referring to.

 

Is anyone having major WI-FI problems with this laptop? I have the 14" with the Broadcom network adapter and I can't connect to the internet at all. Contacted support and they told me they can send me a dongle or send the laptop to their repair center and see what they can do. Very disappointing for such a promising laptop.

 

Hi thirteen13,
thanks a lot for answer!

Does the new Windows 8.1 make some improvement on DPI scaling across different monitors? As suggests this article:
Windows 8.1 DPI Scaling Enhancements

What does it mean..., that I can't connect via hdmi and have to use some adapter or even device? What kind of? How it is then supposed to be connected...?

Regarding the custom setting via

,... does it mean that display will have to run on a unsupported or lower quality refresh rate?

And last one... Actually... do I really need Nvidia or is the default Intel graphics ok for me... If Nvidia do I really need 2G or 1G could really suffice...?
Expected usage: Autocad, Autodesk Revit, Adobe suite (Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator), OneNote or other notetaking with stylus.

Thanks a lot once more!

 

Yes, thanks for sharing your experience !!

For how to connect your flip to several external monitors, look at this thread here, the man "twospirits" has put an interesting drawing where he explains what he's doing.
As long as I have understood, he goes through one USB3 port with an adapter between and can "drive" two external monitors, at more than 1080p resolution on both
Sony Vaio Flip PC - Page 82

So I'm a bit confused : I cannot understand why you thirteen13 say that the GPU cannot not drive external screens more than 1080p ?

 

@Bc4m5 : thx , that's the one.
@Klapka :

You will have to play with settings...
I have successfully added a custom refresh rate of 59hz
check here : http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-vaio-fit-multi-flip-pc-owners-thread-82.html


It will work only with HDMI cable as there is no display port on the flip... A shame for this pricey machine....

Win.8.1 does add more options for scaling but it's just not there yet...
People usually find setting that fit best their needs, but keep it mind it's usually out of compromises

Ok for heavy softwares like Photoshop, AutoCAD etc... I suggest you take the highest flip
Ndivia 2gb. Ssd(u can upgrade later) at least 8gb ram(upgradable also)

Mine has max options and I can feel its limit when working on large Photoshop files :like 300/500 mb files with tons of layers...

The intel card is noooooot enough.
And will not handle those type of softwares !






Envoyé de mon Nexus 4 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

For the 2560x1440 external Screen ,

There is also the possibility to use an USB to DisplayPort adapter.
This has been reported to work well on other laptop brand / models

 

Well TwoSpirit Uses an USB to Display Adapter !
I actually just posted that solution

but this is NOT native, and the flip can't handle more than 1920x1080 without either : the customAppMode or Usb Adapter to DP !

Amazon.com : Plugable UGA-165 USB 2.0 to VGA/DVI/HDMI Graphics Adapter for Windows, Multiple Monitors up to 1920x1080 / 1600x1200 Each (DisplayLink DL-165 Chipset) : Usb Network Adapters : Computers & Accessories

 

Hello Vaio Multiflip Owners!

I bought the new Vaio Multiflip 11 today and the unit will arrive tomorrow... I have some questions depending this unit. Can I use the screen protector which is made for the 11 inch Vaio Duo or have I to buy another Protector? For my daily usage home - university - psychiatric clinic I want to use three power cords.. Can I buy the power cords made for the Flip 13 or are some "no name" power supplies available for a significant lower price than the Sony price (79,99 Euro)?

Thank you for helping me

 

Hey did anyone's VAIO update go really weird today? My messages changed into thai? messages and my updates had thai in them.. really weird.

 

Thks for your help

 

Just a different approach, why don't you use two finger swipe for scrolling?

 

Welcome to the forum, Craig :hi2:

I haven't been around the last couple of days, so just getting to your questions now.

Daughter has the Flip now and she's not sharing it (heh), but she hasn't reported a problem with the mouse cursor. But... I do know about that screen issue you are experiencing and perhaps the mouse thing is linked to it.

Your screen needs to be calibrated (read on). I had the same strange behavior after upgrading the Flip to 8.1 and many others here as well.
Just go to the Sony support site for your country, enter your model# and go to the drivers download section. First make sure you have the latest BIOS (they have a BIOS update tool that checks if you have the latest or not). Next, look at the drivers they have for the touchscreen calibration tool, and run it. It should fix it right up. If it doesn't, I'm out of ideas because no one else has reported problems following a successful calibration.

HTH

 

Has anyone tried the Belkin USB 3.0 Dual Video Docking Stand for Ultrabooks? It connects to the USB 3.0 port and has a DVI-I port as well as a DP port and claims it can get up to 2048 x 1152 resolution. It also has 2 usb 2.0 ports and 2 usb 3.0 ports (one with 2.1 amp charging) as well as an Ethernet port. The design looks like it also would hold the flip (maybe only the 11 & 13) in a good position to be used.

 

Nice find !
maybe a bit expensive compared to the Plugable and other Hubs but more impressive and space friendly. Would be nice indeed to know how this works with 2 hi-res monitors

 

What does the sale of Vaio mean for driver support? I was interested in the Vaio Flip 15 SVF15N25CXS because I'm looking for something with pen support and I like the design. This is the refresh model that comes out in a few days according to Sony's website.

Does this mean whoever bought Vaio will continue support? I certainly don't want to buy a laptop with very immature drivers that won't ever be worked on.

I don't have many options when looking for a 2 in 1 with a 1080p screen and pen support, maybe Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga which is a few inches smaller.

 

Hi thirteen13... Thanks once more sharing experience! Do you think running the monitor on 59Hz instead of 60 Hz (I guess... is this the default?) has some a] quality issues for viewing or b] durability issues for monitor or notebook itself, except for the notice mentioned?

Also... question is - is the custom resolution setting possible with Nvidia GeForce GT 735M...? Or is it tied only to intel integrated graphics...

Thanks once more for reposting the relevant information again.

 

Hey, guys. On my research into the Flip 13A, Google kept referring me to here - I guess this thread is the most informative around. So I would like to call upon your collective knowledge to answer a few questions that I have. I've handled the Flip before, but I'd like more info from the owners who use them daily.

1. The front of the Flip is quite sharper than other ultrabook. The overlip styling has me quite concerned since I use my notebook in bed, lying down with my shoulder on the pillows and legs drawn up to make ~90 degree angle. The back end of the notebook rests on my thighs and the front end on my abs, the lid opened on ~130 degree angle with the screen is vertical to the ground. I wonder if that thin front lip will make it too uncomfortable to use in this position?

2. I use the first position if I have to use the keyboard. If not, a position I tend to use is to prop the notebook on my chest, with the lid at 90 degree angle. While I use a wireless mouse on my notebook, I expect to ditch it in favor of the touch screen. How comfortable is it to touch the screen in this position for a prolonged time?

3. Anyone play Football Manager 2014 on the 13A? Would like to hear from you on how the CPU and fan perform.

4. I'm torn between the i5 (US$1500) and i7 (US$2100) models. They are sold US$600 apart in my country. The differences I see are: i5-4200U->i7-4500U, 4GB->8GB, SSD 128GB->256GB, Windows 8->8 Pro. Both include the N-trig pen. Considering that the 13A is not upgradable, do you think US$600 is worth for such upgrade? My current notebook is Asus N43SL on i5-2430M/8GB/640GB. Will I feel much faster with the i7? Will the 4GB RAM hamper performance on CPU-intensive games such as the FM2014 above, considering 1GB will be used the IGP?

5. How is Turbo Boost on the 13A? I tried running Windows Experience Index Assesment with the fan on performance mode. It really run up the fan, but the CPU freq. I checked on the System Page stayed at 1.60 the whole time. I read there's a problem with TB on the Flip. Does it work on yours?


Thanks for you inputs.

 

For those interested in getting rid of extraneous, resource intensive tasks - which by their nature would also trigger the fan.

I was doing some light work on the Flip today and noticed that the fans kicked in. Went to Task Manager and found that Kaspersky is doing its weekly scans. All OK to me.

30 mins later, fans are still going. Checked Kaspersky and it's done. So went back to TM and saw that VCSystemTray.exe is now the resource hog. W?! 5 mins later, it's still at it - TF?!. CPU temp is at 76C/168F.

I decided to kill it. Within a minute, fans quieted down, CPU temp settled at 40C-44C/104F-111F.

Found out that VCSystemTray.exe is a multi-purpose Sony app. It's scheduled to run at different times and triggers, with different options. Schedules for it are in Task Scheduler under Sony Corp/VAIO Care. You'll see various entries there to launch the app. I disabled the lot. Especially because I don't like entries that indicate collection of data and upload of said data to Sony. Yes, I'm paranoid. I'll turn them back on if I have some issues I want Sony to look at. So far none, since I've had my Flip - fingers crossed.

Also disabled the jobs under Sony Corp/VAIO Control Center/NetworkSetting and VAIO Clip. I use a different screen capture app anyway.

Don't forget to Reset Windows or do a "complete" Shutdown via Win-X to ensure that the changes are implemented on the next bootup. Other forms of shutdown will do a "hybrid shutdown" which just shuts down apps and saves the kernel state to disk - for faster boot times later.

 

can the guys with the i7 15a and the 2880 screen please post there battery life...ive only been getting 4.3 hours and that is with the brightness at 30% ..i cant get any accurate info if its the 2880 or the hybrid drive that is causing the poor battery life...ive read most of the posts and one chap said light use he was getting 8 hours ..this i cant understand ......an educated guess tells me yes the screen will have to shift more pixels etc so maybe that is the cause ...maybe the hybid drive is eating the battery ....i need to know quick before sony stop selling the 15a and i will have to return mine and maybe settle for the 1080p screen any help really appreciated guys ..and i think it will help a lot of other people decide

 

Anywhere between 6 and 7 hours on a i5 14a and 70% screen brightness. As far as hybrid drive power consumption there is a 10-15 % difference in a power consumption if you use SSD instead. I gained about 30 min average when I swapped the drives. Booting speed, that is the another story. Battery life was the main reason I did not buy i7 15a. Could not justify the price difference.

 

hey, i need some informations, who did change ram or HDD ?

i buy one sdd evo 500gb, i input this SDD in computer but i can't install windows... boot for pen drive isn't work.
second i buy 16gb corsair vengeance 1600, i change this memory but computer not work only original memory, i'm not change configure to bios.

My computer inside 8 gb 2x4gb.
1 tb hdd...

who help me in this situation... ???

 

The memory you bought, did you make sure it was low-power DDR3L and not regular DDR3? From skimming Corsairs website, it seems the Vengeance modules aren't low-power.

 

NXP - Anyone using the Near Field for anything? This reminds me of an old jazz drive or Firewire. (Firewire actually had more usability and both are examples of special purposed technologies.) I just see it as parasitic load to the PC resources and power. I keep it disable in device manager and I'm considering unplugging it from the MB. Just messing around it took a .bat file/hack to enable a Bluetooth file transfer which was horridly slow. And I can't imagine the need to go through some hoopla to transfer a file over NFC or hold my laptop's sensor 4" away from something to pay for it. Lol. Maybe I'm off the mark, but I'm of the conviction that the NFC thing is a gimmick and not needed for this platform. Maybe in 4-5 years if someone comes up with good software and apps for it. ...Thinking out load.

 

I'm not sure whether the System page shows realtime CPU frequency. I use CPU-Z or CoreTemp to monitor system stats and in High Performance mode it's showing me the CPU is operating around 2.3 to 2.6 GHz. I'm on an i5 14a, btw.

 

hi guys,
i'm an happy owner of a multiflip 15a..
I'm interested in installing android on my vaio, I find this project made by Intel that make android compatible with Windows and UEFI mode.
Do you think is gonna work on our Multiflip?
Or there are other similar project to have Android working on these machines?
Basically I just want a dual boot, because with softwares like Bluestacks all we get is emulation, and is slower than the original thing..

Thank you