Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

Does anyone have a Flip 15 yet? Sony's website shows est ship date of 12/9, but I was wondering if maybe other countries had them already. (Murica here). All the BB's around me only have 13s. I'd like to ask a few questions of anyone that has a 15 as I'm strongly considering one. Thanks.

 

Well.. now i am confused

Order my Flip 13A yesterday:
i7
8gb Ram
256GB SSD

Today i got an E-Mail that says it'll be delivered 10-11 November!
So you guys order around a month ago and Sony will produce it later :O ?

 

Wait until you get a tracking code. Odered the same config on 8. Oct and my shipping date is now 16-21. November. Living in Germany.

 

Exactly the same here: 8th Oct - delivery now 16-21 November. UK

i7; 8Gb; 512SSD etc

 

Can someone of the owners make some reflections about the quality of the Vaio Flip's digitizer/pen, especially for taking notes/handwriting?
The Flip's lag (N-Trig):
VAIO Fit13A - First use : Music, VDO, VAIO Paper with Pen - YouTube

looks terrible comparing to the Surface Pro's (Wacom):
Surface Pro Handwriting Recognition Demo - YouTube

Thanks

 

I just arrived home from Best Buy. There I was able to have hands on with the Flip 13, 14, and 15, as well as the Lenovo Yoga Pro 2. Having hands on provided some information that I had not had before, mostly personal preferences.

My observations:
- In general I prefer the Sony design over the Yoga design. I knew this before buy having the two in hand made this even more clear to me. Both designs are very thin and attractive. I am a touch typist and fussy about keyboards and I found both the Sony Flip and Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 keyboards to be fine.

- I was surprised at how much the weight of these laptops was a much bigger factor for me than I imagined. The Flip 13 and Lenovo 13.3" both feel quite light, the Flip 14 just a bit on the heavy side and could influence my purchase, and the 15 was seriously heavy and way too large for me.

- I now know that I'd be happy with a 13.3" and don't need the extra screen size in the 14" models.

- I did not like the small power connector on the Flip 13. It came out three times while I was handling it. The 14 and 15 have more substantial power connectors.

- The sharp edges of the Sony Flip 13 and 14 could become an issue for me. It isn't just the edge around the keyboard, all of the outer edges are sharp. For a laptop this is a design fault in my opinion.

- The screens of the Sony Flips don't fold back as far as I'd like. There are times when I'm not sitting and the laptop would be well below me when I would want to tilt the screen back further than the design allows. Further there might be times when there are lights behind me that are reflecting on the screen and I'd like to tilt it further than the design allows to cut the reflection. This would likely be the biggest deterrent to me purchasing a Flip.

- On the Flip 13" when the screen is in laptop mode the edge of the screen hits the table and lifts the rear edge of the laptop. Sony designed two small plastic tabs on that edge which then cause the rear edge of the laptop to slide on a hard surface like a table making the laptop unstable. The Flip 14 doesn't have this problem.

The Lenovo doesn't have the sharp edges, nor the screen lifting the back edge of the laptop, and has a substantial power plug. Even though I prefer the Sony Flip screen design over the 360 degree foldback Yoga Pro 2 at this point I'm inclined to go with the Lenovo.

Still the Sony Flip 14" is still attractive as it isn't too heavy, and does have a better power connector. It is the screen not folding back far enough that might bother me. Does anyone that currently has a 13" or 14" have any comments about the screen restriction?

One more thing: I really dislike touch pads. Now I know I even more dislike touch pads that have integrated buttons. Both the Sony and Lenovo laptops have this, to me, undesirable feature.

 

jdonalds,

You may want to do some research first. The Yoga 2 Pro is having serious screen issues with colors that may not be fixable (i.e. inherent in the display part) and some QC issues -- there are huge threads about it Lenovo support forums and here.

 

I actually went to Best Buy and the representative actually told me to stay away from it as well due to screen issues. Just an anecdote so steer clear.

 

Thanks jdonalds for sharing your findings. Like you, I just returned from visiting a Best Buy store in San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley). They had a 13.3" Flip on display and I played with it for some 10 minutes. I liked the form factor and came home fully convinced that my order for a fully fledged custom built 512G, i7, 8G RAM ordered on October 15 is the correct decision.

The Flip on display was a i5, 128G and 8G RAM model. I did not find the fan noise obnoxious in any way but I do agree the small power connector maybe a potential problem. But then it may just be that the adapter was hidden away from the display and not movable. The Flip mechanism is solid enough and the entire design and weight just looks and feels right. Most of us who pre-order has not been able to see nor play with the laptop - even the local Sony showroom did not have any Flip models on display. Sony is apparently sending quantities of Flips to Best Buy retail stores. The 20 or so such stores in the Bay Area ALL have supplies!!

I'm also happy that the video (front) camera has resolution better than my wife's (Sony) pro 13.

Hope this feedback helps.

Chris

 

I think the sliding problem is easily solvable by glueing some rubber pieces on the plastic tabs don't you think?

 

Wow.

I found the link to the thread about the problem, if anyone wants to see:

Re: Yoga 2 Pro 13 Yellow Color Issues - Lenovo Community

Guess the Sony is the safer bet right now. Too bad, the Yoga has some great specs for the money.

Good idea. Anyone have a specific suggestion for the best material to use?

 

I'm pleased for you HoodCP, but it adds to my own frustration. I too am in Cardiff, but ordered my identically-specked 13A a week before you ordered yours. But unlike you, I 've been sent two emails this week alone, each time putting back shipping date by another week. I should have been taking delivery by now but am unlikely to see it before 25th November. Terrible service a) in terms of delay after delay, and b) in that Sony does not seem to operate a first-come-first-served system. I can honestly say I'm deeply disappointed by this whole experience. I only hope the final product is worth it when it finally arrives.

Sony, are you reading these emails?

 

I have read about the Lenovo color issue but I didn't notice it at Best Buy today. Some have said it's a non issue. There are proposed ways to fix it in the setup of the laptop and there seems to be a patch on the way.

Copied from Best Buy user comments...

"HOW TO SOLVE THE COLOR ISSUE: Near true colors for yellow, red, orange, green etc.
The infamous YELLOW COLOR issue - I call it "Yoga's Jaundice".

Upon contacting Lenovo #through website#, apparently the problem seems to be a software fix and can be done using a firmware.

Good news is, Lenovo is working on it! Bad news, we don't know when it will be ready. But, there's a transient solution that works much better with near-true yellow. This can be solved quickly using Energy Management. Here's what you do:

Set High Performance #max power# in Energy Manager. Click "Change Plan Settings" beside the High Performance mode followed by clicking on "Change Advanced Plan Settings" at the bottom of the new window when it pops up. Clicking on it will open up a small window, wherein expand the "DISPLAY" button and TURN OFF the "Enable Adaptive Brightness" - both for battery and plug-in. Hit APPLY, and you're done with this tab.

Since you're in High Performance mode, you'll be drawing huge power from the battery. To conserve, go back to the "Power Options" --> "Edit Plan Settings" and decrease the 'plan brightness' for battery mode. Plug-in mode should work fine at 100% brightness.
The whole process shouldn't take more than 10 mins.

Once done you will see MUCH BETTER #Near True# COLORS for - Yellow, Red, Green, Orange will look much better. You will retain the proper yellow color, and still get 5-7h hours of battery life #will depend on the brightness parameter you chose#. I am at 45% brightness and easily get 6.5h from working #typing + music#.
Hope this helps till Lenovo issues the firmware update!"

 

But those fixes reduce battery life. As a photography enthusiast, serious color issues like that are a definite killer for me.

I guess if you mainly plan to use Office or whatnot it's not too big a deal.

UPDATE: jdonalds, that post gets contradicted by several other users though. The colors are still not correct, and it apparently does shorten battery life. I would wait to see if Lenovo's update actually fixes the issue or just applies the power management setting. But I would be careful not to rationalize the issue until then. If it does actually get fixed, I will strongly reconsider the Yoga for myself. Right now, the Sony seems the better bet for my interests. I don't plan to buy a new notebook until early December, so I can wait and see what happens with the Yoga.

 

My local Sony store has a 15(no 13 or 14)

So check there if you want to get a hands on or something

 

Good advice ChocolateCake. I too would be viewing photo files from my DSLR camera so I'd want the colors to be correct. I also can wait. I've been waiting for almost 2 years to buy a new convertible latptop, ever since Lenovo announced the original Yoga. I can wait some more. I just am so disappointed that with all of the convertible laptops that have been introduced not one meets all of my desirable specifications. It seems I'll have to compromise, and even then I still must wait.

 

Yeah, even though the BB website said they didn't have any 15s, I took a chance and sure enough they had a 13, 14, and 15. But what I found was a little concerning.
As I stated, I'm mostly interested in the 15 and I was pretty shocked how light it was. So I played with it for a while, made sure to put the power settings on max performance so the fan would come on.
The fan noise I really didn't think was too bad at all, but I'm coming off a Macbook air running windows, and the fan on the thing sounds like a 747 spinning up, so maybe my fan noise tolerance is higher than most.
What really concerned me is, I made it to the desktop and noticed the battery icon had a red X through it, saying "No battery detected" when I hovered over it.
I unplugged the power supply and sure enough it shut off. So I plugged it in, powered it on and then grabbed a sales associate.
I asked him if they were not putting batteries in the 15 inch display models to make them seem lighter and he assured me it was a sealed unit and you can't even take out the battery and that it must be a defective battery.
Now that's possible, but can anyone else do me a favor and next time you're at BB, see if the 15 had a battery installed? I suspect it's a defective unit, but I'd be curious if anyone else comes across this.

Thanks.

 

Anyone notice the website went from "In Stock" to "Pre-Order" again? Also when you click view details it goes to a 404 page.. At least for the 15.

 

hmmm anyone having trouble going to the next page in the forum thread. It shows 18 pages and I was on 17 but when I click 18 it takes me back to 17.

odd, after posting this post, there are only 17 pages. oh well, never mind. btw, in case it wasn't mentioned before, mobiletechreview has the video review of the 13A up.

TS

 

I still think it's a big deal. Before I actually saw it, I thought maybe people are just making a big deal of it and it's fine if you don't do anything graphics or photography related. But seriously, it's awful. Even just using office... you mark something in bright yellow, but instead it's more like olive green. It is more than clearly noticeable (at least on the one I tried), and for a 1300 EUR laptop (lowest config in Germany) I simply expect a laptop to be able to display proper yellow, because I know it would annoy me all the time if I had kept it.

Well, at least my Flip 13 A is finally being shipped now and has arrived in Liege (Belgium) today. It's scheduled to arrive on Monday, so I'll see if it's any better than the Yoga.

Battery life was my biggest concern, but I just heard about the Anker Astro Pro 2 external battery pack... sure, it is heavy and will increase weight, but at least there is a way to have it last longer while out and about without a power socket.

Btw I was really impressed with the Yoga 2 Pro's power adapter, which was ridiculously light. Can anyone say how much the one for the Flip weighs? I think a low weight of the laptop itself is often kind of contradicted by really heavy power adapters.

 

Thanks for all those info. It's really nice to see some hands-on opinions.

BTW, mobiletechreview's youtube review is a pretty extensive one, I suggest you all check it out.

TwoSpirits, how's the pen working out for you? As far as I remember, you have a different model than the one it's shipped with, right? I'm getting the one shipped with the 13A, but I'm still interested in lag issues and the like. I haven't ever tried drawing digital, but I'm fairly good on paper, so I could give it a go just for fun. My main use of the pen is going to be note taking, though, part of the reason I went with the Flip. Any insights there? And thanks a lot for keeping us sane.

Oh, another BTW, Sony's just gotten back to my 'hatemail' saying that there's not gonna be any more delays -- well, not more than ATM, but that's still a good thing.

 

While I haven't had an email stating so, my 15A has finally gone into production. I might give them a ring a bit later just to confirm that because the lack of emails is still a bit concerning.


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

I just received my Flip 13A, finally!!! (and actually a bit early, the original message after shipping from TNT and Sony said monday Nov 11). So it does look like they're finally sorting things out. I ordered on Oct 9, and the original delivery date was Oct 22/23, so it was quite a delay, but at least I still got it a lot cheaper than what it is now.

Not tried it out yet, only unpacked it, it looks pretty awesome, the hinge mechanism looks really sturdy and the power adapter is really small as well (because sometimes you get this really light laptop with a really heavy/bulky power supply).

I paid 1175 EUR for a 13A with i5, 256 GB SSD, 8GB RAM and the stylus pen included (in Germany, it's included in the 13'' models), so I'll see whether it's worth that money...

 

Please keep us posted on your first impressions. Hope mine gets here soon too, though there's not that much hope. Anyway, I 'only' ordered on Oct 21, so who am I to complain?

 

There's a 15" unboxing here

 

I'm happy for you. Mine has been postponed again to a planned shipment on the 19th (ordered October 11th). I have seriously been thinking about canceling the order. Looking at the alternatives though I cannot get a hybrid with those spec for that kind of money by a long shot. I am expecting a call from customer support (who are really correct and try as much as they can) with some more info about the escalation of the Flip deliveries. We'll just have to be patient (which is hard, very hard).

 

I received mine today, everything fine, but the fan is extremly annoying... It´s not just a loud noise, its also of very hing frequency...

 

Agreed, received mine today (13" core i7), the fan is bad

You can get it silent by putting it in silent mode in the "vaio control panel" but then it clocks down from 2 GHz to 0,6 GHz.

Don't know if the fan is loud all the time but it seems so so far to me.

 

I'm coming from a 7 year old notebook with fan issues and a faulty DVD drive, so noise is not gonna be an issue for me. But I'd still love to see it fixed in coming updates, since I'll be using it in meetings and classes (well, I'm giving them, so I can make as much noise as I want!) I'd prefer not to draw too much attention with the noise... Is that even possible?

 

If you're mainly using it for note-taking etc I think you can put it in silent mode and let it lower the cpu frequency, then it gets reasonably quiet.

 

I can't even get it silent in silent mode. The fan is ALWAYS on, even when it's completely idle and I am not doing anything, it turns off for like 2 seconds, and on again, and off, and on again... and that is in silent mode. In standard mode, the fan is constantly on.

I don't have much of a problem with fan noise usually, but this could be driving me crazy...

After turning it on, I'm not sure any more whether I'll be keeping it...

Another thing that's kind of annoying: The connector of the power cord is kind of weird, it always feels like I didn't connect it to the laptop properly, it doesn't sit fast, and when I pull it out it feels like I broke something, it just doesn't go in and out smoothly.

Also, in laptop mode, it doesn't stay still on the desk, the bottom is sort of slippery, so on a wooden desk it will move really easily. The rubber on the bottom does not really make a difference there. It is different in tablet mode though, maybe because of the weight of the screen, the rubber on the bottom has more "grip" on the desk.

Anyway, I'm not really that happy so far. Mainly because of the fan.

I sort of get the feeling maybe it would be better to wait for the next generation, a lot of the problems that are there now will most likely be fixed in the next generation. It was the same with the Yoga 13 and the Yoga 2 Pro really. The Yoga 2 Pro does have the colour issue, but all the small problems from the Yoga 13 have been improved (thinner, lighter, not slippery anymore etc.).

 

Okay, I am rather sure now that I will be sending it back... I keep getting the feeling this laptop is like some pre-production model or something.

Vaio Update is not working, maybe because I'm in Germany, I don't know.

There are only 160 GB (!!!) of free space out of 256 GB.

The laptop is kind of slow/lagging, as if something was holding it back, I don't know.

The system information (which should be showing system data and serial number according to sony Support) only shows the processor data, and that's it. No Information about SSD size or RAM or Serial number. No Serial number on the bottom of the laptop either (which made it pretty hard to get through to technical Support). There was a Serial number on the invoice, but the Support Hotline said it wasn't valid, which is kind of weird as well.

As said before, the fan is really really awful. The guy at Sony Support only told me to try different energy Settings, but said that fan noise was normal due to the flat build, and there's nothing you can do about it really. Like I said, the fan noise is still there in silent mode, and I can't find any more in-depth settings regarding fan performance, so no idea how to try and improve that.

And finally, compared to the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, the screen is nowhere near as nice and bright as the Yoga 2 Pro (well, apart from the Yoga 2 Pro's yellow issue, obviously).

I've not even tried the Stylus pen, can't really be asked to. I'll run battery eater in a Minute once the charging is complete.

Sorry for such a negative review everyone, I simply am kind of disappointed to be honest...

 

Have you popped in at the sister forum? Some guys have been posting cures for the fan noise, and perhaps they can help you out with the other stuff as well (the discussion is a bit swifter over there). Honestly, to me yours sound like a defective unit, or perhaps the software's not been properly updated. 8.1 is said to be better but some drivers are still missing AFAIK. But check in on there, I'm sure they can help you reach a decision.

And for anyone still fuming over the delays, SONY's just sent me a 25% off coupon code for accessories and assured me that the last shipping date will hold whatever. So if they're lying they can give me the flip for free. But hopefully that means we're all getting it when they say we are... In any case, it's worth sending some hatemail their way, they do seem to soften up Now I'll have to check those accessories...

 

What Do you mean by sister Forum?

Btw i got that Coupon too.

 

And I just noticed, the screen is really dark, compared to my old Sony Vaio Z5. It's set at maximum brightness, and still pretty dark. Could it be that Sony made some default-dark setting to improve battery life? Has anyone else experienced that?

 

No, the pens I had a while back were from other devices that i was testing out since I didn't have the one for this device. I did use the Dup 11 stylus in the store and that worked fine. I eventually got the official pen from Sony a few days later. The pen is working rather well. I'll be honest, the last N-Trig pen I had was the one with the Lenovo Thinkpad (Android) tablet and I wasn't too fond of it. This pen is way nicer to hold, use and functions great. Just wish it had a bay to slide in, but considering how thin the device is and how big the pen is (compared to the Samsung wacom pens on the Note series I can see why there is no slot for it. As for lags, I do not find any. What little I did encounter was the very first day with ArtRage but that may have been me not familiar with the app and being jerky in my movements. Since then, no lag in the apps.

The sister forum is tabletpcreviews owned by the same company and there is one thread dealing with the Flip .. Sony Vaio Flip PC
there is another one for wining a Flip as well over there. I alternate my postings between the two, but there are more here.

TS

 

Thanks! And thanks for posting the link. I was going to but I was in such a hurry I forgot. All your comments only make me tear my hair out: this sounds like an awesome device! I do know it has flaws but, used to such old gear as I am, I don't think I'll notice. And I don't do power hungry stuff either. Thanks again.

 

Ally1234, You're experiencing what I encountered at the Best Buy store. The Flip 13" screen, when up in the laptop position, touches the table and lifts the bottom of the laptop off the table so the rubber feet aren't touching the table. Then Sony designed in a couple of small plastic "feet" on the bottom edge of the display so they make contact with the table and provide no grip. The laptop tends to float around and isn't stable on a hard surface.

Also the power connector is short and small. I agree I wasn't sure if I had it fully plugged in or not. It's just a bad design.

Sorry to hear about the fan noise.

 

Did you contact Sony to get this coupon or did it just come automatically?

 

Turn off automatic brightness in Windows 8 settings (general section on Win 8.0), the screen will reach 300 nits.

 

Thanks, I just figured that out!

 

Well, I've got that coupon too. Now I have two, one for € 50 for the whole Sony store (the most useful in my opinion) and one for 25% off for Vaio accessories.

I got another e-mail from customer service explaining that there have been shortages of several hardware components (which ones I don't know). This mail as well as the coupon one stated that the problems have been solved and production should now run smoothly and my last received date is the definitive one. We'll see. The status in My Account does not show that production of my system has started anymore (the text in green disappeared). So I'm still sceptical. I'm glad some systems have been delivered finally. That at least shows there is some progress.

Lisa, nice review. I found it quite positive. I have one question that you might be able to answer: one of the USB ports has a 'charge' label. Does this mean you can charge the system through this port (with a portable battery pack for example) or is for charging other things like phones?

 

If I was to buy from Sony.com rather than BB, does anyone know how the warranty works? I know you ship it back to them, but are the service centers somewhat local?

 

Thanks for your update. I got the 25 % voucher as well. Keeping in mind that this is only for accessories (where Sony makes tons of margin anyway) and also the fact, that you easily find 20 % voucher in the internet for Sony accessories, this seems to be quite a low-profile gesture from sony to please their loyal customers (who gave Sony already since more than one month their money). A 50 Euro voucher is unknown to me, and agree with you, it is more valuable.
The person from the helpline proposed me to ask for a compensation when the product would have been delivered.

For the shortage excuse, I do not believe this, as it seems that word wide this is not or hardly being delivered. Again I put my bet on difficult technical (components) or SW issues. We will see when sufficient customers have their Fit Multi Flip.

JD

ps: I have orderd Sony Vaio Fit multi Flip 14 A Germany

 

Is the HDD user upgradeable on Flip models? Especially 15" one ?

 

Ordered the vaio pro 13 sleeve with the 25% voucher. I'm planning on sewing a loop on the side of the sleeve to put the stylus in.

 

I have also received an email confirming there would be no more delays and got a 25% discount voucher.
@Twospirits, could you be so kind as to tell me what the official Sony digitizer pen is? I found two on their website and neither displays the information of the models they are compatible with and since I know nothing of digitizer pens I wouldnt want to buy one that will not work.
Thank you

 

Overall I am pretty satisfied with my new 13' Flip..Just the fan is a slight bit annoying.
For the rest it is getting custom to the keyboard, but overall satisfied

Although there is one last thing!!
Of the 256 there is already 100GB used in windows and recover.. Anybody already did a 'clean' install of windows 8.1 and used the complete disk?!
I am hesitating as I have no 20GB USB stick to install the recovery on.. and don't want to loose the vaio tools for updating etc.. (the rest of the software is not something I need, just the system software tools)
I want the max possible drive available!!!

 

OMG....that doesnt sound good, was planning on ordering the 256GB.
Any idea, If I order a CTO with 'fresh start' how much space would there be available?

 

My Vaio Fit 13a arrived yesterday, as promised. The hardware looks awesome, I absolutely love it!
When I started it the first time a lot of wizards and gadgets started to do all kind of stuff which immediately caused to fan to become louder.
For the first 5mins it was pretty ok but then (I guess when McAfee kicked in) it became disturbingly loud - and I have to omit I am not very sensitive to those noises usually (coming from a 7 year old Lenovo T60).
So I switched the system into silent mode - it is pretty ok now. Dunno about the performance drain in silent mode but I have no comparison - from time to time it lagged a little bit. But in the beginning the system did a lot of updates and installations anyway, so it was hard to say what was causing the reason. After upgrading to Win 8.1 and installing it seems pretty high performance, even in silent mode. But I did no high CPU/RAM tests so far.

Really annoying is Win 8+ itself and the installed software - OMG ... what happened there? It was the first time I really used Metro and I could not find anything in the beginning. Usability is really really bad, sorry. The mix of Metro and "old" settings is confusing. Additionally some settings can be found in the VAIO center, some in the Intel Graphic setting UI. So if you try to change specific settings it takes some time to find it. My opinion might be a little bit "extrem" since I come from Linux Desktop but Win8 is far away from intuitive, not matter where u come from. I am not trying to bash, but Win can still not compete with modern Linux Desktops or OS X.

So, my next step was to install a Linux system which went pretty flawless. Downloaded the OpenSuSE 13.1 Live KDE (still RC but will be GoldMaster in 10 days), copied it to a USB stick and started from there (hint: you have to switch of the Flip 13a and press the "ASSIST" button to get into BIOS or boot from external device). Since my USB stick is 2.0 it took about 5mins until everything was loaded but I had no problems at all. Started the installation wizard which asked to shrink the existing partition and made a good suggestion how to partition the setup. Clicked "next" twice and "install" and 2mins later I had dual boot with OpenSuSE - good one!

Everything worked out of the box (so far) - FN Keys (volume, display brightness, ...), graphic effects, resolution, touch, PowerManagement, WiFi was ready to use immediately. Not sure about the battery usage, I'll see it in day-to-day use. I unplugged it yesterday in the evening, played around in win8, suspended it overnight, installed OpenSUSE this morning, restarted a couple of times, downloaded updates and now the battery is at 62%.
Suspend to RAM also worked immediately (manual and also when closing the lid). Fan is comparable to the Win8 "silent" mode which was surprinsing.