Official Sony Vaio Fit multi-flip PC Owners' Thread

I believe you have some software installed that wakes the PC up. I would do a clean install. Alternatively do you have wake up on LAN enabled? I’m not sure if WOL works over wifi so that shouldn’t be the problem. I would do a clean install. I got the recovery dvd’s as I didn’t know they existed on the partition. I swapped out my hard drive with SSD.
The battery for this is VGP-BPS40. You can pick up genuine’s from ebay for about 120. I’m not sure what happens with the life’s of battery if stored for a period of time. Do you think the price of the battery will increase? What’s the trend. My old VAIO’s battery is dead but I use it mainly at home so the battery problem isin’t that big of a deal for me.

What are other’s doing for their battery.?
I’m mainly interested in the FAN noise. Mine stays at 0 but then spins to full speed and goes back to 0. Is there a fan software?

 

Went to my network card settings and for my wireless card, 'Wake on Magic Packet' and 'Wake on Pattern Match' are currently enabled. Additionally, 'Sleep on WoWLAN Disconnect' is disabled. The first two settings are also set to Enabled on the LAN card settings. Is this what's causing the issue?

Would like someone to answer this too. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm thinking of buying a spare battery right now in case they completely disappear in a couple of years, but what is going to happen to it if it just sits in a box during that time period?

 

Try disabling the WOL and see how it works.
I'm interested in the battery purchase as well. I believe if its in the box it should be fine. I like the laptop and will buy the battery myself as well and keep it handy as they are available now.

 

not sure if you can post links but. I put in an offer on the battery for 85 and it got accepted. Hope i didn't overpay but I feel I did. You can try 65 maybe?

VGP BPS40 185330611 Genuine Original Sony Battery 15 0V 170A SVF14NA1UL Series | eBay

 

I have a SVF15N190X (i5, 8GB, 750GB, 2880x1620, Nvidia 2GB) .I remember talk awhile back about designating which graphics adapter (Nvidia or Intel) would be used by a specific software program (Photoshop, Lightroom, games, etc.) but I can't seem to find the info. I do remember that I didn't understand how to designate the adapter. Could someone explain in layman's terms why and how to make the choice?

 

I don't recommend getting a replacement battery for a rather new machine if the battery is lithium-based and if it isn't used for a long time.
Better get a new battery when you need it which then will more likely be a factory-fresh one.

Some stuff to read: Lithium-ion battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


As for the random wake-up events:

- A clean Windows install may not always help as Microsoft usually has some services trying to "phone home" with statistics, Windows problems etc. - better check if those are still running first before you go to the trouble to install Windows new.

- For people like myself who have installed a Samsung SSD: The Samsung Disk Magician software may wake up your PC in the night, too, to do "housekeeping chores". Better run that software manually if you have a problem with that...

 

But then wouldn't you run the risk of not being able to find such a battery because the one in the Flip is proprietary and they are now out of production?

On a different note, I'm trying to squeeze out as much battery time out of the Flip as I can, and being quite aggressive about it. I've changed every possible setting I could find to optimize for battery life. One of the things I've done is to set the minimum processor state to 0% and the system cooling policy to Passive when on battery. Have I made the right choices here? Since I'm not too sure what these are supposed to do.

I found this thread that offers some more tips. Anything else that I may be overlooking?

Also, this thread has people referring to a "silent mode" accessible from the Vaio Control Center, but I see no such option. Did Sony remove it after issuing fixes for the fan?

 

I rather get a cheap Chinese knockoff some day than pay for an expensive Sony-branded battery now and discover in two or three years that it has either lost a large part of its capacity or even died on me.
But don't trust me (a stranger in this forum like yourself) - read up on those batteries and trust experts on battery technology!

What is right and what is wrong? What performance are you expecting from your Flip? What applications do you run?

The minimum processor state is pretty much useless, IMHO, if you want to save the battery as the CPU runs low on energy anyway when it's not needed. At least that's my experience.
The big energy drain comes when the CPU is under heavy load - and it makes more sense to reduce the maximum processor state.
However - and this is a big one: The slower the CPU is the longer the task runs - and the net energy drain *can* be the same when the task is finished. This depends if the task you give the CPU is a "real-time task" or not.

Two examples to illustrate what I mean:

1) Packing or unpacking a large file:
The CPU is used to its maximum level (see above) and works until the file has been processed completely. The CPU/program doesn't care how long it takes - it works until it's done. It uses the same amount of processing instructions but stretched over more time and hence about the same power usage. The machine will likely a bit quieter, though, as there is less energy put on the cooling system per time unit.

2) Playing a graphics-intensive 3D game:
Modern 3D games render a certain amount of frames per second to achieve smooth movement/animation in a 3D environment. The processing power of the CPU and GPU is timed for the rendering to get the maximum graphics quality but stay as real-time as possible. If the rendering of a frame would take too long the frame would be skipped and the smoothness suffers (the same applies to video playback, by the way). The game should remain playable as it still has real-time rendering, though.
If you reduce the processing power you reduce the amount of processing power for a frame. The more you reduce it the more frames will be skipped. Advantages: You save energy, generate less heat and have a quieter system (note that I wrote "quieter" and not "quiet"!). Disadvantage: The game runs less smoothly - up to the point that it doesn't make fun anymore.

Conclusion: It depends on what your specific needs are.

The biggest drains on a notebook battery are the display (LCD panel and backlight), CPU, GPU (if graphics intensive applications are run), mass storage (HD or SSD) and system RAM.
You can't do anything to the RAM to save power and pretty much nothing about the mass storage, either, except replacing the drive. A SSD is sometimes a power saver not because it uses less power than a HD but because the CPU has finished the task at hand quicker (see above!) and so the net energy usage is lower over time.
You can't do much about the display except reducing the backlight brightness - which the Flip and its Intel graphics tech support with various options. I disabled all these options because I didn't like what they do (dynamic contrast - yuck!) and I adjust the backlight brightness manually. When I'm in a rather dark living room, watching TV or a movie I reduce the backlight to a minimum I'm comfortable with, for example. So the "trick" is to not use the Flip in bright environments...

Also: Avoid USB3 memory sticks if you can as they often use much more energy than USB2 ones. USB-TV-receivers also use relatively much energy - if you need that kind of stuff.

In any case don't restrict the battery charging to 80% but use the full 100% - and only connect it to the power supply (PS) when you charge the battery! Make sure you disconnect the Flip when you are done!

The silent mode option isn't available on my Flip, too. Never was as I have a "refresh model".
It's either dependant on the version of the Control Center software or the BIOS or both. I read that its function is simple: It reduces the CPU frequency to around 800 MHz. You should be able to get similar results by optimizing the energy settings to your needs.

 

Calibrator - thank you for your detailed replies as always!
Basically I have a "home" profile and a "college" profile for my battery settings. When I'm home, I usually leave it plugged in, and on those settings I have everything on max performance. Home usage mainly includes heavy browsing, watching movies, and video editing and rendering. The college profile is to maximize battery life when I take it outside, and usage is usually restricted to light browsing, document viewing and editing etc. I am usually on campus for 8-10 hours..I obviously won't be using the Flip constantly during that time, but I would like it to last the day..I'd be happy with touching the 6 hour mark considering the max power-saving settings, 10-30% brightness, and the light usage I mentioned. I haven't been able to do a "field test" yet since I'm on summer break.

All of what you said makes sense, but I'd like more clarification on the 80% charging part. Since I am using the Flip at home for all of this month, I set it to 80% charging and then after a couple of weeks to 50% charging. I use it plugged in most of the day, except to discharge the battery down to 10% or so once a day. The plan is to switch back to 100% charging once summer break ends as I'll be using the Flip on the battery during the day.
By all accounts, I've read that repeatedly charging to 100% and then back down is detrimental to overall battery life, so "use the full 100% - and only connect it to the power supply when you charge the battery!" is a new one for me. Can you elaborate?

 

After going through this and other threads some more, I've come across several posts mentioning undervolting the chip for more battery life and quieter operation, using either ThrottleStop or Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. I saw the ThrottleStop guide posted by its developer on this forum, but couldn't make much sense of it. Is there one made for the Flip's Core i7-4500U that'll break it down for newbies like myself?

 

This makes sense!

I'm not sure what you meant with "then back down".

What I meant was charge it to the full 100%, disconnect it and use it as long as you can. Then charge it again to 100%, but don't keep it on the charger for extended times after that!
The reason is that the system will try to keep it the battery level at 100% so if you lose a few percents because of standby mode or self-discharge the battery will get charged again to get back to 100%. This can lead to several charging processes in a few hours.

I've also read different charging recommendations for lithium-based batteries (li-ion or li-polymer) and you either get the recommendation that you should try to the high battery level as high as possible (regardless of the number of charges) or that you reduce the amount of chargings.
With the Flip battery Sony obviously tries to support the latter by offering the 80% option.
As your future usage profile will result in you not be able to charge very often (= during the day) your best strategy would be to charge the Flip up to 100% in the evening and disconnect it before going to sleep. Then either use hibernation mode or power the system down for the night, depending on what you prefer (I'm using hibernation mode - works a treat!).

This would be my recommendation but try to see what strategy works best for you and what will bring you nearer to the six hour mark.

 

I bought my Multi-Flip 15A from best buy for 953.99 vwith taxes! xD

It is an i7, 8Gb of RAM, 1TB hdd, and a 2gb Video Card. It is refurbished.

But it is PERFECT!!!!

I updated everything and BANG!!! No problem at all!! I couldn't be more happier!!

No fan noyse, no screen problem, no touch pad problem! The laptop is so damn beaultiful!

 

I've always assumed that once the battery is fully charged, laptops switches to AC power and thus the battery isn't being used at all during the time it's plugged in and fully charged - thus prolonging overall battery life. Right now I have it set to 50% charging and it says "plugged in, not charging". I wasn't aware that it may actually still be using the battery, letting it drop down a few percentage points, and then charge it back up to 50% again. Looks like I'll have to look around a bit more and see whether this is a universal phenomenon or if it might vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

 

Maybe someone here can help me...I was trying to stop CPU and GPU throttling (I have the 15, i7-4500u, 735m) using throttlestop and nvidiainspector. I changed a bunch of settings, but it ended up not really working. Anyways, I turned all the settings back to default values, but I'd notice that the GPU would come on every few seconds for a second and then turn off, even though no intensive GPU-using programs were running. Anyone have any idea what's going wrong or how I could fix it?

 

Hi, I bought one Sony Vaio Fit 15a, but I'm having problems during games.
I7 4500U 1.8GHz
GeForce 735M 2GB
reaching 72 degrees INGAME, with a good fps (100-120), but after few minutes playing (10-20), I got a huge fps drop, to 20 > 30 > 40, probably after reach 72 degrees, I tryied to change max temperature settings in energy configs but dont help, and BIOS dont have advanced options (InsydeH20).
someone can help me?

 

A notebook will in any case use mains power when there is no battery installed but this is irrelevant in your situation.
When a battery is installed it either may or may not use power from the battery - even if it only uses it to "listen" to the keyboard to get re-actived from standby, for example. I don't know for certain in which category the Flip falls into but the next point is more important:

My main point is that every battery loses energy without anybody actually using the battery. This is called "self discharge" and is caused by the chemical elements in the battery and it happens regardless if you use lithium or NiMH or alkaline batteries. In other words: Notebook batteries are like any batteries - they lose power with time.
Lithium batteries also have a small electronic protection circuit that prevents low discharges (and sometimes overcharging) and which also needs a (tiny) bit of energy itself.

So what you have - regardless how the notebook is built - is an energy source that continually loses its charge. The charging logic of the notebook regularly checks if there is a battery installed and what capacity it has. When the self discharge results in a capacity drop of a specified amount (depending on the device, the manufacturer, the setting etc.) the charging electronics will charge the device.
With some devices this may result in a lot of short chargings, which may have a negative impact on the battery capacity or life. Because Sony provides settings to avoid short chargings I haven't tested the Flips to see how bad their charging logic can work. Of course you are free to check that out yourself! ;-)

 

Can anyone connect to the N networks with netgear R6300 Genie. I've tried modifying settings but the intel 7260 card cannot see the N network at all. Is the card defective?

I had replaced the 7260 with the older version and the N network would work perfect however the bluetooth would not work. I need bluetooth as well. Would really appreciate someone's insight here.

 

Quick comment on battery life and performance.


You can drastically improve the longevity and charge cycles of any lithium battery by preventing it from reaching a full charge.

Voltage charge level to longevity of battery retaining at least 95% of its rated capacity.

4.2v per cell = 100% (300-500 cycles)
4.1v per cell = 90% (600-1000 cycles)
4.0v per cell = 80% (1200-2000 cycles)

so only charging your battery to 80% will greatly improve the longevity of the battery.

This is the big issue with keeping you laptop plugged in all the time you are constantly keeping the cell at at a "stressed" voltage level.


Another thing to note about lithium batteries is storage level. Optimum storage level for them is about 40% capacity and it's better to be discharged beyond 40% then to be charged more than 40%..... Also should be kept cool and dry. Obviously on a laptop keeping the battery discharged is not what I would call convenient so this is not a good option in our application


I'm sure you all have noticed cell phone batteries diminish after a year of use. That's partially because they see 400+ cycles in a year and constantly spend a few hours every night at 4.2v per cell. That's at the low end of what the batteries are capable of but with consumer electronics then push is for day to day capacity and end user size of the device not for longevity of the cell.

The next advance in battery tech will deliver 10x the energy density of lithium poly batteries and should really help both ends of the spectrum ( day to day capacity and longevity)


Devin

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

This is a great piece of information, thanks for sharing. When you say "keeping your laptop plugged in all the time" do you mean keeping it plugged in AFTER it's reached 100%? Like Calibrator said, Sony does offer 50% and 80% charging, so would it be safe to keep it plugged in when these options are turned on? Or would it require the research on charging logic variation between devices that Calibrator mentioned?
Also, do you have any tips on increasing day to day capacity as well?

 

To the people complaining about throttling/temperature issues, let me throw my hat into the ring as well:

I was rendering a 1080p video and decided to check my CPU performance. It gave me a solid 80-85% utilization (around 1.6 Ghz of the i7's 1.8Ghz). I decided to play a standard-quality video side by side, and all was well. Then I decided to really push it and opened another video in a different player simultaneously, and the utilization immediately dropped to 33% (0.6 Ghz) and stayed there. Interestingly enough, the RAM usage remained at a constant 3.9GB throughout all of this.
My questions:
- Did the throttling happen because of the temperature (I wasn't monitoring this) or some other reason? Is this something to be concerned about?
- Considering that I was using Sony Vegas, which is 64-bit, and I had opened two separate video players as well as a few tabs on Chrome, shouldn't the memory usage have gone above the 50% mark? Why is the other half of the memory not being tapped into?
- From what I've read about Intel's Turbo Boost technology, it's supposed to come on automatically as and when needed. Is this supposed to be reflected anywhere in the task manager, or should I rest assured that it did it's job?

 

It is best to charge it up to the desired level and let it discharge and repeat but that's not realistic for our application and it's not as relevant as just keeping the charge level lower.


If you plan on keeping it plugged in most of the time I would set it to 50% and not worry about it. You are doing allot to prolong the cycle life of the battery at that point.


Edit below:

increasing capacity: On a lithium battery there is not much to do to increase capacity.

The only thing would be a proper "break in" procedure after 5 cycles the battery will be at its best as far as capacity and discharge rates. It's important not to abuse the battery during this time frame.

It's not a common practice in laptops and cell phones because the discharge rate is never high enough to cause any real harm to the battery.

In other applications it's common to break in the batteries by cycling them something similar to this :


(C rating is discharge rate vs capacity) 10c for a 1000mah battery would be 10 amps continuous

1
Slow Charge to 80% - slow discharge to 30% (.25c)

2
Slow Charge to 85% - slow discharge to 20% (.25c)

3
Slow Charge to 90%- medium discharge to 20% (1.0c)

4
Slow charge to 95%- discharge to 20% (1.5c)

5
Slow charge to 100%- discharge to 20% (2.0c)




Devin

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

 

Quick question folks,

I'd like to get one of these machines but the 15 would be only for the QHD+ (or whatever) screen.
Do you reckon it's worth it?
If it's not, I'd get the 14 inch version... is the super-hi def screen a lot better than the 1080p version?
Thanks.

 

I have the "hi-dpi" version of the 15" Flip and my - of course purely subjective - opinion is that it's totally worth it and that it's even worth dropping the programs that don't work well with this display and prefer those programs that do support it.
My idea was to get a "tablet PC" with a very sharp display to make it last a few years and I think I got that.

But YMMV, naturally, as it's a really very subjective matter.

What is not subjective are the numbers behind it, though. Note that I didn't calculate the dpi values myself but got them from the comparison table that a friendly fellow posted in this thread to compare pen-enabled Win8 notebooks & tablets.

- A 14" Flip with a full HD panel (1920x1080 pixels) has a pixel density of 157 dpi (dots/pixels per inch).

- A 15" Flip (which really has around 15.5" or 15.6") with a full HD panels has around 141 dpi. This means that the display of the 14" Flip already appears a bit sharper.

- A 15" Flip with "hi-dpi" display (2880x1620 pixels) has a pixel density of 213 dpi, however, which is very considerably higher than the 141 dpi of the full HD display as it uses more than twice as many pixels (the next step would be a 4K display which again nearly doubles the amount of pixels).
However, with more than 200 dpi the lettering already appears very sharp and "like printed" using normal viewing distances, especially black letters on a white background. In comparison the lettering on the full HD appears slightly less sharp.

Some people argue that watching a full HD movie on a full HD movie is perfect as you get a 1:1 pixel ratio between the stored pixel in the file/Blu-ray and the pixel of the display. My experience with Blu-rays on this hi-dpi Flip is that it's a gorgeous display and that there is no problem whatsoever with sharpness.

What would I do if I where in your shoes? I'd ask myself what is more important: A bigger screen with higher dpi (and perhaps the slightly faster Nvidia chip or the option for 16GB RAM) or the slightly smaller & lighter (=more mobile) 14" machine? What I definitely wouldn't buy is the 15" Flip with a full HD display as it combines the bad stuff and offers no real advantage except price.

 

A friend of mine has the 15 with the high dpi screen and it is quite nice compared to my normal 15 you can tell the difference.

That being said even my standard screen looks really good compared to most options out there.

My suggestion would be to go with the size laptop that better suits your needs 14 or 15. My reasoning for going with the 15 was I wanted the larger display and the 2gb graphics card.




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Thanks a lot for the replies guys.
I've ordered both the high-high-def 15" and the FHD 14" (30 day return) so I'll compare them directly.
The 15 seems a bit of a beast though.

How's the pen? This is quite important too. I've heard mixed reviews... Got a Samsung tablet and the pen tails off big time at the edges which is fkn annoying and unusable. Hope this doesn't do the same.

 

I presume the digitizer in the Samsung was Wacom which does have that problem. The n-trig digitizer on the Flip is spot on all the time though, perfect accuracy. The downside compared to Wacom is that it's a bit jittery when you draw very slowly. It's a non-issue for note taking, but can be a bit annoying if you're drawing detailed stuff. Adjusting the line-smoothing in programs like Manga Studio or Sketchbook Pro helps a lot though.

 

Yeah, it's a 700T with a Wacom digitiser. I always thought they were the best. At least on my old Fujitsu (that white one that came with Vista!) it was pretty damn good.
I'm at drawing, so it'll be note-taking only. ;-)

 

What kinds of stuff do you guys actually use the pen for ? I bought one of the Sony pens and have used it once ...

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My primary use for it is drawing, and seems I'll settle on Manga/Clip Studio since they've done a stellar job with the touch friendly interface, pen adjustments and hi-dpi support.
The other is note taking in meetings - I still do type on the keyboard, but it's incredibly useful to be able to draw diagrams and quick mockups. Previously I'd have to have a paper notebook on the side to do that.
I'm pretty sure I could use it in more settings, but I haven't really adapted my workflow yet. Would love an e-mail program that worked more like OneNote so I could draw quick illustrations directly.

 

I got "Clip Studio Paint" a few weeks ago and while I haven't done much with it, yet, I think it is one hell of a drawing program with countless options to configure the pen and brush strokes. There's so much in it that I don't think I will ever max it out... ;-)
The publisher has a demo version and demo material available on the homepage so that one can see how complex the drawings can be (some files are several hundred megabytes large) and I can't stress it enough: It isn't limited to manga drawing at all, despite the US name!
People interested in it should watch a few of the countless videos on Youtube, some even running on recent Vaios with the Ntrig pen.

I don't use my Flip on the job - my company provides me with a "standard" notebook and I'm not allowed to use my own hardware - but I share your feelings about the email program! The problem is apparently that nobody really develops email programs (or even the email standard) anymore as people increasingly use other services (like WhatsApp etc.).

From the programs I tried I was actually positively surprised by "FreshPaint" and plan to dabble with it occasionally when I need a "lesser" drawing program.

Finally, I also use the pen with the tile editor "PyxelEdit" for my games project. PyxelEdit is a program still very much in development and isn't pen-optimized at all which is why I haven't decided, yet, if the mouse is actually more comfy than the pen emulating the mouse.
Tiles are often not that big/complex so that I probably don't need the pen for it.

Also, while we are at the subject of pens:

Here's a tip for those people having problems getting AAAA batteries for their pen in their home country (they are sometimes hard to get or only available via mail-order which is problematic if you desperately want to use the pen and have to wait for the batteries to arrive):
The common 9V block batteries are often built using six individual AAAA cells which actually fit into and work with the pen (but NOT the ones used in Varta 9V batteries which have a different construction - see the video!).

Here's a video with a tear-down of those 9V batteries to let you see if it's worth the trouble:
EEVblog #518 - 9V Alkaline Battery Construction - YouTube

The better variant for re-use is of course the one where the cells aren't spot-welded to a chain but even those work as you can get them apart if you are careful and work slowly.

The important (and funny) part is that even though the six cells look like regular AAAA batteries the polarity of the plus and minus poles are switched: The flat part is plus and the the thin round "stick" is minus on these cells! The pen won't work if you put this cell in the wrong way - but it shouldn't get destroyed, either (at least mine didn't ;-)).

I don't know, yet, how long those individual cells will last in comparison to regular AAAA cells but as there are six of them this should be a good alternative - at least until one got proper individual high-capacity cells.

 

I ordered a pen a few days ago and should have it any day now..I can't think of a single use for it right now but I thought, hey, what the heck, it's 50 bucks, might as well have some fun. Since the Vaio ones are out of stock now and are ridiculously overpriced on eBay, I got the Microsoft Surface Pro 3's pen, which i read in this thread should work fine, if not better than Sony's.
Since I can't think of any use for it right now, what would be good programs to casually dabble with? You mention Clip Studio and Calibrator in the next post has validated that suggestion. What do you use for note-taking? I suppose I could try replacing a paper notebook in one or two of my lecture-based classes at college. Vaio had a pre-installed program but I didn't like it very much.

 

Haha maybe I should sell mine on ebay and buy a cheap one

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They're going for anywhere between $80 to $250 (!!!) May not be such a bad idea if you can find a buyer!

 

For everyone looking for a cheap pen, this HTC pen ( Amazon.com: HTC Stylus Scribe Digital Pen for Flyer, EVO View 4G, Jetstream Tablets (Bulk Packaging): Computers & Accessories) has been working perfectly fine with my 15a and costs under $10.

 

@Thecoolduke : that's a great price. Have you noticed any difference with the HTC pen being first generation Duosense, not Duosense 2 ? Perhaps the artists would notice this more while drawing, I don't know... I'm also reading that the Surface Pro 3 pen has a top button, which is some sort of Bluetooth activator for One Note, and only works with the SP3 ; no big deal, the pen itself works on any Duosense 2 capable device, it just won't launch One Note because the specific driver is not available to the public.

One last thing : I've just sent N-Trig an email. On their site, though somewhat hidden from plain view, they mention having pens in production and have an email addy for pricing inquiries. I have asked if they sell to individuals and am awaiting a response.

 

I have both and apart from it's physical properties (the HTC is a bit shorter, the tip is a bit thicker) they behave pretty much the same. Only difference is they have a slightly different pressure curve. I also have an Asus Duosense 2 pen, and that one too has a different pressure curve - so it seems more individual than a difference between Duosense and Duosense 2.

 

I'm still blown away by Clip Studio, but for casual use I'd probably recommend Sketchbook Pro (ArtRage could also be a good choice). They both have a simpler and more... playful interface. A bit more satisfying to get you up and going quickly.

Did you have the 1920 or 2880 screen? If the former then no worries, but for the later, unfortunately these companies still haven't figured out display scaling yet, so you either get a correctly sized interface but everything is pixelated - or you get it razor sharp at 1:1, but with tiny interface elements. The later works pretty well though, but efficiency is much lower than Clip Studios scalable interface. The other slight problem with them is the inability to turn off finger painting, so at times you leave marks when you rest your hand on the screen if you didn't put the pen down first (less of a problem with Wacom digitizers since they activate higher above the screen - I guess that is why some of these companies haven't seen the urgency yet).

For note taking it's OneNote all the way (if I was going to rave on about an application other than Clip/Manga Studio it would be OneNote : ). It allows me to effortlessly combine writing on the keyboard and drawing illustrations. I know some people use it as a paper replacement and write everything by hand - you can even search through your hand writing (although with my writing, that's been a bit of a hit and miss).

 

You guys should try the surface 3 pen.

I feels wayyyyy better!

I have the HTC Duo Sense 2 and the Sony pen as well.

To be honest, only used them once...

 

Nice! Will test it out as soon as it's launched here in Europe. In which way do you feel it's better?

 

Well, N-Trig have replied promptly to my queries. That's the good part. Not so good part is they won't give me information regarding Duosense 1 vs Duosense 2 pens. Here's the first email response I got from them after asking if they were selling pens direct and if there was a difference between older and newer (generation 2) pens:

Hmmm.

I sent a second email, pointing out that some of those pens appeared to be Duosense 1 and whether it made any difference. Here's the reply I got :

Well... I don't know why they are apparently side-stepping the Duosense 2 issue. I did read on their site that Duosense 2 brought some improvements to the tip for better rollerball pen-like feel and smoothness, as well as some other minor improvements. They also announced new chipsets were released in April, so I'm just guessing that perhaps Duosense 2 isn't optimized for devices with older screen chips, so using either generation pens would yield a similar experience. But they aren't talking.
DuoSense® Active Pen - N-trig
DuoSense® Controller Chipset - N-trig
Press release from April 2014 : Press Releases - N-trig

It's all a bit confusing.

 

Did you also try out Sketchbook Pro - have a really big problem - that i can't get solved. The Pen works perfektly in ever application (Onenote, Photoshop, Sketchbook Win 8 app and so on) but in Sketchbook pro the line seems extra sensitive and if i move the pen for say 2 cm - the line moves 10 cm - so it is never under the pen tip - but pressure sensitivity works - maybe you know how to solve it - thanks very much

Btw: if I draw with the finger on the touch screen it works flawlessly

 

Strange. Never had that issue. Tried running both at 100% and pixel-doubled, but both pressure and accuracy is spot on. Could it be some WinTab driver issues? I'm not really sure if Sketchbook uses native pen or WinTab...

 

Spent a while playing and firmilliarizing myself with the pen using art rage studio and Microsoft one note. I can see myself getting to like the pen for note taking and for mild drawing... although it reminds me of my poor hand writing vs typing !


Off topic of the last few pages....

I run an RC flight simulator on the flip main reason I bought the 15 with 2gb of dedicated video memory

Anyone with the flip 15 and 2gb graphics card consider applying new thermal paste to the mother board to improve cooling or did Sony do a pretty good job ?

Anyone use throttlestop?

And lastly anyone use any laptop coolers ?


Devin.

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Hi Devin,

I know there are close to 2500 posts in this thread already, so searching isn't easy or quick. Since I've been here (last November), I believe we've had one member who has lifted the CPU and GPU to re-apply new paste. If memory serves, the member pointed out there was too much paste originally. After re-applying new paste carefully, his temperatures went down by a noticeable amount (can't remember exactly by how much though..). This member knew he was probably voiding the warranty by doing this (*probably* means the actions do void a warranty, if it is detected... which isn't always the case when disassembly and pasting are done well...).
It's in this thread somewhere, possibly January or February (IIRC).
As far as ThrottleStop is concerned : there have been quite a few posts in here about throttling, so I think you should do some reading. Again going from memory (and others will jump in I hope), ThrottleStop wasn't of much help, but more delicate and complex solutions have provided better results. Proceed with care though...

And lastly : always keep in mind that the Flips are ultrabooks with ULV processors, not powerbooks.

 

Thank you for the response I will do some more reading now that I am home and on a real computer Tapatalk doesn't do well with searching.

The thread is quite long and I was keeping up with it for a while a few months back when I first got my flip but obviously tapered off.

I was thinking about designing a laptop cooling rig for it to 3d print with proper alignment to the air vents and to work with some generic fans. But that's just another project I won't have time for any time soon


If it was not for the form factor I would never want one of these processors in a computer honestly.... I love the flip but if the Surface pro 3 was out when I bought this I may have just purchased that and built a new desktop for the harder tasks.



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Could someone with the surface pro 3 stylus check to see if the eraser works with their vaio? Ntrig released 64 bit wintab drivers a little while ago and the surface pro 3 ones work perfectly on the vaio. Since it and the surface pro 3 are using the same drivers, I was thinking the eraser on the SP3's stylus might work. I don't have one to test it myself though.

 

The eraser button on top of the pen is actually a bluetooth button used to launch an app like one note not to use to erase

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I read the whole thread, skipping a post here and there of course, but can confirm what Mark wrote - the good stuff is definitely in here!

I haven't bought a laptop cooler for two reasons: Some of them simply don't work as advertised (they reduce the temperature by one or two degrees only) and secondly they obviously rise the machine which I don't think is too comfortable.
Of all the reviews I read the cheaper the darned things are the less use you can expect - and the good ones cost about $100+.
I'm also very skeptical that they will work well with the 15" Flips as the vents on the bottom aren't exactly plenty/large.
Finally, these coolers are of course adding to the noise level.

Well, it was to be expected that the Flips are no powerhouses.

They use dual core CPUs (the i7 with hyperthreading, yes, but that won't help you in many applications) and not even fast ones.Yes, they are efficient and have a good thermal performance but that doesn't exactly translate to more speed.
The slow harddrive can be replaced with an SSD and the RAM is good enough but you can't change a thing about the CPU and graphics - and as we found out you even have to battle throttling to keep them at maximum performance level.
But the "maximum peformance level" of a 15W CPU is different than the one of a 45W CPU or even a 90W+ desktop CPU. If the Flip renders something in one minute the latter will be finished in 10 seconds or so.
My 3-year old i5-2500 with it's gargantuan cooler kills the Flip with its 1-year-old CPU in every discipline (except power consumption of course). Even when pushing 90 watts through it the system is much much quieter. It's so quiet I even use a constant rotation speed which I don't hear in a closed case - the only noise increase coming from my Geforce 770 and even that is quieter than the "entry-level" graphics chip of the Flip. But of course my PC isn't mobile at all...

Anybody who bought a Flip for performance made a grave mistake as the advantages lie in different areas: Hybrid design and digitizer pen. You get mobility and 15" screens anywhere else but how many 15" hybrids with pens were on the market when the Flip was introduced? Two: The Flip and the Acer R7 with its weird design and that's it.

So if you bought the Flip for its form factor you made the right decision. The question now is: Will you keep it?
How many 15" hybrids are available now that are truly better than the Flip? None that I know of.
And about the SP3: The SP2 isn't too shabby and the 10.6" screen is smaller, yes, but the 12.0" screen of the SP3 isn't exactly record breaking either when you compare it with a 15.6" Flip.

In other words: You could have decided differently before you bought the Flip - the alternative you describe was already there.

 

Been some time since I have bought a laptop. Last one I bought was the Asus Slate, which didn't fair so well. Main reason for purchasing that was the digitizer and with me being an artist it was needed. Turned out the screen was a bit to small for me and my giant hands. So thinking about buying a refurbished Flip 15a for 750-. Question to those with the 15, is it still worth picking up? I know sony no longer is making these, and most places have sold out. Is there something better you recommend? Main uses will be for photoshop and illustrator, maybe some mudbox or sculpturis thrown in there to mess around. Also since the pen that was out when these were is no longer available the next best thing is the Surface Pro 3 Pen?

 

Ok I finally got it to work after many installations - but now the problem is - it doesn't recognize pressure sensitivity - in the sketchboo win8 app it does - have you experienced this problem yet?