Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

I ordered one for my wife's b'day from SonyStyle UK, full HD 1080p display- it does exist ! I got an email today that building has begun and its estimated to ship 22-27 feb.

 

HDMI powerd.

 

i ordered one from the spain site, and we have ati 5650 as an option.

 

yes i am so disappointed

 

Quick question,

Is the HD 5470 a worthy $50 upgrade over the IGP?

I don't do any gaming but I do some media and graphic editing however.




On a side note, the Sonystyle site has the shipping date on 2/15?
Will it actually arrive on the stated date or is that the day they take them out of their warehouse for shipping?

 

all this needs is switchable graphics and a backlit keyboard!

 

My b'day is coming too I'm looking forward for the same configuration (I think this is the best one, with 1080 display) and I wish to know how much you will pay for him ? Thanks

 

Is that even noticeable on a screen this small? Seems to me it's like wanting 1080p instead of 720p on a 32" TV. Just curious, because I hear people talk about resolution a lot and I can't tell the diff beyond being able to make your icons super-tiny.

 

+1

I wasn't keen on the 1080 resolution on the 16.4" F for the fact that everything looked so small. I would be doing a lot of reading/typing, etc moreso than gaming or movie watching so, personally, I'd like to see what I'm looking at without having to strain at it. If I'm missing something on the 1080 vs "lamer" res, let me know. All perspectives just help me make a better decision.

 

i'll definitely go with the f series i was hoping that HD 5650 would be included in the E series for the USA

 

Well while on TV you'll see still the same picture, just in better quality...on the nb screen you'll actually see more - try to open Photoshop with 1366x768 and you'll see, that the space for actual picture is small square in the center. The same goes with web browsing experience. I'm someone who always prefer the highest resolution possible.

 

£800 for configuration below.

 

Same here. For people who need larger fonts etc., they can always scale up the display on a high-resolution screen.

 

Thanks ! Do you know if the same configuration is available but with a 1gb graphic ram ??

 

Yes. 1 gb is the ATI HD5650. And 1080 display is still available on UK site.

 

These types of notebooks are created more so for multi-media purposes, whether that being watching blu ray movies, online HD movie streams, and the evermore common HD handycam home videos. As HD content becomes more available, more affordable, and more accepted into the consumer market place, these multi-media notebooks with the higher resolution screens.....alas 1920 x 1080....take advantage of these types of content and show them in the highest detail. If none of these things matter, then by all means go for the 1366 x 768 screen resolution. But you will miss out on what some of us already know.....small screen or big screen.....more screen pixels are always better.

 

Hello,

I'm about to order an EB, but there is one thing i'm not sure about yet. Does anyone know what kind of screen the full hd version is? According to sonystyle it's a vaio display 'plus'. Is there any difference between the 'plus' screen and the premium screen in the f series?

Thank you in advance

 

Well, I'm worried there is, otherwise it would be too perfect. Unfortunately I was not able to find any review of FullHD EB yet and ppl here who ordered one will receive it around 20th February. There will be many reviews than I hope

 

@metsn

If the screen is a mat rgb led like on the F series, I will buy an EB right away. My reasons for buying an Eb instead of a F (which was my first choice) are better graphics, better batterylife, and better portability.

The EB has one downside however, I can't find any firewire ports...

 

Well who wouldn't BTW, F has RGB LED backlight? Is there any info about that? I thought they are using lousy CCFLs.

And yes, unfortunately EB doesn't seems to have any firewire port. On the other hand, I don't know when was the last time I used one..so personally I don't care much.

 

@Metsn

I did some research.
According to sony.nl most series have led technology. The models with vaio plus screens feature antireflection, and better viewangels. The premium screens have better extra brightness over the plus screens and better contrast.

I'm not sure what the real difference is, because I never compared the f series to the Eb.

The f's screen however is just awesome, I asked one of my local salesmen for a demonstration with a blu-ray disk. And wow. So much detail, very good viewing angles, and very-very good contrast. I think it's as good as the macbook pro screen, which one of my fellow students has. It might be even better.

 

Well we're quite sure that 1600x900 version of F has CCFL backlight. As well as NW series. I didn't see any information that Premium version is using LED, which would be surprising (thought nicely), because it would mean they're using different hardware in the same series.

The first reviews of EB series are complaining about bad quality of the screen, but it's the lowres one. I loved the screen of previous FW, even thought I still like Z's screen better

 

Would it be possible to somehow use a firewire card or other method to so equip it ?

 

Something like this?

 

Thanks Metsn, I guess thats one of the many uses of the express card slot, not pretty but a potential lifesaver.

 

Thanks Metsn. Perhaps the new gen HDD/flash camcorders are dropping DV/firewire so its less important and using USB. Presumably current HDV camcorders still need firewire though.

Is anyone using the Sony TG5 camcorder ?

 

Will there be a chance that this model will support switchable graphics in the future? It does have the hm55 chipset..

 

probably not, unless someone hacks it or ATi launches something like optimus without need of motherboard changes

 

I have a question about the HD5650. I checked notebookcheck for its benchmarks and it seems to be a good card (especialy when compared to the gt330m in the f series). But does anyone know how good it really is?
I don’t need the best graphicscard in the world, (these things just consume to much energy) but I really want to play some games on this thing. I might use it for Maya to.

 

The E series will have backlit keyboard ?? I haven't found anything about this. Thanks

 

doesn't look like it so far

 

Here is a full review from Cnet:

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vaio-vpc-eb1jfx/4505-3121_7-33968347.html?tag=txt;page

This review confirms earlier rumors: it's a LED-screen!

It's also surprising to read that they really like the speakers, while the speakers of the F-series don't seem to be that good.

 

Anyone here know the difference between these 2 models?

One actually starts $100 cheaper than the other and the cheaper model includes a LED-backlit screen as well.

This obviously makes no sense...*sigh*Sonystyle..

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921666101650

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666107682

 

It does make sense. The difference of $100.00 is because you add $50.00 for the upgrade to the glossy black sand paint or any other gloss paint option from the basic gunmetal black and $50.00 for the upgrade to the 500GB hard drive from the standard 320GB.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't bother looking carefully at the specs.



But shouldn't the led-screen factor into the price as well?

I believe led-screens are more expensive to produce than a wide screen LCD screen.

 

They are both LED.

From the CNET review:

The big, bright, glossy 16x9-pixel LED display on the Vaio EB1JFX/B measures 15.5 inches across, and looks somehow even larger when it's being used. The screen stretches across most of the upper lid with minimal bezel; its brightness and color quality was excellent to our eyes, and though the resolution at 1,366x768 pixels isn't full 1080p HD, we were able to open documents and windows side-by-side for multitasking, and though that the screen offered very good real estate.

It says the screen is LED and as for the differences in screen prices, perhaps the 1920 x 1080 resolution screen cost a little more. It's not released yet but supposed to be in March.

While these new LED screens are supposed to be more energy efficient and maybe cost less to produce, it seems it is at the expense of good viewing angles, especially the vertical angles.

 

Does anyone know if the i5 520m processor has the same throttling issue as the i7 720qm? I'm just curious.

 

Hopefuly the lower TDP will help
I'll wait for next refresh tho before I decide if I'll buy a $ony E (well hopefuly they'll drop the kill switch soon ) jk

 

I am really looking forward to this computer. It is between this and the CW series for college next year. I wish to play so games on it, the most demanding being The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Which according to notebookcheck.com can play on either graphics card.

 

Buying this in March, can't wait !!!

 

Does anyone know what's happening with Sonystyle Japan? Not just they didn't introduce EB yet, but there's no single info even about the new Z... It's true that the Japanese Sonystyle is usually the slowest, but this is getting ridiculous...I'm so curious about the specs of EB CTO in Japan...

 

^^ Quite a surprise that of all Sonystyle-regions, her homeland is the slowest like you say

@ChaosSpear: Oblivion shouldn't be any problem! But I guess gaming is nicer on a 15,5" compared to the 14.1" CW-screen.

 

i can´t believe that is a LED screen . Then why even the sonystyle web site refuse to update this description??

 

switchable graphics and a backlit keyboard and sony has a monster on their hands

 

Y'know, you guys can keep asking and Sony would never do it for the E Series lest they'd be charging $200 more than it is now for those features.

So if you want switchable grahpics and backlit keyboard, go for either the Z or the F. The E series is a budget laptop with budget features and it'll stay that way.

 

thats fine, sony needs a 15 inch with those features, regardless

 

I agree. I'll believe it when I see it.

 

Why is it so hard to believe it uses an LED backlit screen. It isn't that unique anymore!

 

i agree. LED backlight seem to be quite common now. In fact, I would be surprised if it didnt. What I do hope for is a backlit keyboard. Not that it is essential. But very pretty. And as reviews have said, it is quite big, and would not be traveling all the time. So its not like it will effect the much needed battery life at all.

 

Exactly !!