Official VAIO E Series Owners Thread

lmaestro :
I guess it really depends on your needs and preference.
Personally I like larger screen as I do a lot of photoshop stuff, and if I were to choose smaller screen Vaio, I would choose the S-series instead.

 

I can't comment myself as I have the HD version, but I hear the screen on the lower resolution EB is pretty low quality. If at all possible, you should try to drop by a Sony store to take a look.

 

the screen is basically the same as every other screen in the same price range.

 

And that's something what you wouldn't expect from Sony

 

Anyone played Dragon Age with their EB series laptop yet? At full HD res, high detail?

 

Hi Guys,

just one more question about sonystyle ordering. How long it normally takes until they authorize the credit card payment? My order's status is still: "Your payment is currently pending authorization." 1 or 2 days or more?

Thx,
V

 

It took about 3 days for me - no need to worry yet

 

Thanks Mythdat, so I better put myself into a relax mode then

 

I think i hear this too,i have the 500gb version
500gb > hts545050b9s hitachi

 

The noise is a side effect of most modern Intel CPUs in pretty much any laptop, it's an electronic resonance caused when the CPU switches to lower voltage when it's idle. You should find that if you load up at least one of the cores, the noise disappears. Consider yourself unlucky that your ears are sensitive to it, it's too high pitched for a lot of people to hear

 

has anyone tried mass effect 2 with the ati 5470? how well does that run,... I want to get the higher video card but I can only get that online and don't think I can wait 5 weeks for it, its either this or the f series...

 

Does any know yet if the VAIO Display Plus HD1080 (1920 x 1080 pixels) is LED backlit?

I've heard rumours of a new Macbook Pro which is will make things interesting!

Think I'd like to see what the Apple boys bring to the table before I decide to pull the trigger and buy an E-Series.

 

The full HD version in Hong Kong is LED backlit. This should also apply to models in this region.

 

EB HD display is LED backlit, F series HD displays are CCFL but Sony claims both of them Vaio Display Plus

 

Just wanted to update this hopefully for the benefit of others.

I did a clean install of 7 Home Prem leaving out Sony's SATA drivers (Intel Rapid Storage, formerly Matrix Storage).

My driver install was in this order, rebooting after each:

1. Intel Chipset for 5 Series - not Sony's but the latest from Intel
2. Sony Firmware Extension Parser
3. Sony Shared Library
4. Sony Notebook Utilities
5. ATi Catalyst 10.3 Preview
Then Wi-Fi, Intel MEI, Ethernet, etc.

Long story short, its a completely different laptop. None of the problems I was having before and only 48 Startup processes compared to about 69 before. So if anyone else experiences systemic and wide-ranging issues that seem like data corruption then take a look at Sony's supplied SATA drivers along with the normal HDD or RAM testing.

On a side note, for those with the Full HD (1920x1080) screen and have eyes as bad as mine, you'll probably like the Catalyst 10.3 Preview drivers. They'll let you get 1600x900 resolution and they install without modding

 

From the spec sheet, the E series with 1920x1080 definitely comes with LED backlit

I've been waiting for MacBook Pro refresh myself, got tired of it then decided to get the E-series for the decent spec and price.

Whatever Apple brings to the table for MacBook Pro line, it will be more expensive than the E-series as they are competing in different classes.

 

Thank you for the information

 

Not that I don't believe you, but do you have any proove of it? Somewhere we can see it for ourselves? Because Sony keeps telling me it is NOT a LED backlit.

 

Well the only "proof" till now I saw for myself was the HK Sonystyle site. If you check two types they have, one of them is low res and second one is high res with LED backlight...at least it's written here. Who in the Sony keeps telling you otherwise?

 

The Dutch Sonystyle online store doesn't mention the LED backlight, i've emailed them and they confirm there is no LED backlight. I will ask them again now, and tell them about the HK store with LED backlight.

https://www.sonystyle.nl/SonyStyle/VAIO-notebooks/E-Serie

 

hi
again I saw a new issue with my eb16fg.
when I use my notebook in battery, it makes sone continue noise.after I plug power cord it would not make noise.Is it normal?
What is the problem?

 

For the LED backlit, it is also stated on Sony Indonesia website

Display for EB17FG:

15.5" wide (Full-HD: 1920 x 1080) TFT colour display (VAIO Display Plus, LED Backlight)

Compared with the stated specification for F117HG :

16.4" wide (Full HD: 1920 x 1080) TFT colour display (VAIO Display Premium + Full HD 1080, Adobe RGB 100% coverage)

Although I couldn't imagine the reason why the new machine at $2499 price tag doesn't have LED backlit screen. The screen should be better though as it says Vaio Display Premium Plus.

 

In my opinion ccfl baklight is bether than ledbaklight.
F series has ccfl baklight.
led baklight has some advantages compare to ccfl but view angle and brightness and even color in f series is bether than series with led baklight.
But lcd life with ccfl is less than ledbaklight.

 

Sony UK also do a 17" version of the EB Series.

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-e-series/tab/editorialarticle1

 

This is for looong discussion. In general it always depends on the screen quality, not on the backlight to get the best result. The ideal screen would be quality display with RGB LED backlight. White LED backlight and CCFL are both not really great.

F screen is nothing special, even the premium one is not comparable to the one on FW, which was extraordinary even with CCFL.

You can see a bit outdated summary of quality screens here...as you can see, most of them are LED.

 

There is a chance that this will vary by country. For example US models do not even have the choice of Full HD screen.

A good point mklasse! But I like the uni-body aluminium design of the MBP, it feels solid and well made. So much so, that I would pay extra for one. But it depends on whether or not the spec is reasnoble.

 

Why the OP has mentioned it as " EB" series instead of "E" series ? Its so confusing that I thought Sony already has not started shipping this E series vaio

again, coming back to Sony USA site, they do not have option for FHD 1080p screen which is again a DEAL BREAKER for me. Could not understand why they have not added that option for USA even though they have the FHD option in other countries ??? What stops Sony to add that option ?

Anyway, those who have already having this laptop, could you please say the BAD/CONS of this model ?

 

Yes, I am with you on that. I love the unibody design and the build quality of MacBook Pro machines. Which is why I was waiting for the refresh.
Honestly speaking, the E-series' build quality will not be comparable to the build quality of the MBPs. Another Sony Vaio series maybe, but certainly not the E (but I'm sure you know that already)

Apparently E-series already comes in 2 versions, EB for 15.5" version, and EC for 17.3" version. Although EC is currenly only offered in some countries only.

 

Hi Guys,

I asked sonystyle UK about the screen. They say that the fullHD is also not not LED.

But seems like they are short on the fullHD display: if you order with standard screen, the delivery is 3-4 weeks ... but with fullHD it is 8-9 weeks! Thats sad, sad ....

V

 

Here is a small review and personal opinion on Sony Vaio EB

With regard to specs:
Sony Vaio E (VPC-EB1S1E) balck (EU version)
Intel® Core™ i5-430M 2.26 GHz
Intel® Turbo Boost tehnoloogia 2.53 GHz
Ram: 4 GB DDR3 1066 MHz
500 GB SATA 5400 rpm
DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
15.5" 1366 x 768 LCD
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650 (1G) (total 2743MB)
3x USB; Bluetooth; WiFi; HDMI
MS Pro, Duo; SD
Motion Eye webcam
Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
6 cell battery
weight 2,7 kg (plus charger and I think it should be less then 3 kg (total))
2 years warranty
Battery life: managed to kick very close to 3 hours medium settings

The price of the unit: 850 EUR

Personal opinion: the unit is very light compare to other 15.5 notebooks ( at least it seems to me this way). The keyboard is great, even thought the touch pad's location is not in the center, you still can type with the same comfort, in addition to that you can use full numeric keys as well.

The build quality/materials are very good. No flax, except where the optical drive is. ( if you push HARD from the top you will feel it, from the bottom on the same area you do not).

The screen is not the greatest one, but would for sure satisfy an average consumer, who runs everyday programs. However, you also can calibrate screen from the display option, which overall has a positive effect on the screen.

On windows rating system it scored total 5.6 points.
Processor: 6.7
Ram: 5.9
Graphics: 6.7
Gaming Graphics: 6.7
Primary Hard Disk: 5.6

Have not played any games yet.

and there is one more thing since it is a black unit--on the palm-rest one can observe fingerprints, but they are not that visible, hence no biggy there.

Overall, I am very pleased with the unit.
almost forgot about heat and noise----- there are none of them. The laptop runs very cool and quite!!!

 

I have received my unit yesterday, and so far I'm satisfied with it.

I haven't tried doing the GPU overclock yet, and I was planning to do clean install on this machine later on when I have the time.

I've tried running The Sims 3, and it says the graphic card is not listed in their database, but it runs fine with high settings at Full HD resolution but then again, Sims3 is not really a demanding game
I've been wanting to buy GTA 4, so I guess we'll see how this machine holding up when I bought it.

About the RAM, Windows 7's Resource Monitor actually say that 146Mb of RAM is Hardware reserved but it doesn't say which hardware is reserving it.

 

Waaaaait a minute. 6.7 on the graphics card? Could you please download GPUz and check what speed your graphic card core is running at? I'm suspecting it may be 550 Mhz, which would mean Sony only underclocked the i3 version and not the i5 version, despite them being EXACTLY THE SAME COMPUTER except for the processor... which would confirm the theory that they only underclocked the i3 in order to make it seem less powerful than the more expensive models and not because of heat or other issues.

edit: I checked my scores again, I remembered incorrectly. The underclocked score is indeed 6.7, which means that the i5's graphics card is also underclocked like the i3's. The i3 processor gives a 6.2 score which confirms that the difference between i3 and i5 is very small.

 

Yeah the i5's 5650 is definitely underclocked like the i3's

I get slightly higher scores than HP for some reason though

Processor: 6.8
RAM: 5.9
Graphics: 6.8
Gaming: 6.8
HDD: 5.9

 

Test Sony Vaio VPC-EB1S1E/BJ Notebook http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Sony-Vaio-VPC-EB1S1E-BJ-Notebook.26531.0.html

 

It has only 450 MHz ....

 

I got 4GB of RAM, but it shows only 3950MB

 

I'm concerned about the build quality of the E series. I've heard they are kind of plastic-y. Is this true?

 

It does feel little bit of plastic, however the build quality/materials are great!

 

So you wouldn't say it feels cheap?

 

Definitely NOT!!!
But before making any final decisions for purchase, it always better to check in person
Was searching a laptop for months now, and when by accidentally saw EB in Sony store, I did not have a second though.
I would say it is a very nice, solid and great laptop for everyday usage (movies, games, web, mail etc).
Would give 7.9 out 10

 

I'm curious, what model/specs did you get with yours'?

 

check page 33------#330
made a small review.
if got any questions, shoot.

 

It is weir. I dont see 1920x1080 screen US sonystyle.com How can I get this screen?????

 

JR has some, click on some of the more expensive configs...

http://www.jr.com/product/productListing.jsp?Ntt=VPCEB

 

Oh man, I'm in the US so I don't get the 5650 graphics yet. I might wait it out and see if we get it soon.

Anyways, have you played any games on it yet? And if so how do they run?

 

oh, I got it. However, they dont have i5 processor. So I think I should wait?

 

unfortunately not yet ...
anyone?

 

I live in US too. I dont know why they dont have i5, 5650 graphic, and 1920x1080 in E series.
There is only 5470 graphic in E series. I dont understand why I need a powerful graphic card. Is powerful graphic card good for 1920x1080 screen?

 

Also if there is anyone else who has the 5470 card, could you tell me how it is?

 

If got some time, try to go over the previous pages. There is some discussion over 5470 and 5650. ---I believe as guys say both cards are underclocked, which in practice gives them the room to be overcolcked.