Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

Has anyone put a 500 gb hd at 7200 rpm in the SR* laptop yet?

How is the battery life?

Does the palm rest gets warm?

 

Whoa, what? Sonystyle is giving $100 instant rebate? When, where, how? I just bought my SR420 on 7/14 and didn't get a discount.

 

Yah, where have you been? Yes it does.

Also if you open a Sony CC, you get another $100 off too.

I wonder if it might be cheaper to buy from resellers and get the free battery and travel charger.

 

So, my warranty expires in about two days, and I'm wondering if I should call and see if Sony will do some maintenance on my laptop. The only thing that may be considered "wrong" with it is that the power plug likes to stick a little bit, but I was hoping that Sony might clean the laptop and make it look/feel like new again (not that it's dirty--just old). Is that stupid?

I just remember a friend taking a white Macbook into Apple a few days before her warranty expired and getting a whole new exterior because the white showed some discoloration.

 

I don't believe the warranty covers cosmetic anything... If your plug isn't sticking too bad I would not worry about it. I don't understand what new look/feel your aiming for? After having my laptop for a year it still looks new and when I took it apart today there was little to no dust. I realize your situation might be different depending on your environment and how well you take care of your laptop.

The discoloration on your friends Mac had to have been some kind of manufacturing defect in order for them to replace it like that. Or maybe your friend got lucky?

 

you can do the $100 MIR and bundle because rebates asks for copy of UPC while mobility bundle asks for actual UPC. you can also do the $300 old laptop trade in since that only requires serial number. Thats a pretty good deal if you ask me

 

Getting back to this briefly. Anyone have any first hand experiences with a T6400 and a HD4570? I'm mainly interested in how newer first person shooters pan out. And don't worry, I have pretty realistic expectations and I don't demand the highest graphics and the smoothest gameplay (though, the latter preferred).

I mean, I played through Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3 (not finished yet) with an Asus PRO50SL; T2390/HD3470/3GB. Far Cry 2 even looked decent in my eye and was very playable, Fallout was a little uglier and the fps was fairly low but I managed. Still, both of those games shouldn't even be able to start according to Vista's performance numbers, though that may speak more to the fact that it really is a very poor indication of anything.

 

Well, I'm about to buy this computer because I think it suits my needs best. Can anybody tell me some complaints they have with it and whether its a generally good notebook? Also how is the build quality because i need some excellent build quality.

What's the best retailer to buy it at as well? I'm thinking of sonystyle's one right now.

Thanks for the help.

 

I have no complaints with the SR. The notebook is built really tough and I have no trouble throwing it in my bookbag and going. I just took the entire thing apart yesterday and I am overall impressed with how everything is designed and built.

There really isn't a best retailer to buy it from. I would go with the one with the better prices to be honest. At the time of my purchase SonyStyle had the better pricing. Don't forget about the college discount they offer! Also, I was able to customize my laptop with the parts I wanted in it. I was able to only get 1gb of ram then upgrade it myself for a heck of a lot cheaper. All in all I had a really good experience with my purchase.

Hope this helps

 

sonystyle charges tax and shipping and dont offer rebates. The student discount is only 5% so its not a big deal.

I would buy it from a store that gives bing cash back, doesnt have tax or shipping to your area and also is eligible for the current $100 MIR promotion. That should save you about $200-300 dollars from sonystyle site

 

I got my VGN-SR430J/B today from J&R. I love it so far. Some of the posts about the "washed out" screen had me worried but mine doesn't appear that way at all. I'm thinking about trying out the Windows 7 RC after I create the recovery discs. Anyone have any problems with drivers or system software using Windows 7 RC x64?

 

I let Windows search for the drivers for me the first time I installed W7.

 

Glad to hear about the screen... I wish I could have seen which screens I was looking at when checking them out in person but no luck...

Someone else suggested playing with the contrast levels which I didn't do, could help... good luck with it.

 

Does the Sr490 get a free windows 7 upgrade and how do you get it?

 

do the new SR or Z series output to 1080p through HDMI?

 

I think so.

 

My bluetooth doesn't work. I right clicked a file to send to my phone (bluetooth was on) and it says "Bluetooth device not found." My other laptop (HP dv) found my bluetooth phone. I cannot also see the bluetooth in my Sony Vaio's device manager. Any thoughts? Have you tried the bluetooth on yours? I just got my Vaio (from Sonystyle) 5 days ago.
Thanks!

[My signature doesn't seem to attach. Here's my specs. SR490 CTO>Titanium Gray>T6500 2.1GHz>4GB>320(7200rpm)]

 

Ok, I've fiddled with my brand-new SR41M for a bit now so I can share a few first impressions. Nothing like a review, or even a preview, mind you.

-The build quality and overall physical package is very nice. It's light and very portable but still the usability is not compromized. So the ~13" widescreen form factor is really good.

-It's pretty. Mine has a silver lid and keyboard base, black keys and a black bottom. The underbelly is also kind of a rough plastic which will probably help in holding the computer in place.

-The keyboard is very nice to type with. Very good feedback, nicely spaced, pretty quiet.

-Vista sucks royal arse. It makes the laptop feel not-so-snappy and this bundled with the Sony's pre-installed software --> not a happy camper. And apparently the free Windows 7 install isn't available straight away and I'm afraid to unistall any of the Sony stuff before I can make a recovery disk. And that will be a while since I don't have 5 (!) empty DVDs handy.

-The screen is crisp and the colours are vibrant. There's just something kind of weird going on as I seem to see these sort of little, well, dots or something. They're very miniscule and you really have to look for them but they're there. Not a big issue, mind you.

-The speakers are, well, "appalling" would be too kind of a word. Very shallow, no bass, just plain crappy. I didn't expect anything from them but come on, at least some effort would be nice.

-The hard drive isn't partitioned in any kind of smart way. It's essentially a small part for the recovery thing and a huge clump for the rest. That'll have to be addressed when I finally get to installing that Win7.

So that's it for now. I'll probably write something along the way. Too early to say anything else right now.

 

I'm pretty much sold on this latop (the sr490) but i just want to find out about its gaming performance with the ATI 4570. What's this thing's 3dmark06 and also can it play games like COD4/5 smoothly?

 

Win7 RC has been available for quite a while.

@ Phoenix: I posted a reply to you about it before. If only you had read it : \

 

Not at the store I went to. And I DID sign up for a Sony Card. I got no interest until 2011, but not mention of $100 instant rebate or a $100 CC offer.

Can you please post a link to either or both of these offers so I can march over to my sonystyle store and demand my $200.

 

The bottom is actually made out of Magnesium Alloy, not rough plastic. Magnesium alloy is much stronger, (same as what Lenovo thinkpads are made of)

 

I'm a little confused about all the bundles and rebates.
Can you use the mobility/productivity offer if you order from sonystyle?
Also, are there any current rebates from ordering off sonystyle besides the 5% student discount. I spec'ed out a SR490 CTO on sonystyle and it came out cheaper and more powerful than the Newegg models.

Any help?

 

OK, I am pretty sure for 3dmark06, it can get 4100 points with 2.5G cpu

 

Have you checked out this model on J&R?
http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VGNSR430JB/

There's a $100 rebate and you can also get 5% cashback through Bing. You should also be able to apply for the mobility or productivity bundle as well since the $100 rebate only asks for copies of materials to send in.

 

Yes, you can. Good luck.

 

from the sony website, only SR's with dedicated GPU have HDMI out. if you CTO with integrated graphics, there will be not HDMI port.

 

I think that there's only 1 type of GPU in new SR490 series. So that means all new SR models have HDMI port.

Am I right? Please correct me.

 

The integrated graphics cards do not come with an HDMI port.

 

So I'm not an SR series owner yet, but I hope to be soon. I have one (hopefully) quick but fairly narrow question: What is the average battery life while just basic surfing the web or typing up a word document with an SR490 with the T9600 CPU, the Radeon HD 4570, 4 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB 7200 RPM HDD? If you've got a machine that's at least reasonably close in specs, I would still find any input helpful. Thanks in advance.

 

Well, I haven't had a chance to run more games on my SR41 (T6400 CPU, 4570 GPU) but Far Cry 2 was very smooth with all options on High, except Terrain and Shadows on Medium. Even with 2x Anti-Aliasing. I doubt Call of Duty 4 is that much more stressing than Far Cry, although the Far Cry engine seems to be very nicely optimized.

 

Yeah, it is. But is the "Official" Win7 out yet? I mean the version that Sony's (and other manufacturers) advertizing ("If your computer is bought between blahblah you are eligible for a free Windows 7 upgrade" or something).

I registered the laptop and I just got an e-mail stating that the registration went through and Sony will notify me of updates or something.

 

I have this exact configuration and from power on w/full battery to hibernate at 2% the machine lasts about 4 hours on just under medium brightness and wifi turned on.

Hope this helps. It's a great machine. Also - you can get a free battery with the mobility bundle promotion. There are links earlier in this thread for the promo.

 

I thinks it not out yet. But Soon Microsoft is going to send it Win7 copies to hardware manufacturers.

Users would probably get their Win7 upgrade package in October. (After Win7 gets released)

 

Damn! Some configurations in SR490 CTO got cheaper. I would have saved $40, if I had it ordered lately.

 

Sounds good. I'll be perfectly happy if I can get it in October. Well, have to fight with Vista a bit more but meh. I'll start the clean install process today so it should be fine as a temporary OS.

 

manufacturers get it on august 7 i believe, so it will PROBABLY leak out some time around there. if you really want it, that would be the earliest to get the release "official" version. this thing called the internet people talk about all the time seems to do wonders..

 

there is only one option for dedicated GPU. but you could also just have integrated graphics.

basically the options are:
Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD = integrated = no HDMI out
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4570 with 512MB = dedicated = HDMI out

 

Unless you happen to find yourself in Finland where the SR49 has the HD3470 and the cheaper model, the SR41, has the HD4570.

 

hey guys i have a question.

the sr and the mbp share the same screen size correct? how come the mbp one appears to be much larger? =S

 

That's perfect. Thanks! I think I am now 100% sold on this machine

 

Quick question, I'm planning on getting the SR for college but not sure when. I know that they have recently reduced the price on certain upgrades so I'm tempted to just buy it now, but will the price go down later on? I will need it in September so should I buy it now or wait it out?

 

I am planning on buying the SR for university as well, but I am in Canada. The prices we have here are ridiculous. $1660~+13% tax for P8700, 4GB Ram, 4570. We don't have student discounts either. No rebates. Why does Sony not give us any discounts.

 

Canada is Canada, other countries have it just as bad. Make a US friend or take a trip to a US Bestbuy to get a SR w/ similar specs.

@Jennifer, considering the promos available, buying now isn't the worst choice. Not like the price is gonna plunge exponentially.

 

Sony offers a 30 day money back policy! so if you see it go lower within 30 days they will give you the difference back.

 

just for kicks. look at sony's amazing price slashing on SZ.

"we were selling it for 1249.99, and now yours, for the amazing price of... 1249.99!"

link


*edit* hm... looks like they already fixed it on the website. nvm but you can still see the screen shot below

 

I'm so excited.. I ordered my SR through the student program and saved 64 bucks off regular price. My specs are: P3750, dark gray, 4mb mem, ATI card. I kept the chip kind of around 2.0 b/c the higher I hear sucks up battery juice.

My friends think I'm crazy for getting such an expensive system, when I could of paid 5-600 dollars for a laptop albeit w/ slightly more weight, but it fit my criteria perfectly and it's something I'll keep for a long time. The added bonus of free stuff and battery really seals the deal.

I did splurge, but having to carry around the extra weight in your bag adds up when in college. I'm not a fan of Dell, HP.. I was thinking of the Lenovo y350 as close 2nd for a great price, but I heard they had some major heat issues and the touchpad wasn't as good.

The Sony is light weight, reliable hopefully and a cool design.

My total was 1268 btw.. to be shipped 7/31.. will take pics once I receive it.

I was thinking of doing the trade up program as I have Dell with great specs faily new.. Vostro 1400 about a year old, but I dropped it and the lid is halfway off the hinge and the screen is cracked and leaking in the top right corner.. lol.. the base unit itself works great.. but I don't think they will give me much or anything for it.. Oh well. i will ask.

 

Even on CTOs? For example, they have a coupon offer... will they honor it?

 

what are you talking about? nothing's fixed it's still there lol..

 

When i was ordering my CTO on the phone i asked the guy, what if it goes cheaper next week? He said that they would give me the difference back up to 30 days from the purchase. So yes even on CTO's.