Official VAIO SR Series Owners Thread

it was a put off for me, but i realized i did not used the dedicated card on my sz and i really needed the battery life. Besides ive got a desktop at home for gaming. It depends on your needs, so ask yourself if you really need the card on your laptop before you pay the hefty price for something like the z.

 

True, the Z is expensive, but I don't have a desktop for gaming

 

If gaming is your concern, the HD 3470 is a little more powerful than the 9300M GS.

You lose battery life, but I've been getting ~3.5 hours when I'm just browsing the internet, so it's still pretty good.

 

I was the one that snatched up that NewEgg one It dissapeared right after I bought it. It was an amazing deal I've been unable to reproduce... Buy.com had a close one.



I wish I could find an SR with 3 gigs of RAM AND the ATI card prebuilt.

When you customize it jumps the price up significantly.

 

Considering the preconfig has 2 GB RAM (one stick as far as I know), why not just buy an extra 1GB RAM stick and install it yourself?

 

Well, some people would like to untilize the Dual-Channel Ram ability, but that can only be achieved though either 2x 1 GB or 2x 2 GB of the same exact thing. If you put some other Ram that's from another company, I guess it doesn't get that... And it has a possibility of running slower.

Most companies only sell 1 GB, 2 GB and 4 GB Ram kits. Meh.

 

I think people are mixing the switch mode on the SR and the Z. The "switch mode" on the SR is just five shortcut keys on the top of the keyboard, and you can switch between three modes for a possible combination of 15 shortcuts. Personally I didn't find it too useful since they don't work with my media programs.

Switch mode on the Z on the other hand switches between Intel and Nvidia graphics. No shortcut keys on the Z AFAIK.

 

Is there going to be a newer model released with HDMI?

 

I eventually found the picture of the FW with the extended battery and it sticks out on the bottom a little bit too much for my liking. It kind of reminded me of the extended battery for the HP MiniNote. Yuck..

I think I'll end up sticking with the standard battery, unless someone can post a picture of the SR extended battery and I can see how much it would stick out at the bottom on this model.

 

A few things I thought I'd note:

- The Canadian SonyStyle site requires that you select Microsoft Windows Vista Business in order to apply the Fresh Start option. I read somewhere that Sony doesn't charge Canadians for this option, however, it is crystal clear on their website that Vista Business edition must be selected first.

- You can now select the engraving option for your laptop.

- Regarding the keyboard, I was at the Metrotown Sony Store location in BC, where they had a SR on display. It was the grey model with the white keyboard. I actually thought it looked very nice, but I still think I'd prefer the black model. When looking at the keyboard of this laptop, I noticed that the enter key was very large and a few other keys were different when compared with the US keyboard. It appears like the bilingual version of the keyboard may be standard for Canadian customers. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. I strongly advise Canadian customers to see this keyboard before making their purchase, as it is quite different compared to the US version.

Are we stuck with the bilingual keyboard? I have no need for a cluttered keyboard with foreign symbols and hyphens that I will never use.

 

The SR I saw at the Sony store had the same keyboard as well (different location). All the SRs on the Sonystyle website indicate that they're "bilingual", so it does look like we're stuck. Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't even know the keyboards for the US versions are normal until I looked at it just now... I thought they were all that way. I'll try to sneak a picture in the Sony store if I get a chance so everybody can see.

That's it, I'm getting my laptop in the states!

 

Will Sony Canada honor the warranty of a machine purchased in the US? If they will, I'll probably make the trip myself.

 

Is there a pic of the bilingual keyboard floating around? Is it the one with the big square enter button?

 

Just found another SR129E/B on PriceGrabber at a real decent price (under $1400). It was from CostCentral, who says they have 80 in stock.

I just went ahead and got that model again and if I decide I need the extra RAM, I'll throw it in as an upgrade.

I have not seen a prebuilt with the ATI card AND Fresh Start - I'm assuming that there are drivers for the ATI Card in Windows XP format somewhere???

 

That seems to be the lowest price at the moment. Techonweb also has it for $1373 link.

 

It said out of stock temporarily though.

 

I just ordered by Vaio SR yesterday evening... It's expected to arrive around August 27th!


Now a radical theory regarding HDMI on the SR:

I know in desktop graphic cards, depending on the card, you get certain ports (ie. an nVidia GeForce 8600GT will give you a DVI port, but not a VGA).

Because the Vaio FW series has the same Radeon HD3470 card as the SR, does that mean to say that there's an HDMI port that's covered in our Vaio SR? I know that there's no visible HDMI port with the Vaio SR + Radeon but is there a chance that the HDMI port is hiding inside?

Could we cut open the HDMI imprint on the side to reveal an HDMI port??

Just a theory..lolz... tell me what you guys think.

 

That seems a little desperate!!! I would imagine if there was one they wouldn't cover it - but hey, who knows...

Very expensive alternative solution for you... http://www.cinemassivedisplays.com/CinePort_DM2_HD.php

 

it's not so absurd;

sometimes companys do that; for example Dell's laptops line Latitude and Workstation are identical under the hardware profile but differs from bios;
I've had a Dell Latitude D800 with the Centrino 1 (Dothan) the ram was at 333 but it worked ad 266 and when i called the Dell tech support for a problem the boy who changed me the motherboard revealed me that the difference was in the bios; So after a coffee he had given to me the cd to change the bios and my dell d800 become the workstation m60

 

I took a look around inside my SR last week. There isn't an HDMI port inside.

 

I just ordered my SR:

VGN-SR190 CTO

Microsoft® Works
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz)
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3470
DVD +/- R DL / DVD +/- RW / DVD-RAM Drive
Trusted Platform Module / Biometric Fingerprint Sensor
Windows® Live OneCare 90-Day Trial
200 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [5400 rpm]
13.3" WXGA (XBRITE-ECO™ technology)
Wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth&erg; technology
No Fresh Start™
No Engraving
Night Black
Standard Capacity Lithium-ion Battery
Microsoft® Windows Vista® Home Premium with Service Pack 1
2 GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx1)

I will see if mine has a bilingual keyboard. It wont bother me if it does, though as mine old laptop has one so I am use to it.

 

I read that the docking station of SR has DVI out. Check here for details.

 

if anyone here with RMClock would be so kind as to post the discharge rates you are getting for your batteries.

what is it @ Full LCD, 50%, Dim all the way. Wifi on, bluetooth of. thank you.

also is anyone elses battery meter stuck on 2:40 @ 100% even though it lasts longer than this estimation?

 

Edit: ^ Beaten.

Could some owners tell me what kind of battery life they get on their SR with the discrete graphics option and without?

 

I have the one with the ATI card and it appears to be about 2 and a half to 3 hours of straight use.

 

Do you mean that's with the dedicated turned on the whole time? I mean, even if your notebook had the capability of the ATI, but you had the integrated switched on instead, you would get more battery life, right?

How do you "switch" them, anyway?

 

SR does not come with switchable graphics. SZ and Z series do.

 

That's right, it has to stay on. I looked everywhere in the graphics settings to turn it down or off and didn't see anything. I personally don't mind sacrificing battery for power. I rarely find myself in a situation where I need it for more than 2 and a half hours straight without a power source. I could crank the power settings down and get more out of it but the numbers I gave you were from the optimized setting. The low power profile does nothing to the video card though - I don't think it does anyway.

One more thing I'd like to comment on is just how cool it runs so far. I'm quite impressed with it. The ATI graphics seems to be superior to the NVIDIA on the SZ - But I'm partial to ATI anyway

It's the coolest running Sony I've come across for the size.

 

travisthomson you may be able to downclock your Ati card with different drivers or utilities.

I'll merge your last 2 posts. Next time please use the edit function.

 

I'm generally getting a little better than 3 hours, max of about 3.5

 

I was told by the Sony store people that if I bought my laptop in the States, I would have to send it back to the States to get it repaired for warranty. I checked the Sony website and it said:

This Limited Warranty is valid only in the country of purchase, either the United States of America or Canada.
from The Sony Warranty PDF.

Depending on how you want to interpret that, it looks like to me that you'd have to send it to the states.

 

Is that with the ATI Radeon GPU or the Intel IGP?

 

with the Radeon

 

I noticed that many are saying that the SR is the coolest Vaio yet. This is my first notebook, so I really don't know how to make the comparisons myself. But, I would like to know, what are the temps you all are getting? I'm averaging 45'C (CPUID Hardware Monitor) while doing internet surfing and word processing. Is this normal? I ask because it does feel "warm" to me, and the significant different in heat on the left and right palm rests do bother me, ie, it feels warm on the left and cold on the right. I am running with the ATI card btw.

On another note, does anyone know if it is possible for me to configure the switch buttons and the windows side bars to sit permanently on the desktop? I don't mean to say to set it to "always in foreground", but rather, when I hit Win+D, ie,"show desktop", my application windows minimise but these two continue showing, rather than minimising as well. Just a small issue, but any possible solution to this would be fantastic!

 

mode switch is rather new. wait for some updates hopefully to come..i hope so! I want to customize vol. up and down buttons.

 

Anyone with IGP in their SR able to give me a rough estimate of their battery life? And with which battery?

 

crap..

Okay, this is disappointing. I doubt Sony Canada would be able to do anything for me. I thought I was ready to pull the trigger and buy this laptop, but I've decided to wait a few more weeks and think about my options.

I'm glad I found this thread. There is a lot of useful information about the Sony SR here, keep it coming!

 

i went to my notebook store yesterday and had a chance to try out the new SR and I was bit disappointed. Screen was really washed out (compared to TZ/FW with double lamp) but very brigth. Keyboard felt very good, but built quality was really poor. Flexibility of plastic was very high, so it didn't feel stiff at all. You really feel, that is a cheaper quality than a SZ or TZ. Typing was great and the look is really nice, but colours were way to much washed out.

Overall for 1200 Euro it is a ok notebook, but I expected a lot more of it. A little bit sad that Sony spared material or construction quality.

 

4:50 wifi on, bluetooth off, LCD set to 3/8

 

I agree that it feels far less solid. I have not noticed the washed colors you're mentioning and I'm usually pretty in-tune to that. Maybe it was the lighting in the store...

While it feels less solid than the tz/sz (with the GOOD casing) I feel like it's much more of a powerhouse for the money and I'd rather have the power than the sturdiness. If you travel a lot throughout the day with your laptop I could see you wanting to go for the more sturdy (and slightly ligther) Z model.

 

I've seen the SR LED screen and in my opinion it does not look washed out. I rate it generally very high, above 80% of the laptops. Although brightness is not that strong.

Color accuracy on SR is better than SZ in my opinion. Not as good as TZ.

 

i had the direct comparison side-by-side SR, FW, TZ, SZ.
SR was same with SZ, FW was best and TZ was so much better than SR. It was really disappointing.

 

I also had a direct comparison between SZ, SR, FW single lamp, FW double lamp and TZ .

Although the FW has very high brightness, I find the TZ to be better in color accuracy. (just my opinion)

 

I think what we may have here is that Sony is using more than one OEM for it's displays. I've directly compared the FW (non High Color), SR, SZ, and TZ with the SR being a close match to the TZ in color and brightness. Both much better than the FW and SZ. I have read other reviews that say the SR display is washed out and I believe them. I own a SR and I absolutely know it isn't washed out and has very good viewing angles.

You know I took a look at a silver and pink SRs at the Sony store and I thought they felt cheap. It left a horrible impression. If I didn't already own an SR it could have swayed me to stay away. For whatever reason the black SR case and display lid feels much better than the other colors. I believe they are the same material, but the texture and treatment is different. To me the black SR's lid feels close to CF. The bottom of the SR is Mg while the palmrest and case sides are plastic. My SR feels just as rigid as my old TZ and SZ. The only flexible part really being the right palmrest which is above the CD drive.

 

Hi guys, I am planning on getting a notebook and SR came to mind. I am concerned about the 13.3" inch screen, is it enough for watching movies, game and all that? I carry it out about 20% of the time so portability is quite an issue but 80% of my usage is probably stationed at home so I would like to use it to watch movies now and then. My current laptop is a 15" so I don't know how well I would adjust to a 13.3". I'm trying to get a 14.1" but I don't have many options in terms of Centrino 2 models that are already out in Asia. 15" inch laptops are definitely out as they are too heavy.

 

i love 13.3 now. i likely won't ever go less or more, as I am like you, I travel about 30% and stay station 70%. when that 30% comes around, its so easy and convenient.

 

You should go with 13 and get a big screen for your station.

 

Nah only can afford one. What is the battery life on the SR with an integrated X4500 GPU? 4 hours? I am considering that model.

 

A user reported 4:50 on low brightness, wifi on, bluetooth off.

 

****! i should have gotten integrated!