Official Vaio Pro 11 Owners Lounge (SVP11 2013)

The more I use this machine the more I like it. It's snappy with fast boot, nice screen, decent storage, and just so easy to grab and go. I ordered a 12" sleeve for it and a small bluetooth mouse. Considering there's only two USB ports, hate to have one being taken up by a mouse USB adapter. Just wish the keyboard wasn't so soft. But hopefully that can be resolved with a little creative "engineering". And a quick 3DMark11 resulted in an 847 score. Pretty impressive. Might actually be able to play some decent games.

 

Well I took apart my Vaio Pro 11. It is a fickle little beast for sure. I repasted the CPU, and this resulted in a cooler running machine, the fan doesn't spin up as much or as high now except when loaded, and because of this, the IGP which used to drop to 600-650MHz under load runs at 800-850MHz under load, so 3DMark 11 score went up to about 950!

Let me just say that the wires in there are tiny. I dared not disconnect any connectors for fear of breaking them or the hair thin wires connecting things. Cleaning the heatsink was a precarious task as well since I gingerly held it so not to tug any wires while doing so.

I broke the little door for the SD card slot during bottom panel diassemblly, so there was a minor casualty. But not a significant one because it was really not any significant function other than closed off the SD card slot. I could probably fix it, but decided not worth my time.

The soft keyboard is mainly because the base is propped up the way the LCD lid folds up, and nothing underneath it to keep it sturdy. I stuck a piece of foam I had underneath the laptop that was about the height of the gap, and the keyboard stiffened right up. So it can be solved, just don't really want a small piece of foam sticking out the bottom of my laptop, lol. They could have designed a curved foot that stuck off the back/bottom of the lid that when you rotated the lid up it would touch off to the bottom of the laptop and on to the surface it sits on to make it more robust. Simple solution, but nevertheless it's not there.

Overall this machine is growing on me. The performance is great, the screen is great, and battery life should be great, just haven't tested it fully yet.

 

I've been experiencing a huge issue. My mouse (on the screen) just sometimes randomly jumps and clicks itself. Has anyone else noticed that too? That's damn annoying.

 

Probably sensitivity of the touch pad. Just resting your palm on the wrist rest our young can sometimes do that. See if you can turn down sensitivity.

Beamed from my G2 Tricorder

 

No, seriously. I know what I'm talking about. That issue happens both when I use touchpad and when I don't use it (and use external mouse instead). Btw, I disabled touchscreen already, so that can't be a problem with the touchscreen.

 

I was just offering a suggestion, otherwise could just be a short in your touchpad wiring. Those wires are so tiny in there, and unshielded too. I removed the bottom panel of my unit and repasted the CPU. Taking a look around, the wires to the fan were so tiny, I've never seen them so small, like hairs. If the touchpad is the same, no wonder it might exhibit issues.

 

HT, you and I know that the clevo w230st has a bursty and loud fan that comes on and off even when just idle or browsing, how would you compare the fan noise of your new vaio pro to the noise of your w230st?

How's your display on the vaio pro btw? Does it compare to the FHD IPS display of the w230st in terms of contrast and color? I had the w230st back in July and the screen was perfect and had no grain effect on it despite being matte, I heard some people are complaining that the glossy touchscreen display on the vaio pro/duo has a grain effect to it, does yours have it especially on white backgrounds? Before I forget, any light bleeds on your vaio pro?

 

The fan in the Sony ramp up more slowly. It's not real loud, just that it's a tiny fan, it makes a "whine" or a high pitched "whirrrr" but only when CPU is stressed significantly. You have *some* control over the fan speed, so you can run in quiet mode and the fans barely ramp up and are barely audible. I'll try to do an sound comparison for you.

As far as the LCD, I find the Clevo to be better overall, but the contrast and color are similar. The Sony has a glossy screen, but with a light matte coating, which on an all white background can make it a bit noticeable if you look for it, but nothing odd or out of place IMHO. I guess I'm used to matte screens, but it doesn't bother me in the least, at least I don't notice it or find it problematic. The Sony has a slight backlight bleed but a lot less than the Clevo.

 

I don't think that's the issue since it only happens after waking up from sleep. Anyway, it's good to know that. Thanks, bro. :thumbsup:

Btw, does anyone think this laptop sometimes gets too hot? At home I use it as a desktop (with extended monitor plugged in HDMI port, and external mouse and keyboard). Skyping a while can raise the temperature up to 70*C

 

Thanks and Good info HT!! Any update on the battery life on this baby from 100% down to 5% when doing normal web browsing at balanced mode? Btw, what's the update on your wireless card performance? Any disconnects or low signal? I forgot to ask you what model wireless is in there?

 

Oh, strange. Not sure, I'll keep an eye out for it though.

70C isn't bad, and normal. With the tiny fan and heatpipe/heatsink it's to be somewhat expected with a 15W CPU.

Haven't tested battery life yet, but if BatteryBar is accurate, this thing only uses about 3W while idle with 50% brightness on balanced mode. Pretty incredible especially considering the 1080p touchscreen.

This model has the Intel 7260 N wi-fi card.

Here's a layout of the inside:



And the SSD is M.2 (NGFF). There may be some M.2 options out there but I don't want to sacrifice battery life, since this system just sips power.

Write performance of the drive is a bit limited but read performance is very good.

 

HT, did you have to remove the keyboard also to gain access on the internals or just a simply unscrewing the back? Looking at the pic, seems that the memory is soldered so non upgradable, is the wireless card upgradable in case the default one shows problems down the road?

 

I just unscrewed the bottom cover. After seeing all the very thin and fragile wires and connectors I thought better of disassembling the mainboard to get under the keyboard. Too many chances for a broken connector or wire.

The wi-fi card is removable and upgradable, just it's an M.2 (NGFF) card not traditional mPCI-e, so options are limited, and right now I think Intel is the only option at the moment. But I believe they do make an AC card in that form factor so that may be an option.

I'd rather update the SSD first though, if I can find a suitable low power replacement for the 128GB and go to a 256GB or larger one. I found an NGFF to mSATA adapter on eBay that I ordered and have a 256GB mSATA SSD. We'll see how well it works when it gets here.

 

FYI, the model number of the 256 GB SSD that Sony uses is SAMSUNG MZNTD256HAGL-00000. I don't know if you can get that one, but I do see a third party seller on Amazon with Crycial M500 M2 in sizes up to 480 GB. Also, does anybody know if SVP 11 will accept PCIe M2 SSDs, or do they have to be SATA?

As to the screen, I'm really happy about mine. I have a matte one (no touchscreen) -- probably one of the last ones in the US, since the option to order a custom configuration disappeared from the Sony website a few days after I ordered mine and has not reappeared since. There was a slight yellow cast to the screen, which I removed with the help of a hardware color calibrator -- basically, red and green saturation needed to be lowered by a notch. The calibrator also measured the color gamut at 94% of sRGB -- great result!

 

Thanks for that model number!

The connector is an M.2 (NGFF) connector not mPCI-e or SATA.

I may have to calibrate my screen. I have an old Spyder 3.

 

Oh, forgot about one more thing. This drives me crazy. I can't tap (normal left mouse click) at the surrounding area of the touchpad (corners and edges). Only the center area of it works. I tried to change things in the Tap Zone option in Synaptics Settings but still.

 

Yeah, tap to click is a bit wonky. I've just been using the actual button to click.

 

M.2 is just a form factor. The actual interface of the drive to the system (the bus) is still either SATA or PCIe. SVP 11 ship with SATA drives, while most SVP 13 ship with much faster PCIe drives that reach up to 1 GB/s. Hence my question if anybody knows whether SVP 11 could use a PCIe M.2 drive or if it's hardware-limited to the slower SATA models only.

 

This machine is very capable at gaming, just wish I had the 8GB RAM version because the 4GB can limit what you can play. I started up Spec Ops: The line and it plays 25-40FPS at 960x540 low details. Why such a crazy resolution? It's half 1920 and half 1080 so it scales perfectly and looks pretty good. Yes you get a few jaggies, but it doesn't look bad at all.

Also I have been using MSI Afterburner/RivaTuner to limit the FPS to 30 (not vSync) but set the FPS cap at 30 and it keeps temperature down and less likely to bounce around FPS. One thing I've noticed though is that the GPU does tend to "throttle". But as I test it, it doesn't seem like it's throttling, more like "smart adaptation". It runs at a clock speed optimum for the load it's given. My Acer AMD laptop does this too. I'll do some more testing and see if I can see if it actually hinders performance. Just wish there was a way to lock the speed to a fixed MHz.

 

Anyone think CTO will ever be available again?

 

No, likely not considering Sony is selling off the Vaio brand.

And there's not much to configure. Amazon has these configs:

(1) i5, 4GB, 128GB: Amazon.com: Sony VAIO Pro SVP11213CXB 11.6-Inch Core i5 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Carbon Black): Computers & Accessories
(2) i7, 8GB, 128GB: Amazon.com: Sony VAIO SVP11214CXS 11.6-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Carbon Silver): Computers & Accessories
(3) i7, 8GB, 256GB: Amazon.com: Sony VAIO Pro SVP13215PXB 13.3-Inch Core i7 Touchscreen Ultrabook (Carbon Black): Computers & Accessories

 

Sony US store now shows the new "1122" models (with the AC wifi), so they are doing more than just selling out old stock, but still, no CTO models... Given how long they've been gone now, it seems unlikely that they would return.

Curiously, Sony stores in Europe (e.g., sony.co.uk) still have CTO options. I know there were some resellers in Japan that would ship a CTO abroad, so that may also still be an option...

And one feature you could only get through CTO was matte screen... There are pre-built matte SVP 13, but not SVP 11.

 

Yep looks like the new 22 models have AC 7260 and 8gb ram compared to the 21 models with N-7260 and 4gb ram. Hey HT, any update on the N-7260 on your Vaio Pro 11? How much battery are you getting?

 

Sadly, the UK Sony site has also removed the CTO option as well as the ready-to-ship models. Only reason I wanted to go CTO route was to get the matte screen on the 11-inch model

 

Hello guys!

I really want to buy this machine ASAP because of Sony discontinuing production... what is really blocking me is :

Is it possible to replace the wi-fi module in it or is it soldered ? I would like to add a module with 3g support

Let's say like this one, since i think it could be half-size mini pci-e

http://www.option.com/product/986/


Anyone tried it already ?

 

No, the Vaios WiFi card is a Socket 1 (key E) M.2 (NGFF) card, while the Option card is of the former standard 'Half Mini Card' and not compatible.

Further there are no WiFi/WWAN Combo M.2 cards at all. You can't even replace the WiFi with a WWAN only card as WWAN M.2 cards use a different Socket (Socket 2 / key B that is).

M.2 is just a very user unfriendly mess. A standard w/o a standard so to say. Here some more info: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ket-upgrades/722154-lets-talk-ngff-m-2-a.html

 

hey guys, I bought this model recently and I am loving it.

there's one thing that's bugging me a little though...every now and then when using the touchpad...for some reason the mail app loads...it seems as if the touchpad recognized some sort of gesture that prompted the mail app to open...not sure if the mail app opens because I had it open before...but still...I have to hit win key and D to get back to the desktop.

anyone knows how to disable this feature?

EDIT: nvm..found the setting...vaio control center, mouse settings

 

Oh darn !

Why don't they make 11'' laptops with 3g.. this vaio was perfect !

 

Tethering is your friend!

 

Just read this whole thread. Wonder where those guys arguing about Bloomberg went lol.

Thanks for all your info HT!

Should be receiving mine shortly. Wanted to get a vaio before the line dies. Only wish it was CTO.

How was the Windows install? Were finding the Sony drivers a pain


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New Bios update for vaio pro 13/11 BIOS R1044V7 (you can update from windows 8,8.1 or 7 64bit)

http://dlv.update.sony.net/pub/vaio/download/EP0000321606/EP0000321606.exe

 

Hi

I just bought my Vaio Pro 11 non-touch screen version from Japan.
However I have a problem for the keyboard. My Pro 11 is Japanese keyboard.
It's no problem when I input numeric and English character. But I got problem when I input symbol.
They printed the symbol on the keyboard is different than English keyboard. However when I actually type the key is same as English keyboard.
How can I input the symbol is match with keyboard cap?
It's a bit complicate to explain.
e.g. They printed "(" on 8, ")" on 9. But when I shift + 8 is "*". "(" is shift + 9....same as English keyboard

I hope you understand what I meaning. I'm blind when I need input symbol...

 

Still haven't received my pro 11 yet, but I had a dream about fan noise lol


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Hope it NOT turns out to be a nightmare!

Please tell us about how the fan noise is - when you're awake.

 

Hey guys, new guy here.

I recently picked up my sony vaio pro 11 over the weekend from a guy on craigslist, brand new and sealed.
I've been lurking on this thread for about a week or two before making my decision to pick up this little beast, and i'm glad i made the decision of doing so.

I'm very pleased with the vaio pro 11, its everything I wanted in a laptop; small, portable,light, high resolution screen, and has the 4th gen haswell. (SVP11213CXB)

Once I opened the box and started playing around with it, there were problems with the wi-fi of course ( took me almost 3 hours to update drivers because it would always drop the wifi connection)
After finishing up all the drivers and installing 8.1, I was finally ready to begin my journey with my new laptop. I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

The only problem that I'm currently facing at the moment is that when I close the lid ( and turned on option for sleep once lid is closed, whether it is running on battery or ac) it would go into hibernation sometimes.

Its weird because sometimes it would sleep and once i open the lid it would automatically resume without me having to press the power button, but half the time it will go into hibernation and make me press the power button to resume.

Have you guys found any solutions to this problem or share the same problem?

 

I recently feel like resetting my VaiO back to its factory settings. However I can't do it, whether inside or outside of Windows. I contacted Sony support and they said that was because I upgraded to Windows 8.1 without creating a Recovery Media, which made the recovery partition corrupted. I thought that was really BS. Recovery partition should not be affected by anything in my opinion. Now they want me to purchase a recovery DVD instead.

Does anyone have any solutions with this? Thanks a lot.

 

You didn't make a USB recovery before?
If the recovery partition really corrupt then you can clean install windows 8. But not sure if you can find all the driver. Did you update the bios before upgrade Win 8.1?

 

Well, yeah, I mean I could do that, but it's just way more complicated and takes way more time. I would have to somehow get the windows license key since there's no Windows label on Vaio pro, and then find all the drivers. So much work...

I did update Bios once before upgrading to 8.1 but you know, there has been several other Bios updates released since then.

 

Does anyone here have a 1122xxx-Vaio Pro 11 (the spring-refresh-model)?

 

I bought a Vaio Pro 11, it's a model from the spring refresh (SVP11226PXS). Unfortunately the high pitch in the fan noise is still there, so Sony wasn't able to resolve this problem.

But there seems to be another problem with my machine: every few minutes the fan makes a strange stuttering noise for 1-2 seconds (like "grgrgrgrgrgr"). It seems that it happens at a certain fan speed, mostly while the speed is changing. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is it normal or should I send the machine back?

 

I must say that I don't have any fan issues with my Vaio PRO11, bought in October 2013. Could you measure the frequency of the high pitch? Could be that your hearing is very good and maybe other people do not hear it.
For me the only flaw till now is the rather weak reception of even rather strong WiFi signals. There has been discussion about this before.

 

Has anyone tried upgrading the SSD to something larger? I'm looking at a 512Gb or even 1Tb. So long as it has the m2 connector I imagine there's no real issue is there? This Vaio seems to be amongst the easier to open and close...

 

I was wondering about the SSD upgrade as well. Has anyone ever done it with a non-Sony SSD?
Noth, M.2 is not always the same. M.2 is a form factor. You get PCIe (built in the Pro 13 series) and SATA3 (built in the Pro 11, and obviously slower than PCIe), both with the M.2 interface. If I'm right about this.

 

Could it be that the upgrade to Windows 8.1 has deleted my recovery partition? It's completely empty now, and I certainly didn't delete it myself...

 

So it's pretty much confirmed that the 8.1 update caused my problem. The partition is still there, but Recovery can't see it.
Would any of you US model owners take pity and supply me a copy of the recovery DVDs? Happy to pay for it, but not happy to pay the $85 that Sony demand for it!
In the meantime, could someone put a drive letter to his/her recovery partition and let me know the contents of it? I have a folder called recoveryImage, with three files inside: a install.wim which contains the complete C: drive and two configuration files, one called ReCreatePartition.txt and the other resetconfig.xml
I've successfully used the install.wim to start fresh with a new Windows 8 version, but recovery is still not working.

 

My Vaio Pro 11 has Windows 8.1 and has been working well for long time. Recently I started having a problem and now it's becoming worse. Every time I do a full power off, next time I restart the laptop, I don't get passed the initial VAIO logo and it will not not boot. It can stay there one hour and the fan goes to maximum speed and the whole unit gets very warm. It looks like the BIOS is "looking for something". If I force on off several times or press the esc key or just wait and try later, eventually suddenly it will boot up. I have gone into the BIOS and one by one try change all possible settings but doesn't make a difference. This is getting worse and I know the day will come where this doesn't boot up at all anymore.

Any suggestions on why this behavior or how to fix it? I don't seem to have any stuck keys or hardware failure and when the laptop finally starts up it works perfectly..

Thanks in advance for any advice..

 

Tried out a vaio pro 11. Wow the fan noise is horrendous! This has to be the noisiest laptop I have ever used.

The excessive keyboard flex reviewers mention is rubbish. Mine is just fine. It might flex a little but nothing noticeable.

Screen graininess is annoying.

In end end I couldn't live with these issues despite the nice design, weight and keyboard.

 

I'm VERY fussy when it comes to noisy laptops, and I was very apprehensive after reading all the bad reviews about fan noise.
However, my unit is very quiet indeed. Even better in this warm weather: It stays cools.
This is with performance and cooling both set to 'Silent' in VAIO Control Center.
Are you sure you've set both these settings? Are you running the latest BIOS? If the answer is yes to all this then the only explanation is that there must be a production issue with either wrongly seated fans or perhaps they used a different fan in later models, but I am very happy with my unit.
I can't confirm the flex of the keyboard either. What I have to say is that the keyboard is one of the noisiest I've ever used. I'm a touch typer and I wouldn't be happy using this laptop for long periods of time in a quiet environment such as a library or so.
Screen graininess I also can't confirm. The screen seems to be much nicer in comparison the my SVZ 13" VAIO.
All in all, this, for me, is the best 11" laptop out there, and I'm very sad that Sony didn't manage to market and sell it properly, or address the issues that other people are having with it. It's definitely superior to the 11" MacBook Air, even though the touchpad isn't as nice, but then again, which Windows laptop is?

 

What are the known issues with the Vaio Pro 11 other than the wifi issues? And are the wifi issues fixed, or are they still significant? Is it possible to replace the wifi with a different card, such as the Intel 7260-AC?

I'm thinking about buying a used Vaio Pro 11 and just want to make sure I know what I am in for. Nothing else compares in terms of size and portability, as far as I can tell.

Any thoughts/advice appreciated!

 

I received a Vaio Pro 11 yesterday that I bought used for a reasonable price. It's the i5 model with 4GB ram and a 128GB ssd. Wish I could have had 8GB ram, but oh well.

Haven't played with it too much, but I must say, it's a beautiful laptop. Smaller and lighter than my wife's 11 inch MacBook Air, which is quite an accomplishment. Purely in terms of physical hardware, appearance, size, and weight, I would say it's one of the coolest gadgets I've ever bought. I think I like it's shape, size, and appearance even more than the MacBook Air. Too bad it's the last Vaio laptop ever to be made.

Time will tell whether I have the fan noise and WIFI issues that plague so many people. If I do, I will probably return it. But I just wanted to post to say that from a physical perspective, this thing is amazing.