Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

Yeah I know, I've also got a desktop PC but I need a portable laptop for a while - and I'd also like to do some gaming with it. I'd really like to know is TF2 playable on the Vaio Pro or not. I would be just fine with low settings, I'm not expecting anything else, as long as it runs smoothly.

About the wifi issue... I suppose that an external wifi dongle should do the trick if the laptop itself has problems connecting to a network?

 

Did you disable both the auto-dimming feature in the VAIO control centre AND the energy saving function in the Intel display driver settings? I don't have any dimming problems whatsoever.

The only problem that remains for me is the greyed-out bluetooth software toggle switch. Doesn't bother me too much, though.

Happy they pushed the Pro to the market as fast as possible - I really needed a new laptop and couldn't have waited any longer

 

Here is how to get around the "issue":

Go to Intel Graphics Properties -> Energy settings -> choose "battery" in the upper right corner -> shut off the adaptive display power saving technology

 

I wanted to play some low demanding games like defcon or unity of command, maybe also baldurs gate enhaced, but the firsts ones raised the temps from 42 to 59-65ºC and so the fan, has anyone tried games that dont raise the temps and the fan? or any way to keep temps and fan as low as possible at vaio control center, or intel app? i´ve tried but it seemed worthless in both of those games

 

teufelskrapfen is correct - this turns the auto-brightness off

 

By the way, is it possible to order the Vaio and return it after testing if it doesn't meet my demands? Might be a good option to see for myself what it's like if I knew I could get a full refund if needed.

 

Where are you from?
I know in the UK we are protected by distance selling act so that would cover it providing it was an online order

 

I'm from Finland. At least Sony advertises that they provide a 30-day return period. I was just wondering if people had actually used that option, so if I were to return the device, the answer wouldn't be that it's used and it cannot be returned.

 

I can test TF2 at the weekend. I'm pretty confident that it will work.
An external WiFi dongle should work, but that can't be the solution. The good message is: The new drivers seem to work for a lot of people (including me). For the ones who still got problems: Uninstall the WiFi drivers and the intel wireless software, reboot, and then install the new drivers. Helped in my case.

Worked! Thanks!

 

Maybe I do have a CPU that's eating a bit more power than it ought to be. CPUZ shows it moving between .697 and .702W. That's not quite as low as others of you are observing, I take it.

 

I think I do have a CPU that's draining a bit more power than it ought to be. CPUZ shows voltage ranging between .697 and .702. I think that's a bit higher than what some of you are seeing, right?

 

There's nothing wrong with 59-65C when gaming. That's safe and well below the thermal ceiling of 100C. Many laptops will reach that temp and more when playing 3D games.

 

Safe yes, but i wanted low temps and low fan rpm, to increase lifetime, those games are low demanding and i expected to run them with very low impact on temps and fan rpm, today i ´ve made a change in vaio control centre (maximize batery and low performance both on battery and a/c, all in low except for video playing), i will check impact on temps and fans

 

I had already disabled these features in both the Intel gpu properties and Sony vaio software. But I figured it out. It had somehow been re-enabled in the vaio software. Oh well. It's good now. Pretty much all my problems are fixed now. Crazy I had to go through so much trouble fixing stuff though. Luckily for them the screen is beautiful or I would've refunded it for an air by now.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

Alright, so I have been using the laptop (i7, 8GB, 256SSD) for two days now and overall I am pretty pleased with the device. Unfortunately, what really bothers me is the fan noise.

The fan starts spinning audibly around 48°/49°/50°C. The only time I get temperatures lower than that is when using Word. Even during browsing with 3-4-5 tabs open I easily reach the 50°C plateau. Watching an HD Youtube video spikes the temperature up to 65°C-67°C, where fan noise is pretty much unbearable. Now I just wanted to check back what kind of temperatures you guys are getting (I checked this using HWMonitor).

I called the Sony support (which is subpar at best here in Germany, to put things nicely) and after being stuckin the wait loop for eternity the support agent told me the temperature - while browsing - should be around 35°C on the i7. He couldn't assist me any further and escalated the problem to the Vaio link support. Unfortunately, you have to type in the first 8 digits of your serial number and I cannot get past that as the automated voice tells me that my S/N is not valid. Yeah, thank you.

 

TF2 should work fine on the sony pro. i have it running on the surface pro fine, so with sony's upgraded processors, i'm pretty sure it will do fine.

 

Guys, can anyone take me some doubts??

On my country, there seem to be available at this time the Pro with 4GB of ram and 128SSD and cannot be configured over the Sony webstore or at local stores.
If I bought one, is it possible to change/add more RAM and a bigger SSD ?? Or they are soldered to the mainboard ??

 

RAM is soldered to the mainboard and can't be replaced.
SSD should be exchangable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNRdNizgBeo
The device in the video has the PCIE SSD; I don't know if the SATA SSD can be replaced too, but I would suppose so.

@Clac: I just tested TF2, it runs very smoothly at >30FPS with full hd and pretty high settings.

 

Did anybody try Speedfan to change the fan speed or set higher fan ignition temps?

 

I tried to use Speedfan due to the problems mentioned above, but the computer crashed every time I tried to open the program.

One other very annoying thing that I just noticed: when I have the laptop on my lap I naturally put my wrists on the palm rest. This pushes the computer against my leg so that I inadvertently "press" the touchpad from the bottom. Now when I use the touchpad I highlight text and pull windows andwhatnot all over the place, because I am keeping it pressed down with my leg from the other side. You can simulate this by simply pushing against the touchpad from the bottom and simultaneously using it.

 

Hey,

why is the core voltage cpu dependent? The lowest value I could reach was 0.695V for the svp13 with i7. On average it is 0.710V in the batterysaving mode (Max/Min CPU power = 0). Could you post some values for comparison?

km

 

Better temps now 59ºC on Defcon, with max battery life on ac and all on low on advanced settings on vaio control center energy plan, on unity of command much better 50ºC fans silent

 

For those asking about returns: I returned my laptop today for a replacement. When I called for a replacement, they asked if I want a replacement or a full refund. I had a 30-day window for returns. TNT left a voicemail on my phone, and also emailed me with a name and number to contact, including 2 extension numbers (in case 1 was busy). I fixed today's time with them, and they came to my house & picked the parcel up at the allocated time. Completely hassle free.

I'm in the UK.

 

I know you guys tested TF2, but has anyone tried running Civilization V? That's really the only game I'm interested in playing on this, I'm curious what kind of settings the Pro can handle.

 

@Desigos: With the highest settings moving the camera is not 100% smooth but the laptop can handle it without problems

How good is your wifi strength? I installed the newest drivers but I still have drops if I'm far away from the router (my other laptop - vaio z - does not have any problems). So, I'm thinking which one to keep....

 

Another note for the ones who want to play games on their Vaio Pro: I tried Guild Wars 2 today and it runs surprisingly good with constantly more than 30FPS at lowest settings and 1280x720.

 

Only way to have lower temperature and fan rpm is throttling.
Vaio fan's algorithm is strange. Bios is trying to keep temperature below 70C. Another laptops works in silent with temperature at 80C and they turning fans at full speed close to 100C. Blowing air when temperature difference between ambient and cpu is small it's no use.
When temperature is close to 70C cpu frequency is reduced. It can take after 25-30s, so vaio pro have full power for only 30secs. Excellent, after that is slower than my 5 years old hp.

 

I have been using the device for the last four days and just wanted to share my impressions with you all, as I myself am really happy when other people write some reviews.


I ordered my Sony Vaio Pro 13 June 25th through the Sony Education Store Germany, it arrived July 9th. I got a non-touch model with the i7 processor, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SATA SSD.

Upon unboxing, the first thing that captures your attention of course is the incredible weight. Due to its lightness it sometimes feels a bit flimsy, but I wouldn't worry too much. Only time will tell if the carbon-fibre chassis is sturdy enough.

As I'm no big fan of glossy screens I got the non-touch model with an anti-glare/matte screen. Plus, I didn't want any fingerprints on it. The non-touch screen is pretty good, very little reflection, good viewing angles. So I would definitely recommend that if you don't like glossy screens and can live without touch.

I was never a big fan of chiclet keyboards, but I guess it comes with the ultrabook territory. The keystroke is fine, makes a bit too much noise for my taste. But still nothing out of the ordinary. The touchpad can be a bit unresponsive, although it's nothing that a driver update couldn't fix, I think. One really annoying thing: due to the thinness and the flexible material I can't use the Vaio Pro on my lap. When I put my hands on the palmrest, the notebook gets pushed against my legs and thus I somehow press the touchpad from the bottom. Using it with my fingers I highlight texts, move objects and so on. Support told me it's a notebook and not a LAPtop, I cannot use it like that. Well, great.

I am new to Windows 8 so I was a bit overwhelmed after booting the machine for the first time, but thanks to useful shortcuts (Windows+X, Windows+W and so forth) I got the hang of it pretty fast. What's really unacceptable is the amount of bloatware on this machine. I don't even know where to start, games, tools, bars, McAffee .. it takes some time to get rid of this. Another letdown is the capacity of the SSD. The first time I checked I had some 206GB of free disk space, and that's before I installed any programs. I called Sony support about some other issue and they told me the recovery partition could take up to 40GB of space.

I also had some minor issues with wifi, the connection dropped from time to time, but after installing the updates available on the Sony website it works fine. The Sony Vaio Updater does not work for me; after giving them the model number support told me that's due to the Vaio Pro somehow not yet being listed in the database, that's why I get the error message: "Could not acquire information ….".

During normal usage (Chrome with some tabs, Skype, some Youtube, brightness 50%) I get about 5-6 hours of battery time, which is decent, I think. I also got the additional sheet battery, haven't used it though, yet. For office purposes (Word/Excel and so on), Wifi switched off, brightness even lower one could get 8-9 hours, I presume.

Office use is also the only time I don't hear any fan noise. This is also my only other big complaint, the fan is just too noisy. It kicks in audibly around 48°-49°C, at 53°-55°C it's already quite loud. Streaming a 1080p Youtube video spikes the temperatures up to 65°C and here you already have to raise the volume in order to understand the voices in the video, definitely too loud. I don't know if Sony will change something to their fan management, but this is a deal-breaker for me.

So overall this is a very nice machine, great screen, great battery, awesome portability. Nevertheless, I will return it due to the fan noise and the fact that I cannot use it on my lap. I will order another model with an i5 processor and hope the machine I got was an outlier. Should've done so in the first place, 200€ more for the i7 is just not justifiable. Plus, it might even improve battery life and reduce fan noise.

 

I bought a Sony Vaio S CTO a few weeks ago in the UK (before they disappeared from CTO) and wasn't happy with the screen after using it for a few days. They refunded me with no questions asked.

 

Thkx a lot... now I'm sad... why the hell Sony in my country sucks?!?! I just hope the put more SKUs available for sell...

Can anyone tell me with 4GB and Win 8 x64, with the stock OS (barely no extra software installed), how much RAM is available?!

 

@arzinger could you please post the lowest frequency your cpu is able to reach?

I also found that the max. cpu speed has to be set again after each restart by changing the energy mode...

 

Thanks for the responses! Just ordered mine, hopefully it arrives soon (Estimated time is around 25th)

 

I went ahead and installed the Windows 8.1 Preview and for the most part things are working okay. One thing that isn't working is the graphics driver. Whenever I try to open the Intel HD Graphics control panel it crashes. A related problem is that I can no longer control the brightness with Fn F5 and Fn F6 - it seems like F1 and F7 don't work any more either. Has anyone else run into these problems and maybe fixed them?

 

Does the HDMI output transmit sound to a hdmi source like a TV or AV receiver?

 

Got mine today and thought i give it a short review in regards to the problems i read on those boards as those had me a bit concerened.

In regards to to the fan noise - initally the notebook worked quite hard as it had to update a bunch, but after that i did not encounter any more problems. Once when he was ideling the fan started up, but assume Windows also needs to index stuff. One thing i noticed, that one of those Microsoft antimalware softwares used up quite a bit initally, but since i have extra software for that i deactivated it.

The touchpad is quite sensitive and produces some errors. I also use a external one, the Logitech T650 that seems to perform better. But maybe they are going to improve on that with upcoming software updates.

In regards to Wifi dropouts - none for me yet i cant say much yet about performance being further away from the router.

I tried Windows 8 for 2 hours - what a ret. piece of software, how can a company produce such a piece of c. and release it??? I would instantly switch back to Win7, but i´m afraid the drivers wont work so i´m going to use it in Desktop mode with an additional program called Classic shell. That seem to work quite good actually.

Thats my first laptop with a chiclet style keyboard coming from a Lenovo X200s - i really love the keyboard and i will enjoy typingn on it.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned, is the awesome screen (i have matte non-touch). Very clear image, quite bright.

I´d say, that was quite a good purchase.

 

Hello All,

Just got the new Vaio Pro 13 512gb yesterday (California) and unfortunately I can confirm the Wifi problem is real.
One ray of hope. It seems to work very well in the 5Ghz band network in my office. No disconnect -works fine entire day through multiple upgrades and downloads and the signal is not the strongest (-70db@5GhZ). Similar to- or faster to my Vaio Z ( Intel N6200). However at home I have only a single band 2.4 GHz agn router. Close to the router the old Vaio Z circa March 2010 and Vaio pro work similarly. As soon as you move away from the router -about 40 feet 3 thin walls the Vaio pro stops connecting and the Vaio Z shows still 10 Mbps -no problem Vaio Z show -70dB VaioPro shows -80dB. That is at my couch where I like to work in the night.

I have tried all the tricks described here and sony community adjusting channel to Auto trying bg and not n - new drivers .05, old drivers .01. Nothing seems to fix it. Played with every power setting and wireless setting for 2 days. Very reproducibly it just does not work and the old Vaio Z (Windows 7 professional) works perfect. Even my daughter older ipod touch works perfectly in that spot.


I think this is a major problem -think about hotels where wifi is iffy - it will just not connect. I am sending the unit back and see if the the new unit has the same problem.

I will also pick up a dual band modem for home and see if this is fixes it - but even if it does it will be questionable i-when travelling this laptop may not connect to 2.4GhZ. The only alternative is to buy a cheap 20$ micro USB wireless adapter to have some backup. Unbelievable 2500$ machine being crippled by 20$ part.

Hope Sony/Intel will find the solution soon-otherwise it is a beautiful laptop. Hope Sony actually reads it. The disk speed is out if this world. I am getting over 1066 MBytes/sec. Fan noise is not bad after all the updates etc are done -it is not worse probably better than old Vaio. But the fan is not silent like on some other ultrabooks -most of the time is quiet. Still typing this on my old Vaio Z since the Vaio pro is out of range.

I will update the status with the new machine and the dual router. I will also test the micro usb plugged in the same location .

Any comments from people who compared wireless in the same location with 2 different devices would be very helpful .

 

Can you direct me to where you program Windows 8 to "Desktop Mode" in the Pro 13? I'll also be new to W8; so when I go back to the Sony Store to look at the Pro 13 again, I'd like to see what Desktop mode looks like on that notebook.

 

He was referring to a freeware program called start menu8 which we discussed earlier in the thread:

IObit Start Menu 8 Free download, Bring Start Menu back to Windows 8

Using that program, not only do you get the Start button back but you also get the ability to boot directly into desktop mode and avoid the Charms screen entirely. To see what this would look like in a store, on the Charms screen is the button for Desktop, click on that and it looks very much like the Windows 7 version.

BJ

 

Thanks for the clarification on this. I was under the impression that "Desktop Mode" was in Settings/Control Panel separate from "Obit Start Menu 8". Thanks :thumbsup:

 

Ah, gotcha.

What might have confused you are the news reports about the upcoming Windows 8 update that will have a Start button of its own (sort of).

For me, this freeware program works great and I've figured out all the shortcuts needed on the Desktop to get me to a good place. I like Windows 8 in many other ways, but the landing pages and the front-end are a mess.

BJ

 

I received my CTO US version today (Touch Screen) i5, 8GB, 256GB Silver. My initial thoughts after setting up all the applications for my wife (her computer). It was built and shipped out of China. They did not package it in another box, simply slapped a label on the original. When I removed the notebook out of it's plastic sleeve, immediately, I noticed 2 long streaky scuff marks across the lid, poor QC. As for the notebook itself, it's light and what you would expect from Sony Style. I took the information from this thread and was prepared to deal with the wifi, fan noise and Windows 8 (thanks to those who contributed). My thoughts on those issues... well yes the fan is loud but not high pitched. Like others have said, it's tolerable if the room isn't dead silent. Otherwise, it does spin up even on idle for no good reason (idle temp runs at 42 C). At the moment, it's pretty quiet on idle... strange. I'm using the balanced power scheme. The touchpad is weak. It feels cheap and has a small gap from the base. I don't know if this is intentional to give the user the click feel when doing a light tap in the middle... but it bugs me that when I'm simply moving the mouse across the screen, I can feel and hear a click without adding pressure. I feel as though it isn't tightened... Also, it is unresponsive at times. I had to tweak the registry (Synaptics) to disable the edge swipe (app switch and charms). If you need to know where, let me know as I don't have the notebook handy. The Synaptic drivers from Sony does not have the option in the control panel to disable this. The wifi works okay, I can see the signal constantly dropping to 1 bar, even in close range but it hasn't dropped off completely yet... I've only tested it for a few hours and will continue to provide any updates in this thread.

 

Hello owners of the SVPro 13. How is the screen so far? I know it's a FHD IPS glossy display but does it have a grainy smudgy look to it like most IPS matte screens??? Is the IPS on the Vaio Pro 13 show "IPS Bleeding Glow" where there are light bleeding when viewing dark backgrounds? Is it really colorful and perfect for viewing photos and watching movies??

Thanks

 

I can attest to the hotel issues. Its REALLY annoying when my IPhone 4 connects perfectly, while the SONY goes from 5 bars to 2 bars to one bar to drop, then reconnects, then the same nonsense again after a few minutes. I did compare the following devices for two routers (home and work) in the same location: Dell XPS 12, IPhone 4s, New IPad, old IPad, older Dell XPS with Windows 8. Every device except the Sony works flawlessly. SONY tech support was completely worthless and clueless. The new drivers made things better, but did not fix the problem.

 

For those with wifi issues, check this posted earlier:

 

Thanks for your impressions.

What about Sony software/bloatware? Did you uninstall anything? Or maybe it would be better to do clean install and get rid of recovery partition, thus freeing a bit more space on SSD? What are your thoughts on this?

 

You can disable these gestures in Vaio Control Center

 

The new driver makes almost no difference. WiFi still sucks....

 

I am tempted to get this laptop, but not so sure because of the flexability. What do you guys think about the build quality? Compared to the ativ book 9. Thanks!

 

I'm very impressed with the build quality. Carbon fibre is meant to flex, so it absorbs shocks better and thus more resistant to cracking and breaking.

 

Nobody can help me regarding my question? Someone with the Vaio Pro 13 please tell me about the screen when you have a minute.



Thanks