Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

This is a problem I don't have (yet).

 

I also had the annoying high pitch noise...
As mentioned here
Noise coming from Vaio Pro 13 - Page 2 - Sony Community
I deactivated bluetooth in device manager. After that it is death silent.
...Except the horrible, unnecessary, aggressive cpu fan if it has to handle something more than idle...

 

Just got my I7, 8gb, 256gb, matte display in the UK and so far it hasn't been able to turn on. It's been I charge for 4 hours and turning it on shows a very feint Vaio logo, and a green light which stays on for about 5 minutes before turning off again.

Called Sony support and couldn't get through because I don't have a case number. Called the sales line who couldn't put me through to support because I bought the laptop in a Sony Centre and I don't have a customer number.

Very unimpressed so far, apparently they can't do anything until 9am tomorrow. Most likely have to send it back to be fixed.

Also, as a side note the edge of the matte screen isn't stuck down correctly and pulls away by about 5mm, bound to trap lots of dirt!

 

before the vaio pro i had a s series model which was much better concerning the cpu fan.
great machine but also had the problem that the display bezel was not mount correct. looked terrible on such a expensive machine. also there was a problem with the touchpad mounted unprecise.
what a luck amazon is so tolerant even after 6 months. sent it back and reflected long if i should by a vaio again....

 

Don't send it to Sony support to be fixed. I was told by support that if I sent it to them to be fixed then I wouldn't be able to get a replacement/refund and would just be stuck with the warranty service. I decided to just ask the sales team for a replacement and if that isn't good enough I'm getting a refund. I would take it back to the Sony Centre and get a replacement from there if I were you.

 

UK Sale of goods act!
Just take it back to the Sony Centre & get a replacement.
If it won't even turn on, there's no way they'll refuse to give you another machine.

 

hy guys

im in the market for a laptop, one that can handle well photoshop, illustrator, sketchbook pro . Its also important to run well 3ds max (only ofr some product rendering since im a product designer). Do you guys think that this laptop (sony vaio duo with 4400 , i7 and 8gb) would fill my needs? thanks a lot

 

Thanks, I'm going to go to the Sony store tomorrow to see what can be done. I really don't want to wait another 2 weeks for a replacement, hopefully there's some way of expediting an order.

 

Hi guys. Just to let you all know that with the extended battery attached,, it is possible to open the lid with one hand.

 

I've had the Vaio pro for a month now and I have not had the wifi issues at all until I got the MS touch BT mouse. The mouse will work for a while and then stop working, sometimes it will start working within a minute and sometimes a reboot is needed. When the BT mouse is connected I have also been getting wifi issues. Has any one had these problems?

 

Does anyone have a 2 finger scrolling issue? Especially in Google Chrome?

It feels like every other page it wont scroll until either 30 seconds later, or after i click in 5 places and move the bar up and down, then itl work.

its driving me NUTS!

what is the point of two finger scrolling if it doesnt work half the time.

 

i use it for photoshop and indesign and it seems to be fine. i have the i7, 8gb, 256gb model.

works fine for me. did you make sure to update the drivers? the trackpad was really finicky before i updated the drivers. then messed with the settings to get it where i liked it.

 

After reading most of the posts, I'm really disappointed with this machine. If it was a car it would need a recall. So many flaws and issues. Besides the Macbook Air, it's the only Haswell ultraportable available in Europe and I'm not sure if I should give it a try. My last laptop had a loud fan noise and that's the reason I gave up on it.

I'm sorry if this post is against the rules since it's more a moan.

 

How is the "status" of the Vaio Pro right now? I've read a lot about Wifi-issues but as I understand it it works well now after some kind of update or am I wrong? Are there any other issues other than the fan noise right now?

 

I got the 13 with the i5 and 128GB SSD. The base model. I really like its lightness and form factor. The keyboard is nice too, if not a little smudge-prone. Please note: on a forum, there are a small minority voicing their complaints. This is nothing compared to the vast majority of end users who will never step foot in a forum because they don't have anything to complain about. That being said...
My gripes:
-touchpad makes a very annoying hollow tapping sound when pressed. I have seen this discussed before (in the 70s page range) and it is a REAL thing. Actually, it's the only thing that makes me question the build quality on an otherwise very solid ultrabook.
-Windows 8 Insomnia. The laptop will wake up after an undetermined amount of time, or even worse, not sleep at all. I have done some google-fu, and it seems to be a general windows 8 problem, not necessarily a Pro 13 issue. It's still very, very annoying. I've tried everything I've found on MSFT Technet to no avail.
-Fan noise. I know, even with a Haswell LV chip in here, it's still very hard to pack an adequate cooling system on a laptop this small. Still-I get spinup--audible spinup--doing mundane things like just general web browsing. The fan is LOUD too. However, it seems like at idle, there are times where the fan gets shut off altogether. Nice to see that feature.
-Smudge resistance. I'm not exactly a dirty guy, I'm more towards the germophobe side than anything. Even with my frequent handwashing, I get smudges just from average use. Holding it, typing on it, anything seems to get noticeable oil on the chassis. The touch screen is even worse; I'm almost afraid to touch such a beautiful screen because there WILL be an oil smudge afterwards.
I've never had the wifi problems, thank goodness. If I did, that'd probably be the last straw and I'd be returning this for the 13" Sager.

 

I jumped ship to the Acer S7, it's has a better build quality and is dead silent. The keyboard isn't as good as the Sony but overall it's better. See you in the Acer Owner's Lounge.

 

This Windows 8 insomnia- do you mean the laptop randomly wakes up?
Someone else mentioned that a while back. It was due to Intel Smart "something" (can't remember off the top of my head). Have a search earlier in the thread as it was a very easy fix.

 

Hmm. How do you do a search function within the thread? Or, if you could find that, that'd be perfect. I'm willing to try this. Is it Intel Smart Connect? What do I do? Disable it? Uninstall it?

 

Yep, that was it. Intel Smart Connect. Basically, it lets the laptop wakeup to check for updates/sync emails etc.
You just needed to disable it in the Vaio Control Centre and it should stop it from waking up.

 

Already discussed - disable the power management for the bluetooth entries in device manager and you should be ok

 

Could this be the reason my battery seems to drain unless I shut down completely?

 

Oh yes I do, it's actually almost unusable.Two finger scrolling is something you want to use all the time and it's simply not working properly. Compared to the silk smooth and 100% reliable touchpad of the MBA this is complete rubbish.
By the way, except for the crappy touchpad and the worse-than-ever bluetooth function, I got to resolve at least the w-ifi problems, mine now works quite flawlessly. But on the whole I'm somewhat disappointed of this machine, especially compared to the MBA where everything just works fine while the SVP seems to be some kind of prototype...

 

I had the same problem with the electrical high pitched sound, disabling bluetooth solved it for me as well, thank you! (Sad that you have to disable it though...)
I also have the same CPU fan issues., nothing seem to help :-(

 

Yep, the Haswell Macbook Air didn't suffer from an identical Wi-Fi problem as the Pro...it just worked :hi2:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5100655?start=0&tstart=0

 

That did the trick, I have before only done the wifi power fix, but the BT fix solved the mouse issue !

 

How does the (non-touch) matte screen hold up (compared to other good matte screens) for those of you that have it? I would be very grateful if someone could take or share pictures/videos showing the amount of glare in various settings.

 

Vaio (pro 13) has no stereo mix (record audio through soundcard).
You can only record through the microphone.
This is a limitation in the audio software on purpose (Hollywood Sony and Realtek)
Pretty lame to find this out after purchase.

The only solution seems to be Virtual Audio Cable, but you have to pay for it.
Or install Windows XP...

 

The only comparison I can make is with my matte 24" 1080p Samsung TN monitor. The matte Pro's screen is pretty stunning. Maybe a tad too much saturation for my taste but extremely good nonetheless. Very minimal glare. I had a look at the touch screen one in the shop and am glad I went for non touch.

 

I'm getting my vaio pro 13 in a few days in Sony Online Store Poland. Now there is a free extended 18h battery (till sunday) and 7% student discount. Should i buy mine right now or wait for the new promotion (would better want free 256 ssd) ? Before there was a free 256gb ssd and I don't know if this promo will be avaliable soon again. What else can be for free expect ssd or battery ?

Last question - does any one have or know what is an actual e-voucher code (promotional code) ?

 

Sony is doing promotion after promotion. First i7 upgrade had a 50% discount, then 256GB upgrade for free and now the free 18h battery sheet. One starts at the end of the previous so a new one should roll out August 19th when the extended battery promotion ends. IMHO, you should wait for the next one if you didn't intend to buy the extra battery.

Remember there's always the chance Sony doesn't start a new promotion but it seems unlikely.

 

How can I get the student discount!? Because I don't see that option on the Polish site.

 

Tkanks for your opinion.

I figured out some kind of a solution.
Sony Poland has sth like "satisfaction guarantee". This mean when i'm not sattisfied, the product is not good enough as I thought, I can give it back in 30 days without any reason and get full money refund. So I can buy new Vaio pro 13 now and observe for 30 days if there is any better offer from Sony Online. If there is - I'll buy new one and give back the other one.

 

There is this option in "sklepy-->sklep edukacyjny (shops--> education shop)". Anyway it doesn't work correctly. Today I called sony callcenter and the ladie upgraded my sony account to let's say "student version". After that prices were shown down with 7% discount, for example 3899zł instead of 4169zł for 8 gigs version.

Still looking for promotional code to get an extra discount

 

I want the same thing! So all I have to do is call them, right? I will be returning my 4gigs version tomorrow and I want to buy the other one right after that. The one thing that worries me is: when you;re configuring the laptop it says that the arrival time will be betwwen 02 nd 06 september. But when you're checking the shopping cart it says 21-22 August, so I'm dissapointed ;P

 

Yes, all you have to do is call them. But be aware of one thing, you better be a student, there is a chance they would like to have a proof of that. This ladie told me that sometimes they require copy of yours student legitimation before shipment.

 

I am a student so that will not be a problem

 

This should work: ALKAFF3213

Yet you won't get any benefit if you already have the student discount. It doesn't lower the price from already discounted prices but rather from the original.

When I ordered Sony Vaio Duo 13 the price difference between student discount and the coupon discount was about 10 euros for the benefit of student discount.

So basically with that coupon a non-student can order a computer for the same price as a student.

Thought I haven't checked the same on Vaio Pro 13, but the principle remains the same.

I have now a Sony Vaio Pro 13 with i5, 4 Gb Ram and 128 Gb SSD, a base model which I bought from retailer, which I will be returning due to their 30 days return policy.

I really like this machine but sometimes if I have many more intensive websites open the fan noise annoys me. Also for my line of duty the Duo 13 is a better match especially considering I will be using the same machine for several years. Other than that I really like this computer, and after couple of days of installing, re-installing and removing bloatware I haven't had any problems with Wifi, but in the beginning it was just awful, Got about 1 Mb no matter how close to the Router I was. Now everything has been working like a charm.

 

I would have gotten the Duo 13 however the fact that you cannot change the angle of the screen is really a deal breaker. Unless you have a desk / chair with the perfect angle matching the laptop is almost useless. You cannot just bring it around and use it anywhere unless you want to have poor viewing angles.

The sweet spot for the screen is also relatively narrow. This somehow didn't first occur to me when i looked at it in-store since it was on a table and i was standing above it.

 

Well I just solved my 2 finger scroll problem I had, it seems I was doing it wrong all along, doh. Unlike on my S13A I had, I could keep the fingers more or less pretty close together and do 2 finger scrolling, whereas on the pro 13 I have to keep the fingers a lot more apart in order for the scrolling to work 100%. Came down to user error .

The fan noise can get loud but I've noticed that over the past month the noise has gone down a bit and hopefully with any luck it will stabilize. Btw firefox starts up the fan a lot more when playing flash vs chrome, not sure why.

 

Unfortunately I don't have the possibility to have a look of the product beforehand, and now I'm writing this lying in the bed on my back which I won't be able to do with Duo, but on the other hand when I imagine myself using the Duo at bed I would quite often simply prefer using it in tablet mode when simply browsing internet. Also the main function of having the chance of making notes and using programs like mindmanager by hand is something I'm looking for and excited about.

All I can do now is to try the Duo and if I don't like it I still have the 30 days return policy as an option.

Samsung Ativ Q is an interesting possibility but I really cannot accept the fact that it comes soldered with only 4 Gb Ram, Also I don't know how well other programs will behave using such a high resolution screen.

I'm seriously looking for a hybrid and at the moment from my point of view the Duo 13 seems to be the best option, but it is a hybrid aka "jack of all trades" so compromises are to be expected.

Still have about a bit over two weeks to wait until I will receive my unit.

I hope I won't come to the same conclusion as you did.

If I don't like it the next option would be probably just giving up and go for the Macbook Pro retina series when the new models come later this fall.

 

yeah that is weird. on my laptop, it doesn't matter how far it's spaced apart. you just have to make sure that both fingers are down at the same time and moving the same rate/direction.

 

I just noticed that the surface of the carbon fibre is not that smooth on the sides of the Vaio Pro. Is it because of the uneven paint job by Sony?
And has anyone of you accidentally scratched the surface of the carbon fibre on the Vaio Pro? How to remove a scratch on a carbon fibre surface?

 

Many of you have been waiting for this information.

This is the official Sony statement for Sony Centers and Sony dealers.

##############################
Hi all,

Over the past 2 weeks, we worked closely with Japan on the VAIO Pro issues. With this effort, Japan has committed to releasing a BIOS update for fan noise and a driver to resolve WiFi issue by next week.

We prepared the following statement you may use with your dealers:
“The Sony VAIO Pro Ultrabook, which was launched in June 2013, is designed for optimal performance with the highest level of safety standard. To this end, some users may find the sound generated by the fan more audible than expected. To remedy this, Sony will release a software update which optimises power management when VAIO Pro is operating in silent mode. In certain environments we also found some customers encountered WiFi connection problems which we will release a driver update to resolve. Sony is committed to providing quality products with the highest level of support to our customers. We recognize the inconvenience caused to those customers and worked diligently to identify solutions based on the feedback received. Both updates will be available via VAIO update within the next week.”

With this said, we ask that you continue to hold the VAIO Pro press samples until next Friday. At that point, we would have validated the fixes and will these provide instructions to release this hold.

As for Duo 13, we unfortunately do not have any news to share with the dealers. Please continue to hold your Duo 13 press samples until further notice.

This message wasn't meant for the customers who bought sony vaio pro 13 or Duo 13 but for the dealers.

Found this on the Sony's own forum, but thought of copying this information to here as well, just in case they remove it from the official sony forum as this is an internal memo.

 

I'll believe it when I see it, but at this moment not expecting much from Sony

I hope the optimizing of power will not cause the cpu to be throttled significantly, which will cause a decrease in cpu performance. This is something I do not want. Would be nice if they could set the fan to turn on to higher rpms at say 60 or 65 degrees and not 50. Perhaps the cooling is just inadequacy for this machine and instead of a flat bottom with no vents, sony could have added some vents for extra heat dissipation but then other ultrabooks lack these vents and supposedly are not this loud.

Any bios update will take time and if it gets released before the end of september or october I will be surprised.

thanks for the relayed messaged truplayr

 

This definitely smells underclocking...

In any case, I bet Linux users are going to be screwed, the way you select the running mode being more likely specific to the VAIO Pro...

 

Silent mode already currently underclocks the cpu. Don't think there's much wriggle room to throttle it any more without making silent mode very slow.
Hopefully, will just be a higher threshold before the fans kick in.

 

While checking the temperatures during a stress test, you might understand why they don't want to make these higher thresholds available in other modes than silent:

(from: Sony Vaio Pro 13 : Test complet)


Edit: The same test using the Macbook Air 2013 with Windows 8:




The Apple's heatpipe is not doubled and shorter but this is still more efficient than the Sony choice:

 

The aluminium casing seems to help a lot in the case of the MacBook Air. It's basically just one big heat spreader. Temperature readings are distributed way more evenly. It still seems a little hotter than the Vaio Pro on the keyboard - and even at the downside, peak temperatures aren't that much higher for the Vaio Pro.

All that being said, the main problem with the Vaio Pro's fan isn't that it can get pretty loud when under full load (which is the case those heat maps depict). The main problem is that it starts spinning way too early (even under just very little stress). SONY doesn't need to address the maximum rpm/noise. They need to adress the minimum threshold at which the fan kicks in - and there's a LOT of temperature headroom right there.

They could easily raise that minimum threshold without compromising their "maximum design temperature" (i.e. safety at maximum load) in the slightest way. There's no need for the fan to start spinning as long as the CPU cores stay cooler than 50°C (they can reach about 65°C max in my case).

Currently, the fan starts spinning once the CPU cores hit around 40°C - which is just ridiculous. The casing isn't any warmer than 30-35°C in that case. So "safety" is a non-issue in this scenario - and the fan is just producing totally unnecessary noise while blowing mostly cold air.

The reason I'm emphasizing this point so much is that, based upon the press release cited above, SONY doesn't really seem to have grasped what the REAL problem is. So, once more:

They don't need to throttle the CPU even more in silent mode to further reduce MAX temperatures and MAX noise; they need to raise the MINIMUM threshold at which the fan starts to kick in in order to reduce unnecessary noise emissions in light to medium usage scenarios.

If anyone of you is active in one of SONY's support forums and/or is in touch with their tech support, please make sure to communicate this point clearly - otherwise, even after a possible bios-update, we'll probably just get a machine that's even slower and emits less maximum noise in silent mode - but stays as loud as it currently is under lighter stress.

 

Do you know if there is a worldwide warranty for SVP13? I would like to buy one in Canada and then use it in Europe.

 

I think there is an option to buy it but I may be wrong, when I registered mine, it had something about a limited international warranty, but I do not recall the exact information unfortunately. I do believe the canadian warranty is only for Canada and might not even be honoured in the US, best option would be to ask someone at sony canada about such info.