Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

The specific drive I have doesn't have any software/driver/bios available, I checked the manufactor+model (kingston datatraveler elite 3.0 16gb)

 

Well I pulled the trigger about an hour ago. I chose the i5 model, 128 GB SSD and 4 GB RAM. I got free shipping and an additional 5% discount. (Every little bit helps.) I just hope I am not disappointed in wifi performance and/or battery life. The sales rep claimed that Sony had changed some chips in the wifi system in August and that I would have no wifi problems. (One of the first things I will check.) And the rep also claimed that I should get 7 hours of battery life. (The second thing I will check.) If either claim turns out to be false, Sony will get this unit back real quick.

Regards, Jim

 

Whilst they may have made changes in August, it definitely hasn't solved it entirely. I bought one in late September (and it's custom so can't be old stock) and when I enquired last week they confirmed 'ongoing investigations into reported WiFi issues' and were pretty quick to offer a USB adapter as a 'goodwill gesture'.

 

I got my Pro 13 on the day it was released and I haven't had a single wi-fi issue, ever. Rock solid, no issues at home, at work, or on the road. Some have reported issues, I count about a dozen people, and as you'd expect in a discussion forum those who complain about issues overwhelm those who have nothing to complain about.

Just today I decided to upgrade my Pro 13 to Windows 8.1 and did a speedtest.net wi-fi test connected to my Verizon FIOS Quantum N router and was at 90.6 MBPS down which is the best performance I've seen yet.

BJ

 

Firstly Id like to say im glad I found this thread. lots of great info that got my 13 up and running smoothly

Im wondering if anyone else had issues with the touchpad not picking up a touch (not a click) ie: touching links, buttons, etc. I would say half the time they don;t register. Is there a way to increase sensitivity?
Not sure if faulty or just the nature of the 13's touchpad

 

you can change the click by tap setting in touch-pad setting and there you can change the tap sensitivity and tap area .

 

Hello folks, I am considering a Sony like this one and have two questions. The first is this: does anyone know how good Sony's customer service is? I keep seeing people posting here for answers to problems, which is fine, but are they helpful when you call them? I'm in Canada.

Also, would this machine be good for music production, does anyone know?

 

Hey guys! I'd like to make a clean Windows 8.1 install on SVP13. Should I delete all the OEM-EFI-Recovery-etc-etc partitions and format the whole ssd drive, or should I leave all of them untouched?

 

Hi,

Just ordered an SVP13 with the Fresh Start option. What do I need to do to get all the patches installed to get wifi etc working properly? Will it still run vaio update or should I be manually downloading everything off the site? Any utilities needed to get the usual Fn keys to work?

Cheers.

 

Tech Support Showdown 2012

Best and Worst Tech Support 2013 - Showdown - LAPTOP Magazine

Have personally contacted Canadian Support line numerous times all with good experience(not necessary that problems were solved but I believe information had been passed along and subsequent drivers or software update at a later date fixed those issues). Response time was fast and staff are generally courteous and helpful.

 

The one program that didn't seem to be included with FreshStart was the "Synaptics Pointing Device" program to change the trackpad settings. (FreshStart means all the bloatware is left out, e.g., McAfee.)

VaioCare and Windows Update are there, and you will still need to run those in order to get your Pro updated. The Fn keys work fine as is.

As for the wifi issues and such, I had gone through all the earlier forum messages from other users and applied the necessary tweaks. If you want details, I can look up the messages and forward to you privately.

 

Fantastic, thanks Wiclee. I was almost driven to Apple for their legendary support. Nice to see Sony is stepping it up, if those links can be believed.

The other thing I wonder is this: since the fan can be loud under heavy load, I'm wondering if this laptop might be problematic for recording audio? Or if one would be able to control that, like, monitor heat and temporarily disable the fan when appropriate, etc.

Anyone know?

 

There are two kinds of support in my book. One is when you have issues that could be easily solved with a Google search. The other is when stuff is just all wrong. I had the luck of buying a retina Macbook Pro that suffered from image retention. It was a well documented issue but it required three hours of monkeying around to get a "you can send it in, but you are past 14 days so you might get charged if it's not a real issue" I went ballistic on them so it was fixed, promptly sold on eBay along with all my other Apple stuff. I mean 14 days is legendary -- legendary horse dung. Sony and the MSFT store give 30 days to figure out if something is not to your liking.

Sony hasn't been the fastest on fixing some of their issues -- but neither was Apple -- but the people I know who've complained (about their early wireless problems) were offered full refunds outside even the 30 days. Anecdotal evidence for sure but it's the best I can give!

 

I just did a drum tracking session and recorded 9 drum tracks simultaneously and the Vaio help up great. No hiccups and the fan never even turned on.

 

Oh fantastic thank you so much, Soundtweaker. What software are you recording with? Are you using the Vaio Pro 13 as your main music machine? How do you find it for music? And have you experienced any random muting while creating music, or only on video playback?
I'm so relieved to hear from someone using it for this purpose. If I buy one, I'll load Ableton 9 Suite, Band in a Box and Melodyne on it.

 

Has anyone noticed the price drop / sales on the Pro 13? I saw one for $1249USD- i5, 256SSD, 8GB Ram with W7 OS. I noticed even Sony selling these Pro 13 with Windows 7 on their site. I wonder if I should make a purchase now or if this a sign that a refresh or newer model will arrive after CES 2014?

 

The base model i5 was on sale at the Sony Store for about a week at $1,099.99, It is now back at $1,249.99. I bought one for $1,044.99 on December 28. (They gave me an additional 5% discount.) It shipped on December 30th and delivery is scheduled for January 2nd. I only see one model on the Sony site with Win 7. I don't know abut a 2014 refresh. I don't remember when the Vaio Pro was released.

Good luck, Jim

 

I'm using Sonar X3 for recording. The Vaio isn't my main machine. I just use it for drum tracking and live sampling using Kontakt. I find it a lot easier to use it with a mouse and the touchscreen since Sonar supports touch.
I have experienced some muting but not on video. Only when triggering samples in Kontakt but I think my QuNexus keyboard is the culprit because it doesn't officially support Win8.

 

That's a great deal you got. I do remember seeing it advertised at Sony.com The base model has 128SSD w/ 4GB RAM. For $150 more, the model I saw has 256SSD with 8GB RAM, but with W7 OS. I'm not sure if I should jump on this now or wait for CES 2014.

 

Would you be happy with Win 7, or would you upgrade to Win 8.1? If you are not in a hurry to get something, why not wait until CES 2014? On the other hand, what new stuff do you expect to see in 2014? I am not sure I will keep the Pro 13. I have seen a lot of complaints about battery life and fan noise. If mine has those problems, it will go back to Sony and I will wait and see what comes out next year.

Good luck with your decision,

Regards, Jim

 

Hello, I recently bought a vaio pro 13 but i'm very dissapointed with touchpad.
Tap to clic function only works on the center of the touchpad and general response is very bad.
is it possible to fix this with driver updates or I have a defective unit?

thanks to everybody and happy 2014

 

Hello everyone!

I am planning to buy a sony vaio pro 13 model svp13217pbs
Due to the issues that this model has with the wifi card, I got a little bit scared of buying it.
Is it completely solved?

On the other hand, I'd like to install Ubuntu alongside with Win8. I read some tutorials to accomplish the dual boot, but I was wondering if all the features (touchscreen, wifi, bluetooth, usb, hdmi, NFC, webcam, microphone, etc) will work under ubuntu 12.04 or 13.10

Should I buy it or not? I got a discount and I have until friday to decide or I lose 500 usd discount.
Thanks and hope someone can help me.
Happy new year!

 

On the previous page or so there were a number of people who've said that the area it is effective in is changeable in the settings.

 

Actually, the answer is YES and NO in the same time. Because the wifi issue in Sony Vaio Pro 13 is more complicated than that.

First, there is a software issue. It manifests itself in disconnection phenomena, sometimes "limited connection" and speed drops. This is not unique to Sony, it's quite common for modern ultrabooks for many reasons (Win 8 energy management, Intel card, poor written drivers etc.) With all the latest drivers, patches, newest BIOS and all necessary software "fixes" this issue could be considered as solved. Well, mainly, cause there may be exceptions. So if you ask Sony about wifi issues, they most likely tell you: "of course, this has been solved already".

I've heard that statement back in October, so I bought the SVP13. But, there is another part of the whole "wifi issue" story.

It's hardware issue. Many have tried to guess whether it's bad antennas placement, or carbon shell working as a shield, or some internal 2.4 GHz noise. There was a RF engineer on Sony Community, who actually dismantled the SVP13, measured it with his profi equipment and found the third option (internal motherboard noises) as a source of wifi problems (at least most likely).

The hardware problem manifests itself as a poor wifi range, far below the average for other mobile equipment. Now, this is completely measureable and repeatable thing: If the wifi signal falls below -65dB, then SVP13 cannot provide the same wifi connection speed as other "benchmark" devices, including older Vaio series, or even tablets and smartphones. In some cases, the wifi connection speed (for download and upload) could be 20x slower than it should be.

If you comprehend this you will understand why certain people returned their SVP13. The most common cases were businessmen and students, who needed reliable wifi in true mobile conditions, where wifi signal is not always very strong (hotels, airports, campuses etc.)

On the other hand, there are people who are quite satisfied with their SVP13 and they do not complain about wifi. I would even say that this is a majority, actually. It all depends on particular conditions, where the laptop will be used. One may never notice anything wrong. Other may find wifi performance unacceptable.

Finally I returned my unit. I even got the USB wifi dongle from Sony before. BTW, this dongle is an actual proof of underlying hardware issue and Sony acknowledged that. My SVP13 with the dongle had very good wifi performance, much better than internal card. But I couldn't accept that as a permanent solution.

 

calzone123, thank you so much for your explanation.
So if it is a hw problem they are not going to fix this with sw...
If I stand next to the router or 1, 2 meters from it, I am going to have a bad wifi performance?
It really sucks cause this ultrabook before knowing the wifi issue was a perfection.
Sincerely I do not want to buy something that is originally faulty. I do not even understand how this was not checked during quality controls.
Thank you.

 

No, your wifi will be excellent. Unless you'll have "regular" software disconnection issues.

This hardware flaw isn't that severe anyway, as -65dB level means that you'll be OK up to 5-7 meters from AP (these are estimates, it all depends on different things like walls, other interferences etc.).

Also, 5GHz band is much better on this machine.

 

Well, I got my Pro 13 at 10:43 am today. Ordered on December 28th, shipped on December 30th and delivered on January 2nd. So far I am impressed. No excessive fan noise, in fact no noticeable fan noise or heat with default power plan. Wifi gives excellent throughput at ~20 feet from AP. I will test at weak signal strength conditions tomorrow. Very light but feels strong, very little flex. Less flex than the UX302LA that I just returned. Keyboard just fine for my hunt and peck typing.

It took me about five hours to get everything set up. First, download and install all 79 Win 8 updates, second, download all 20 Sony updates, including a BIOS update and something called ME firmware update, third, create three recovery DVDs and finally install Google Chrome.

Tomorrow I will check wifi performance at weak signal strength and upgrade to Win 8.1.

Regards, Jim

 

I'd be happy with W7 (in fact, I prefer W7), but I'm still reluctant to make the purchase because of these issues people are still documenting in this forum. $1249 is such a great deal though. It's unusual for Sony not to have done a refresh on this model. I'm now thinking Sony may introduce a new Pro 13 altogether which is why there hasn't been a refresh.

 

Hey I just got my Vaio Pro 13 this week and I've been loving it. I do have one frustrating issue however. When I put the laptop to sleep it doesnt like to stay asleep. I did some research and i turned off the intel smart connect but that didnt do anything. I really suspect its the touch screen that is getting activated and waking the laptop. Since the laptop is so thin when its closed and I move it around I think the touchscreen thinks that im touching it. Is there any way to make the touch screen not wake the computer?

 

I did some WiFi testing of a SVP13 I had for a day and compared it directly to my old ASUS F8Sn-B1. Both laptops are capable of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz using the 802.11n protocol. Testing was done with my excellent dual-band D-Link 825 router flashed with OpenWrt firmware and broadcasting 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz simultaneously, though I can't do channel bonding as I previously could with the original D-Link firmware. Channel bonding only worked if I was within 3 meters of the router anyway; so it's not pertinent to the range testing of the Vaio Pro 13. I also tested connection to an unsecured router outside of my building. My condo building made a good place to test because I could walk away from my suite and go to different floors of our mostly wooden construction building.

At ~35 m away on the same floor, I tested both the Vaio's and my Asus' connection to my router on the 2.4 GHz band. Neither laptop could detect the 5 GHz band at this distance. The Asus more readily found and connected to the router. The Vaio had to be rotated/repositioned to find the signal and took a couple tries to connect. Once connected both had similar speeds when visiting webpages, however the old Asus showed a stronger connection rating "Fair" to "Good". Next I went 3 floors down but at the same area of the building laterally, so I think it would be ~37 m away and through more walls. At this location both laptops could see the 2.4 GHz network but only the Asus could connect. For the Sony, I really had to find just the right spot to even see the network and it still would not connect.

In a stairwell of my building I found an unsecured network that I'm pretty sure is broadcast from a neighboring building, and so I'm not sure what the distance to the router was. Anyway, I was able to connect to the network with both laptops but it was harder to find and connect successfully with the Sony. The Sony also had lower speeds when visiting webpages or trying speedtests.

In conclusion, the Sony Vaio Pro 13 is not as bad as some people make it sound in terms of wireless connectivity. 35 meters isn't bad at all really but it is definitely weaker than my old Asus.

For my purposes I would prefer stronger WiFi performance than what is found in the SVP13. So I returned the SVP13 after only a day but not only because of the WiFi. A major reason I returned the unit is because I couldn't stand the multilingual keyboard layout on it. The Enter key being such a reach for my pinky was not something I really wanted to get used to. The left Shift key was also shrunken and was annoying. Another reason for returning the SVP13 was the installed SATA 3 SSD, rather than a PCIe SSD. Hopefully Sony figures out a way to fix the internal RF interference, maybe some shielding, relocation of the card or some other means. If they do, I may revisit this ultrabook again if I haven't already picked up an Asus Zenbook; but next time I will get a Custom to Order from the Sony website choosing a "US" keyboard layout and configuring a bigger SSD therefore ensuring I get an SSD that uses the PCIe lanes rather than SATA.

Everything else about the Vaio Pro I really liked, especially the screen and lightweight/compactness.

 

Well my Pro 13 failed the first test. I have two APs in a cabinet about 20 feet away from where I sit on a sofa and use my laptop. One is used for guests and one is my wife and me. The guest AP has a weaker signal, usually 4-5 bars, while the other AP has a consistent 5 bars. My first laptop, a HP Spectre 13t-3000, gets the same throughput as my wired desktop located in another room on both APs. (About 29 Mbps down and 6 Mbps up, which is about 15% more than my ISP promises.) My new Vaio Pro 13 gets full throughput when connected to the best AP, but only half to two thirds throughput when connected to the guest AP. Not good, I am sure it will be pretty much useless for travel where wireless in hotels and airports is poor.

The Pro 13 has passed the fan noise and heat test. I have only heard the fan a couple of times and I have never felt any warmth anywhere on the externals. All surfaces are cool to touch.

Regards, Jim

 

Just a quick observation and question. I notice that no screws are visible anywhere on this unit. How would one open the case?

Jim

 

Any audio folks who can say: how is the core audio latency on the Vaio Pro 13? Can it get under 10MS without lowering the buffer too much?

Is it comparable to a Mac? Soundtweaker, anyone?

 

There are total 12 screws - 7 under the rubber strip, 1 under the battery connecter and 2 each under the 2 rubber feet.

 

I was just on the UK student discount section of sony's website and I saw there was a version of the pro 13 with an i7-4650 and gt3 graphics. There was no price given and if I try and go back I just get an error message but the model number was svp1322c5e. Does anyone know if sony has plans to release this model?

EDIT: I found it again and took a screenshot

 

GT3 graphics? Right now there's throttling when using gpu.

 

Based on my experience with my Pro 13, I would pass on the current version no matter how good the deal. The wifi is just awful, unless you plan on using it close to a good wireless router or AP. If you plan on using it for travel, you will need a USB wireless adapter. The internal adapter gives excellent performance on other ultrabooks, but Sony has done something on this implementation that gives awful performance. I will be returning my Pro 13, I just can't see spending over $1,000 for an ultrabook with such a botched job on wifi. Maybe they will come out with a new version in the future.

Good luck, Jim

 

Latency is really dependent on your soundcard drivers. I get 2.5ms latency with Roland drivers and rock solid stability.
What matters most is the hard drive and the Vaio Pro has one of the fastest PCIe SSD drives in the industry.

 

Rubber strip is the ~1/8 inch strip along the narrow thickness side? What rubber feet?

Thanks, Jim

 

See attachment

 

Dear All,
Thanks for all the helpful posts in this forum. I had been considering buying a Vaio Pro 13 since many months and reading the discussions here were of great help! I finally bought it and I am quite happy with the equipment after running all the windows updates, vaio updates and finally installing windows 8.1. I do not seem to notice any major issues with the fan after installing windows 8.1 and I can't say much about WiFi as my work area is just next to a Wifi router.

I had a general question that is probably related to windows rather than the laptop itself, but perhaps someone might have some helpful ideas. I do not like the idea of metro and "apps" and therefore I use the desktop version of softwares whenever they are available. Given the high resolution of the screen (1920x1080), however, I set windows scaling to 150% (which I think is default when installing windows 8.1). It seems like some softwares do not handle that very well and the text/menus get slightly blurred. That includes skype for desktop, some scientific softwares as well as some websites (as I have to set the browser zoom to 150% too).

Does anyone else experience that and have any tips on how to deal with it? I assume one would need very good eyes to work without scaling as everything gets so small.

Many thanks!

 

@awt1 do you have this option checked?

 

Thanks for the clarification!

Regards, Jim

 

Thanks komoornik for the advice! I have that checked and I have also tried checking "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings" in the software properties.. but neither of them helped much In the later case it just makes everything very small again, although sharper.

 

On the screen shown on the original post, check 150%. Then, in your web browser set zoom to 100%. That is how I have my 1080p system configured. Everything is readable for me.

Good luck, Jim

 

Excellent post! :thumbsup: Exactly what I have observed. When I am ~20 feet from my AP, my Pro 13 gets throughput down and up at about 15% more than my ISP promises, which is the same as my wired desktop gets. But, in my office which is about 35 feet away and through four walls, it gets maybe 1/4 or less throughput. And, if I plug in a USB wireless adapter, the throughput goes back up to what I get 20 feet away from the AP.

How did a company like Sony make such a blunder? This surely a hardware issue not likely to be solved by software. And it is very unlikely that Sony will recall Vaio Pros for a hardware fix.

I am debating on whether to send my Pro 13 back for a refund. I like everything else about the Pro 13 except the poor wifi performance. Maybe if they gave me a big discount, I would be more inclined to keep it and use the USB wifi adapter when I travel.

Regards, Jim

 

Finally went and physically looked at a Vaio Pro 13, awesome, but the screen resolution is not good enough for me personally.

On the Macbook Retina, which is much higher res, and I believe on the Zenbook, which is 1080p like the Sony, text is sharp and clear, with no pixilliation on the edges. The Pro 13 looks to me closer to a 900 res screen like on the Macbook Air, although I didn't directly compare. Neither are good enough for my eyes.

I want that perfect text. I stare at text all day, those fuzzy edges make my eyes go buggy. Not everyone cares about this, but if you do, I'd recommend you look at one before you buy. Sadly, the Pro 13 doesn't look like the kind of hi-res screen I need.

 

anyone with sheet (extended)battery can test this for me ??
while using your sheet battery put the computer in to sleep mode for more than an hour , then wake up your laptop and check the battery percentage and see if it will stuck at random number . like it will stuck on 40% or 63% or whatever .
(if I put the laptop in sleep again and wake it up immediately the battery meter will work again)
this just happen with the sheet battery and not the internal one .
I already tried the rest button but the problem still exist .

 

Very curious if anyone has any information on this for an US release? Appreciate any help!

 

Fix Blurry Fonts in Specific Applications

Many third-party desktop applications have blurry fonts when scaling is used. Windows 8.1 enables DPI scaling for all desktop apps, and ones that aren’t high-DPI aware will have blurry or fuzzy text, especially when they’re blown up.

To fix this problem, you can disable display scaling for specific apps. To do so, right-click the desktop application’s shortcut and select Properties. Click the Compatibility tab and click the “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings” checkbox. After you do, close the application and re-open it.

Fonts will no longer appear blurry in the application, but graphical elements will likely be much smaller. This is a trade-off you’ll have to make.