Official Vaio Pro 13 Owners Lounge (SVP13 2013)

what are you referring to drjoe?

 

scratches:

ps keep your carbon fiber away from all metal. while it will withstand rubbing against neoprene skins and cases very well, it fares very poorly when brushing up against metal (scoring galore). polishing the scratches or scuffs does little, leaving a shiny area behind. my research yielded no options on restoring carbon fiber when it is in matte finish format...

 

the automatic annoying right click

 

Lip-sink and drjoe, are yours SVP13 also touch screen? I would assume that this annoying right-click is some crazyness between the touchpad and the touch screen...

 

Yes, touchscreen.

 

Last autumn I change from Z2 exactly the configuration you say to SVP1321 non-touch. I charge my laptop every day from 20-30% to 100% . Daily . I don't carry charger with me . That made the only problem with Z2 after 2 years of use . Battery wear 18% . For the rest of things Z2 is a perfect machine . Also I got extended battery to it (that have now 8% battery wear) but with two batteries this machine is perfect.

Talking about the Pro13 I can tell you that it took me 24hours after I received it to backup the restore partition and then to fresh install Windows 7 (using ISO from microsoft website) . Win 7 runs perfect. Fan noise is normal (when HD or intensive task I hear it . when working normally is off or very quiet) . If I put both laptops one to another I will say that I like the Z2 display more than PRO13 . Yes I know that 1600x900 vs 1920x1080 is a big difference but the quality of the mate Z2 and collors are better .

Pro13 being made as light as possible made also some small issues to appear at the touch-panel. If you use it in bed and you're pressing the laptop to your belly you'll find that sometime you press click or right-click without wanting to do that.. The multi-touch is much better than Z2 . The tap click is much easier . Is almost as in MacOS if you ever tested that touch-pad.

The best thing for me about Pro13 is that SSD is clearly faster then in the old Z2 , the computer is brand new so as an image of me into my clients eyes they see me with a good looking working machine (the Z2 have all the keys shiny (if you know what I meant from heavy typing every day) and the autonomy with internal battery is 6-7 hours/day compared with about 4h in old Z2 .

Other thing that I miss is the 3G modem . Now I have to plug the USB stick into the Pro13 or make a hotspot with the iPhone for internet while not in office. That modem inside the Z2 was a perfect thing for a light portable laptop .

I was lucky to get my Pro in October from sony uk and compared with the price my company payed for the Z2 the Pro13 cost half of that price.

So my advice for better machine is to choose SVZ13 with extra battery (Z2) . Is better build and have more to offer for every day usage

 

no. mine is non-touch...

 

Thanks a lot voinea, that's the kind of feedback I was looking for.

I hadn't realized that they switched to glossy screen on the Vaio Pro. I hate that.
I don't think SSD speed would be such an issue for me as long it's at least as fast as the Z1's SSD and battery autonomy is a non-issue for me, I'll mostly use it with the AC power.

I've ordered the SVZ, thanks for the input.

 

drjoe and paulo, are your machines win7 or 8? I have only had touchpad issues in 7.

 

Mine is a touchscreen windows 8.1. So you, lip-sink, have right-click issues on a non-touchscreen windows 7. Drjoe also has a touchscreen windows 8? If so, the problem is not windows, neither touchscreen, it's simply Sony... damn... is the cause then hardware instead of software??

 

deleted by lip-sink

 

Hey folks, need a favor, hoping someone can help:

I recently updated to Windows 8.1, updated the Intel wi-fi and Bluetooth drivers back in November. I am running the original Sony BIOS and don't use VAIO updater at all, still running the original VAIO software as well.

Can someone tell me if I should update either the BIOS, VAIO Control, or the Intel drivers to something more recent or if I should leave well enough alone?

I don't have any wi-fi dropping issues, things are running quite smoothly, but if some firmware updates would make things run better I'd take advantage of it.

TIA

BJ

 

i dont have the right click issue but a cousin; every few hours a simple tap click will trigger a jumping response to tap. from then on until i sleep or restart, taps and two finger taps constantly cause the cursor to jump up and to the right between 1-3 inches.

i havent finished experimenting with settings in the synaptics drivers but i do wonder if it has something to do with button compression (sticking) in the touchpad casing (see here VAIO Pro 13 Touch Pad Sticking - Page 2 - Sony's Community Site ). Eventually i will get in and do the cotton padding workaround if i find no other solution...

it seems to me that my jumping issue and your right click should be related. is there anything in particular that triggers it?

ps please report this to sony. i am planning to and the collective effort might result in an investigation

 

Open Vaio Control Centre and try click the option for opening lid on and off and make sure closing the lid is set to sleep mode

 

Hi everyone, I am interested by the new Vaio Pro 13 SVP1322C5E (available on Sony Store UK and France)
The model indicated it has the new wifi (a/b/g/n/ac). Does anybody with this model can confirm it doesn't have the wifi issue of the old version (a/b/g/n)
Thanks

 

thanks. will try and get back to you steve.

 

no luck. very odd. tried all three power configs. made sure hybrid sleep was off.

amber light works on sleep in 7, but not 8.

 

windows 7: no sign of xreality settings in either win 7 or 8/8.1 vcc. does my machine have this feature?

svp1321ggxbi

tnx

 

deleted....

 

I have no serious problems to begin with, but I figured it won't hurt to update everything, so I do. Don't notice any problems except for one strange thing: Twice in the past 3 months or so, the keyboard just stops working. Restarting the Pro13 fixes that, but still bizarre.

Not sure what's causing it; could be Win8.1, a Sony update, a Windows update, or something else. But it doesn't bug me much since it rarely happens.

 

Anyone know how to stop VAIO Update from continually telling me my BIOS is out of date? It's suggesting BIOS version R1043V7 but I'm already on that version! Also, what is everyone running for WiFi driver? I got version 16.6.2.1 from Windows Update but VAIO Update wants me to install 16.6.0.8.

 

lol yeah i have the same problem. i just ignore it. i figure that when there's a new update with a higher version number. those will go away.

 

In today's news, Sony is to move out of pc/laptop manufacture. Dropping 5000 employees. Given all the quality and support issues this is not a surprise.

 

About to buy a Sony Vaio Pro 13, but I need help with information first

On Sony's website all the new refreshed models are named SVP1322, when looking online I can't find Windows 7 drivers for this model
In retail stores I can buy models named SVP1321 and these DO have Windows 7 drivers available

Can I use the Windows 7 drivers from the old SVP1321 on the refreshed SVP1322?
I'd rather buy the refreshed model since it has Intel HD 5000

After reading through the thread it seems the refreshed model isn't all that much of a refresh, that does increase my chances of putting Windows 7 on it doesn't it? But still I can't find any Windows 7 drivers for the refreshed version so I don't know what to think
Also I read a person in here is missing a factory image? I can provide that once I get the new Pro 13, I always clone an image with all partitions before putting my own OS installations on new machines

 

Just to confort you, the same happens to me. It's a litte bug, I agree with sillie..

 

This is NOT good news... support tends to be ever worse with discontinuing produts...

 

I have owned Sony VAIO product since the late 90s. I have never had any quality or support issues. This situation is tragic because Sony is the last maker of great notebooks outside of the Apple ecosystem, the only cool Windows notebooks.

They will be sorely missed.

BJ

 

Well all those who have moaned have got their wish now so we can all suffer in silence whilst a true innovator of cutting edge products goes

The same will happen on their cameras which are breaking new ground on full frame mirror less systems a third of the size of conventional ones, instead of embracing this they are knocked

Welcome to the world of mediocre, as who are the clones going to copy now

 

The initial statement doesn't make sense at all.

 

Allow me to put it in to context for you

The internet and forums like this make it easy for anyone rightfully or otherwise to moan. The accumulative affect of this will hit sales eventually whether justified or not, hence their wish has been granted for the product bashers and Sony have suffered. The silent majority who were happy will suffer in silence whilst the secondhand value to their laptops plummet and support etc dwindles away.

You could argue that if the quality matched the price of top end components they would of survived better but it seems it's not worth the effort and the margins are too small. Apple laptops survive mainly on the US market and propped up by IPhone. It seems Sony buyout partners are doing the same and turning to local Japanese market only

 

drjoe, paulo, not sure which did it but i have been 24 hours without cursor jumping by doing the "insert sponge/cotton padding under clicker" workaround OR by using the Sony Synaptics driver version 17.0.6.2. Not sure which one. One of these two seems to have permanently eliminated my touchpad spasms. i will eventually revert to the stock svp1321 touchpad drivers to determine what the solution was.

 

Sweet ! That's good news ! I'll try one and then the other, and tell you what worked (I hope) ! Just to be sure, the details on how to do to the sponge/cotton option can be found here ( VAIO Pro 13 Touch Pad Sticking - Page 2 - Sony's Community Site), right? That's what you did, right? Thanks a lot lip-sink !

 

steveuae wrote: "The internet and forums like this make it easy for anyone rightfully or otherwise to moan. The accumulative affect of this will hit sales eventually whether justified or not, hence their wish has been granted for the product bashers and Sony have suffered. The silent majority who were happy will suffer in silence whilst the secondhand value to their laptops plummet and support etc dwindles away." (my Bold).

This is the point which makes us disagree. IMO there is absolutely no evidence that you in a reasonable way can assume this, and therefore I will maintain that the first statement in your earlier post makes no sense at all, but is frankly rather directly misguiding or simply wrong.

 

There is equally no evidence to disprove this, other than there is far more complaints than praises, so I think we will just have to agree to disagree

We could hypothesize further on the silent majority issue eg what % of IPhone user or Galaxy S4 expresses an opinion on forums or the internet of the 10's of millions of units sold. My guess would be a relatively small fraction and likewise for many other consumer products else forums like this would be 10,s of 1000s pages long if a true representation of buyers actually expressed an opinion.

 

steveuae wrote:

"There is equally no evidence to disprove this, other than there is far more complaints than praises, so I think we will just have to agree to disagree."

I agree with you about this good point.

Steve78 wrote in another thread on this Forum three days ago:

"[...] What's clear is that the Vaio subsidiary doesn't make any money and Sony are looking to get rid of it. I personally blame Sony for the unit not making any money as they haven't produced a good laptop since the VPC-Z series.

I've read the threads in this forum with interest, particularly those relating to the Vaio Pro. This notebook is an abomination and certainly doesn't meet any of the high standards Sony used to have. You guys are having to implement all sorts of workarounds just to get the damn thing to work properly.

Sony cheapened the brand with all sorts of tacky consumer models. This has proven to not make any money so I just wish they had kept to the small niche premium end of the market. It's better to just about break even than lose tens of millions each year. [...]"

I think he is right, and that the vast amount of complaints about the Pro models is a very plausible indication that these machines have a high probability of having quality issues - in contrast to the earlier well-built models (VAIO TZ, T and Z, for instance).

 

thats the page paulo. i used a thin piece of foamy spongish sheet that is used for bathroom floors. i imagine anything would work but by cotton padding as the author suggests on that page, i cant imagine he meant cotton balls which easily give off dust and small strands.

 

I had several of the old Z series and swapped over for the last 3 years and went through 4 MBAir 11" and would of bought the latest if it had been with Retina display. This and no styling upgrade alone persuaded me back to Sony. Personally I have had no quality problems with my SVP

It certainly seems for the sake of one lower quality part (WiFi) has helped the SVP to gain a disproportional amount of bad postings over the usual number of complaints almost any other OEM receives.

There is also a problem with these higher cost units in so far expectations may be higher and it's this that Sony may of failed in

 

Hi

I am in need of a small coding machine, for when i am on the go. Or just in the couch.
i have ben looking for a while on the Sony Vario pro 13" but now i see sony is selling the computer part away, and the sony 13" is going out of production i am in doubt if i should go with the Vario Pro or not?

I have also ben looking at the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro, what would people here chose?

pros on the 13"
lighter
i have seen it in person

pros on the lenovo
higher res screen

vario specs:
Intel® CoreTM i7-4500U, 1.8GHz
512 GB PCIe Flash SSD
8 GB 1600 MT/s DDR3L-SDRAM
33,7cm LED 1920x1080

Lenovo Specs
ore i7 4500U / 1.8 GHz,
8 GB RAM,
256 GB SSD,
13.3" multi-touch bred 3200 x 1800 / QHD+,
Intel HD Graphics 4400

what would people chose?

 

still going without issue. this is the first time in memory that the jumps are eliminated...

 

Great, thank you so much for this update, lip-sink ! I'll tell you the results of my tests soon. =D

 

I thinking about this laptop. How is the fan noise and wifi? What Sony policy on dead pixels?

 

reinstalled the sony drivers. for now it remains calm. if this remains then we will know that it was the proximity or closeness of the touchpad to the base and some kind of electrical/capacitative short circuit. in any case try the new drivers first and if that fixes no need to open the unit...

 

the problem returned within 2 hours with the up to date sony drivers reinstalled. apparently it is a driver issue. i will return to the synaptics 17.0.6.2 drivers and report back in a few days.

 

Sony sells the vaio dept. how does this affect our waranty or drivers etc?

 

They said it was not affected, but I can't see how new drivers will be maintained

 

sony drivers 17.0.6.2 have thus far never gotten jumpy and are the only ones i could find that offer full functionality. if you have repetitive touchpad disorder, this is the only solution available as far as i am aware.

 

Question about the Vaio Pro since I can't seem to find concrete answer about this online.

Is the standard battery user replaceable at all on this laptop? (Not talking about the sheet battery)

 

Officially not. It depends on how you define "user replaceable". It is inside the Laptop. You have remove some screws to open it. The battery can then be swapped. So it's definitely replaceable, just not for everyone. It's not soldered or glued in like macbook.

See here for pictures:
Eyes on Mobile Tech: Sony Vaio Pro (One of the first Haswell Ultrabooks) Teardown, Upgrade How-to, Mini Review, & Benchmark

 

Thanks a lot lip-sink. I'll check my driver versions and see if I have the same results as you. More importantly, thanks for this update as I was preparing myself to open it !

 

There's a lot of comments on fan noise and wifi in this thread. In my case, the fan noise is loud when performing a high demanding task (e.g. update), but noise stops as soon as the activity is finished. Not different from standard for laptops. I didn't have wifi issues until now. My only problem is the right-click issue, but we here are discussing the solutions presently. I can't answer you about the pixels, sorry.