Official Vaio Y 13.3 Series Owners Lounge

For all Y Series owners, have you been experiencing any battery drain during hibernation? This was a problem with the SZ and FW series before. If Sony has fixed the issue, then I'll likely be a proud Y Series owner in a few weeks.

Someone did respond to me awhile back and said he was experiencing about 2% drain/day which is infinitely better than the 20% drain I was experiencing with my FW.

Thank you.

 

Alan,

That was me. Mine typically hibernates for ~18 hours a day and I usually see 1-2% loss in that time, occasionally 0% or 3%. Much of that could be the loss from going into and out of hibernation. I'd have to leave it hibernating for several days to get a better estimate, but I'm unlikely to do that any time soon. It's close enough to zero that I don't notice it.

Since I last responded to you, I also picked up a VAIO F as a desktop replacement machine and it drops at least 15% a day with the same power management settings used on the Y. Sounds similar to your FW. So I don't think Sony has fixed it across the model line. In fact, battery drain is just one of several little issues I have with the F. I am very happy with the Y and that's what swayed my decision toward the F. Can't say I'm as happy with the F unfortunately.

 

I see no battery drain during hibernation. There is only little battery wiggle on mine, but it's not bothering at all.

 

Thank you Dmk2 and Visiom88. I guess it's all systems go for the Y Series then (now to find the proverbial money tree). Should I go with the ATI or Intel GPU? I don't play games and if I can have one more hour between charges, I will likely choose the Intel.

The Y is much cheaper than the Asus alternative though battery life is not as impressive.

 

What type of SSD will fit the Y Series if I intend to replace the HDD? Although it's a $400 or so upgrade to a 256GB SSD on sony.ca, I heard that it's best to stick with Intel SSD as it comes with TRIM, which prevents performance degradation over time. I don't require a huge storage space and 128GB will likely do. Thanks, as always.

 

Any 2.5 inch SATA SSD should work. Basically any recent 2.5 inch SSD model. Intel X25-M 2nd generation is a good option, but not because of TRIM, as all newish models have this feature (almost certainly including the ones Sony provide on CTO models). However the price per GB / performance ratio for the Intel I think is very good which is why I went for it. I have just ordered one for the S Series I'm going to get any time soon! BTW $400 for a 256 GB SSD seems like a good price to me, the SSD is probably pretty good plus you would save yourself the hassle of changing the HDD, cloning drives etc.

 

Thanks for your response Selekkkkka. Yeah the price looks very reasonable though it does add 50% more to the price of the Y Series. Wished there was a smaller sized SSD being offered.

 

I think the deal is the Y's graphic card (either the integrated or ATI) is doing a lot of the leg work.

 

I just talked to an online representative and she said it's compatible. I'm close to purchasing this accessory as well. Does anyone have an experience with these keyboard skins?

I just found this good deal on B&H

 

No problem! Yes, that is annoying, strange too, if you CTO a Y Series here in Spain the only SSD option is 128GB (for 230 €). I guess you could consider yourselves lucky because that makes the price per GB here in Spain 2,41 CAD at today's rate vs 1,56 CAD over there! The drive is probably the same (other than the size, obviously!). Us Europeans tend to get a rough deal when it come to buying electronics!

 

I have the Y series, no optical drive of course, for a few months, now it will not boot up into Windows 7. I have called CS and they have no solution, have tried all the F8, F10, F2 stuff, safe mode, etc. etc. Nothing works. Has anyone had this problem? They want me to call Monday and speak to a sr level tech, perhaps to send the machine back. Is this a sw or hw problem? Any tips greatly appreciated. thanks.

 

That's annoying, to put it mildly! Have you tried recovering from the hidden partition? If so what happened when you tried this? Did you make any changes to the computer before you had this problem or did it just decide one day not toboot up?

 

Thanks for the response. Not sure how to access the "hidden partition" or what it is. I went away for 10 days on vacation, it worked perfectly when I left it and when I returned, it would not boot up, it does power up. I took it yesterday, back to the Sony Store in White Plains, NY. They are going to run diagnostics on it, to see what the problem is. It does try to boot up, but then freezes.

 

The hidden partition is like having the recovery DVDs but already saved on the hard disk. It allows you to restore the system without booting Windows, you have to press a key on startup although I can't remember which - this brings you to a recovery screen. Anyway, if you've already sent it back to Sony I'm sure they'll sort it for you. Lets hope they're quick and you can start enjoying your Y again soon!

 

If you press the "Assist" button while the computer is powered off, it should boot into the recovery console. If it doesn't, it's probably a hardware or hard drive issue.

 

I received the silicon keyboard skin today. Every key fits perfectly to the skin and I don't have anything to complain about, except that it adds a bit of a noticeable weight to the typing mechanism, but it still feels great.

 

I am considering the VAIO Y-Series and the Toshiba Portege R700. I think that I would prefer the Sony but I use a dedicated dock much of the time now and I don't think it's an option with the Y-Series. Also, I hear that USB docks don't work very well. Anyone with experience using the Y-Series and a dock?

 

I've come accross an annoying problem in the Y... I've enabled hibernation, and since then there is no way to make the computer go to sleep. For example in power options I have it set to sleep after 10 minutes idle, sleep on hitting the power button, etc, but it always hibernates instead of sleeping!

Any ideas?

 

Assuming your PM settings are correct...

Could it be that it's going into hybrid sleep? That option should be off for a laptop.

Also, check your battery's health, critical battery threshold & action, etc.

And check the system event logs for clues.

 

does the screen is solid when open typing or using the laptop? or does it is moving with the small vibration induced by using the computer?

 

The hinges are very strong. I'd say they're as strong as about 90% of ThinkPad's, and you have to put a good amount of force to open and close the screen.

 

Thank you visiom88. I´m coming from a lenovo, and i want a solid computer as lenovo !!!

 

I ordered today. i5, ati, 320, 4gb hope a good machine!!! and fresh start!

 

Thanks for the reply... Power management settings don't really leave much room for error, everything is pretty clear. I have checked this nevertheless and the settings are correct. Hybrid sleep is also off and battery is fine. Very bizarre but to be honest I think I'm just going to disable hibernation and not use that function. No biggie I guess, just have to wait a few extra seconds for a complete boot rather than a resume.

 

If you put your (closed) Y on a flat surface and then press down slightly on the front-left corner of the laptop cover (left of the track pad), does it wobble ever so slightly? Almost like a table on an uneven surface? On mine, I think there is a 1-2mm gap between the flat surface (desk) and the front-left rubber foot pad. All other foot pads are flush against the desk.

Now, there is a chance that mine wobbles since I did drop it about a month ago. Just my luck, it was a week after I bought it, clean installed it, had it running perfectly, etc. when it fell about 4 feet onto the Washington Dulles Airport (concrete) floor. It was my fault as I failed to zip up the side zipper of my Lowepro backpack after retrieving Lufthansa ticket information from the same side pocket. I pulled the backpack on, the laptop fell apparently flat onto the floor, and that was that. I have been using it daily since and there seems be to no mechanical problems with it. There is a slight paint smudge on one corner and then that "wobble" effect but I can't remember if it wobbled at all before the fall.

Clumsy me!

 

No "typing vibrations" at all that I have noticed really but that is not something I pay attention to. It's never been a bother.

 

BTW, why is it that on just about every site where I have read reviews of the Y-Series (newegg, etc.) there is at least one person who bit**es the laptop for not having an optical drive? Like, hello??? Don't people know what they are ordering? I guess some people just assume that an optical drive is standard these days. As for me, I'm not missing having one.

 

Yes, strange. I use hibernate all the time, so that would drive me crazy. If you decide to investigate, we could compare results from powercfg -q.

Well, mine lays flat. At least you didn't do any functional damage.

And I don't mind not having an optical drive either, especially on an ultra-portable. The Y's body is sturdier than most laptops in its class with solid keyboard support and I don't know if that would be true if they packed an optical drive in it.

 

Hey everyone, I'm an incoming freshman at UC Davis, and was looking for a laptop. I've come down to two laptops. The HP dm4 and the Sony Vaio Y. Right now, I am stuck at which to get. Pros of the HP are that it comes with a faster processor, an i5 (not a ULV, so the Ghz is faster), cheaper(a lot), and has a fingerprint scanner. It is also relatively light, 4.4lbs. Cons for the HP are that the touchpad is very faulty, and might become too annoying for me to use. Also, it is an HP, so it comes with a 25 percent product malfunction after 3 years. For the Sony, the pros are that the build quality is excellent, and that it is a very light, sturdy laptop. Keyboard and touchpad are great too. However, the cons are that it is a pretty slow laptop, if i get it with the i3 since it is an ULV. (Even though it is an ULV, it gets around the same battery life as the HP dm4, which isn't) Also, this laptop is very very pricy, and considering all of the other stuff I still need to buy for college, I don't know if it is worth it to make this investment.

Please reply with your opinions on what laptop I should get.
I move-in September 18th, so I should try to get my laptop soon. (Since I can only order the Sony online, because I've checked every tech store around where I live, and I can't find the Sony Y)

Thanks again

 

Hey there,

just a question - how long does your battery last in VPCY2 ? Because SONY says it's about 9 hours but mine manages barely 5 (wifi, low brightness). Thanks.

 

i´m wondering if it was a good election to order fresh start...

 

I'd say so. Let us know how long the battery lasts, because mine lasted only about 4.5 hours (without fresh start) until I clean installed Win7 myself. After then, I've been getting easily over 6 hours.

 

I've been doing some "heavy" photo editing using Lightroom and Photoshop which got me thinking if a ULV (the Y with the U5400 specifically cause I can't get an i on my country) is something for me...

By heavy I mean 10 megapixel imagery in JPG, RAW and TIFF formats. I've been working with HDR photos with post-processing in Photoshop for more advanced techniques and final touches in Lightroom.

And I'm wasting so much time cause my 5 year old laptop is so slow for this kinda of stuff. Would the Y be enough for stuff like this or I would be pushing it?

 

Really? So i guess it is because the VAIO software... I hope I wont have to reinstall the whole system... Removing just the VAIO software should be hopefully effective.

 

I get easily over 5 hours with the standard battery with wifi on and screen brightness around 60%.

As for photo editing, I have had no trouble using Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 to edit RAW files taken with my Canon EOS-5DII. Speed is typically not the issue with such editing but rather the trackpad. I hate using the trackpad for that kind of work and need to get a small mouse for this thing. Speed is an improvement over my 5-year-old HP with a Pentium M 1.5Ghz CPU.

 

My laptop is in Shangai right now! (I believed it was going to be shipped from JP).. wating !!

 

Ahhh I know that excitement, checking the Fedex tracking page every single hour...

 

Can someone be more specific on the questions I asked about using tools like Lightroom and Photoshop on big images? Never used Photoshop Elements but it's not quite the same...

Also, Lightroom is kinda heavy and it doesn't work the same way Photoshop does...

 

Hey, which color should I get?

Anyone care to comment on which color they think looks best? I'm pretty much trying to decide between black, silver, or (if I feel adventurous), the teal blue.

Is the finish metallic or matte? Anyone care to guess which would do worse with fingerprints?

 

go black!!!

 

Sounds like you're pretty serious about photography. The Y is probably not good for that kind of work.

I took a trip last weekend and used the Y for some quick editing of 12MP RAW images I was taking. It works noticeably faster than my old laptop which had a 1.86GHz Pentium M but slower than my desktop PC which has a 3GHz E6850. The speed is adequate for the basic editing that most people do. But some of the HDR plugins for Photoshop recommend a quad-core processor, so I doubt they would run well on the Y.

Another concern is the screen. Like most laptops, the Y has an inexpensive panel with limited color gamut that won't let you see the full color range that your camera is capturing. My desktop PC at home has a midrange 24" 1920x1200 wide gamut monitor and even though I don't do any fancy processing I feel like working on my laptop is a major compromise. I suggest expanding your budget if possible to get a good external monitor or chose a laptop with a better display like the Envy 14 with the 1600x900 Radiance display or the Sony Z or the MacBook Pro 13. The older VAIOs with X-BRITE screens were also better, so if you want a Sony maybe consider a used one.

Where are you located? If it's available where you are, get the silver with black keyboard. I've seen it in airport duty-free shops when traveling overseas and it looks very sharp. I was tempted to get the silver model in the US, but it comes with a white keyboard and I haven't seen that in person. My local Sony style store has the purple model Y and the teal EB. Both colors look darker and more subdued in person than they do on the SonyStyle web site. They're not bad, but not really my taste. The silver is also more fingerprint resistant.

 

Not really, it's just an hobby. I'm a programmer not a photographer.

Well, I'm currently using a Pentium M 2.0GHz and it was enough for Lightroom 1, but this latest version (3) is kinda heavier.

Quad-core? Lol... I do HDR on my 5 year old laptop (Pentium M has said above) and yes, it's a little bit slow but nothing unbearable. Something better and normal for todays standards would be enough. Quad-core isn't required at all. But then again, I don't do HDR on Photoshop (nor will I).

That's not a concern for me. I doubt the Y has a more limited color gamut than my current laptop, it probably is the same (or better), so it's more than enough for what I do. I also don't need a resolution bigger than 1280x800 or 1366x768, nor I want to.

All of that is out of the question. External monitor? Don't need that at all. The Envy is such an ugly laptop and I'm not very fond of HP laptops. Also, the 1600x900 resolution is too much. The Sony Z is way too much expensive and I'll never buy a Mac in my life, one iPod was enough to steer away from Apple ever again (let's not get into that please, I'm just saying what I feel). And to buy an older computer, I just keep mine, that doesn't even make sense. And unfortunately, my budget is around the Y's cost, I really can't go much more than that...

Although I asked about Photography because that's something I'm doing more lately (I'm on vacation) the main purpose of this new laptop is university, I need something light and with enough juice for a full morning of classes without requiring to carry the AC adapter around. The Y seems to fit the bill. But this new laptop will also replace my current one, so I need to keep doing what I do, and basic Photography in Lightroom/Photoshop is one of those things. But like I said, this is more for university and mostly for programming.

I don't need a powerful computer with huge resolutions, Photography is just an hobby and I don't mind waiting a little bit to apply some neat effect to a photo, I just don't want to wait when I switch photos around, apply a little contrast, crop a photo. It's stuff like that it's becoming unbearable on my current laptop. If I have to way to generate an HDR image, so be it, I'm sure it will be faster than my current laptop that's for sure.

You might ask yourself why I started this discussion then? Well... I know the Y is faster than my current laptop, there's no question about that (I think). I just want to have some feeling of how much faster it is. Slightly? A little more? Enough for what I do? Like I said, I don't need a mean machine...

I guess I'll just have to find some store that lets me take the laptop for a test drive and refund my whole money if I'm not satisfied with the product, I just didn't want to go that route.

 

can somebody here post the vaio y box dimentions? (the one they ship the laptop home)...

 

I know you can order the Y series with an i5 in some places, but in Canada I've only seen it with with an i3...

Does anyone know if its possible to change the stock i3 for an i5 (or i7 even) myself? (i know it would void the warranty)

 

You'd have to be pretty damn good with a soldering iron!

Why don't you just get a CTO S series with the i7? The Y series isn't the laptop to go for if you need processing power!

 

There is no CTO on the S in Canada, I've actually got a VPCS111FM right now and while I love the keyboard and asthetics of it, I need something that is a little bit lighter and cheaper and with longer battery life

 

I haven't seen the Y in action, but find that hard to believe:

The resolution of the Y is 1366 x 768, the Z starts at 1600 x 900.

Plus the Z is a matte finish isn't it?

 

The i5 isn't available in the UK, only the i3. How much difference does it make to performance and battery life? Say for Photoshop.

 

When I visited my local SonyStyle store, I too was able to do a literal side-by-side comparison of the Y and Z. The Y has nothing on the Z's display. In fact, I wish I could somehow transplant the Z screen into the Y.

 

Has anyone created a recovery DVD with a non-sony brand DVD burner? I just bought my Y at the sony store, but on my way out the tech there was trying to sell me the recovery DVD service for $40 and said I might not be able to burn it myself with my HP-brand DVD burner.

I haven't broken the seal on the box yet. The whole 3-minute conversation with the backstage tech left me with a feeling of dread about the purchase....