Sony SE Owners' Thread

I don't know if this is still true but previously yes higher top speed can in fact be more power efficient as both percentage of work required and how fast you get back to idle.

However just like the performance boost is so minimal that it likely can not be witnessed to the naked eye so too are these energy efficiency differences.

For what my word is worth in this, which is not much because I haven't kept up with processor changes that well, if you get a free upgrade to the faster speed I don't see why you wouldn't take it.

However your best bet would be to find a some crazy person that loves to benchmark things into oblivion that has ran a comparison. My logic dictates that what I say is true, and in times since past such as gen1 i processors such tests held that to be true. This comes with a but though, because a simple benchmark test would prove useless, if you run the processors continuously with a constant load the i7 should lose, but if there is only a set amount of processing to be done the i5 should lose. So in real world use scenarios the i7 will win unless you are doing something like playing games or possibly watching a movie or something?

The i processors are all pretty much exactly the same, the differences are only number of cores and amount of cache. I highly doubt that cache memory is going to have any real world measurable effect on energy usage.

 

Can someone comment on the build quality? I'm curious how good are the hinges are (do they hold the screen in place when using it in your lap).

And how much does screen twist/flex? I like lightweight but some times you can go too far and take away from the durability. How does it compare to the Samsung Series 7? I played with that and it feels like I'll break it just opening it from a corner.

Lastly, any comments on the heat (e.g. on your lap) for non-gaming/heavy load?

 

The build quality was fine, I had no problem with screen staying in place when using SE on my lap.

I didn't notice any heat when I used SE on my lap with extended battery. It felt a bit warmer without the extra layer of the extended battery, but not too much.

Sadly, I had to return my SE due to the problem with a display, but it looks like mine was a fluke, everybody else seems happy with their machines.

Overall, I loved SE. I will either order another SE or maybe F22, as these are the only two models with a good screen (besides Z which is too small for me).

 

I think the build quality is great.

You would think it's heavy based on the 15.5" form factor and then you pick it up and are very surprised by how light it is. Everything fits together pretty well and my opinion is that it's better built than the Dell XPS 15z.

Whenever I'm at local computer stores, I always take a look at the SE even though I have one to just play with it and usually the stores have the jet black ones so I can see the differences. I also check RedOrangeGate... hoping it's a hardware thing and I can RMA mine in... but it seems to be on every one I've looked at so far.

 

Is it just me or is the fan loud? I mean, coming from an older MacBook where the fan was silent at low loads this thing sounds like a hair dryer on low speed. It isn't that annoying, I would just like to know if I am the only one who finds the fan spinning 100% of the time annoying?

Also, is there a synpatics driver out there that works properly with the Vaio SE? The Sony drivers came with two finger flick(which is nice for navigating a browser) but they were missing two finger scroll. I installed the standard synaptics drivers which have two finger scroll, but the three finger flick doesn't seem to be working. Is it that the touchpad on the Vaio SE can't recognize three inputs? This is just ridiculous.

 

@endurance

I take it you use yours for more heavy tasks... since I've had mine, I've only done web browsing, YouTube, TV episodes streaming and document editing and the fan rarely comes on.

When I did the BatteryEater test, the fan was on the whole time and it was loud but not louder than any of my previous PC notebooks (but those are quite old).

I do think the Macs have quieter fans... I hardly hear my MBA.

 

I am not using the machine for heavy tasks, not at this time. I understand that a laptop will be much louder at load than a desktop.

However, my fan isn't turning off. I am merely sitting in my browser right now and just typing and the fan is just on. And its annoying. Is it supposed to be this way?

I have put the Vaio power management into silent, set the computer to stamina and asked the hard drive to turn off in 1 minute. The fan is still on.

I also revised my previous post regarding the trackpad.

 

@Endurance:

Hmm... you may want to have that checked... I have the opposite experience... my fan never comes on and I use it most of the day for web browsing. Maybe because mine is hooked up to an external monitor and keyboard? So my screen is closed/not on causing less heat (and not blocking the vent)?

 

Read back, there was someone with exactly the same issues like you, he went to a Sony center and compared it with the one on display and it was totally different, so they changed it for him. So I'm quite sure you need to return it.

 

The Notebook Check review is now available in English at:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-VPC-SE1Z9E-B-Notebook.65741.0.html

 

A few interesting things. First their measured idle power consumption with wireless connectivity off is 10.4W. I got Linux down to 10.7 with wifi and bluetooth on. I'm guessing the quoted 12 hours (with slice battery) must include times where the display is off, or there is something different about the test environment. (10.4W * 12hr = 124.8Wh, battery + slice = 102.2Wh)

Second, they kept mentioning the CPU throttling to 800MHz because of thermal issues. I have never experienced thermal throttling under Linux, but I have experienced a lot of power throttling (Linux logs throttling events and the reason). When throttled, the CPU cannot go above 1.1GHz. When I'm on battery, I can rarely get the CPU up above 1.1GHz (dimming the display actually helps...). I am hoping that this is some Linux bug related to sandybridge support. Can someone test under Windows?

They posted an ICC:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/uploads/tx_nbc2/SonyVaio_VPCSE1Z9EB_matt_1920x1080__Unknown_.icc

 

Just an upgrade idea, a mini PCIe SSD (unless Sony was very generous, not mSATA) could probably be used in the slot reserved for the Gobi 3000 mobile broadband card:

Gobi 3000 3G:
Amazon.com: Thinkpad Gobi Mobile Broadband: Electronics

 

Seems to be a lot cheaper on amazon.com compared to on the Sony Website...
£877 on sony website and £620 on amazon?
Same specs but more than £200 difference :S

 

Using Joulemeter from Microsoft Research (probably not the most accurate, but whatever, it's easy), in Stamina mode at 60Hz refresh rate with wi-fi on but Bluetooth off, I get an idle power draw of 6.1W with the display off. The display consumes 3.1W-7.2W depending on brightness level. So a back-of-the-envelope calculation gives an idle lifetime of 10:37 at min brightness with the sheet battery. To get to 12 hours, I'd need to find an additional 1W to shave off somewhere. Sleeping the hard drive would save about 0.4W. Removing the extra 4GB of RAM I installed would probably save another 0.5W or so.

 

Preconfigured systems are usually at a discount on Amazon compared to Sony Store.

 

Where did you find that price - the cheapest I can find on amazon UK is £744, similar to the minimum configuration on the Sony UK site...

As a side note Sony UK seems to have ongoing offers for their build-to-order laptops - for the SE currently it's for half-price upgrade to i7, and they've previously had free upgrade from 4GB to 8GB RAM, and before that they had free hard drive upgrade from 320GB 5400rpm to 500GB 7200rpm. Great if their offer is for something you wanted in the first place, not so great if not...

And also quidco currently has 7% cashback for customised laptops (including the S series) from Sony UK!

 

I saw that price on the amazon.com website not the uk one, it seems to be cheaper there for some reason ($999)
I wonder if they can ship to the UK?
As far as RAM goes I'd go with the 4gb then upgrade myself to save money

Is there a big difference between the 512mb graphics card and the 1Gb card?
What's the gaming performance like on them?

 

Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - Notebookcheck.net Tech

search for 6470M and 6630M, check them and click "Restrict" at the top of the page. Keep in mind these are universal benchmarks that are averaged between all reviewed laptops with these GPU's, so some have other bottlenecks. With the i5 or i7 in the SE, you might see slightly higher FPS

 

So, I went to my local Sony store to check the SE out, and yeah I think the orange/red issue seems pretty apparent. They guy at the Sony store said its due to the higher contrast, but I think that bs since the SA has a lower contrast screen while having more normal looking red/orange, and the Z, F, and TT have the same or more contrast, but that issues doesn't exist. I also checked the SE at the MS store next door, same issue.

 

That's the main problem people here have with the i7 on the SA/SE -- what Sony is offering is the dual-core i7, not the quad-core, so the consensus in the past seems to be that it's not worth the extra price they're asking for it.

 

Amazon won't ship to the UK for electrical goods, and even if they did you'd be stung with VAT and Duty

I've just ordered off the UK Sony Site for the i7, on the front page it says 1-2 weeks, when you complete you order it says 2-3 weeks
Also ordered through Quidco to get 7% off

 

Right, though sometimes if the order is expensive enough, it's worthwhile to combine it with a trip to the US, if you have friends who can hold the order for you. Provided you can deal with a shorter warranty period (unless you pay extra) you get in the US.

 

Question: Does anyone know if Sony has made a silver version of Sony VAIO SE available in US?

It's available in Korea.

Thanks.

 

Yes, Sony Style US has the same Jet Black and Platinum Silver for the SE as they have for the SA.

 

BTW, if any wants a CTO and doesn't want to wait, Sony now has a number of "clearance" CTOs ready to ship. Just search for VPCSE190X

 

My docking station came in today. It *did* come with an AC adapter, which is great. The manual claims that you can't use the vga and hdmi connectors at the same time, but it works fine under Linux at least.

The device seems to be entirely "passive". I'm not sure why there are two ethernet ports, as plugging into one or the other has the same effect. I don't know what happens if you plug two cables in though.

 

So the VGA and HDMI ports work at the same time in mirrored mode or can you actually do a tri-head setup?

 

Or at least dual head with the LCD switched off? Do you need the docking station for this?

 

The i915 (Sandybridge) only has two "virtual outputs" that can be connected to any of the physical outputs, so only a dual head setup is possible.

 

Yup, to get output on on two external displays the lcd needs to be off (or possibly mirroring one of the external displays, I'm not sure)

You don't "need" the docking station to do this, but it a royal pain without it. The first time you plug a vga cable into your laptop, you'll facepalm. In order to fit everything on the right side, they put the vga and hdmi ports too close together. They should have dropped the memory stick slot.

Kudos to anyone who can find a "necked" vga cable.

 

Ahh, so it's the same as on my Acer. You have to grind 0.5-0.5 cm from the VGA cable. I haven't done it but there are reports that it works perfecly, after you cut/grind your VGA cable.

 

Just thought I'd share this. It might be covered elsewhere on the forum, so if it is, I apologize.

I went to the Microsoft store tonight to check out the SE. They only had one configuration available. It was the black model with i5, Blu-Ray, 4GB of RAM, and the 1GB graphics card. It also came with the slice battery and the Microsoft Signature service, which essentially removes all the bloatware. It was regularly $1299 but marked down to $1149. I thought this was a pretty reasonable deal considering Amazon's price is $1179 for the same system.

I was chatting with the sales person, asking if that was regular price or a sale price. He said it was a sale price and asked if I knew about their other sale. I said no. He then showed me a sign that said that everything in the store is 25% off when you spend $1000 or more. I pretty much immediately told him I'd buy it. The discount took it down to $862 before tax, $921 out the door. Pretty good deal, methinks.

 

Yep... a real good deal... they had that 25% off before the $1149 markdown... didn't know that included the slice battery or I would have thought about it back then (other than I wanted Silver not Black).

I'll tell my friend about that... he may want it.

 

Is it possible to this? Even if you didn't order it with the goby card? That means the slot should be available in both configs (with and without the gobycard installed) Has someone checked this? Thx.

 

I just received my THIRD order acknowledgement by email from Sony online store since ordering my CTO on the 3rd of November. Yesterday morning, when I logged onto my Sony account, there was a notice that said my Vaio had left the factory and that I soon would receive tracking information by email. Well, no such luck. Seems like my Vaio is back at the factory

I would have called them now but their support isn't back before monday. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm not too optimistic about their 2-3 weeks of estimated delivery time when I just keep on receiving order acknowledgements all the time and it's already gone 9 days

 

I ordered mine on the 10th, and have been advised that it will ship from the factory between the 18th and 23rd to their European logistics centre and then it will take an extra 2 - 3 days to arrive in the UK - it must be taking the long way around to get from Europe to the UK

 

weird, I ordered my CTO (added the i7 and 6630M) on 11/6 and it shipped 11/11, due for delivery 11/16

 

Everyone in America is getting this so much cheaper! Jealous...

 

Just received my HDD caddy from newmodeus and it looks fantastic, just need Sony to send me my laptop now

From the US to UK in 4 days including sitting at the airport over the weekend via FedEx

For anyone else ordering in the UK, they are very customs friendly with the invoice without asking

 

Anyone who ordered in the U.S. get clearance delayed by customs? My laptop is stuck in Memphis, TN

 

Hi all,

I've just got my SSD to install on the sony. Regarding the Vaio SE, what do you guys recommend: install a fress windows on the SSD or make a copy of the system that comes with the Vaio on the SSD? I ask this in order to avoid drivers and programs issues.

 

Did you get the Fresh Start or the bloatware version?

If it's Fresh Start, I would probably go with cloning. Although many people feel better just going with a clean install and downloading/installing all the drivers.

 

I got the bloatware version. My concern is if there is any trick on installing Sony drivers and etc.

I had a HP which was fine to make a fresh install, I had all drivers. But also I had a MSI which was a little tricky to get drivers installed. Since it's my first Sony, I still don't know what is better.

I will try a fresh install then =)

 

You can hedge... make a clone copy to another source and then try the fresh install. If that doesn't work, restore to the SSD from the clone copy.

Or I think you can just clone from the original HDD if you have an external drive kit.

 

When moving to SSDs it's always highly recommended to do a fresh install.

Windows 7 behaves differently when on SSD, and the best way to make sure that windows "knows" about that its running on an SSD is to do a clean install to the SSD.

 

How do you change to AHCI? Just recieved my SSD, and I'm gonna do a clean install, but first.. change to AHCI!


The BIOS is very limited, and I can't seem to find any options there!

Always bin a option on previous laptops!


Mabye it's already on AHCI?!

 

AHCI is the default in 99% of all new computers made in the last couple of years, so don't worry its on AHCI if you cannot see the switch.

 

[ 1.608953] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: version 3.0
[ 1.608973] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: PCI INT A -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
[ 1.609021] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: irq 46 for MSI/MSI-X
[ 1.609047] ahci: SSS flag set, parallel bus scan disabled
[ 1.621089] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0300 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x11 impl RAID mode
[ 1.621093] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq sntf stag pm led clo pio slum part apst
[ 1.621099] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64

 

Installed Win 7 on the SSD, and later on put the HDD in a caddy!

Worked flawlessly!!


Loved this laptop with just the HDD.. now I love it even more

 

Thanks Russ. Good to know.

Hoping to get my SE delivered later this week. The first task will be to install/upgrade a brand new M4 SSD to the latest firmware. The firmware upgrade will not, apparently, work in AHCI mode. Is there a BIOS setting to go back to "IDE" or "Compatability" mode? If not, I suppose that I can always crack open the desktop to do the firmware upgrade but that seems like an unnecessary hassle.