Sony SE Owners' Thread

Isn't the envy way more popular. Never seen a sony se in a store but the envy is everywhere.

 

Well, I have seen the SE at Fry's, but those are few and far between. Almost rarer than USA Sony Style stores

 

Sony Store and Fry's, both in my hometown!

And I haven't seen many Envy's in stores...

 

Wow finally 121 pages read.
Ok so i just registered to this forum because im interested in the VAIO SE.

First off. I wanted a 15inch laptop, i Have a huge dislike for apple products.
I need a laptop who can do some basic video editing+simple gaming. I have a desktop for the heavy gaming. I will not be traveling a lot.

Is this a right laptop for me?

If so. Im gonna CTO it. (if i say that right)
i7(usefull for video editing) 4GB RAM, Standard HardDrive
Cause i know for laptops you can better buy the RAM and the HDD or SSD yourself because its cheaper.

And whats the status of the new (February) 2012 line? They where going to do a internal refresh on the Z and S,SE models. and some other color options on the other models. is there a big difference??

And last:
What the thing about
SATAIII
2 Finger scrolling
and battery life

Heard there where some things on that

Hope someone can give me good advise.

 

Even though I don't own the SE model I'll try to answer some of your general questions. The SE will definitely be capable of doing everything you described and then some. Regarding CTO it's not always true that it will be cheaper to buy it separately. The thing to realize is that you are already paying for a particular component when you're buying the laptop so it might work out cheaper to upgrade the CTO options. I would definitely look up all components that you are planning to upgrade on your own and compare the cost to the CTO options. It also depends what components you want to upgrade, some you will not be able to upgrade yourself like the GPU, but if you're planning to buy additional 4gb RAM for example then that will usually be cheaper to buy somewhere else, just make sure your voltages match.

With the HDD it kinda sucks since they don't even offer a 7200 rpm option in the CTO so if you wanted to swap it for a better HDD you'll still have to buy the cheapest option they offer and then buy replacement HDD, therefore you're paying for it twice. But if they did offer the HDD you want I'm pretty sure it would be cheaper to just get it from Sony directly.

Regarding the February upgrade that was discussed on the previous page. For the SE model the upgrades are bump in the CPU (which would be worth it for you if you are looking to upgrade to i7 anyways) and an upgrade to IPS panel. Considering February is few days away I'd say that's definitely worth the wait.

 

It's hard to tell. How are you going to capture video? Will it be video from still camera (SLR or micro 4/3) or a video camera? What sort of connection do you expect? If you plan to do casual video editing even i5 will do. I've been editing video with dual-core T9600 on ASUS M50 without any issues (wonderful machine, by the way, with all the necessary ports but cannot get more than 4GB of RAM).

 

Soure?

On all official Sony sites I found until now, they just say something like: "Full HD with with LED Backlight" or: "VAIO Plus-Display".


AND even when it stands somewhere, there is the question of whether you can trust it.
I just found a site that says it has a Gobi 3000 UMTS modem and another that says it is a Gobi 2000....

 

I bit the bullet and ordered today was gonna wait till feb to see what the refresh was-ended up (in my eyes ) getting a deal that i couldnt let pass vaio se with the i7 processor radeon 6630m 8gb ram and 640gb hard drive for £820-if i miss out on the ips upgrade then so be it !!!

 

Did you also look into the samsung 7? It has a bit better specs but worse screen.

Sata III is locked to the speed of sata II. So you can buy a sata II ssd. And its possible to replace the dvd drive with the original hdd.

Gaming performance:
AMD Radeon HD 6630M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Ram: just buy a extra 4gb cl9 stick for 20$

battery life: depends on configuration. some people also get a free extra battery slate.

 

For anyone recently joining in and is interested in the SE, know these 2 things:

It's very light for a 15" laptop. I didn't really think about how light it was until I picked up some other 15" (old toshiba satellite and a 15" mac pro).
The viewing angles/brightness are great.

Just mentioning that because I am on a 3 hour train ride to another city right now, it's not the most comfortable seat so the good viewing angles are helpful.

The low weight has really helped after hauling this luggage around from station to station. Mix with a good backpack and it's no trouble at all.

I didn't buy this to travel with but it certainly is a nice bonus.

 

Again like I said in my previous post I found this info on the official Sony Australia page. Link here just click on specification and look for display VPCSE17GG : S Series : VAIO Notebooks & Computers : Sony Australia

 

I'm no expert or anything but I thought IPS was a type of TFT. Isn't the difference between TN and IPS panels?

My external ASUS monitor is an IPS and the SE seems to have the same viewing angles. Colour accuracy is of course different because of the red/orange problem.

Like I said, not an expert so please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I thought the same thing.

Wiki seems to agree with you:

TFT LCD - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2 Types
2.1 Twisted nematic (TN)
2.2 In-Plane Switching (IPS)
2.3 Advanced fringe field switching (AFFS)
2.4 Multi-domain vertical alignment (MVA)
2.5 Patterned vertical alignment (PVA)
2.6 Advanced super view (ASV)
2.7 Plane Line Switching (PLS)

But you would think if the current SE had an IPS panel... Sony would be brag-marketing about it.

 

Exactly. Plus why would they be saying in the February announcement that the SE will (as in once it's refreshed) come with IPS if it already was IPS? Perhaps this will be the solution to the orangegate.

 

If so... guess who is going to try a warranty exchange?

 

Yea, there is a big "IPS" logo on the ASUS box. I agree it's something you would want to push.

The lack of advertising IPS does not mean it isn't there. It might be a mistake on the part of Sony's marketing team which they are fixing in the refresh.

Just guessing though.

 

Oh... and the fact that the HP 15" Envy with IPS also exhibits the OrangeGate problem makes me think that current SE models *could* be IPS.

 

You might be right. Who knows, it's not very clear. Here's to hoping that the current SE doesn't have an IPS panel and that they will upgrade it to a better one than the one used by Envy.

 

There's no way the current screen can be TN, can it?

 

Guys, the current panel is IPS.

??:??? ?? - SONY VAIO SE 15.5\" 9? ??? ??

I've seen the Sony Korea's SE manual, it clearly states IPS. I can't find the manual atm so I'm linking a Korean site.

EDIT : Manual found, here is the photo.

 

Does seem to be too good for your average TN panel. Well then, maybe they just decided to push the fact it's an IPS.

Still hope they would upgrade it to a better quality IPS and resolve the OrangeGate issue. The fact that it cannot reproduce reds properly kinda defeats the whole purpose of IPS since it makes it unsuitable for any type of color accurate work, the very market IPS panels are designed for.

 

Yup, and the fact that they say "Wide gamut" in their descriptions for the panel is very misleading..

Here's to hoping for a better panel as well for the SE2.

 

Maybe Sony decided to not push the IPS feature because it was aware of the red/orange problem. They could potentially avoid pissing off hordes of professionals lining up for for a fair priced IPS laptop.

The Dell was advertised as an IPS right? There seems to be a lot more people pissed off in their owner's thread compared to here.

Let's hope that by naming the type of panel in their press release they are using a different panel for the refresh.

Too late for me but I'm hoping others can benefit from it.

 

Which Dell? Do you mean the HP Envy?

 

He probably does. HP did make a big deal out of the addition of IPS in the Envy 15 line.


Panel itself is likely wide gamut, but that doesn't mean the backlight feeding it has to cover the reds

 

My SE does this as well, just pull the plug out 1/8th of an inch while listening to something - you will feel some resistance when you get the correct spot and will hear the difference. This doesn't bridge the channels like common work arounds for faulty jacks, each channel is segregated.

 

Well, in my opptinion the word "will" says just nothing.
When I buy e.g. a 5 years old Notebook, it also will come with a CPU, a Display, a Keyboard ect.


When you take the quote, you can also capitalize it like that:
"The 15” will come standard with a 15.5” Full HD display "
And your conclusion whould be, that the current version has no Full HD, while the new one has it.
As you can see that makes no sense.



But as I always say: Hope dies last.
So maby there is still a chance that they put in a better screen. (regardless which kind they use at the moment)

 

Thanks for your reply. I find this solution too, and happy that my SONY SE deliver a very good sound

I was afraid when I havec tested 3 other Sony SE, because the same problem was persistant. In fact, it was just a hedphone plug problem.

 

Whoops, yes I meant the HP Envy.

 

When we can buy Sony SE2? Anyone use it, worth of buying or i should wait for IB (I have laptop).

 

You know what the pessimist in me thinks? That Sony has seen how HP can now market their Envy 15's panel as an IPS panel, and Sony is moving to do the same with the SE.

While cheap IPS all over the place is a good thing, it does make finding out which displays are actually good or not harder again

 

I think it comes out late February. It doesn't sound like it's different enough from the current model unless the colour issue is corrected. So if you don't feel the SE is right for you now, you might as well wait for Ivy Bridge and see what Sony offers with that.

 

Seems like they already sell out the current model at the moment!

On the german site and the UK site 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD and some CPU's aren't available anymore.
On the US site the HD 6470M is out of Stock.

 

Exactly what I'm planning to do. And not just for Sony but hopefully there will be other competing 14"-15" ultrabooks with good build, good high res screen and solid performance.

 

Sorry you mean the Samsung's SATA III is locked to SATA II or the Vaio's? or mobile chipsets in geeneral?

 

The latest BIOSs (2X...) restrict the SATA speed to SATA-II. The first BIOS had SATA-III support.

 

Maybe the SE2 will have SATAIII enabled again. You never know.

So whats the comparison between the SE1 and the SE2? Does it Use different CPU/GPU? or is it just the same CPU with a 0.1GHZ speed bump?

 

They arent designing a new motherboard or a new bios for se2. That would be a waste if money for them. Its possible they release a new bios that fixes it, and that would be for all vaio s laptops.

 

For anyone who is noticing this problem, I have FOUND the setting that causes it. Under standard windows Power Options you will notice there is a VAIO Power Management tab. Under this tab there is an LCD category with the option to set the refresh rate based on being plugged in or on battery.

By default, when on battery in the Balanced or Power Saver mode, the refresh rate is set to 40Hz. This causes the mouse movement to appear choppy instead of smooth (like it is at 60 Hz), and causes the screen to flicker when switching from plugged-in to on battery.

I have set my refresh rate to 60Hz in Balanced power mode to solve this issue and now am very happy!!

Hope this helps someone else out. There are quite a few hidden "power saving" features that degrade the user experience by default on these laptops!

*EDIT*

These settings are tucked away under the "Change advanced power settings" link at the bottom of Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings

 

Watching YouTube in Chrome recently began crashing on a regular basis. Anyone know what might be causing this?

I also found that working for prolonged periods with Adobe CS crashes/reboots the graphics card. Hmm... is this a normal issue pertaining to the graphics card, or is there something wrong?

Another bummer- the headphone jack just broke last week. The turnaround will be 2 weeks. Sigh...this laptop is barely 2 months old. All my friends who previously had Vaios advised against me buying it, but I was hoping the higher-end lines would be better built.

 

Chrome has problems with flash. This is not laptop related.

Also the laptop is built to be light so its natural to be somewhat breakable.

 

How did the headphone jack break?

 

Youtube in Chrome was fine for a month and half. This problem just started a few days ago. Sure, it is built to be light, but as long as I use it with reasonable care, as I have been doing, I don't expect it to break this easily.

dan96max- I have no idea how it broke. I had it hooked up to external speakers and about two weeks ago it began to have connectivity issues. I had to play around with the audio cable to get a sound but now it's gotten to a point where I have to hold my hand there and push it backwards for it to work. I've tested the cable with other computers and it's fine- so it is definitely the jack that's broken.

 

How long is "prolonged" with Photoshop? I have used it for 8+ hours at a time and have only had it crash once due to accessing a network folder. Nothing graphic related but I tend to use the Intel 3000 instead of the AMD card.

Might be something wrong with your SE if it's crashing. I have used CS3 and CS5 with nothing that serious happening.

 

Prolonged = 4 to 5 hours. Hm, how do you manually select which graphics card to use? My old laptop only had the Intel 3000 and I never had issues with Photoshop crashing after a few hours.

 

I just use the laptop in "stamina mode" by flicking the physical switch on the top left hand side and that keeps it using the Intel 3000.

I think there are some performance hits if you use Stamina mode on the default settings but if I'm not mistaken you can adjust them with the advanced power settings one by one.

I never really notice the performance hits but it really depends on what kind of work you do in Photoshop, what effects me might not effect you.

Hope that clears some things up, I would still try to find the root of your problem. Photoshop should not be crashing and if it's a faulty Vaio, get it fixed while under warranty.

 

I would love to get it fixed, but how should I report it when I send it in? The Sony Store will schedule an appointment to look at my computer before they send it in- obviously the headphone jack is a no-brainer, but are they going to use Photoshop for 5 hours until it crashes to determine that something is wrong with the graphics card? Or watch lots of YouTube videos until one crashes? Lol what is the usual protocol for determining more complicated issues that aren't immediately evident?

 

They will likely use their own diagnostics to determine it, they require you to write down the clear symptoms when you send it in so they might not be able to replicate the issue.

I suggest you clearly write what is wrong with your laptop, and they may decide to replace it even if they can't replicate the issue.

 

Ok, will do. Thanks everyone for your help!

I hope when I get it back I won't have any more issues with it. Both of my previous laptops were sub-850 Toshibas. The first one lasted 5 years, and the 2nd one will be 4 years old in February and still performs like a champ.

 

What environment are you using the laptop in when it crashes? Is it on your lap on the couch or on a table? What are the temps like when it does crash?