Sony SE Owners' Thread

Did you replace the HDD with an SSD, or put the SSD in the optical bay? If the latter, on the SA/B/C that connector is only SATA II (3 Gb/s) and that's likely the same on the SE as well.

 

I replaced the internal one. A quite easy and quick job.

 

Has anyone who ordered a piece from the sony.com USA store, got the free Engraving ?

 

ALL Sony fans do that. At least, my CA with core i5 did that as well. Annoying noise coming from the fan motor itself. It would constantly rev up and then rev down, up then down, over and over. Part of the reason why I'm considering not getting this laptop...

 

I've gotten the free engraving on Sony W (purchased from sony.de) and Sony Y (purchased from sonystyle.com USA). What do you need to know about it?

 

Yeah, I dl and installed all of the links on Sony's site and was unable to solve the issue.

 

Could you post a real pic of how it actually looks?

 

Sure:
Vaio W


Vaio Y

 

Speakers and amplifiers in laptop computers are so bad that I'd rather eliminate their weight and cost. One can connect, via USB, external professional or audiophile quality analog to digital and digital and analog converters, amplifier and speakers. But how do you reduce the fan noise?

 

To me the free engraving seems like a trick. If you get the engraving, you can't return to unit so Sony is saving more on potential returns than they're losing on the free engraving.

 

Does anyone know when skins for the 15.5" will be available? I saw that the Series S 13.3" skin is available.

Also, whats the best way of finding a localized skin (eg, with Korean keyboard markings)

 

I was at the Sony store here in Seattle and they had the 15.5" US skins available. I think they were a universal skin that would fit a few different models.

If you have a Sony store in your area I would check them out.

 

Are you sure they are Model S skins? Just because its a 15.5" skin, doesn't mean it fits the Model S as there are 15.5" skins that do not fit the model S, the skins for other 15.5" models line up key for key, but are "too deep".

 

They had placed them on the 15.5 se laptop there and it fit perfect. Like I said, it could have been a universal one.

If I drop back by I'll grab a pic of them.

 

Are we talking about the keyboard skins?

I believe for the 2011 VAIOs, the 10-key keyboards have a uniform size so the skins are interchangeable.

 

I was at the Microsoft store and pulled a skin off a different Vaio and placed it on the SE. It fit in the x and y direction, but was too tall, so there was space between the top of the key, and the top of the skin. I don't remember which model it was I pulled the skin off of.

I see there are two main series of model numbers on the sony website that fit 15.5" laptops, VGP-KBL3/... and VGP-KBV3/... (The portion after the slash represents color and language). The only difference between them seems to be the notation used for the Fn key. One is blue (KBV3), one has a border (KBL3).

 

Ahh... that makes sense in two ways:

1. The SE might have flatter keys

2. The SE keyboard is sunk in

Some of those skins are translucent right? I still want the backlighting to show.

 

I'm the kind of customer that does not return a product unless it's a total flop -- so that's not really a concern, but yes, my next laptop probably won't be engraved because I'm concerned about resale value

 

This is true.

Does anyone here wish they would remove the 10 key and make the keyboard on center with the screen or is that just me?

 

I personally find the numpad useful. But to mitigate the "off-centered" feeling, I moved the taskbar from the bottom of the screen to the right-hand side. This makes the working area of the screen centered above your hands (or darned close to it) and also has the added benefit of freeing up more vertical space.

 

:raises hand:

I'm a keyboard snob and I actually don't like 10-key notebook keyboards for two reasons:

1. Like you mentioned, it puts the main keys off-center which I'm still having issues with. On my desktop, I actually have my keyboard shifted to the right so the letters are centered under the screen.

2. I don't like how it puts the PgUp/Dn in a left/right orientation... I'm used to them being up/down like on a desktop keyboard.

I prefer keyboards like the old Dell Latitudes, Thinkpads and even Micron (no longer around), where they have you a 6-key cluster above the backspace key that mimicked the Inser/Del/Home/End/Pg keys. I don't think anyone does that anymore. In lieu of that, I prefer the vertical row on the right hand side, the main keys are still somewhat centered and it gives you that up/down orientation.

I dislike it even more when they combine the Home/End/Pg keys as Fn+ keys with the cursor keys. I prefer dedicated keys. This was my issue with the Dell 15z, it had a big enough deck to add the vertical row but they just put them in the cursor keys... which was very inconvenient. I don't think it's that much of an issue with mousers or trackpadders... but I'm a touch typist and I use those keys quite a bit.

 

Yes please.

 

I'm with you on the 6-key cluster, but for me having the vertical column is *worse* than having a dedicated keypad. I had such on my Dell Inspiron 1318, and it makes it really hard to hit the cursor keys because the right-arrow key is aligned with the navkey column, and my brain always assumed that the cursor keys would be entirely separate from this column and so I ended up pressing Down when I meant to press Right.

 

You bring up my other pet peeve... the non-dropped cursor key cluster.

I know what you mean... that's one of the pluses of the Sony SE, at least the cursor keys are dropped so they are separate from the rest of the keys.

If you look at all the Ultrabooks coming out they all do that Fn+ on the cursor keys, except for the Toshiba Z83x... not only do they have that vertical Home/End/Pg row, but the cursor keys are dropped so that minimizes the issue you are talking about.

 

OMG, I haven't noticed the PGUp/PGDn keys until you pointed it out and now I can't stop noticing it.



Switched from my vaio FW to the Vaio SE, and the keyboard is the one thing I miss. :-(

 

On my F11, there are hard buttons in the accessory bar which are programmable - and I use one of them to turn off my display. Is there any simple way to quickly toggle the display off & on with the SE?

 

I know. I use "end" all the time when inputting mp3 info and I hate having to look at the keyboard to do it. Oh well. It looks like if you want a keyboard with those keys dedicated, you have to get 14-inch or smaller laptop. Unfortunate. Just like how 1366x768 is the default (and it sucks).

Okay, that was a rant...

 

Here is a way to do it. Download a small utility called NirCmd and put it in a location of your choice (e.g., C:\Program Files\nircmd). Then go to Vaio Control Center, Special Buttons, Button Settings, and set the VAIO button to "Launch Application". Click Settings and set as follows:



Now you can turn off the monitor with the VAIO button. The first time you do this, Windows will give you a dialog asking if you want to run the application. Make sure to uncheck the checkbox so that Windows won't ask you again.

 

Hi!

You did exactally what I'm planing to do on mine, buy a M4 to replace the original HDD.

Could someone confirm this laptop has the SATA III controler?

 

Same concern here.. SATA III is for me a must have!

 

Does anyone know if Sony will release a keyboard skin for the SE? And if not, will the SA/B/C skin (which erroneously claims to fit only SB/SC even though it's listed as an accessory when you customize an SA) fit the SE's main keyboard, leaving the keypad uncovered?

 

Hey guys, I’m new here to NBR. I recently purchased the SE190x from Sony Style over the phone. I was excited, until the day after I made the CTO with the sales rep. I did some research and realized that the i7 was only dual core as opposed to what the rep told me (quad core). UPSET but I will get over it. I figure it’s not a big deal although the Samsung 7 series was my first choice. I have always been a Sony Vaio fan, so naturally I felt like I made the right choice.

Here is what I did:
Ordered the i7 SE190x w/4gb ram, 500gb 7200rpm hdd, 1gb video, windows 7 professional, blu-ray player, fresh start.
In total w/education discount = $1398.90. I purchased the Patriot Pyro 240SSD and Corsair 4gb ddr3 1333 from BB which added another $500 to the total bill.

I know the SSD was overkill, but in my opinion it was necessary. I have never used an ssd, cost being the main factor, but whoa it makes a huge difference. BTW I confirmed over the phone that it is a SataII connect. I got a SATAIII because I may use it as an upgrade for a desktop with SATAIII later on. When it came to memory I told Sony they can KMA for a 4gb stick at $160. BB ordered it for me at $30.99. Both are working flawlessly.

I plan to purchase the Hdd Caddy for the optical bay to put the old drive in or maybe replace with a 500gb Seagate Momentus XT hybrid. Hdd Caddy

I am in love. I came from the old a-series Vaio which was 11lbs. and an HP tx2 which I believe was about 6.5lbs. This se series is just the right weight at 4.4lbs. The foot print for this model is quite large, but not a big deal.


I saw the VPC-SA (13.3) at my local microcenter, which is what I really wanted. I didn’t like the screen cause the colors were not vivid, which is quite contradictory of every other Sony I have ever purchased. When I called Sony they informed me that only the 15inch has the HD display. No biggie as I am a big guy. But I received my Vaio last night and it did not have the fingerprint reader which was originally on the SA that I saw at the store. I like the fingerprint reader because I often visit websites that don’t allow stored passwords for security purpose. I think I will be calling Sony on this one. If anyone has it built in (maybe in another country) please let me know.

The screen is awesome; I do some light Photoshop and light gaming. I haven’t tried either as I fell asleep waiting for the recovery media to finish.

Tonight i will do some testing, but so far, i like.

 

Has anyone purchased a hdd caddy yet for this model. HDD Caddy

Would love to know if this is the exact one for mine.

 

Regarding the HDD Caddy from newmodeus.com, I thought the site said they wouldn't be ready until November.

There is a video of how it works with the other S series and it's pretty clean.

 

Wow, what a deception =/

Then, our Sony Vaio SE series is a SATA II ?? It explains why our friend on page 35 bought a SSD M4 SATA III but had slow results =//

 

Yeah, slightly dissappointed although I knew this. I have had 3 Sony laptops in the past, and can truly say they have dropped the ball here. I'm very upset that they decided toonly use dual core i7, sataII and no fingerprint reader.

 

First I compared my fan noise with another SE model (i5) available in one of our local electronic stores. After finding the noise of this model quite acceptable I went to my dealer again and told him that something is wrong with my device. Kindly he ordered exactly the same model again for one to one comparison.
Today we checked both the new model and my original one. Out of discussion the fan noise of the new one was significantly more acceptable and I got an immediate exchange.

This means two things:
- there might be huge differences in fan noises
- it's always good having a trustworthy and helpful local dealer

 

I have a fingerprint reader in my model (VPCSE1Z9E) but SATA II only is indeed not nice. However the speed of the crucial M4 is still incredible fast. Connecting to SATA III would clearly bring benefit for synthetic benchmarks but in real usage the influence will be less notable. SATA II SSD have usually much less power consumption means if might have been the better choice. On the other side the M4 is quite cheap compared to other brands.

I still don't get the full picture why internal disk has only a SATA II connector. The chipset is supporting SATA III for sure.

 

I'm still buying the M4, not due to performance, but reliability since he is one that have had less problems according to some reviews from both users and websites!

 

I agree wholely. What I noticed firstly was the speed of the 7200 rpm drive was considerably slower than my wife's vpc-ee. All I did was start up, login, create recovery and attempt to flash ssd firmware. Since I couldn't get the tool to recognize the drive I decided to just install ssd and set recovery. The speed after recovery was incredible. I could only imagine with sataIII

 

I bought on the fly, due to unforeseen circumstances. My desktop power supply took some kind of power surge. It took about 1500$ in parts from my custom built rig. The pws took my video card, 320gb and 1tb hdds, DVD drive, and the pcie slot of the mobo. In a raging fit I went and purchased without doing any research. I smack my self all the time for doing it like that. I wish I would have done more research on the ssds.

I have 30 days to take it back but I am not so concerned with the price as it is slightly lower than 2$ per gb which is about right.

Can anybody confirm gaming at full Res. I wanted to get the Batman game to test.

 

Did anyone here get the 3D add on accessory?

 

Thanks much, this works Great!

 

I just got the VAIO SE in the mail today. So far I am VERY happy with it.

The screen is beautiful. Maybe not quite as good as the new MacBook Pros, but close. The touchpad works very well, and has good customization options. The battery life is surprisingly good. I put it on power saver mode, and it is holding up way better than the Dell 15z ever did. It looks like I should be able to get about 5 hours with light usage. (Web browsing, document editing, etc.) I might not even need the sheet battery, depending on how fast this thing can recharge.

And let me tell you, this laptop is LIGHT for its size. Very light. Thought it is a bit longer/wider than I would have thought.

So far, it is exactly what I wanted: Good screen, good keyboard/touchpad, lightweight, and decent battery life. Sure, I would've preferred a solid 8 hour battery life, but this gets it close enough.

Some people might complain that it is a bit 'flexible.' The keyboard has a little bit of give, and the screen flexes when you open it. For me, these things are NOT an issue. They don't affect the usability for me: They're an aesthetic preference.

Finally, a laptop I won't be returning.

Thank you Sony.

PS: I haven't put my SSD in yet. I expect the battery life to be even better when I do that.

 

Glad to hear it's working out for you, Jacob!

 

Despite my misgivings about the screen's color quality, I think I'll be keeping my machine after all, as there really aren't any alternatives right now that are in this size and weight class. According to the postal scale at my office, the laptop actually weighs less a bit less than the stated 4.4 pounds! That's a refreshing change from the fantasy weight specs quoted by certain other manufacturers...

 

Please Jacob, let us know when you install the SSD! If you could share the instalattion process and the performance of it would make many of us happy =)

 

Can some please definitively confirm the battery life for me. I've heard it being anywhere from 3 hours normal to 5 hours normal. I'm trying to decide on a laptop before sunday or i'll just buy the Dv6 with the $500 coupon.

 

Is is possible to share this coupon with us? I have to buy a laptop for my girlfriend and it would work very well on it

 

Actually all Sony Vaio notebooks weigh less than the figures quoted by Sony.