Sony Vaio Duo 13 Owners Thread

Hello guys. Does anyone know in Core i7 4650U with 8Gigs of RAM memory works in dual channel mode or not? And yes, it would be great to see some perfomance reviews.

 

Yes, it does. It's confirmed by Sony on the forums(its in this thread too!) and the benchmarks kinda support it.

 

If you are to believe this Japanese publication, it would seem so:
http://www.itmedia.co.jp/pcuser/articles/1306/25/news029_5.html

For what it's worth, I think the digitizer works pretty well. Of course, it depends entirely on what you are looking to use it for. If you are an artist and need the greater number of pressure sensitivity levels and software support then you should definitely prioritize a Wacom machine. But, if you are looking for something to take notes with, like I was, then the Duo 13 works grandly. In fact, some might say that the thickness of the N-Trig pen is advantageous for this type of user.

Sony did a price cut on the i7-4650u model, maybe the i5 sees one too?

 

Hi All,

I've tried the VAIO DUO 13 at the shop, and the keyboard does feel a bit too shallow and difficult to type as fast. Does anyone have any comment on the keyboard?

I was initially hesitating on the 'fixed screen angle', but after looking at it, the screen does look pretty good at most angles. Now, my only other doubt is the keyboard, to decide on if I should go for the VAIO PRO instead.

 

I mentioned about the keyboard yesterday when I went into the shop to try it out. It's an awesome improvement. I could type naturally and accurately straight away. Then I went onto the Duo 11 and I had a lot of trouble,

The keyboard on the Duo 13 is a winner.

 

I agree with blasphemy--for note taking I find the Sony among the best I have used---and again I have used a lot of tablet pc for inking, most with a Wacom pen.

 

It does take a bit (I mean minutes here) to get used to the shallowness. Then I am as good as any other keyboard. Except I really don't like the small right shift key--sometimes I over extend and hit the up arrow--that take much more getting used to than the shallowness for me

 

Just a quick note: I am able to adjust the angle of the screen for touch use. The hinge is strong enough to support the screen anywhere between tablet and notebook mode. The keyboard isn't usable like this, but it's nice for when I'm in bed.

 

Still waiting for my Duo 13 to arrive... definitely taking its time to get to this part of the world. Lol.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone could comment on the SD/SDHC card compatibility of the device? I mean, what's the largest and fastest SD card supported by the Duo 13? I'm afraid the 128GB SSD wouldn't be enough eventually... and Sony's asking too much for the 256GB upgrade. Any idea? Thanks.

 

any possible way to reinstall japanese version of windows 8 to english?
even bios is in japanese
any possible way to change bios language to english?

is it possible to get US version of sony recovery disk? including bios english version?

 

No wonder it gets so high in 3DMark11.

That's the issue I have. $1400 for the base model is very high no matter which way you look at it. It has to be perfect IMO.

 

They weren't huge issues, but enough to make me not replace the faulty one I got.

1. The angle of the display. Tilted too far back.
2. The size of it was not as portable or usable in tablet mode. While I ordered it knowing a slightly larger size/display overall, I thought the changes in thickness at certain points would make it more manageable in tablet mode, but that wasn't the case.
3. The layout of the ports didn't make it any easier to access. The outer buttons were also more difficult to press (not a deal breaker as I don't use them that much, but even the power button was moved for no real advantage to me). The main annoyance was where the USB ports were placed, though. I liked how they were on the 11.
4. Viewing angles were much better on my Duo 11. I even took my Duo 13 while I had it to do a comparison to see if it was just my imagination, and it was far better on the 11. The 13 I had, as soon as you weren't directly looking at it, looked like one of those private screen protectors was over it (just not as dark of course, since I could at least see it...but it had a grainy look while not directly in front of it). Not sure if my Duo 13 just got a different panel than others, but it looked great besides the viewing angles were terrible. The colors were fantastic, the resolution and clarity was also top notch.
5. The software wasn't reliable - I know it will be resolved, but I just had driver issues such as auto-brightness could not be turned off...which appears to be a firmware issue. I have had plenty of experience with Sony products and using their software, and it would not turn off with all of the various tries and even speaking with tech support (they did the logmein support while trying to fix the keyboard backlighting which was DOA). Not just that, but various other little things that just annoyed me with the system settings and controls. These would not have been deal breakers, but other than a couple minor issues with the Vaio Control Panel, my Duo 11 never had problems.

So, while none of those things were terrible (except the obvious issue with no working backlit keyboard on the one I received), they were enough for me to not replace the faulty one I got. New customers to the Duo 13 who had never had the Duo 11, probably wouldn't notice some of these changes, and maybe the viewing angles were just mine (although I went to the MSFT store nearby and it looks like the viewing angles on their 13's look the same as on mine).

I loved the keyboard, trilumous display, spec enhancement with the Haswell and HD 5000 graphics, improved battery life, and hinge, along with the overall feel of it...but I was hoping for a more usable tablet option as I use it for work a lot in that way, so overall the issues I experience and the larger size just makes me want a Haswell Duo 11.

 

Oh, for those curious about the gaming performance of the i7-4650u with 8GB RAM. I'll give a quick comparison to my Duo 11 with the i7-3537u and 8GB RAM.

I only really got to compare Dota 2, World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Borderlands 2, and Mirror's Edge as I didn't have it for that long. I also played some indie titles like Bastion which ran fine at max settings native res.

Dota 2 - With my Duo 11 on Dota 2 I'd play with most options turned off (including AA, ambient occlusion, shadows low) at 1080p, and the render quality (which is a bar that can be drastically changed and makes a huge difference in the games quality) at 50%. This would run 30-40FPS consistently. On my Duo 13 I was able to run with every option turned on except ambient occlusion (hardly noticeable), 1080p, render quality at about 90%, and I would run at 30-40FPS. It was a huge improvement in quality and performance. This is one of the main games I play, and since I travel quite a bit was quite a good experience to know it would nearly max it at native res.

WoW - on my Duo 11 I ran with mainly Fair settings (They go from Low > Fair > Good > High > Ultra), Trilinear Filtering, at 1080p, but would turn down some unimportant options to turn up Texture Resolution to Good and Viewing Distance to High. This mainly got me around 30-40FPS with a few dips here and there in crowded areas with more going on. With my Duo 13 I could turn most settings to Good, kept it at Trilinear Filtering, Viewing Distance to Ultra, and Texture Resolution to High and run at the same performance as before in the 30-40 FPS. You COULD turn a bit more up to High settings if you sacrifice some things like Viewing Distance, but I prefer that overall to be higher as other options have less drastic effect. Also, while the Anistropic Filtering and Texture Resolution being turned up does improve it, I think keeping the resolution at native 1080p was better (in videos for WoW settings many people just say to turn down the res, but I'd rather just keep the filtering/textures a little lower).

Borderlands 2 - I previously ran at 30-40FPS at 1366x768 with a mix of low-med settings and tweaks to get it up to 1080p (google them) with low settings. With my Duo 13 I could run about the same with maybe a 5FPS improvement. This game could have a large various in performance depending on the settings and res, so it's hard for me to say as I didn't do a side-by-side comparison or save all of the tweaks/settings on each machine.

StarCraft 2 - I saw a moderate increase in performance with a few settings turned to medium. Worked fine at 1080p with a mix of low-med and some options turned on that would otherwise have been off on the Duo 11 to stay above 30FPS. Didn't save all of the settings on either device though, so I can't say for sure what everything was set at.

Mirror's Edge - on my Duo 11 I ran at 1080p with everything low with AA off and it would be around 30 FPS, with my Duo 13 I turned graphics settings and texture quality to Medium OR kept them down and turned AA to 4x to keep the same performance. So a definite improvement, but I don't recall the exact FPS I got out of each machine.

Overall it was a much improved experience though from what I could tell.

Since I didn't have the Duo 13 for very long, I really didn't give it a real in-depth gaming comparison...which I wish I would have and maybe made a video of various games. Overall the experience was much better for gaming than my Duo 11 most of the time. A few games it seemed to be minor but I didn't take enough time to check many settings other than those posted, but the games I mostly played seemed to run smoother at native resolution...and all of them were capable of running at 1080p above 30FPS as long as other settings were either low, or I tweaked the config files (as was the case with BL2).

 

Anyone thought about the red edition? Kind of like it but still cant decide if its worth 350€ :x

 

VAIO DUO 13 RED EDITION

 

Thank for this link, really appreciate it. Looks like I have to get the red edition

 

The quiet state of fanless slates will be achieved through a 4.5W Haswell variant scheduled to be made available "in the coming months," according to Intel.

this ganna be awesome

 

Do you guys also notice the screen leaking light, especially in the bottom? I am wondering if this is just bad luck or a common occurrence. Thanks.

 

Wow...the i7-4650U HD5000 looks to be great improvement over the HD4000, and probably HD4400 i guess. Too bad that this config is not available in my country and I ended up ordering the new XPS 12 with i7-4500u HD4400 instead. Hopefully it won't be too much of the performance hit.

 

BTW, if you can post some Youtube videos on your i7-4650u Duo gaming, that would be awesome.

 

There is one unknown device after installing win 8 and tried old derives.

The hardware id is

acpi ven_nxp&dev_5442.

would anyone know what device it is? thanks.

 

How do you mean? Is the light leaking through the through the frame around the display? If that is the case, I have not noticed anything of the sort on my machine and I would say you should look into a return or replacement.

 

Well this stinks. Sony discontinued the education discount for the Duo and Pro models. I was going to get an i7 4650u with AT&T LTE and 8 GB ram! Now I may go with something else ugh...

 

They haven't discontinued discounts on the pre-made models. The new discounts they've added come close or even exceed what the education discount gave off, I think that's why they removed it on the customizable models. I customized to match the Duo 13 I got with the education discount and the price was roughly the same.

 

I got a customized Duo 13 (i7 4650u, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD) when the educational discount was still good. And according to the email that sony sent me, I am also eligible for price assurance. Lucky me, I guess...

But now I have to purchase a 2TB mobile HDD for extra space.

 

This is how it looks after I press the power button, once. It looks pretty bad but on the other hand it only bothers me when it's has a black background, e.g., watching a movie, etc. Should I return it?

 

For me it is about $70-100 more expensive now...ugh.

 

I don't experience any backlight bleed that bad...I rebooted and looked over the post screen carefully, as well as some video with black backgrounds and I even set my wallpaper to black. The only time I notice anything of the sort is when I look at the display from sharper angles, and that's the same slight discoloration I mentioned earlier in the thread (yellowish tinge on sharp vertical axis viewing angles, bluish tinge on sharp horizontal axis viewing angles). Obviously the decision of whether or not to return/replace is up to you, but I would say your complaint isn't unreasonable if you do.

 

Thank you for the information..... glad to know that this is not a common problem but really hate to wait for a replacement....SONY is doing a bad job in quality control!

 

The Sony Vaio Duo 13 seems to use the cTDPup 25W at least for graphics so I'd think the Vaio would end up faster than the XPS.

 

MobileTechReview's written review on the Sony VAIO Duo 13 is up: Sony Vaio Duo 13 Review - Windows 8 Tablet and Notebook Reviews by MobileTechReview

 

Finally my customized duo 13 has been marked as being in production. Any idea on the average time from this to shipping?

Also a couple more questions since I am at it: Is there any restriction/setting/anything that prevents big data downloads when using the 3G/4G modem instead of wifi? Last thing I want to find out is the duo killing my data allowance downloading windows updates the first day

About the pen and taking notes, which app seems to behave better in your oppinion so far, the one Sony bundles in or OneNote? Cand you set up OneNote as the default app to open when you take out the pen from the duo?

 

Same here. The status of my order has been changed to Your VAIO is being built since last Thursday, and it has remained unchanged since then. The expected shipping date is 2 Aug... No idea how accurate that is, however.

 

I should have mentioned in my previous post that I also had backlight bleed, but it was very minor. Myself being picky about stuff like that noticed it a fair amount but it really wasn't bad. My wife could barely tell even when pointing it out on an all dark display. With that said, it wasn't a huge deal, but as I previously mentioned...all of the issues and the faulty backlit keyboard were enough for me to not get a replacement.

Sucks though, as I got the educational discount because my wife works for a school as a speech pathologist, and if I could have gotten the price assurance Sony offers, it'd have brought my total to under $1500 with the i7-4650u, 8GB RAM, and 128GB model. Regarding storage, I use a Wintec filemate elite 64GB SD card that is simply awesome and highly recommend if you don't want to pay all the extra for the 256 or higher SSD. Mine was $60 on Amazon and has read speeds of 95MBs and write at 50MBs, and on the 128GB SSD have had no problem getting by with WoW, Dota 2, BL2, SC2, and a few indie games all installed taking up roughly 60GB, dropbox with around 6GB, and numerous other everyday programs on the SSD.

 

I want the memory of your computer may be greater for film archives and documents ... 256GB is not enough for me...
Support team in my area said "no clear information about this product "

VAIO® Duo 13 (Black)
Model: SVD13217PGB
Intel® Core™ i7
Windows 8 Pro
SSD : 256 GB
Ram : 8 GB

 

OneNote, especially if you have the more robust desktop app included with Microsoft Office, is far superior to the bundled VAIO Note Anytime. You can set OneNote to be the default app to open when you remove the pen. The setting you need to change is in the VAIO Control Center under the "Input Devices" tab.

 

How is the keyboard backlight? Is it everywhere even?

 

From what we saw on the video review, it is very uneven, specially around the arrow keys which are hardly lighted

 

Yep, thts what I saw as well and its the reasen why I wanna ask the guys who got one.

Btw are there a comparison between 4200U and 4500U (Gameing, CPU)

 

hi, im looking for a sony vaio duo with the intel 5000hd and the better cpu... Im having a little of problems, since here in europe they dont sell it, only the model with intel 4400.. So, i was looking for buying one in us.. can you guys tell me how do i do it and where? is it safe?? please, say something... thanks a lot

 

Is there any way to get the student discount to apply to the custom version? Right now with the lower priced upgrade promotion it comes out cheaper to just buy the custom rather than the premade with the 10% off

 

Find someone in the US, ship your i7-4650U duo 13 to your friend in the US, and ask your friend in the US to forward it to you. That's what I did.

Unfortunately, Sony online store won't ship it to international forwarding company addresses... A bit ridiculous, considering how desperate sony is in the emails that ask me to "come back and make a purchase..." Come on, sony, shipping to international forwarding addresses is not against any law.

 

Looking for a new Sony SVD13218PGW (or Black) available and in stock in Australia (Sydney preferable). Can anyone help!

 

Looking for Australian stockist with product to ship now! Any clues - Sydney would be grate.

 

Interesting that you found you preferred the 11.6" screen to the 13.3" even though the Duo 13 is only 9% bigger than the Duo 11 and has the Triluminous display.

 

Hi, I'm new here and thinking of buying the Duo 13 i7-4500u-version. But there seem to be conflicting experiences and reviews with this machine and I do not have much technical knowledge. So I'm going to throw in some different things that I found and hopefully some of you can give your view on this and help explaining it to me?

Performance i7-4500u vs 4200u and others

A part of a German review in notebookinfo translated in google

Can it really be true, that you do not be able to get the full turbo boost up to 3 GHz in the i7-version?

Graphic card HD graphics 4400 or 4600 in the i7-4500u version?

Here is and interesting review from Croatia, translated in google

Could this actually be true, given the the different reviews between the Pro 13 and Duo 13? what do you think?

Wifi
Most reviews do not go into details on this, but I found two reviews who touches the subject.
From notebookcheck

And another part of the German review in notebookinfo translated in google

What are peoples experience with Wifi? How many have not experienced any problems with this at all?

10 finger touch or 5 finger touch?
Some reviews says 10 finger touch. Here is a review that mentions 5 finger touch

What is it? and what will the difference be now and for future use? What will I be missing with 5 finger input?

I know that's a lot!! Sorry for that But it is a LOT of money to throw at a tablet/notbook, so I need to be on some reasonably sure ground before I do it

 

The keyboard backlight all over the place. More light spills from in between the keys than from the letters themselves. Doesn't matter; just makes everything easier to see. I love this computer.

 

OMG.. All the waiting is killing me... Ship it to me already, Sony!

 

I hear you, brother

 

Can you post a picture please?

Wanna know that as well.