Sony Vaio Duo 13 Owners Thread

I have only one minor question. I have disabled auto brightness yet I can detect that the brightness (backlight) flickers a bit sometimes then stabilizes. Did you notice something like this. For example, when you minimize a window then maximize it, you see that it flickers (brightness I mean) as if brightness is being adjusted then stabilizes!!

 

Hey I've been trying to get the education discount as well. I was pretty frustrated when they removed the discount because it made my laptop $100 more expensive on the customized version. It's the only thing I need to make the laptop that I want in my price range. On top of that, I need to get it before mid-August before school starts and I know customized orders take upwards of 3 weeks to build/ship from Japan, so my time is running out. I've tried talking to a customer service rep online everyday for the past week, but not a single one could help me out.

If you don't mind sharing, how were you able to get the education discount? What can I do?

 

For those lucky owners, what is the situation with the wifi connectivity? Are you noticing that the signal is weak, and the speed drops significantly when you are just 10m away from the wireless router?

 

I have experienced this as well. Everything seems to work fine with auto-brightness on.

 

Interestingly, I had the same problem when I called. I decided to try and chat with someone and I told him that I saw the discount a few days earlier but decided to wait to buy until now and now the discount is no longer offered. He said in that case he would grant me the 10% off. I saved about $160. I also wanted the HD5000 and only the Duo and MBA had it, and Apple offers an educational discount and is cheaper, so that may also sway them. Try that.

 

Thanks alot for the kind reply. So, you do not think this is any kind of issue that is worth worrying about???

Please if anyone has some sort explanation for this altering flickering/brightness whenever you open a new window-going from dark color to a brighter or vice versa- I am all ears ... many many thanks.

 

Thank you for the kind reply. But why do you think this happens (the flickering of screen when opening new windows or with certain colors)? Do you think it is normal??

I would be greatly appreciative if I can get an advice in regards to this from other owners too to see if this a general thing.. or only unit specific


Many thanks

 

Finally got my Duo 13. Feels well-built. Pen sort of fell apart(buttons) when i tried changing the nib, though. SMH.

 

I think it's normal (if normal means that your device isn't specially defective). The nature of the issue would seem to indicate a software-side issue. Auto brightness works very well when on, but it's almost as if when you try to turn it off it doesn't and instead becomes wonky. I'm hoping some other owners chime in on their experience.

I have found that reception is acceptable, but speeds are simply not up to par unless I am rather close to the router. At the same points in my house I will see roughly the same signal strength from my Duo 13 as my Nexus 4. Within a close radius (~20 feet) of my router, they both get similar performance. But go past that radius and the Duo 13 speeds inexplicably seem to drop of a cliff, whereas the Nexus 4's performance steadily declines, as you increase distance, in the more expected fashion.

 

Still trying to figure out how to put the buttons back into the pen. Lol. Weight and feel is definitely nice, but the buttons are annoying to re-place into the pen. Any idea what that small piece of plastic is? Is it a part of the pen?

 

That looks like a broken piece of plastic. How did this happen, to remove the nib, all you do is pull it out with your finger nails, it looks like you somehow unscrewed the the nib section and everything's come out. Not even sure if that's meant to be possible, may explain the broken plastic

 

Okay. Finally fixed the bloody pen buttons. What a pain in the to re-position into place.

That short episode aside, I'm really liking this device. Really impressed how solidly-built it is. You need to have a regular height desk for this one if you're using the webcam for Skype and the like... I'm 6'1" and all I can see on the screen is the top half of my face. Lol. The lack of adjustability is a little issue there, but it isn't bad. Viewing angle is okay, and it definitely helps for the pen. I got up to speed on the keyboard right away. I don't get bothered with the rather stiff keys since I'm used to my mechanical keyboard (which uses Cherry Mx Black switches). Only thing bothered me a bit was the smaller Shift key on the right. But I got used to that rather quickly. Still haven't updated any drivers... Wi-Fi is 2-3 bars... and I'm less than 10 feet from my router. But no signal drops or issues or anything.

Will tinker with this a lot more later on... just have to get ready to go out in a bit. But this is definitely a good buy for me.

 

I updated my Wifi driver a couple of weeks ago at the prompting of the Sony Update software, and saw an incremental improvement in performance.

On a whim, I completely uninstalled the Wifi driver and associated Broadcom software and reinstalled from scratch using the updated driver. I'm seeing another incremental improvement in performance. I don't know why it would make a difference, but I would recommend removing the old driver before updating to the new driver.

 

Its for the Vaio Pro I think but can anyone test this driver?
¥¢¥Ã¥×¥Ç¡¼¥È¥×¥í¥°¥é¥à | ¥µ¥Ý¡¼¥È | ¸Ä¿Í¸þ¤± | VAIO | ¥½¥Ë¡¼
google translate

Google Übersetzer

 

That driver is for the Vaio Pro, not the Duo. It's for Intel wireless and the Duo does not use Intel WiFi, it uses Broadcom so the driver isn't compatible with the hardware in the Duo 13.

 

I don't think it's part of the pen. Nothing inside the pen indicated that anything broke off. Must have been some other piece of plastic on the desk i was working on. It did sort of look like a tiny shirt button. Lol.

But yeah, just need to be careful with the nib when changing it. The buttons aren't really held in place by anything on the circuit board, other than a couple of small tabs on either end. Maybe I gave it tug a tad too strong. Lol. The buttons actually fell inwards first before falling out. I like how flush the buttons are against the pen, though; they're less likely to get in the way while using the pen.

 

Is it true that, as I can see on the pic that you uploaded, you ordered your laptop on July 12th? I ordered mine one day before you did, and still mine is still being built... What's the heck is going on with my order...

 

Anyone know if the Duo 11 pen would work on this? The clip that comes with the 13 keeps on scratching the finish.

 

Yup, ordered it on July 12th. It's not a custom order, though; just the regular, pre-built base model. It arrived July 18th, if that matters.

 

Thanks! That explains a lot...

 

I think what you can do is to check the compatibility list of the particular pen that you are interested in, on sony.com of course.

 

To those who bought the screen protector: how is it? does it distort/change the image quality of the display? Any particular issues encountered? Thanks in advance.

 

I experienced the same thing. You have to disable Display Power Saving Technology in the Power section of the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel. Once I did that, no more flickering.

 

Talked to Sony. The Duo 11 pen will work with the 13, but the former uses DuoSense tech while the new one has DuoSense 2. No idea what that means.

I still can't get ArtRage to register proper pen pressure. For example, when I use the pencil tool at 100% pressure setting, I can only get a faint line when I press as hard as I can. When I use my finger, I get a nice solid pencil mark. For ink, I get good pressure sensitivity, but using my finger makes a super fat line like a paint brush. Essentially, if my finger is a reference of a 100% tool drawing line size/pressure, then the pen ranges from 5-25%. Not sure if I got a defective unit.

 

Your Duo 13 isn't defective. It's a problem with ArtRage and Ambient Design is working on it.

 

Thanks, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. I wish there was a way to increase the overall sensitivity of the stylus. I also want full customization of the stylus buttons (aside from launching note-taking apps)!! This is software-level stuff. Make it happen, Sony!

 

It's up to the apps to decide what to do with pen buttons. For example, Fresh Paint use a button as the eraser and the other button for undo.

 

Been tinkering around with my Duo 13 for most of the day, browsing, viewing videos, installing updates, and removing some unnecessary software. Battery lasts just over 6 hours on a full charge so far. Well, isn't that rather low? Haven't got the device at full brightness at all.

Anyway, the RAM is indeed dual channel, even if it's a single module. Attached a CPU-Z screenshot.

 

For what it's worth, my first charge was crappy too. Almost a month in, I'm seeing 10+ hours consistently now.

 

I've been playing with this device today in a shop and wow, it is amazing, ill finally buy it the first day that sony sell to us in europe the 4650 version, not before.

I hope they finally give us that version soon because i need it the x61t replacement for october

 

Sony buys the active stylus controllers and pens from N-Trig. DuoSense 2 is their newest tech which features better palm rejection, reduced pressure to start inking, and greater speed than the original DuoSense.

 

Is anyone else using Hyper-V on their Duo 13 yet?
I have nothing but trouble with it. Once I change the BIOS settings to enable it Windows 8 goes crazy: power management settings and touch pad & touch screen behaviour especially, as in: they just don't work at all anymore till reboot. When I disable virtualization support in the BIOS (factory default) everything goes back to normal. Guess we need a BIOS revision for this .... pretty disappointing nonetheless.

Other new findings:
- sometimes battery level isn't updated till restart, it just stays on whatever it is when it wakes from sleep;
- face recognition works but the "secret gesture" feature just doesn't show up, you have to enter your password manually (kind of defeats the purpose, and yes I have the latest version);
- battery really doesn't last for more than 6 hours of fairly light use, I average 4:22h so far on 80% (battery saving enabled, screen brightness on 30%), so yeah ...

 

Hey guys

I have been deciding to get a Duo 13 i5($1700) or Surface pro with type cover ($1150) for university. I need some opinions regarding these choices. From what i have read from reviews and forum:

Battery Life: Surface Pro 4-6 hrs vs Duo 13 8-11 hours ( Very important, jumping from lectures to lectures, only able to charge during laboratory session)
Weight: Surface Pro with type cover 1.1kg vs Duo 13 1.3kg
Performance: Doesn't matter!
Digitizer: From what i heard that N-trig has less jittering at the edge of the screen compared to Wacom, is it true? I had Asus Vivotab TF810C with wacom stylus, the jittering is horrible :S. Im not gonna use Photoshop, SAI, only Onenote 365, therefore the pressure sensitivity issues would not affect me.

So yea im not sure if i would choose Duo 13 over Surface pro. I really want to keep using the device for 3 years....hopefully, im not sure how battery degradation would affect the battery life(%-20??). If i get surface pro, i would save cash but i sacrifice the battery life and will be tempted to get newer Surface pro refresh. For Duo 13, i will be pretty much satisfied

 

got my duo 13 just 5 min ago *happy*

but the color of the material around the keyboard looks a bit purple for me? shiny purple, and not black like the backside. is this normal? pen got the same purple color..
and i can see color differences on the back behind the display, the part with the fans is black and the other things are those purple color...

doesn't look bad, but never saw it before or read about it

 

I got the Vaio Duo 13 precisely for university and I am not disappointed. Two major aspects made me fall for the Duo versus the Surface Pro:
1. The keyboard. I have not used the type keyboard of the Surface, but the Duo has a very good keyboard. The only concern is that it is a bit on the shallow side, but after 10 min I adjusted to it. The lack of palmrest doesnèt bother me at all, and I write quite a lot.
2. Haswell Processor for its efficiency. With the Duo (or if you wait for a Surface Pro refresh later this year), you get amazing battery life (8 - 10h), and the machine runs cool. It has a fan, but really I'm not sure if its running or not. Completely silent. Also, it charges extremely fast in my experience, even if I am using it.

So I highly recommend the Duo if you cannot wait. If you can wait, then a refresh of the Surface Pro might be worth it just for the Haswell Processor

 

Short question, when does Sony release there winter line? I dont need a specific date, more like October, November or December?

 

I just purchased the prebuilt i7 4500U with 8gb ram and 256 ssd for university and it shipped yesterday ! (though fedex refuses to give me tracking information, the screen protector shipped at around the same time and they say saturday so I'm only too eager to get it)

Right now, the Surface Pro is old tech, which is why I chose the Duo 13 over the Thinkpad Helix as well. Battery life is very important in order to be very mobile in uni. I also think the 13.3 inch screen provides a more enhanced experience as you won't need to scale dpi so high to see things and there's plenty more space to ink on in onenote. According to reviews, N-trig has really improved its tech with the duo 13.

 

Normally all brands release new products around october, but as duo 13 it is pretty much a new one I highly doubt that they will release a new version this year.

The deadline for this kind of products for this year will be the IFA of Berlin in september

 

Regarding Duo 13 vs. Surface Pro. I had a Surface Pro but had to return it. I loved the design but it had several serious issues for me. First was obviously the battery life but I could have probably lived with it if not for the other issues.

I work in a big database all day (800MB). I'm in meetings where people ask questions about this or that information which is in the database. On my current laptop (a 2010 Sony Z with i7 and 8GB of ram), jumping from item to item in the database (which involves selecting several different sets of parameters to bring it up), took about 4 seconds. The same actions on the Surface Pro took 12 seconds - I know because I set them up side-by-side and timed them.

In addition, that database is screen optimized for 1080P which looks fine on a 13" screen but can't be read on a 10.6" screen. If I use the 125% magnification, then I'm left scrolling up/down and left/right to read everything. This system was designed to be At-A-Glance so scrolling defeats the purpose.

So I took back the Surface Pro and got a Duo 13 i7 with 8GB of ram. If they ever release a slightly larger, Haswell-based Surface with 8GB of ram, I will jump all over it since I LOVED the Surface for everything else besides working in this database.

 

I just went ahead and paid $15 for a mini usb wireless adapter from amazon---the edimax ew-7811Un---plugged it in, downloaded the driver from the website and voila---tons and tons of difference n wifi strength and stability.

question--I disable the the Broadcom one from the device manager--is that what I should do? Anything to be careful with that about?

 

Issue--see my prior post--go a new wife mini usb adapter that works great. I thought I would disable the Broadcom just in case it used more battery to have both on. I disable it through its driver in device manager---AND SLEEP OPTION ON POWER MENU DISAPPEARED! If I enable it, sleep comes back. I don't mind having both wifi adapter enabled--but will that have more battery drain? Any suggestions appreciated.

 

Thank you guys for your inputs

Yea 8-10 hours of battery life is amazing in this machine, for me portability and usefulness of an ultrabook/convertibles depends on battery life, i5 cpu is well enough for portable use. I would have to bring charger with me if i get Surface Pro. I could not wait for Haswell refresh of surface pro or intel bay trail devices. I believe that future Duo's would simply be more lighter and a bit thinner as physical keyboard is a limiting factor in the design therefore im not missing one bit . Screen estate is also important, most of my work is comparing photographic results, flow cytometry graph, word processing and 13 inch is a perfect size compared to 10 inch which i have to zoom in and scroll around. I will head to my local store today and ask for a bargain if i could , really wish Sony would have education discount in Australia.

 

What's the situation with the WIFI issues and palm cancellation problems some are reporting on the SONY forums? Has this been addressed by Sony?

 

I'm not aware of any palm cancellation issues -- haven't experienced it. The WiFi issues don't appear to be as bad as they are on the Pro. Out of the box, Wifi quality was unacceptable for me, however there was a patch immediately available. Wifi quality is now acceptable -- not great, not terrible, but certainly not a show-stopper. I'm anticipating future patches will bring more incremental improvement.

 

As much as I love the Duos (both the 11 and 13), ended up ordering a Surface Pro, it has yet to arrive tho.
One of the biggest concern is price; after conversion to USD : Surface Pro $900 (touch cover included), Duo 11 $1200, Duo 13 $1600.
My previous Windows tablet is an Acer W500 which I didn't like, small screen, slow and had no pen.

Amongst the 3, I placed the Duo 11 at the top mainly cos I just love the design (all the ports I need is integrated), looks (prefer it flat rather than angled and the indicator LEDs) and reasonable price for the package.
It's only because of the cheap IPS panel (image burn in issue) that kept me from buying it.

The Duo 13 honestly is great, tried one and it's quite a big improvement over the Duo 11 except for the loss of some ports and GPS.
It's weird but for my country, the Duo 11 had a GPS module whereas the Duo 13 does not.

Ultimately, I meant it for home/personal use and not for work, also as a test device for desktop replacement so cost is an issue.
At least if I find it hard to get by w/o a desktop I still have spare cash to upgrade my aged PC.
Just hope that I don't regret not getting either of the Duos cos there's no return policy where I live.

 

I got the Sony made slip case for the Duo 13 yesterday. It feels high quality and seems to protect the computer well. It allows the pen to remain attached to the side of the computer and there isn't much movement inside so you don't have to worry about losing the pen while attached. The only problem is the case is a little big and heavy but I guess you need to sacrifice some portability in order to make a high quality product that can protect the computer and always exposed screen!

By the way, for the palm rejection issue, whenever I start using One Note while writing, it takes the computer a good 1 or 2 seconds to register the pen. If I start writing before this time, it'll think my palm is the pen and go crazy. This seems to be more of a One Note issue since I haven't had that problem on Journal but it gets very annoying very fast.

 

How long does it usually take for it to show up on your doorstep after shipment date? I'm more eager than a child on Christmas Eve! It also doesnt help that ive had no fedex tracking info for two days now

 

Just got my Sony Duo Pro 13. I really like with a couple of major annoyances. The display is beautiful, But I have noticed that the backlight is very uneven. There is a quarter of the screen band that is bright, and the rest is slightly darker. This moves as I move the viewing angle. Very annoying. Also, as reported by many, the Wifi is horrible.

 

See if the patch improves your wifi. Let us know!

 

I'm not sure how much Ambient Design is actually going to be able to do, needless to say I am not expecting a fix on it anytime soon. I got the following reply from Matt today at Ambient Design about the pressure detection:

"We're talking to the driver manufacturer at the moment as we have test hardware now. The problem isn't inside ArtRage unfortunately, the device (possibly driver, possibly firmware) is returning the incorrect value when we request the Pressure Range it supports (technically, when we make the standard request to ask for Pressure Range the device is saying 'I don't know what 'Pressure Range' means...'). This should never happen, but when it does ArtRage defaults to the standard pressure range Microsoft suggests for these situations, which unfortunately is larger than the range supported by the device. The upshot is that your strokes can only go to about 1/4 of the range that was established, hence small and light strokes.

We'll post an update when we hear back on this, but from running test code on the device it's clearly a problem outside of ArtRage and there's not much we can do internally to fix a problem where the tablet isn't telling us what range it supports so I can't estimate when a fix might be available at this point. There's definitely eagerness on all sides to get it resolved though!"

With how much back and forth between companies might be needed to solve this... I'm not holding my breath. Since I just got my Duo 13 and thought the problem was only with pencil (it's also with all brushes, crayon, eraser, and some others), it's left me pretty sad. ArtRage on the Duo 13 is pretty unusable right now.