Sony Vaio Duo 13 Owners Thread

FrozenRiver! thanks alot for you answer! I research further and found that the power adopter are international 110v to 220v so no problem there. Purchase it in Malaysia actually is not a bad idea, however the 128gb ssd and 4gb ram kinda is the killer for me. Now my pocket and my heart is at a stalemate situation, haha. Btw, how is the wifi? i read that it is very poor for a premium product.

 

Keyboard backlighting is uneven as you probably have read in other posts. The left and right bottom triangular areas are not well lit, while the rest of the keys are.

See the picture below.

Wifi is not good, but still usable for me... It jumps between 2 to 5 (full) bars, but rarely drops. For comparison, my ipad 4 at the same position jumps between 3 to 5 bars.

I also pondered a little before biting the bullet. But in the end I realized that I'll be using it mainly for hand writing notes, and maybe a little calculation, neither of which requires too much computing power. So the base model should be fine for me. I guess you have to think for your self if the base model cuts it for you or not. Good luck!

 

Anyone found some offline navigation software for Windows 8?

 

What support is there for Windows 7 and Ubuntu on the Pro 13?

Also, people say they have problems with "wifi"- by this do they mean their normal wireless connection to their home router? If so this is VERY bad. I have a Lenovo x201 and my wireless is perfect- I cant believe how many problems other laptops can have.

 

I did a fresh install of windows 8 with a dvd drive and gained 30gb just getting rid of Sony's crap

 

Meaning u have nothing from Sony, not even Vaio Care? Else what from Sony remained after fresh installation? Thx

 

If you do a fresh Windows install how do you get Artrage included with the Duo 13 factory install? Other than that, can you download everything else from the Sony driver support Web page?

 

can I get the cliffs notes of the pros and cons of this laptop? I'm looking at the 13 with the 512gb SSD and AT&T LTE.

Any way to get one with the GPS built in like the international model not available in the US?

 

For the ones concerned by battery life.

Sony Duo 13 is shipped with limited power plan options.
No hibernate for example and only possible option is to go to sleep
(automatically or through the left power button)

Sleep consume battery
If you leave your laptop away for more than one week => no battery.
Hibernate don't consume battery

Some changes I made:

1) Start an admin command
windows key + X
then "Command Prompt (Admin)"

2) Activate hibernate
"powercfg /h on"
=> Now you have "Hibernate" option in Windows 8 shutdown.

3) Activate auto hibernate after a certain time on battery
"powercfg -change -hibernate-timeout-dc 360"
=> hibernate will occur after 360 minutes (6 hours) of inactivity (or Sleep)
You can be more aggressive if you want.

4) (Optional) make sure that it never hibernates automatically when on AC Power - sleep is very good enough
"powercfg -change -hibernate-timeout-ac 0"


Hibernate is amazingly fast in Windows 8 and on this laptop.
Takes about 5 seconds to go out of hibernate (with 8GB of RAM!)


My 2 cents
gg

 

Yes all sony software gone . Just installed drivers from Website. Helps if you got the 120g version

 

Have you tried Microsoft Streets and Trips or MapPoint?

What else did you "loose" by doing this other than ArtRage?

I also like to install a "fresh and clean" operating system but wanted to know what cons there would be in terms of missing software...

 

Hello all. I've been a long time lurker around here but have never joined or contributed to any discussion. After going through this thread thoroughly and deciding on purchasing (and just receiving) my Sony Vaio Duo 13 I decided to change that.

I got one with 8GB of RAM and the i7-4650U processor and 128GB SSD. I ordered it on 7/28 and it had an initial estimated shipping date of 8/5. Almost immediately it showed "Shipping Update" and I got a message that the estimated shipping date was now 8/9. On 8/7 I got a message that it had shipping from Japan and I was surprised to see it arrive on exactly 8/9. I was pleased with the process.

The choice of the smallest sized SSD is my only hesitation. I don't regret it now but if my portable computing habits change in the future it may a concern. Right now I plan on using an SD card for expanded storage. The SD card does indeed fit entirely inside the computer with a push-in spring-loaded release mechanism. I don't like to have things sticking out of the device so I am relieved for this.

Something else that wasn't discussed much but I wanted to get was the Sony factory installed screen protector. I am glad to say that it is pretty nice. It is not a heavy anti-glare coating. I'd say it as mild. You can still see some reflection but it is rather subtle and I have to really be at a steep angle and looking for it. The picture quality is not fuzzy from it and I am very happy to have chosen the screen protector option.

I was contemplating doing a fresh installation but I wanted to keep some of the Sony included software (i.e. ArtRage). I uninstalled most of the fluff and created a recovery USB drive. While I was playing around with the recovery software I found an option to remove the recovery partition built in. It only took a few seconds and a restart and it was gone, getting me about 12GB extra space. Overall, with the recovery partition removed and most of the unneeded software uninstalled I saved about 24GB. Doing a fresh installation to squeeze another 2-6GB doesn't seem worth it any longer.

Some initial thoughts:

The WiFi is definitely not as good as others I have had. It also isn't as bad as some of the complaints I have read. I can live with it just fine.

The fixed screen was a concern until I started using it. You lose a little brightness when you aren't looking perfectly straight at the screen. It's not that big of a deal for me and the wide viewing angle helps tremendously. I'm no longer concerned about it.

Battery life is really nice. I haven't done any thorough testing on it but so far but compared to previous laptops I've used it blows them away.

I haven't used the pen too much for writing so cannot comment on that just yet.

But I like the Duo 13. No regrets on making the purchase.

 

With the screen angle fixed as it is, do you think it would be possible to use on an airplane?

Thanks!

 

Guys there is a sony discount off 10%. It works with DUO 13 custimized. My students discout wont work with it but thats fine, paying 50€ less with the coupon. So without normaly about 150€ or more off. If you ordered and didnt get it yet, cancel and order again. Works till 12. August.
discount code: "SORRYAUG13"

Think it only works in Europe but not sure.

 

Definitely. You have to remember, the Duo's foot print is about that of a small 14 inch laptop (14, not 13 because of larger bezel) BUT a laptop's screen hangs off the very back of the unit - basically the bottom of the screen is at the back and then the screen leans back from that point. When in laptop mode, the Duo's screen basically rests about 55% from the front of the unit. This means that top of the screen doesn't extend very far from the back of the laptop.

 

Ahh, that makes sense. Thanks! Now let's see if I can find one in person in China before I buy online and ship to my office in the states!

 

I did a clean install with Win8 Pro... You can install the Sony software with vaio Care (recovery)

ArtRage was not included with my Duo13 though (Belgium)

 

Duo 11 now selling as a bundle with free sheet battery and $150 off on Sony.com. Looks like they are getting rid of stock before the Haswell refresh. :thumbsup:

 

I'm still waiting for the Duo 13 WIFI issue to be resolved before buying one. The following thread on the SONY support web site really concerns me as so many people are having issues and there is yet to be a solution. Even for people for whom WIFI "works" it might be working at 30-40% capacity of what it should work at and that's not acceptable for a device in this price range.

If this is 100% software based then I'd feel less apprehensive about the purchase but I'm concerned this could be a hardware issue. Some have posted that the Duo 13's Broadcom chip fails to use certain WIFI frequencies... What are your thoughts about this? It seems SONY has been aware of this issue for a while but have yet to fix it.

On Amazon, a few people complained about WIFI in a row and it seems no one has bought and reviewed a Duo 13 since the negative reviews about the WIFI issue.

Discussion on SONY Support site:

Vaio Duo 13 Wifi Problem - No Wireless-N, Low data... - Page 5 - Sony Community

 

Hi,
I'm having a problem using the pen with Microsoft journal. Every time I do i am leaving lines where my hand is touching the screen. Could someone see if they are getting the same please? I don't have a problem with One Note just journal.

Thanks

 

Hey Everyone, I've been trying to get OS X on my Sony Vaio Duo 13, but we can't get it to boot from the flash drive. Has anyone tried installing OS X? Please let me know how it went. I really need to get this done before next Tuesday because I'm leaving the country.

 

Any ideas to when they may announce or release a refresh on the Duo 11?

Now that I've had a chance to check out the Vaio Pro 11, I'm wanting something closer to this size but the design of the Duo 13! If it could have the performance and batter life but a smaller profile in tablet mode, it would be perfect. Should we expect a refresh to be announced within the next couple of months, or available by fall or even this year!?*crosses fingers*

I've been without a convertible since I returned my Duo 13 in mid July for problems it had (and didn't get a replacement because of the size for tablet mode along with other things I just wasn't too happy with). If they can get a Duo 11 with i7-4650u (or any other with HD 5000 graphics) and the same quality keyboard, display, touchpad, battery life, etc. of the Duo 13...I wouldn't need to look elsewhere anymore. Even a smaller battery for 6-8hrs of lighter use and I'd be content.

 

Please check following post concerning to creating bootable usb drives for DUO 13. Post #626

http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...vaio-duo-13-owners-thread-63.html#post9274170

With this information I was able to boot Acronis 2013 bootable USB and W98Pro install USB to create a clean install.

Please post your findings...I'm very interrested in getting OS X on this machine ( dual boot would be awesome)

 

Hi,

Long time lurker, first time (ish!) poster.

Just picked up a Vaio Duo 13 in the UK. Very impressed, yes it has compromises, but having tried a Vaio Pro 13, I think this is a better overall comptuter, hybrid or not. I generally tend to use it in laptop mode occasonally using the touhc screen / pen capabilities in that mode. But, table mode is good for lying on the sofa

Anyway, my seems fairly faultless hardware wise (not great Wi-Fi, but not awful). But, I have a couple of minor problems and was wondering if anyone has any advice. I have searched the forum, but my searches are a bit general so, I can't find posts that cover these with the Duo...

1. I have very limited power options. Under the windows control panel power options, there is only one pre-loaded 'balanced' scheme, and if I configure it not much to choose from at all (no settings for wireless, processor state etc).
2. Linked to this my windows battery monitor does not show time left, just percentage. So, I had to download BatteryBar.
3. Hibernate was off by default. This is fine by me I'd do that anyway, but it seems a bit odd?
4. If I disable auto screen brightness adjustment (in VAIO Control Center), then whatever screen brightness I choose manually (using the fn control, or the settings charm) becomes the default brightness for the screen under power. SO, if I turn off auto brightness, I can't have it automatically go down to say 25% on battery.

So, has anyone else got these power 'kinks' with their VAIO?

And, I have one hardware question. When the screen is raised / opened, does anyone else hear two clicks? One, as it is first raise out of the hooks, then another from the hinge as it passes the trackpad (ish). It all seems very solid (lovely smooth mechanism actually) and nothing feels loose, but I just wanted to check that the two noises were normal.

 

I also noticed this but I assume this is somehow connected to BIOS or Windows because on a clean install op W8Pro this was the same!

I also tried this but it doesn't seem very accurate...

I've been told this is dependable on the graphics chip (Intel HD in this case)

That's one I regret that it brightness is not so good ..only 250nit.... not enough to work outside in good weather....

I think it's normal...I also hear clicks...

 

could anyone recommend a case?

 

I think hibernate is set to off on all Win8 ultrabooks by default. MS reasons that Win8 low power mode is preferable, and users can resume faster using low power mode/sleep. Further if a user needs to, he can turn off the tablet, and turn it back on in less time then it takes for win7 style hibernation to work.

 

Awaken from hibernation, the trackpad doesn't work... I had to restart the system. Don't know what is wrong...

 

Hibernation is also usually not recommended to have around on SSDs for longer lifespan of the disk, so not really surprising it is off by default

 

Sleep is also good enough for me but the problem is that after the device goes into sleep, every touch or movement of the duo 13 makes it coming out of sleep again...

Isn't there a way to configure only wake from sleep by pressing the power button ?

 

Did you by chance enable Virtualization Support in the bios / add Hyper-V feature to windows 8?

Yeah.... Not exactly the result I was hoping for.

* Resume from sleep = no touch, no trackpad.
* Reboot = System Firmware Invalid.

Generally runs like a polished turd until you revert back to disabled VT support.

 

Hi jed.koo and CVal and everyone else. Yes, I am using my Duo 13 with Hyper-V (can only do with Windows 8 Pro installed). And yes, I have the same issues ... things hang, will get black screen with tiny message in upper left-hand corner "System Firmware is Invalid", touch screen unresponsive ... a bunch of problems. I've contacted the Sony phone support ... the guy had me wipe the computer (that's OK, I only LOST 3 DAYS OF WORK) and he had me reset the firmware ... of course then, the default Intel Virtualization Support is DISABLED then which makes everything work OK, except Hyper-V, of course won't work.

Since I need the Hyper-V (I'm running a Windows 8 with SharePoint and SQL Server in one VM, and can boot Wndows Server 2012 in another VM), I have to live with this workaround where everything, except SLEEP works OK.

You'll notice then when you have your Duo 13 running with BIOS Virtualization Support enabled that you have additional power options available. The key is to never let your computer go into SLEEP (Connected Sleep) mode with Virtualization enabled!

I created a new power plan based on the default Balanced power plan ... I named this "Hyper-V". Change the "Put the computer to sleep:" settings for Battery and Plugged in to NEVER. This is important! Then change your "Choose what the power button does" so that both on battery and plugged in is set to Hibernate ... or Shut Down, but not SLEEP.

So now you've lost connected sleep and sleep mode in general and it will take longer for your computer to start from Hibernation or from Off, but all the drivers will work when your computer is running again and all the wonkiness goes away.

Hopefully SONY will fix this BIOS bug soon! "System Firmware is Invalid" indeed!

If I know I won't be using Hyper-V, I'll turn off virtulization in the bios, and will revert back to the Balanced power plan and will manually reset my power buttons to enable SLEEP. Notice that when virtulization is disabled that the Hibernate option is not even there ... but Hibernate does still work in this mode, it's just listed as blank (since Sony must have removed it via the BIOS).

Hope this helps.

I do find that when (with Virtualization DISABLED) I put the Duo 13 to sleep, about 20 minutes later it wakes on its own ... getting very warm in the sleeve with screen on ... showing an event that indicates the computer woke from user input. NOT! I'd like to find out what is causing it to wake ... makes it so that sleep is not really an option anyway.

BabbleBits

 

I just got my Duo 13 and so far the experience is inconclusive. A few times when I was using it, the mouse pointer hung for a minute r so each time. I just applied all the updates and will see if this happens again.

What I find really annoying is the WIFI connectivity. How long does it take Sony to fix this? It has been a while since this was reported... I have 1 tablet, 2 laptops and 2 cellphones on my desk and they all have 4 bars but the Sony Duo 13 only has 1 bar.

I have been following a SONY support thread about the WIFI issue and the only development I have seen so far are 5 pages of people complaining about it:

Vaio Duo 13 Wifi Problem - No Wireless-N, Low data... - Page 5 - Sony Community

 

What applications installed by default and supplied by SONY have you removed? Just wanted to see which bloatware I should consider removing. Is the Java runtime used by anything shipped with the laptop? I am considering removing it if it will have no adverse effects on the laptop.

What's the best way to reclaim the 20GB recovery partition? Any way to have it removed and that 20GB added to the C: drive without third party applications? I plan to create a recovery partition with a USB drive so I don't need 20GB of space taken up for a recovery partition.

 

I've found that the ArcSoft Camera software, the ArtRage Studio Pro, OneNote, and Vaio Control Center are useful. Everything else I removed.

The easiest way I've found to reclaim the recovery partition is to do so during a fresh Win8 install.

 

Thanks for the info! If you do a fresh Windows install will you then not loose ArtRage Pro? Though I see where you can download the Sony drivers for the Duo 13 on their support site there is no link to download ArtRage Pro.

 

hy guys

im in the market for a laptop, one that can handle well photoshop, illustrator, sketchbook pro . Its also important to run well 3ds max (only ofr some product rendering since im a product designer). Do you guys think that this laptop (sony vaio duo with 4400 , i7 and 8gb - im in europe , so, unfortunetly i cannot have the intel 5000hd) would fill my needs? thanks a lot

 

Just picked it up today, so far so good, but early days yet. Does seem that I was lucky to get an educational discount of 300 bucks as they have removed that incentive from the red editions now

 

I bought the one on the Sony site and it works great. I wish it was a little fancier but it holds the tablet nicely with the pen attached.

 

Hey fellow Canadian! I also bought one too last week, i5 + 8GB + 256 SSD + $100 discount + free shipping
I didn't think $150 was enough to justify going to i7...

 

Man that bad boy red VAIO looks awesome, wish I had that option!
First thing I noticed was the english only keyboard VS the multicultural keyboard, and it really does make a huge difference. Being in Canada, the multi keyboard is standard in all laptops and the only way of getting english only is through custom laptops.
It sucks, the multi keyboard is cluttered with characters I never ever use and its usually colour coded differently as well.

 

Thanks a lot for confirming the problems and your workaround. I'm probably going to wait for a BIOS fix though because having to disable sleep altogether is a bit too drastic in my opinion.

 

One of the reasons Haswell devices get much better battery life is because all the power management features are lot more coordinated than in previous platforms. That's why very fine options aren't available anymore, since single mistake in power settings can negate all the gains.

It's like this: Say you have 100 people in a hall. And your #1 goal is to have it absolutely silent. Even if only 1 person makes a noise, it would disrupt the silence for the entire hall. Now substitute your goal for Low Power and "person" as each and every hardware device.

 

Maybe you're correct but if these settings cause problems for example with WIFI then it also doesn't make sense....

 

Yes, but try to import a intel 5000hd if u can to get the most fps from 3d programs.. pressure works great on sbp6, photoshop is coming still hopefully in the fall, but all other programs you mentioned works well. I use a lot of the Adobe suite including After Effects, but also a lot of Autodesk programs like Alias, Showcase etc... Get it! work flow gets cut in half from sketch ideation to 3d prototype. And man don't even get me started on the screen accuracy and color reproduction abilities....enjoy.

 

I am running 3D Studio Max 2014 on the i5 version and it works really, really well.

 

There's obviously implementation differences. Some will do it better than others, and its pretty early. Even if the WiFi module is exactly the same as used in previous generations, the needing to comply to new power management might throw all previous advances. We'll see what happens in the "volume release" of 4th Gen Core Ultrabooks soon.

 

New to the forum - recently got the computer and one thing that has been bugging me is the temps - not sure of this is too high or low. If any can, could you post their temps for your Vaio Duo 13? Would really like to compare. currently, just sitting at the desktop, with nothing else running, mine idles between 39 and 42C. Seems a tad warm. Note that I have the base model (i5, 4GB Ram, 120 SSD)

However I am also on my first use charge of the battery and I've HEARD (no idea at all if its true or not), that the first few charges of a new computer's battery run a tad hotter and hold a charge a bit shorter initially, but then gets a tad better.

Just would like to hear from you guys, read through pretty much the whole thread over the past few weeks and despite the minor quirks that i've notice, many of which are listed on thread, I really am overall enjoying this laptop!

 

I just received my Duo 13 on Monday and WiFi hasn't been too bad (was usually about 4 out of five bars when I was paying attention to it at my workplace).

Am currently one room away from the router and am getting 5 bars.

I did notice that when I ran an update this morning, one of the things that was updated was the WiFi card. Don't recall if the signal was any worse before the update.

Am actually home sick so will try walking around the place at a later time (when I feel better) to see how the performance changes as I put more distance and walls between the Duo 13 and the router.

So far pretty satisfied with the Duo 13 (though admittedly haven't dug too deeply on account of being sick).

 

Just a heads up guys, back in the middle east now and my Saudi SIM is working just fine, seems like this model has come unlocked as well. Presently on 3G at the moment, not sure what LTE bands the duo comes with but all 3 providers have LTE here so will check in due time.