Sony X Series Official Owners Thread

the only demanding thing requested 1080p decode, which GMA500 supports, afaik. ip ersonally run VESA ih 16bpp since its the only easy and relatively fast thing on linux

i like that the chips TDP is quoted at 2.4 max by intel, and the entire machine draws 6watt under load. the lowest CULV chip is 10 watts

with emacs,firefox, chrome, evince, ruby, rhythmbox and it feels roughyl as fast as my old Thinkpad X200 which had a 17watt chip

cant wait for an ARM / moorestown version... 2 watts draw??

 

sounds nice ix9, i think i gonna go for the X Series!
could anybody from inside the U.S. give sonystyle.com a call and check why it isnt listed anymore?
Would be cool.

 

It surprise me that nobody actually care/notice about the hinge?

Anyway I found out it's a natural assembly limitation, seems to appear on many other X series. You can see very clearly here at around 0:50 where the side view revealed that the hinge at the back (left) is taller than the hinge at the front (right).

YouTube - Sony VAIO X Video Review

And you can see below, VGA port area out so it bump the chasis a little, hence giving a non flat chasis at that surface.




Thank God that it wasn't a lemon that I got...

 

I just phoned SonyStyle USA and they said the X series has been discontinued. I have one and absolutely love it. I was going to get another one for my daughter, or better still, an upgraded one for myself and give this one to her.

Man, I hope they are just coming out with an upgraded one, I can't imagine them just dropping it. I'm going to have to keep mine locked up when the daughter is around LOL

 

Really? I cant believe it! Were they selling not enough units?

 

Well in this part of the world still going strong as is the TT, upgrades dure at end of month (appears just to be touchpad)..


not interested in waiting just for TP...so...just bought mine last thursday.... getting ~7 hours surfing with the mid sized batt (Standard here) with screen 75% and Wifi with WWAN & BT OFF

(2GHz 128SSD 3G Black)

 

luckily they still sell it in europe.
yesterday i tested the z series , damn that thing is so fast and the display size and resulotion is optimal. but it didnt gave me that sony exclusive high quality feeling , the materials are poor, the whole thing produces cracking sounds... too bad the X isnt 13inches but i think i gonna buy it next week with out ever seeeing it in real life .
i think its something really special. all dealers here told me in the end of jun/jul it will be available again where it is out of stock. if they will go forupgrade i would wonder why they are banned it from their site.

 

Got no idea what you saw, but it wasn't a Z. It's as solid as a rock. The old Z creaked..

 

I was also wondering...I have the Z and the X, but I think the X is bending and cracking more then the Z.

@sonyfanboy You have to figure out what you need - pure size/weight or really a fast laptop. ANY kind of video work is not possible on the X...I mean editing, otherwise it does pretty much everything you need, but slowly.

 

Laser 21, any comment on the X running powerpoint presentation (with or without video clips)? Any problem on editing powerpoint file on it?

 

Actually thats what I was referring to... it looks like it is codec dependent, some videos are flawless, some start with a delay and are choppy.

A plain ppt is no problem, transitions are fast, even when you have many vector graphics on a slide.

 

Hi there,
has anyone had a chance to run a SD video bought in Itunes with good results ?
I have the last intel drivers for the graphic card : 8.14.10.2024
I have Itunes ver 9.1.1.12 runing but the video playback is awful even overclocking to 2.1 ghz my original 1.86ghz vaio x does not help.
For HD flash videos and movies played directly with WMP, it is nice but when it comes to Itune/quicktime even sd resolution with DRM's, it is so bad !
Anyone else is having the same ?
Thanks

 

Video playback seems to be the best on WMP. I installed k-lite codec pack (mega codec pack) and was able to playback mostly everything smoothly, I can't believe how nice it is to watch 1080 HD on such a wonderful screen.

Yeah, everyone has their own favourite player, but stick to WMP on the X series it'll make your life easier.

 

I know WMP gives best results because it use the hardware acceleration of the graphic card with the last intel drivers. I love WMP and use it but for the movies bought with Itunes, you can not play them in wmp because of Apple's drm's :-(
When possible I always use WMP but sometimes I am obliged to use Itunes.
In the mean time I found that when using 16 bits color quality (instead of 32) and refresh rate to 40 hertz (instead of 60) helps a lot and is near perfect in Itunes. On top of it using setfsb to overclock a little just for watching Itunes movie helps too.

 

check out the bend test:

YouTube - Vaio X Series Quality Testing Video

find an old ram stick (like a 1mb or 4mb) and note how you can twist the crap out of it and have it restore its original shape...same with a carbon fiber sheet

YouTube - aquatech carbon fiber fins bend

compare with aluminum which will stay where it is bent:

New ergonomic 'bent' design Macbook Pro on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

you'll know IF youve bent your carbon fiber too far, it will shatter

"ultimate strength and breaking strength are the same"

not that i'd advise using your VAiO As a flexi-toy.

 

Could anybody inside europe tell me if the "Premium Carbon" is a glossy or a matte surface?

 

A couple of questions for those with WWAN model:

1. What kind of average battery life if you use the 3G to surf web (with WiFi/BT off) versus WiFi only? State your battery type too...

2. Is the GPS on european model able to work with AGPS "unofficially"? (means using the SmartWi from the US version)

3. Is the GPS consume lots of battery simply because you need to switch on the entire WWAN module?

4. Is the SmartWi not detecting the WWAN module happen frequently? Any better solution?

5. Will the WWAN module need to be "initialize" or starting up everytime before you can attemp to dial up/connect? It's the case when using USB 3G modem, I find it needs quite a bit of patience to start it up everytime...

Thanks, I'm still looking into upgrading my X127 to X128 as I'm finding the need to use the 3G often, using the USB isn't as convenient as it seems. If it doesn't worth the effort, I might just stick to USB solution and I'm eyeing on the older Sierra Wireless Apex 880/881 as it also has global roaming + GPS which reported the GPS alone without the help of AGPS can have the position fixed in 1 minute...

 

I am not in Europe, but I believe the Premium Carbon is matte. It may be different there though.

 

thanks man.

 

Since the X is kind of offically discontinued in the states and Europe, has anyone heard of any news of its successor?

 

Won't be that fast because Japan has refreshed the X line, even though there was no spec improvement -- no Z560 option, which is available for the new P.

 

anyone know a good source to buy the standard size battery?
I just don't want to buy it from ebay.com
thanks

 

I would have sold mine to you. I recently bought the L battery from a seller in Japan and sold my Standard.

There are some good ebay sellers on there. Mine came in with all the original packaging.

But another point, If you are looking to buy the Standard, why not spend the extra ~30 and get the L? It's the same size and double the battery life.

 

thenickisme,
I'm looking for the large size battery. I have the standard and xl battery..
my bad...

 

What has been updated in the Japan market if not on the spec, any idea?

 

built in WiMAX.

seems like lots of other japanese notebooks are offering the built in wimax option.

funny that dynamism and conics don't offer the wwan version and they state that only wimax version are available. i can read a little japanese, vaio x customization would let you choose to have wimax or not, and when i read the spec of the latest model (VPCX11ALJ) it says you cannot choose wimax and wwan together (while wwan still on the spec list), which probably means you can still have wwan but cannot co-exist with wimax...

 

Please pardon my potentially stupd question, but since Sony isn't putting the Z560 Atom processor in the X series, is it possible for a person to make their own upgrade to the Z560? (Will it fit? Is it compatible? How is it done?) I can't imagine it would be as easy as installing a stick of RAM.
Also, could somebody recommend a good 256gb SSD to upgrade to?

 

I don't think it's possible because the CPU is soldered in the motherboard if I'm not wrong.
As for the SSD, I never opened the X but the original SSD is a Samsung Slim MicroSata.
The only 256GB SSD Slim is Samsung mmdpe56gtdxp

 

Hello,
CPU and ram soldered but if you need from time to time a little extra power from the cpu, overclock it with setfsb.
For the ssd, it is not a standard format like mentionned in previous post, it is slim but the connector layout is different.

 

The option of a pink X, that's the only thing. WiMax is an option on current CTO X already.

 

Guess what, I sold my X on eBay today.
Although it was the most beautiful, slimmest device i've ever had, I just couldnt bear the thought I had everyday: "I need to look something up on the next. Can I be bothered to wait until the X has come out of hibernation and I can finally open up a browser?".
And you know, I got myself another TZ instead. 1.2GHz Core 2. I had the TT at some stage as well, but still prefer the TZ for its great design. And I got it in white, so no fingerprints and shiny keys/trackpad.
I was sad to let the X go, but it just looking pretty on my desk didn't justify its high price.

 

Just checked out the .jp site and saw the pink casing: wow, they must be desperate and willing to try anything
I thought US and EU got significant business travellers, who this slim netbook was originally designed for, but Sony chose to discontinue it in these markets: it must be disappointing to the design team who tried so hard squeezing the size and weight of x but the market isn't buying... the outcome could be, no one ever bother to pull the same trick again, and netbook/ notebook would once again be as "slim" as an inch and anything less can be claimed as ultraslim... sad

 

sfox the X is still being sold in the EU through Sony Vaio, you can configure it right now. May be Sony in due time will give people the option to configure this with a 2.13 processor.

I've also seen what i think might be a new model with a ETA in July in the UK.

Buy X13C7E/B Intel Atom Processor Z540, Windows 7 Professional 32bit, 2GB PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM, 128GB SSD, 11.1 1366 x 768 VAIO Display Premium, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500, 802.11 b/g/n, Built-in WWAN, WebCam, Premium Carbon VPCX13C7E/B.CEK

This is one for the German market
http://www.traininx.de/vaio/Downloads/vpc-x13d7eb.pdf

 

Thanks Rachel. But the spec is more or less the same as what is available before. The bottle neck is still at the GMA500 and the Z540. Without update on any of these two bits, criticism still claims it "less than a modern netbook"... I on the other hand still admire the x team's vision that someone out there does care the aesthetic appearance and weight of his/ her laptop...

 

I was hesitant on buying the X but finally saw it in person and wanted to buy it, now it's not available.

Sony needs a 11.1,11.6 or a 12.1 laptop.
Any one think one of these will be coming down the pike soon?

 

Anyone willing to help me on this?

 

It's available. Just go to a Sony store. My local ones still sell the original Z and that's two refreshes ago. No wonder since they are still trying to get it's original price. They also still have Xs.

 

2. Yes
3. Kind of. but not horrible.
4. No
5. No

 

Thanks for your respond!

So it support the "Asisted" part of the GPS by using the cell tower triangulation using the smartwi?

If you could just provide some rough number on the first question will be great, as that's the most important information to make my decision, but that's just my silly question.

I actually got myself the Sierra Wireless Apex 880 USB, 3G modem + GPS and I can switch the 3G radio off and still be able to use the GPS, it's impressive that cold start need just under 1 minute to find the satellite despite i'm sitting in my bedroom away from the windows with the curtain shut at night. Maybe I should just use this but the 3G reception isn't that great, my N95 seems to pickup better signal in comparison...

 

The 64GB SSD use PATA when 128GB and higher use microSata + adapter.
I personnally have 128GB model and it's a Samsung slim microsata.

 

today i tested the z540 128 ssd . ok multitasking isnt its best skill. but i will catch one . is there a noticable diff between z540 and z550 , when can we expect the z560?

 

Hi NHT,
I did not open my vaio X yet and looking at picture at post 653, I tought it was not a standard Micro sata. Now I realise that on that picture it could be a 64 gb Zif pata instead of a 128gb with proprietary connector as i Tought.
I do own a 128 gb vaio x and I have a spare 256gb samsung micro sata ssd, I'll try and let you know.

 

I'm looking forward to it

 

So I can confirm that on 128gb vaio x model, they used a Micro Sata SSD. But the 256 gb that I transfered from a TT to the X could not be formated !
Bios is recognising 256gb disk installed, I can partition it under win7 install but could not format it, the pc freeze without any notification and must be rebooted... I have a lot of experience in PC formating, tuning... and had never had that issue, at least on moderns laptops. NHT was right in his post.

 

anyone tried to overclock with setfsb?

which one do I have to generate from the list?

many thanks

 

You can use the same from vaio p:

SetFSB: Under-and Overclock the VAIO P - Pocketables Forum

 

I forgot to mention, I did it till 2.1 Ghz (original was 1.86Ghz)

 

thanks sdnv.

I got it work. I got mine set 2.28Ghz from Z550

I heard z550 is capable of 2.4Ghz but mine crashed couple times

2.28Ghz seems to be okay.

thanks

 

isnt overclocking the FSB a risk in shorten the life of all components like RAM CPU and so on...? What about the heat increase?
Does anybody know the speed difference in the new Chipset US15X against the old US515W the X Series is using, i heard the US515X Graphics part is clocked with 60Mhz more and only the Z560 is capable of using the US515X.

 

Sony Vaio X Series is not available from sonystyle.com, does it mean it will soon be updated or it is going to be discontinued? Anyone?