Sony X Series Official Owners Thread

I believe it is being refreshed. Several other series are being refreshed too, check back on the 20th or 21st.

 

We have the new X135 in Malaysia, nothing much but paying extra RM299 (around $90) for the new touchpad (refer to the post few pages back) and premium carbon fiber finish.

 

Have you noticed any difference? Is is worth it?

Can you post a picture (or a link) to the new touchpad?

 

I don't know any links that can demostrate the new touchpad, I don't even confirm if it has the new touchpad or just plain new look as premium carbon fiber wasn't available in malaysia market yet.

You can check few pages back, somebody mentioned about the new touch pad on the new refresh.

 

Is it insider info that it will be series of relaunch or refresh starting by20/21 of June?

By the way, the 135x with the carbon fiber black casing was also launched by SonyStyle in Hong Kong just ten days ago or so...

 

I had purchased an X Signature Edition (gold) back in December and subsequently returned it after becoming so disgusted with the battery drain issue and Sony's phoney baloney claim that it's intentional by design rather than an utter failure on their part.

Well, since then I've been trying all sorts of netbooks and ultralights, and while some were decent, e.g., the Alienware M11x, none of them had the overall combination of weight and dimensions like the Vaio X. No matter what machine I'd be working on, my thoughts kept coming back to the Vaio X.

So I just snagged another X Signature Edition on eBay and have also bought a Large capacity battery (VGP-BPL19) for it. I figure that having both the S and L batteries with the Vaio X will mitigate the battery drain issue as much as one can without having to lug around the extended battery all the time. I'll keep that one in reserve for extended trips/conference days.

I will say this though, after several weeks of shopping, the Vaio X has certainly held its value; no bargains to be found. The Signature X was $1499 when it was being sold at Sony Style, yet even on the used market it's still bringing $1200-1300.

*sigh*

If only Sony would fix that damned battery drain.

 

Hmm, my X127 still show 100% battery after 24 hours of shutting down...

Yes, there simply isn't anything come close to the X yet! It's a great machine indeed if you don't mind the performance.

Upon searching the signature series, the only thing that's different than the one I have is the Gobi card, but that doesn't explain the battery drain issue as it doesn't make sense to keep the WWAN card alive.

 

I just got a X128 from Singapore. Tried to get the GPS working as per instructions in thread 31. However, every time I turned on the Location Services, it turns back to off automatically without getting a fix. I did not do clean install of Windows 7; just removed the default VAIO Smart Network. Anyone managed to get it work?

 

DO you have the one with premium carbon finish?
Could you post a picture please?

 

The instructional post you posted seems to be talking about the X118 instead of X128, perhaps they change the firmware on the motherboard/gobi or something?

By the way, would you also observe if it has the battery drain issue? Very easy to determine, just charge to full, shut down your lappy, unplug from power and leave it switched off for at least over night or 24 hours and switch it back on to see if it stays at 100%...

BTW since my X127 is WWAN-less, I'm using the Sierra Wireless Apex880 and has been happy with it - GPS fixing is between 1~2mins outdoor in a car without any help from the AGPS (which speed up the fix to about 10secs~ and works very well), and can be less than a minute if the sky is clear and no tall buildigs surrounded. Just that the reception isn't that great compared to my nokia N95 although the speed is much faster compared to my phone. Once my warranty ran out I'll try to mod it like how other modders did on their VAIO P, but I don't have a clue about enabling the power supply and USB connector so I'll wait and see...

 

@sonyfanboy Yes, I got the one with premium carbon finish. Which part do you want to have picture on?

@pigcat As per they mentioned, all models came with Gobi 2000 should be GPS capable. True enough, I managed to get it working after numerous trial and error of installing and removing various drivers and software.

Problem is, when I got the GPS to work, my 3G connection cannot be detected. It does not seem to be a problem with the SmartWi utility because previously, when I was using the default Gobi driver (2.0.6.9), my 3G has no issue but GPS cannot work as per the problem described in my previous post.

It seems to me that the GPS and 3G functions are mutually exclusive. You can have one or the other but not both. I will try again to get both functions working together. Anyone who has got this to work on their x128, please post the solution. For now, I can only think of upgrading only the Gobi modem driver or reinstall the VAIO Smart Network utility. If all fails, probably will give Sony a call to see if they can help me with this thing.

Will try the battery drain thing if I have a chance to not use it for more than 24 hours. But, isn't this normal? For example, a fully charged cell phone will also have some small amount of charge drained off over time even when the phone is off.

 

@smurfchang
i think the only difference should be the cap, shouldnt it?
I gonna place an order tomorrow, but iam still unsure about taking the
one with the black plastic looking cap or the one with the premium carbon cap.
Could you take some shots of the cap? Would be very helpful.
Thanks!

 

How about a real* carbon fiber finish on the Vaio?



Feels better that then stock palm-rest finish while typing.
* It's 3M DI-NOC CF wrap.

 

Congratulation on getting the GPS to work!

I doubt Sony will give any helps on this as initially they never wanted to include the GPS function. Currently there's no officially unlocked Gobi card on any of the X series around the world I guess.

Regarding the battery drain, I had the machine stay off for 2 full days and it still showing 100% battery after that, so there isn't any battery drain issue on mine I'm supposed. But I can't be 100% sure if 2 days is long enough to confirm it, that was like once in a while occasion as I use my lappy quite often.

Reading about the battery drain issue, leaving the machine switched off overnight was tnough to have the battery lost quite a few %.

Yes, for cellphones are normal as they normally don't have built in battery to keep the time/date setting, it rely on the main battery. If taking out the battery for too long the phone will lose the time/date setting.

 

This is a good sign though. When I had my first Signature X back in December, turned off overnight would lose 9% of the battery charge.

 

is this beauty google earth capable?

 

I'm not sure how do you mean by "capable"? I just install and launch it, using it like normal and works very well with the sierra wireless although the GPS was not very accurate but accurate enough to tell where you are.

Just that it's not smooth when you pan the map basically on any zoom level. Reducing the graphic quality helps a little but that doesn't bother me much, I don't use it often only when I need to find some places and might as well just screen shot or note down the route.

 

@smurfchang
Hey according to your screen shot the Location is running Google Maps. Did your x come with the Microsoft Streets software? I have tried using it and I don't like it too much.


@drPhilGandini Interesting! Can you take some more pics?

 

I came close to buying one of these but couldn't believe it didn't have HDMI.. premium product with legacy I/O? gg.

 

???

Given the graphics processing of this unit, why on earth would you ever expect it to have HDMI?

 

Mine is a Asian model. Officially, it doesn't come with the GPS function. Only upon reading the past posts that I realize that it can actually be activated by installing the SmartWi utility for the US models. So it does not come with any navigation software like MS Streets. I also tried installing Location Service but it just don't get installed somehow. I wonder if that's the reason for my SmartWi not having the link to launch navigation software in the Location Service tab if you notice my picture.

 

Update.
Finally got both 3G and GPS working by installing the latest WWAN drivers (2.0.7.0) from Japan Sony support site.



Now my next question, how can I get the GPS to work with some mapping software. Google Maps is a good choice since it saves me disk space. However, I don't think there's a direct way to interface GPS with Google Maps as yet. So my next obvious choice was Google Earth.

I went to the top level of my building to get the best signal as shown in the above picture. However, there was no indication of where I am located in Google Earth. Since this is my first time using, I might have missed out something. Can anyone using GPS with Google Earth advice? Anyway, I am more keen to using Google Maps over Google Earth as it runs slower. How can I get the GPS to work with Google Maps or maybe Yahoo Maps? Or are there any good free mapping application available?

 

For GOogle Earth, go to "tools", "GPS", under realtime tab, click the start button. That's after you get a fix with your Gobi first, it'll zoom right into your location.

 

Anyone know if the tips for Kensington chargers work with the Vaio X?
Like this one:

 

JUST FOUND SOME JUICY STUFF!
Google: VPCX131KX and VPCX135KX
I believe it's the USA refresh and I'm finding evidence of them in all colors! (Black, Silver, Gold, Pink, etc...)
Some dealers are already showing the 131 in stock! Is anyone as stoked as I am?!

 

^^links??

10char

 

@smurfchang - since you're on testing your GPS and 3G, would you give me a help by doing some quick test on:

1. Battery life on 3G only (just a quick one, say, online for 15mins/30mins, and how much % of battery are used).

2. Battery life on GPS only, I find using the sierra wireless it consume battery quite a lot IF moving around especially in a car. Staying stationary doesn't seems to consume much battery juice. And that's with the 3G radio switched off.

3. Battery life on Wifi only - I'm getting around 5 hours average on WiFi only surfing, some occasional YouTube, means surfing for 30mins the battery indicator usually showing 10% consumption.

4. 3G signal compared to your mobile phone at the same area.

5. Working AGPS or not - "asisted" part of the GPS where it'll speed up the fixing a lot that rely on the 3G.


Pardon my silly request but it's hard to find someone willing to tweak and observe their machine. X series owners usually just plug and use right away...

 

@pigcat Thought I'd help you out.

1.


This test consisted of normal web browsing and a 2 minute YouTube video.

 

Will there be a marker to show your current location or does it just center the map to current location? I have actually tried it but I didn't see the map zooming to my location.

By the way, does anyone know where I can get the cloth laptop sleeve that comes with the VAIO X? I don't know what kind of material do you call it but I find it suitable to protect my VAIO X. But it's already starting to wear out and I need to get some new ones.

 

See my replies:

1. Can help you on this if you still need.

2. In my case, the 3G and GPS are integrated. So when using GPS, I have to turn on 3G as well.

3. I hardly use Wifi. Let me know if you need me to test it out.

4. 3G signal is pretty good.

5. I do not know if it supports AGPS. How can I find out?

On a last note. How much battery life do you get on 100% charge? I only managed 3+, close to 4 hours. Sony states 7 hours for large battery but I don't seem to get that.

 

Great help and thank you very much smurfchang!

It looks like the Gobi consuming quite a lot of power...I was actually looking to upgrade to X128 since mine is same spec just WWAN-less and hooking up a USB dongle doesn't seems to be as convenient.

In contrast to what I'm getting. When I surf internet using the sierra wireless, with brightness to just 1/8 (the latest GMA500 driver seems to change the value where 1/8 bright is about 3/8 of the default driver), I get about the same battery consumption as wifi, 30mins surfing is about 10% on light forum'ing and about 12% on some sites with partial flash content or some light youtube.

Guess I'm right on the track on trading battery life for convenience?

PS: I noticed your brightness setting, were you on full brightness? I guess that also contribute the battery consumption I guess?

 

Thanks for the great great help smurfchang! I was asking this few weeks ago and I don't get much information on the replies, google for actual battery consumption prior to my purchase was impossible...

Yup, it'll zoom automatically, there'll be a blue dot labeled "location" or something, something like the iphone google application. It can also track the GPS history where you can set the date and time and it'll show where you were maybe 10 mins ago. I believe it's just some setting on the comm port or something, in my case I let my GPS continously tracking the satellite (there's the "play" and "pause" symbol button), once it acquire a fix it'll automatically zoom into my location without any setting or message.

I bought the Cliptec sleeve for 12inch notebooks in Lowyat plaza malaysia, which can fit the X, it's a little oversized, but works nonetheless and the fabric isn't too thick, and it's stretchable fiber thingy. There was one left when I purchase it, and the brown colour matched the bottom of the X nicely.

1. That and your overall battery life is plenty for my information, thanks a million!
2. Hmm ok...
3. The purpose I asked is to check if the gobi will draw much battery even if it's switched off. It's not important though just curious.
4. Ok.
5. Hmm when I use my USB dongle, I determine if the AGPS working or not by observing the satellite acquiring process by having the 3G connection on/off. When I'm sitting in my house, with 3G connected, it'll show some satellites but with zero reception, which I think the 3G connection is fetching the satellite information as it's showing some internet activities (few KBs) thus speeding up the process if it's outdoor (haven't tested but should work within 10~30secs). Without 3G connection, the GPS hardly detect any satellite, and require 1~2mins+ to get a fix outdoor.

In overall I can get 4.30~5 hours on wifi (although I never had the battery running lower than 20%), 4~4.30 hours on 3G. Offline productivity is definitely more than 5 hours, offline video watching around 4~4.30hours with videos that're lower than 720 resolution. This is with the Avast antivirus running in the background all the time.

It was advertised as 6.5hours in Malaysia for the X127 and 7.5 for x125, I doubt it can be achieved. Japanese models are advertised up to 10(!) hours, it's just how Sony in different country advertise the battery life.

 

I realize many of you are not in the US, so I hesitate to share experiences, but here I get instant location on Google Maps. I presume the web-app knows I have GPS, because it automatically includes a "my location" button on the satellite image.
As for batteries, I have all 3 (S, L, X). I was able to get the L from Japan and it is the battery I use almost all the time. I run a little app. called BattStat which shows power consumption, and my X surfs the web for about 6W, which is pretty impressive. Battery life is about 3h/6h/10h for each of the battery packs.

As for more photos:




Cheers,

 

I think it's because the AGPS is kicking in? Were you using the 3G connection as well? Is yours EU model or US?

One of the US model owner in this thread reported that it can't seems to get the GPS working after trying for 2 days outside US but it works very well in US.

It's indeed impressive and there seems to have different battery life reported under the same usage in different country. On top of it Japan advertise the L battery to have 10 hours runtime, it really makes me wonder if the battery from japan can last longer?

 

That could have definitely been a large factor - I believe I was at 7/8 during that test.

@drPhilGandini - Thanks for the extra pictures! Good job!

 

Given the rating of the L battery, and the type of energy consumption I've seen on my X, I'd say that 10 hours is extremely unlikely (unless the Japanese have been able to both repeal the laws of physics and invent new mathematics.) I have removed all the bloatware and cut some parameters to get low 6W consumption, and it uses about 3W at idle which again is very impressive (I used to run Thinkpads that ran below 10W and thought that was incredible a few years ago.)
As for the GPS, I have not tried outside US, and I do not have 3G activated. I connect to the internets via wifi. But the GPS does work without any internet connection--I just can't use GoogleMaps as I need the internet to get to the web app.

 

VGA is a legacy connector. There are many, many notebooks and even netbooks which have HDMI (with integrated GPU's). When I travel, I want to be able to take my notebook/netbook with me and use HDMI to watch my media (the vast majority of hotels I've stayed in have HDMI).

Amazing!

 

Ok, using my 3G USB dongle surfing on full brightness, with 2 mins youtube, I get the same battery usage at 8%/15mins...

Guess the Gobi has not much battery consumption difference than a USB dongle huh? Maybe I'll upgrade it in the future with intergrated WWAN for better reception and convenience.

 

When Sony designed the Vaio X - their market was the traveling businessman. The kind of man who wants a luxury laptop that can travel well, browse the web, and give presentations. That is all this laptop is designed for. The reason they chose VGA is because when you travel to give presentations(and I know this from personal experience) you never know exactly what kind of projector they are going to have. This is why they went with VGA - because not every projector everywhere supports HDMI, but you won't find a projector without VGA.

I do understand that that doesn't exactly fit your needs - but I am just stating why Sony chose not to put HDMI in this.

 

Yeah, with only HDMI this notebook would have half the value for people who give presentations-and its definitely directed to them. Not for someone watching movies in their hotel room

 

I was checking out the x's graphic performance on running powerpoint, rather than on running HD movies when I first considered it. When I have the time to watch HD movies in the hotels, the trip would probably be over 3~4 days and I will be carrying wheeled briefcase: the weight of the notebook doesn't bother me at all and I can live with the company's Lenovo x201. I would say the x is perfect for those 1~2 days short business trips: all I carry is a 3~4 kg belted brief case (with simple clothing and assessory) and that make an 2~3kg notebook with HD movie watching capability not quite justifiable, at least my shoulder and the shoulder pad within my jacket don't like that.

 

If anyone in the U.S. is looking for the L battery (same footprint as the S but double the capacity; not available in the U.S.), watch the listings from eBay seller inetworkscn:

ORIGINAL VGP-BPL19 VAIO X Battery

The $135 shipped price is MUCH less than any vendors I found through Google. I ordered one and it arrived in 3 days from Shanghai. Seller has over 2,000 feedback and 100% positive (highly unusual for an electronics seller to have that high of a feedback percentage).

The battery looks to be a perfectly legit Sony battery and not an OEM from what I can tell.

He lists 2-3 at a time, so if it's sold out, recheck in a few days.

 

My gold Signature X arrived this afternoon. Ahh, I'd forgotten just how "palmable" the X is. I missed it.

I'm always wary whenever I buy from an eBay seller with less than 50 feedback, given the fraud and scams that go on with computers and consumer electronics, but I needn't have worried. The computer shipped with all original packing and accessories, and after charging $12 for Priority Mail, the seller, for whatever reason, decided to ship by Express Mail; it cost him $50 to ship. It was a very pleasant surprise.

My original gold Signature X back in December had cost me $1,600 after tax from Sony Style, whereas this one came in at $1,000 even,after eBay 10%off coupon. Suchadeal.

The thing is in mint condition; according to BatteryBar, the 2 batteries have hardly ever been used. Looking at just under 3 hours (projected) for the S, about 5:20 for the L, and roughly the XL battery is somewhat wonky, bouncing around between 8 and 13 hours, depending on what I'm doing...

After I pulled all the bloatware from it, ripped out SmartWi, and ran a Windows optimizer, this thing is quite spry. Faster than I remember it. Sure, it's no M11x, but it's also about one third the weight.

It's a shame the X doesn't get more love. It's one hell of a machine. For browsing, Office tasks, and even basic Photoshop work, it fits the bill perfectly.

Feels good to be home.

 

If I understand correctly, the US version (VPCX115KX) has an adapter to make a microSATA 128gb SSD compatible with the US15W chipset. I think the new US version (VPCX135KX) uses the same chipset. However, according to the SonyStyle USA website, the specs say that the new VPCX135KX has a 128gb SSD PATA. My questions are:
1. Is it possible to put the Samsung Thin microSATA 256gb SSD (MMDPE56GTDXP) in the new US model?
2. Does the new model have an adapter or do I need to find my own solution/adapter?
3. If so, where would I find one? (What would I search for?)

 

heavyharmonies-
Also, playing with the Vaio-specific power settings makes a difference for me; as much Sony bloatware as there is, some of it is actually useful. I also bought the $135 L battery from the ebay vendor, and was disappointed initially that I was only seeing 5-5 1/2 hour max battery life. Then I tried the Power Saver energy setting which increased max battery to 7 1/2-8 hours (and probably 9+ hours if I wanted to dim the LCD brightness more)--not bad! As far as I can tell, the key drivers of the power savings are 1) reducing color from 32-bit to 16-bit, and 2) reducing refresh rate from 60Mhz to 40MHz. The Power Saver setting automatically configures everything (though the individual settings can be tweaked in the control panel, if desired). The changes don't seem to downgrade performance much (if anything, going from 32 bit to 16 bit color should actually boost performance) though it seems Flash video performance degrades somewhat, not sure if it's the lower color quality (impeding Aero) or the lower refresh rate driving that. But unless one is watching full screen video, the compromise seems well worth it if you're trying to squeeze out as much battery life as possible.

 

pigcat-
I'm guessing the reason Sony Japan can advertise 10 hour battery life with the L battery is based on the Power Saver settings plus the dimmest LCD setting. Possibly also with Bluetooth and Wifi off. I think more realistic would be medium LCD brightness and Wifi on, which gives me 7 1/2-8 hour life.

 

I don't think I'm ready to accept the 40hz refresh rate and 16bit color but I'll definitely give it a try if it really increase the battery that much! Thanks for the tips!

 

To those of you getting 8 - 10 hrs from the L battery: what average power consumption are you seeing? I average 6W, which gives me about 6hrs. Are you really averaging 4W? I just find it hard to believe but would like to know what you are doing that consumes so little power.
If you need an app. to measure power consumption, use Battery Status v0.98
Thanks

 

I don't quite believe it too, I tried the 16bit/40hz and it does seems to increase the battery life a little more, but certainly no where near 7.5 hours, let alone 8 hours. Further test will be conducted.

By the way, I'm still struggling whether to downgrade to XP or not. Some owners at taiwan reported that they get some 45mins~1 hours extra by downgrading to XP. However, I'm going to play some video clips too and the performance isn't great under XP, unlike WMP12 with acceleration I can play 2Mbps 1080p video clips smoothly without hiccups, can't seems to do that on XP. I'll try again and experiment with various codec and acceleration drivers.

 

I have 5,5-5,8W with wifi off.

pigcat please, if you choose to try downgrading, share your experience.

Thanks!!