Considering buying a vaio x but have 2 questions

Is there a middle sized battery that is not as large as the secondary one but bigger than the thin one that is included.

I feel like the small thin one (2.5-3hrs) doesn't give enough battery life and the large secondary one (10-15 hrs) is a little overkill. I would be happy with 4-6hrs.

I would also like to know if I can install win xp on the vaio x and if it improves on battery life or performance.

Thanks

 

yes. there is. its VGP-BPS19 4100mah which give you around 4.5hrs. I don't think they are available in US sonystyle store as many of the premium X case is also not sold here.

I think you can, but you may not find all drivers for XP. Certainly, there won't see any battery life improvement when going to XP.

 

yeah I found the battery available on ebay only. I'm not sure why the American version only has the smaller battery and huge extended battery. the 4100mah sounds like the perfect match.

as for xp, are all the drivers not available? that would make it unusable then.

 

I guess it is because Sony wants to market this as the lightest and 14 hrs runtime in US. Smaller battery for in office use while larger battery for oversea flight.

The only thing you can't find a driver for is the FN key and power management, everything else are just generic drivers. But I can almost assure you that there is no benefit downgrade to XP as long as W7 is properly configured.

 

The only reason I would install xp is for better speed and ease of use. I have used win 7 and find it more sluggish especially on an atom processor. I know xp is old and doesnt look great but its quick and simple. I still use on my Samsung x360 which has core 2 duo.

 

Have you try to configure the win7 according to Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Service Configurations by Black Viper ? When configured properly and aero+index disabled. win7 should be as fast as xp.

 

that sounds complicated.
I will try to buy a vaio x and hopefully win 7 wont be too slow after turning off the aero.

btw psun786, was it easy to do the simcard mod? is there one available that has the correct tmobile 3g bands?

 

as far as I know, XP is not optimized for SSD so Win7 is the way to go for X.

simcard mod requires you to solder a 6 pin pusher type simcard reader to the PCB board. there are total of 10 joints to solder.



the simcard reader cost about $1~$15 depends where you buy.

i am not sure what bands t-mobile use for their 3g, 1700/2100? well, gobi 2000 has 800/850/900/1900/2100 so it may not work

 

psun786: Thanks for all the great info but I am scared to open it up and sodering things up. I am not at that level yet

I just got my vaio x 128gb ssd. Originally the seller sent the wrong one, the 64gb ssd and for some reason it felt like it weighed less. Am I crazy or is it possible that 128gb ssd version (vpcx115kx) is heavier than the 64gb version (vpcx111kx)?

 

Shouldnt be much difference.

 

FYI, the UK XP drivers package has full support for everything even the FN key, power management and camera.