First Look of the The NEW 2012 SB series (S13?)

Good one, more impressions about the touchpad would be very welcome. The TrustedReviews preview was positive though ( link): "The huge trackpad too felt more pleasant to use, with none of the issues we encountered on the T Series."

Coming from a touchpad with separate buttons though, I'm most worried about right mouse clicks, but I guess I gotta get used to that, seems like all notebooks go in that direction. Hope it's usable with mouse intensive games like Diablo 3, which I can still play decently on my current notebook.

 

I have an old SA and the touchpad is goodish when using the right drivers and tweaking the settings a bit. But it sometimes behaves strangely like becoming either too sensitive or almost not reacting at all.

If the touchpad can support two finger taps there shouldn't be any problem with normal use. If one (like me) use some programs that require dragging with the right button it could be a problem...

 

The new touchpad does allow two finger taps. I made sure it did when I tried it out. I love right clicking by double tapping and that's what the display model was set to! I'm sure you can change it up to your liking too.

 

In london are there any store which has the new s series? I want to see laptop first, then i will decide to buy.

 

I couldn't agree more about your best-in-class reviews, Lisa. You put the rest to shame and I don't feel like I really know a new product until I've read and watched your review!

That said, I'm a bit confused by your comments about both the S13 and S15 displays. Does the S13 1600X900 appear to be an entirely new display for the S? Because no one ever described last year's S 900p screen as having remotely decent colors, black levels or contrast. Could this be the Z's 13.1" 900p now used in the S13 since it seems the new Z will only come with the 1080p display? Finally, in complimenting the S15 1080p, the question begged is: is this the same red=orange IPS display from last year's S15 - and Envy 15 for that matter?

Love to have your clarifications on these.

Thanks again for your awesome work!

 

From all the reports so far the 1600x900 screen on SVS13 is the same as SA's. SA's screen is quite decent in all the qualities that you questioned, as long as you can hold your head in a fixed position to maintain perfect viewing angle for hours like a sniper taking a shot out to 1000 yard.

 

What's finally the difference between S13 and S13A? The material?
When I compare both models there's no detail about material, only a different thickness (1 mm)

 

I don't think the 1600x900 in the S13 is the same than the SA, because it was a VAIO plus display where the new 1600x900 is a premium display (at least, for European). Premium display was only on the Z.

 

^
Yes the Asian model S13A also comes with Vaio Display Premium now !!. The older SA came with only a Vaio display plus panel.

 

Checking european sony (poland and germany) site it shows the display as a plus panel still which is a shame for the pre-config models. Checking the US and canadian sites does not really provide much info on the screen.

The UK site for the customize models is showing the 13A screen as a VAIO Display Premium though. So no idea now.

 

I'm speaking essentially for French store

 

Thanks for the compliment

I didn't have the old and new S 900p displays side by side, but to my eyes the new S display looked better than I remember the 2011 S. Viewing angles are wider and contrast is quite good.

The 1080p display looked sharp (obviously) but it didn't strike me as being on par with the Z3 for extremely high color gamut. As to the orange-red issue, I'd need to get it in for review to test the trueness of reds. This was at an event.

 

Does anyone think i7-3612qm will be a little bit overkill for slim and light design of VAIO S 15?
Would it be a lot hotter and noisier than the i5 version?


I want to do some photo editing on my new laptop. And I'm really not sure if the red-orange screen will be a big problem maybe S13A is more suitable?

 

It's not too hot or noisy for the even smaller Vaio Z3, so it should be fine for the S15. As to whether you need that much processing power, it depends on what you do with the machine. For photo editing (non-professional, not huge RAW files), the i5 would be fine.

 

This is great to hear! I ordered my S15 last night and really the only worry I had was the fan noise and I'm glad to hear it isn't that big of a deal. In addition I won't really be gaming too much so it should stay fairly quiet most of the time.

 

Any idea why the 3612QM is not available on the 13" then?

 

Then it would directly compete with the Z series, I wish it was available though haha

 

Has anyone actually got their hands on the S15 yet?

What is the build quality like? I'm seriously considering the S15, looks like a lovely machine and fits my criteria in terms of spec.

Any help appreciated.

 

Nope, should be getting what's in my sig sometime towards the end of this week.

 

Hummingb1rd, please could you report on the fan noise / heat, and whether the Nvidia drivers are updatable via Nvidia rather than Sony Update..

These are deal breakers as to whether I get this laptop. I have an e-series, and hate the fan noise so much, and its infuriating waiting for Sony to issue updated graphics drivers (as I'm sure you are aware, they never come).

Thanks

 

I shall as soon as I get it. Sony is vague on shipping dates so I won't be sure when I'll get it until I get a tracking #.

Everyone has said that fan noise/heat has been resolved... and the nvidia drivers so far look like they're installable separate. On their site for drivers downloads, the intel integrated graphics driver looks the same as the ones provided by intel. The nvidia drivers look like they have some customizations, and a weird version number, so i don't actually know... We'll see when it is actually in my hands

 

Many thanks - really appreciate it.

I have been hoping that they resolve these two issues, as I feel they are the only things which have really held the Vaio's back.

Fingers crossed you have a good experience with it.

 

Some info from the owners thread worth considering:

Reading through it appears that it still runs hot...we shall see I guess. Perhaps US model isn't the same as China...but who knows

 

ah, I see... well, I await your verdict.. trying to imagine what 43db is compared to my current amount of noise.

With my e-series, the fan seems to spin up out of nowhere.. and its stay on for extended periods (because it gets very hot very quick)

It will be interesting to see whether this is the case with your new S15, or whether it can keep itself under control heatwise.

 

Is the SATA III locked by the BIOS as the last SB/SA?

 

From the second post above yours: yes.

 

Thank you, I saw the second post^^, my question was to know if it is locked by the Bios or the motherboard used (which is suppose to support natively the SATA III with Ivy, no?).

 

Yeah, that's the only explanation right? Lame.

 

Hi guys,

I've been looking for a 13" ultraportable gaming laptop for a while, and have recently been considering the Sony S series. I'll be using it for various college student tasks (programming, music, video), but want it to be able to run BF3 on medium settings. I would also strongly prefer a laptop without excessive fan noise (which I understand was a problem with the previous S series model).

Outside of knowing that putting more money into a laptop makes it better, and that the video card is important in playing video games, I'm not really much of a hardware guru. I'm considering two of customizable S series models: the "enhanced" version (1 GB graphics), or the "premium" version with an upgraded 2 GB graphics card and 6 GB of memory, which is significantly more expensive. I'm not sure if I should be considering shelling out more for other hardware.

Considering that the most intensive task I want to be able to be able to perform will be running BF3 on medium settings, which of these would you recommend, or would either suffice? Are there any other hardware components I should consider upgrading? Or are there even other non-Sony ultraportable notebooks meeting this criteria I might want to consider?

Thanks for any help =)

 

Noise + Heat are my only 2 worries about the new 2012 S15. Sony has a good return policy though (30 days after shipment) and within that time frame I'll make sure to try out intensive stuff on the laptop like gaming, video converting, etc. I want to see how loud and how hot it really gets. If it is quiet 90% of the time when I'm just web browsing, using word documents and other similar tasks then I'm a happy camper.

 

I just went into a Sony Centre and had a look at the old S series (SE?).

The 15" model with the 1080p screen was a nice laptop but oh lord was it flimsy!!!

The screen/lid was very thin (which is lovely) but due to this it has zero rigidity and it was quite "floppy".

Not sure this laptop could withstand the daily grind for long.

If the new S15 is anything like that then I may have to reconsider my options.

 

Judging by your signature looks like you bought it. So?

 

Haha, I did in fact buy it. However, it only ships on the 19th and I have 30 days to return, hassle free. If I am displeased with the heat/noise than I will return it.

 

any laptop will have excessive fan noise when you're gaming. period. with VAIO SA or S13A, you can shut down the dGPU and work with Intel HD3000 or HD4000 only, which lowers the heat and reduces the fan noise. other than that, the fan noise does not bother me at all when i'm browsing the web or watching YouTube videos. i would call it minimal. others don't. to each his own.

i have a VAIO SA (last year's edition) with 6630m and have been playing Battlefield 3 @1366x768 on a mix of MEDIUM+HIGH settings. it can handle that game with an overclock. 640m LE should be more powerful than 6630m.

 

Hello guys,

First I would like to thank you for that thread.
I'm looking for a new laptop and the new Sony Vaio S 13' Premium is currently my option, but I have some questions that maybe you guys can answer me:

1. In the Sony US online store, I can upgrade the NVIDIA GPU from 1 to 2 gb for $50. Considering gaming use, do the plus 1 gb make noticeable performance improvement?
2. Upgrading i5-3210M to i5-3320M is worth the $50 dollars? I was in fact looking for i7-3520M, but more $242.50 looks to much. What you think?

I appreciate your help on this!

Thanks.

 

1. Regarding the video card, you should save your $50 and go with the 1GB. From what I read about 1GB vs 2GB video cards, is that most 2GB video cards are not even able to take advantage of the second GB due to a bottle neck somewhere in the architecture. (Don't really have a source, just Googled it and quickly read some articles before I made my decision, so you can take my advice with a grain of salt if you want.)

2. However, I did go with the i5-3320M because I saw some benchmarks for that specific processor and not the i5-3310M. Also, if I were you, I would not got with the i7 unless you do heavy video/photo editing. From the benchmarks that I saw, the i7 performance vs cost is not worth it imo. (Again, take with a grain of salt as I am too lazy to Google search again to find the benchmarks, I will leave that up to you if you want to verify )

 

I disagree. Go with the 2gb option. While 1gb vs 2gb doesn't make a performance difference in nearly every game out right now, there are games that use more than 1gb of vram already and in the next year or so there will obviously be many more.

you will never notice a difference between 3210m vs 3320m, save your money there. You WILL definitely notice a game maxing out your VRAM and turn into a stuttering slide show.

welcome to the internet, a completely different opinion vs the previous poster

 

I'm going to agree with Shoeslayer. Most games will not show any improvement for 1 vs 2 gig of ram. Also consider that with the 640m LE card that you will might be able to play games at 1600x900 low/med if your lucky, but will be playing most at 1366x768 high settings. 2 Gig of ram doesn't really affect much until you play at 1900x1200 or higher. Save your money and put it to a cool backpack or something. Or better yet, just give me the 50 bucks

 

That's by design. The idea is that if you can't built it rigid enough to offer enough resistance you build it floppy enough to bend with the force. I don't know how well it works and holds up, I'm sure people here who already had a S13/old 15" Sony can shed more light on it.

 

No point in getting 2GB of VRAM. The game will exhaust the GPU power first before the VRAM, considering the GT 640M LE is a mid-range GPU.

 

Problem is if you don't get 2GB GPU you're immediately precluded from getting the quad core CPU!

 

The 2GB option struck me as a bit odd from the get go, being only a mid-range laptop GPU. That extra GB will only serve you, if you want ultra-high resolution textures (but wouldn't the guy, wanting that, choose a high-end GPU laptop instead?).

Such high resolution textures will also only be noticeable when running native resolution (Not sure if you'd even be able to see the difference @ 1600x900 though). If you could though, I can't think of many games that you'd prefer turning other settings down, to be able to run the game in native, in favor of higher-res textures. Serious Sam 2 perhaps?

EDIT:

Ouch.

 

Ouch that's sad. Sony Canada doesn't do that tho. We get to choose what we want here.

 

^^I cannot tell if you guys are talking about the S15 or S13?


And I cannot even choose silver/white (basically, anything *but* black/gold for me) with the top end S13 down here

 

Nope not all. Asus G-series gaming machines are pretty silent even when gaming. However those are very big and very heavy (two large copper heatsinks doesn't help).

Yeah however still limited by DDR3 video memory. :/

[If Sony just could squeeze in a GT 650M and a 1920x1080 screen in the S13A it would be close to perfect IMHO.]

 

So is the Display Premium in the configurable S13A's really a premium display? I spoke to a rep online and they said it must be a mistake on the website, but what do they know.

 

The added VRAM is useful if you use multiple monitors more than anything else. Each monitor requires its own memory allocation.

 

So is there a point in getting the 2GB nvidia card? Or safe a few bucks and grab the 1gb version?

 

There's definitely a point if you're going to run the 900p internal panel, plus a 1080p HDMI monitor and maybe the VGA monitor too (all at once). Otherwise, it's more of a $50 to future proof and worry less when 2 gig cards become common in a year or three.

 

Not sure if this has been posted yet. Found a site with lots of pics of the gold version of S13, various benchmarks and VAIO gesture control, VAIO control center software.

link

Now if only I can find some reviews of S15.