I just received my 680SZ... initial impressions/review

This is a follow up to my earlier ordering experience with Sony thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=162615

Now that I have the thing I thought I would post a quick "8 hours from when I opened the box" review.

I LOVE THIS THING!!!

I'm also new to Vista and it has some bells and whistles that I actually do like so that is adding to some of the fun.

I like the sidebar. I was all prepared to hate it. In fact, I was all prepared to hate Vista in general.

My 3 gigs of ram are installed and running perfectly. I installed my crucial 2gig stick right beside the 1gig stick that came with it. Everyone says to go with 2 gigs but I just feel a little bit safer with that extra 1g buffer hehe.

Performance seems to be great as far as I can tell. I haven't played any games yet or anything, but I'm installing a couple now so we'll see... I have a desktop for hard core gaming so I don't really care one way or the other.

Light leakage is minimal... Heck I find it hilarious that I'm even talking about that. Up until a couple weeks ago I didn't even know what light leakage was. I don't see how it would ever matter... you can't tell a bit unless your screen is completely black... and what the heck are you doing with a completely black screen in front of you.

I did the Semi-Clean reformat that a couple people have posted guides about. Thanks so much by the way... they helped a lot and it all worked smoothly and perfectly. I was new to Vista so somethings were new to me... like what happens when you press the F10 key or CTRL-ALT-DEL. But everything seems to be working fine and I feel that I have conquered Sony's bloatware attack. It seems to be the standard initiation for any Vaio buyer.

Build quality seems fantastic. This thing really is sexy. I'd write more but there are just too many toys to play with so I'll write further impressions later. I just wanted to do an update.

By the way... this thing shipped 2 days early with free overnight shipping. That's hard to beat.

However my friend who I ordered the Dell Vostro 1400 for just had hers ship in the same time frame and well before their estimated shipping date so perhaps it's just the 1330's that suck as far as production times go.

I'm thrilled I got this instead of the Dell in retrospect.

 

Thats great examiner,

I am still waiting for my sz680. I hate hate hate fedex, they never gave me real time statistics of my shipments nor do they delivery quickly. My shipment is in transit since Aug 30 with no tracking updates at all on the site. When I ordered m1330, it arrived in 2 days with DHL although I went for standard shipping. Some how I never had a good experience with FedEx. Anyways, you can understand my annoyance, I so wanna feel the notebook and I am trying to show patience.
Anyways, any pics?

 

Thanks for your comments on your new VAIO SZ. I'm in pain waiting for this sexy machine to be available for purchase in Sweden. Probably in the end of the month but time will tell.

Can you post some pictures of your new machine? And what do you think about the 13.3" display? Is it enough for two persons to watch some DVD's in bed?

 

cool to hear. my sz680 is supposed to be here monday.

 

I'll try to get some pictures up soon. As far as watching a movie in bed, I'm sure it can be done. You'll just have to cuddle lol. Actually the viewing angles are really good and this screen is super bright. I actually find myself leaning back instead of leaning forward like I thought I would have to for a 13.3 inch screen.

I loaded up World of Warcraft for the fun of it and the game runs better than I've ever seen it before. It's actually running in the background as I type this. The Vaio switched between tasks amazingly smooth and quickly. Of course I've never had more than 1gig of ram in a computer before...

 

What kind of frame rates are you getting in WoW?

 

Really really smooth frame rates hehe... I don't know how to test that... but if you provide a link to some kind of program that will let me test that I'd love to do so for you.


Also, I have a quick question for you Sony Vista guys... How do you get rid of that dumb blue bar that has the options for "Vaio Security Center/Vaio Productivity Center/Vaio Entertainment Center".... I don't want to ever see it again if possible.

 

If you use CTRL-R in game it will toggle the FPS.

 

Sweet! I'll check that out today hopefully and post here the results.

Also, I have a quick question for you Sony Vista guys... How do you get rid of that dumb blue bar that has the options for "Vaio Security Center/Vaio Productivity Center/Vaio Entertainment Center".... I don't want to ever see it again if possible.

 

If you could also post your in game settings that would be great also.

 

just received mine as well and have the same sentiments as you. i got the silver keyboard though and regret it the moment i lifted the screen...oh well

 

Damn, everyone has me worried now. Mine is coming with silver kb, I just ordered it 2 days ago. Got any pics that show how bad it is? The ones on the Sony site look good. Maybe they'd let me change the config if it's not too late.

 

A day later and I still love the little powerhouse! That semi clean install helped so much. I love Vista... I don't know what everyone whines about. I'm typing with it on my lap right now and its just warm enough to feel cozy haha. It's soooo light too for how big it is. I just can't get over how thin the screen is.

I've been harping for a couple weeks now just how cheap looking that silver keyboard is. Maybe some people like it but I have yet to find anyone who prefers it.

I've been busy today traveling and haven't gotten another chance to log into WoW but I'll post those results asap.

 

I just logged in to WoW on one on my characters real fast to try out that CTRL-R FPS checker and it ranged anywhere from 50-65 FPS in Ironforge in a crowded(ish) area. It averaged at about 60 I would guess. I cranked up the graphics to near max too. Is that good for WoW? I know that game isn't very graphics intense at all so that might not be very impressive. It did run silky smooth though and surprisingly vibrant and usuable on a relatively small 13.3 inch screen. I'm used to using a 21 inch flat panel beauty from a desktop.

Oh and that was all on battery power with a few programs running in the background like the sidebar and I.E. if that matters.

 

Thats sounds great. What resolution were you running? AA AF set to what?

 

Here, I'll swipe my right little finger over the reader to lauch WoW and check that for you haha...

I LOVE the finger print scanner. I have all my most passwords attached to it.

 

1024x768 resolution.

AF is low and I'm too lazy to restart with it on. I can't find AA? All my shaders are maxed though. It's WoW for crying out loud, I'm wondering if most modern machines would run it maxed out at 60fps?

This CRTL R function is really nice though. More games should have that. What are other people getting in WoW?

 

You most definitely don't want intruders enjoying WoW on your notebook.

 

LOL... well, in my case the finger print reader is really only a novelty/fun thing anyway. I have nothing on here that I want to keep anyone away from. However I do find myself locking most everything down just because I can. It's just fun to show people that each of my fingers launches a different program. Technology is fun... sue me