My first impression of Vaio TT180C

I got it tonite. They just arrived today at the sonystyle store. here in Yorkdale, Toronto.

My first impression:

By itself, it looks cool. The big round hinges at the top of the keyboard is bigger than TZ, but I think this is how they got rid of that cabling problem in one of the hinges. If you remove the battery completely, then it would not leave a big gap there as in TZ. Sitting side by side with the TZ, TZ looks better, since it is all squarish corners. However, I have it home now, typing on it, it looks great by itself. I actually like the shiny stainless steel (plastic of cource) on both sides of the keyboard. The mouse pad is bigger, so are left and right buttons, and the figure print sensor.

Most important of all, it is much, much cooler than the TZ. I have been using it on my lap for the past hour, and do not feel any heat, just a touch of warmth. This is very important to me, so I am very happy.

It is made in Japan, except the power brick which is quite small.

Color is more like carbon, not as black as the TZ.

I got to go now, and re-install to remove the bloat wares. Although I think it is much faster than TZ already.

If you have any questions, I'll try and answer them tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

 

Congrats!! Are you going to change your ID to TT180 now?

Glad to hear TT is cooler than TZ. I am presently surprised by my Z's temperature, coming from an S170. Seems to me either this generation of Intel CPU is really cool or Sony has really raised the bar on their thermal design.

 

Congratulations on your new TT. Beautiful machine

 

Any pictures you have for us? Congratulations on your purchase!

 

Looks like you are very happy with your new toy.
I heard the report of CPU in Vista is not correct U9x00 the hardware is SU9x00.
I think Intel can fix it soon.

 

Wow, congratulation for your new TT, can you upload some pictures here?

 

By popular demand, here are some pictures:














Like I said, it is not as squarish as the TZ. But, I don't mind, and like it since it is a lot cooler at the bottom. I have not re-install vista yet. May be I don't need to, since I just uninstalled the "windows Live One" and disabled User Account Control, and also stopped a few programs from loading at startup. It is quite fast in start up now. I also noticed that TT has the same old battery problem: It was fully charged when I shut it down, pulled the plug. I started it cold after 10 hours, and it shows 96% charged. I don't think startup would use up 4%. Oh well, that is life with Vaio.

BTW, CPUZ does say it is U9300 instead of SU9300. It is running at about 60c while I am typing (according to CoreTemp),same as TZ, but somehow the bottom is a lot cooler, and I don't hear the fan at all.

 

wow awesome pics, tyty

 

very sexy
(10 chars)

 

It could be that CPUZ and CoreTemp are not updated for the chipset. Maybe try HWMonitor. Those pictures are awesome, thank you.

 

Hello

Thanks for upload the pictures

What is CoreTemp? Is that a software or hardware? Can you share the link? Sorry for this newby question

 

Just ran superpi 32M calculation, 34 minutes 46 secs. CPU went up to 52% average, and coretemp show 75-77c. I can hear the fan (pretty high pitch, but like a wisper) in a very quiet room. The bottom is like as if it was siting idle, a little warmth. So, Sony has improved upon the TZ big time (may be credit should go to Intel because of the new chip). I ran 8M SuperPi and got 7 min 12 seconds. My single core overclocked desktop (3GHz) got 5 min 41 sec. So, it cannot beat my old desktop. But in photo editing, it does seem a lot faster. May be because I have 3 GB memory now, vs 1 GB in my desktop.

Just dl HWMonitor, and it does say SU9300

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Windows-Widgets/Widget-Miscellaneous/Core-Temp.shtml

 

Thanks for the link!

I hope you can upload photos comparison of TT & TZ

 

I do not have TZ. I return it after finding out there is a recall on it. If you are going for looks, TZ does look more elegant like a grand formal looking lady, and TT looks more like a casually dressed lady with a lot of costume jewelry

If you are going for performance, I think TT is better, since it is cooler running.

 

Oh ok

I look on the picture, the AC plugin is on the left? Not right part like on my CR? Is that right? Hmm.. I prefer on the right, because my power supply always on the right side of my CR when I use it

 

Concerning the silver finish on the touch pad buttons and sides of the notebook, is that a glossy, fingerprint-magnet finish or matte finish?

One person had said its matte but I saw some pictures which made it look glossy. I haven't seen the TT in person yet.

 

So it doesn't come with the really annoying bilingual keyboard even though you bought it in Canada??

 

The silvery chrome like finish is glossy and is indeed a fingerprint magnet, but it is not too bad.

The keyboard is normal US keyboad, not bilingual (as advertised). It does not come with a set of noise canceling earplug, but the document inside said it does, so I am going to call and confirm.

 

That's awesome news -- I was set on the Z, in part because there's no way I'm going to get a laptop with the bilingual keyboard (& the Z CTOs come with the US keyboard)... but now I'll take a close look at the TT.

 

Really nice little laptop you have there, and exxcellent quality photos, rare for this site!

 

i love the TT too. Shame that us Canada do not get the premium carbon version or the James Bond limited edition US is having (our james bond version only includes an engraved 007 logo). Else i would pick this up in no time.


I think the premium carbon black is truly beautiful.

 

what is the difference premium and the regular carbon fibre?

 

That James Bond version sounds cool.

 

Go to Sonystyle.COM and check out the TT with premium carbon, and compare that with yours.

You'll see the difference.

Have you ask Sony about the noise cancelling headphone?

 

Hi!

According to specs the battery life is about 7.5 hrs. Do you know whether there's any high capacity battery - its life and weight?


Thanks

 

It is listed in the optinal sections under the TT specs, so I think you can buy it through the store, but it did not show life and weight.

 

Well, I finally got to see a TT. I dunno why people say it's ugly -- I think it looks great, & I think the build quality seems better than on the Z.

The screen seemed a tad dimmer, and a tiny bit of a yellowish hue, relative to the Z -- dunno if this was a setup issue, or if that's something inherent in the display. The keyboard was pretty good for a subnotebook, I was typing accurately without much adjustment or effort. There's not a lot of key travel, that'd was my only complaint, but not a big deal.

I think the TT would be a great machine for people who travel a lot, need max battery life, need a smaller form factor (like for working on planes while seated in economy, which I always found tricky with the S-series) & for whom the 0.5 lb difference between the Z would be important.

As for me... every generation, my heart wants the tiny vaio but my head tells me to get the slightly bigger one, & I think this time will be no different... the Z just has so much more power, screen real estate (if you go for the 1600x900 screen, as I intend to ) etc. for the same price.

 

Congrats on your purchase! The TT really looks awesome, I would love to see one in person.

 

I'm really sorry for being lazy LOL, and also I dun live in the USA. However, whats the difference between Vaio TT which has been out for awhile now and the Vaio TT180C that you have?

 

Just like the SR, the TT was been completely renewed.

 

oh ok thanks sponsi for the info. Guess its just a USA thing coz I cant see the difference besides 256ssd from the initial japan release. I still dun like the low voltage cpus in the tt tho. still a very awesome laptop good for travelling. As long as they dont upgrade the Z coz that would annoy me LOL

 

TT180C is a model made for the Canadian market. It is not equipped with wwan, no noise reduction earphone, but it has bluetooth stereo. SU9300 and 3 GB ram, 160 GB HDD, and only black is available. Otherwise it is the same as the TT100 in the US.

Yes, I agree it is a difficult choice between TT and Z. It really depends on what you use it for. I use TT for travel. At home, I only use it while I have to watch TV and surf at the same time. I use my desktop for photo editing work and playing games.

 

I thought you were referring to the much older TT from a few years back? I'm pretty sure Sony had a older SR and TT series'.

 

My screen has ambient light sensor. When I turned it on from standby, the screen is very bright (with AC plugged in). After 1 second or 2, the screen is less bright. I like this. I remembered I have to turn TZ down every time.

 

I don't have to turn down my TZ's brightness every time. I just changed the screen brightness settings in:

Control Panel > under Mobile PC > Change Battery Settings
Select a Power Plan then Change Plan Settings

This area will allow you to change screen brightness when using battery or AC and save your settings.

 

just a thought....maybe we should change the title of this thread to "Vaio TT Owners thread"

 

IMO, except it has newer chipset and processor which means more power, the design looks worse than TZ and material I feel like cheapo. I actually sold my TZ180 for getting TT, but when I played with TT130 at Frys, I have changed my mind and I bought back TZ298NXC with Premium Carbon Fiber Black. Recall does not make me worry, even though I have scheduled for the repair this month.

 

Personally, I have found this little "feature" to be a bit annoying sometimes. Moving your head around or changing the screen angle can sometimes cast a shadow on the sensor causing the screen to darken.

I got my TT a few weeks ago and immediately noticed a big problem with the touchpad tracking. It didn't track smoothly and seemed to have a dead spot. Anyway, it's in the Sony repair center right now. Hopefully it will be fixed when it's returned. Are you noticing any pointer "wobbling" or jumping with yours?

By the way, I'm desperately looking for a copy of the English re-install/recovery CDs for the TT. I ordered mine locally, so it's in Japanese . Is there any way I can get a copy of them from you?

 

I did not experience any problem with the mouse pad. Works quite smoothly. Scrolls well, fast scroll at top and bottom of left side. Only thing I wish for is horizontal scrolling. BTW, I did not change any setting.

 

I finally got to play with a TT in person today, settled on buying a Blu-Ray equipped model. You all can expect to see my TZ for sale up here soon (with spare battery, leather wrap cover, and a few other accessories)

 

congrats, that calls for a few more green-backs. Tell us how about the BR when you get it.

 

I just got my machine back today, and the touchpad is much better. It`s still not what I would consider 100%, but at least it`s now usable.

Mine has side scrolling. It should be enabled by default.

Thanks for ALL the help in trying to get those recovery disks by the way. Anyway, I just noticed that they finally posted the standalone drivers on the Sony support site, so I won`t be needing any images of the disks.

 

Nice to see someone else had the same problem with their touchpad, and even after sending it in to be fixed, its still not 100%. I totally agree. The TT has a lemon touchpad. Period.

 

Why do you rejoice over others misery?