New Vaio F Model

Jtvgeo

Sorry only got a few minutes to try out the F. at the store. Oddly enough, when I was looking at it, I was most interested if I could come to terms with the new design. When I first saw the FW, I had to have it (though I procrastinated for quite a long time come to think of it!)
Initial thoughts? I like it but i'm worried...if that makes sense.

I will be getting my F--17-820Qm hopefully in a week. I'll post out findings once I run it through its course. This will be in comparison to FW I suppose?

 

For those who had theirs shipped, how long did it take to process the order? I placed my order on 1/9 and it's still in the processing stage. Should I call them to see what's up?

 

Just pulled the trigger on a Vaio F Series, but only because i found a valid $100 off ecoupon. I though the price was pretty competitive anyway. Just use MYWIN7VAIO when you are checking out. I did this on the Canadian site, dunno if available in US. Looks like it expires 15th Jan.

 

^^^That code doesn't work on the US site.

 

bummer... hope there's something for the States

 

Hope there's something for the UK .. would be pretty much ready to order!

Has anyone been offered any deals by a Sony Style rep over the phone? Are they able to offer extras (like Dell does) such as extended warranty for free?

 

I've heard they give 5% discounts... I think it was Rachel who said so. I'll ask her.

 

Sony in the UK sometimes do give a 5% discount if you ring up to place your order. You have to kind of ask for it though and it is up to their discretion. I have done this and i know someone else that i suggested to tried and got a 5% discount. If you have the gift of the gab lol you should do well.

 

Thanks! I'll probably give that a shot. Now just questioning whether to wait for the pricing/availability of the stock models or go ahead and configure my own.

Worried about ordering a custmized model of lower spec and having the top stock model come out at the same price somewhere though

Neither Sony Style or two of the Stores I called can seem to give me a timeline on their availability in the UK though. Have been using a crap 1.6Ghz Dell for over a month .... getting anxious.

 

Spoke to Sony again (UK) and got two tidbits:

1) Ready to ship models aren't expected for another 3-4 weeks (though that may be just to try and sell me the custmizeable).
2) The Anti-Glare screen is in-fact still glossy

Rep had no idea what RGB-LED was.

 

Is there any information about whether the "premium" screen is matte or not?

 

any one who knows when it will be availabe in Asia Pacific? so far the sonystyle sites (HK,SG,AU) have given no indication.

 

Going by information on several forums and here it seems it's to be the normal FW Full HD screen.

It's sometimes called Anti Glare because it's by far not as reflective as normal glossy laptops. But it's still slightly glossy.

Edit: maybe it's really matte this time, look at the image below.

 

Here's the link to a 4% cashback coupon I posted somewhere on these threads: http://www.ecoupons.com/deal/20100107211404698

The 30 days in the States begins on the day of the order, I believe and ends with receipt by Sony of the machine. In other words, I don't believe you can ship it on the 30th day (without their permission, in any case). But this is outlined somewhere on the Sony Style site (too tired to do my ususal hours-long research for a post today!).

notebookjournal.de was convinced that a matte screen was being featured for the two most expensive F Series models ( http://www.notebookjournal.de/news/ces--sony-spricht-vom-gaming-notebook-nkrt-1620) and the www.sony.eu sites speak of a scratch-resistant display. But we'll have to wait and actually _see_....

 

This image seems interesting



So if the screen isn't new then at least the coating seems new. FW has never had scratch resistant coating as far as I know.

The Z and TT do. I think it will be the same as the Z. Nearly matte.

 

Well, I just sent a mail to sonystyle to clarify.

I don't think the F screens are the same as the FZ screens, there seem to be 2 different F screens (in Europe, the US also have a lower resolution screen).

16.4" VAIO Display (1920x1080)
16.4" VAIO Display Premium (1920x1080)

In the European press release, it states that the premium is a anti-glare type, and the other is not, at least that's how I read it:

Movies, games and your personal media collection are brought to life by the professional-grade 41.6cm (16.4” Full HD VAIO Display Premium. The anti-glare screen offers full 100% Adobe RGB coverage for the truest, most vivid reproduction of colour tones you’ve seen from a notebook computer. Other VAIO F Series models feature a high-quality VAIO Display with Full HD 1920x1080 resolution.

http://presscentre.sony.eu/content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=5460

 

Yeah the marketing message says there are two different Full HD screens.

The dutch Sony rep said they are the same. And Sony has used the word "anti glare" for the FW screen before.

I think there will be two different screens. The Premium seems real. We will find out soon.

 

I don't think the 2 screens are the same, it's pretty clear both in the press release and the different sony pages that the premium is not the same as the non-premium, and yes, we will know soon enough.

 

The delivery date of my CTO F-series is supposed to be the 15th of Jan (shipped out yesterday from California). So I will know shortly - firsthand - how the screen looks like.

 

Can't wait for a review of this laptop line

 

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/sony-vaio-f-series.aspx

 

Ok, I got an answer from Sony, the screen IS GLOSSY:

The Vaio Display Premium means that the monitor comes with a number of different features that is not included in the normal monitors, such as: high contrast, touch coating, wide view angles, high colour saturation, extreme brightness, Adobe RGB, real wide screen as well as a low reflection coating.

To clarify, the screen is still glossy and not matte, but it has a coating on it to prevent glare and to keep the reflections to a minimum.

Edit: read update below.

 

Thanks for that link, but I meant I like to read reviews which will be made by this forum members.

 

Is the coating the same as Dell SXPS 16's coating?

 

I'm quite sure that Sony is not able to answer that question

 

I've looked all over and can't find the answer to this...

I am hoping that in a few months, SSD drives will come down in price and I can throw one in there as well as keep the large one for data files, etc.

Can this laptop can handle 2 internal hard drives? On the Canadian site, there is some indication that you can purchase it with two SSD drives but I can't tell if I would be able to use 1 SSD and one standard hard drive. Does anyone know?

 

No 2 hard drives. The SSDs are probably smaller models.

 

Ok, I'm writing back and forth with Sony about the premium screen, it seems that the coating is similar to the Z-series, which is very close to matte, this is good news, more info when I get it...

 

If its dual SSDs it'll be something like this
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/sony-vaio-z-to-offer-ultra-fast-quad-ssd-in-raid-0-configurati/

 

Can you ask them if the Premium screen is a double lamp CCFL display?

 

Thanks Detlev (and Phil). That makes sense now.

 

A little bit off subject, but I want to purchase an F series notebook, but am unsure about an extended warranty.

How many of you are purchasing the Express Ship Service Plan with ADH vs just the Express Ship Service Plan?

Finally, can the Sony Vaio NB Exp Ship Extended Service with Accidental Damage from Handling 3-Year from PROVANTAGE be added if the F series is purchased prom Sony Style?

 

Lots of new SSD's just announced at CES from many companies. Many of then are faster but I'm not sure about prices compared to this years models.

 

It looking pretty darn interesting and thats from a confirmed Mac Book Pro user. As an IT Architect I also keep my own Windows laptop in addition to my work issued T400. The only other PC laptop I am interested in is the latest HP W series.

 

I don't understand why the Canadian SonyStyle site only allows for the GeForce G211 graphics. As far as I can tell, this chipset is the bottom of the line. Just barely better than integrated graphics. The one available on the US site is still not top of the line, but is much better (GT 330M).

Being in Canada, I would rather wait for one with the better graphics chipset. How often does Sony update these configurations?

 

I personally am not pleased with the move to a low end nvidia GPU. I think this will cement my move to ASUS. I prefer ATI but if not I at least want a nvidia 260.

Cheers,

 

Sony Vaios were never about performance and shoving the fastest parts in (the Z is an exception to this).

 

Is the gt330m that bad then? Even the ati hd4650 is good enough for me, as long as I can run the newest games I'm content, no need for high detail, I see fuzzy anyway with my weak eyes.
The only thing I hated about the fw series is that they offered the weaker ati hd4650 with 512 mb (or even the hd 4570) instead of offering the 1gig version of the ati hd4650 in their cheaper models.

 

My point exactly. When I got my previous laptop, half life 2 was one of the newest games and I was surprised it was even playable. It wasn't fast with all effects turned on but still playable. The recent review of the F series by laptop mag also confirms this. Playable at native resolution with high detail and high framerates at 1024x768. In any case, you don't see all the details when you are being shot at and for the slower moving games framerate is not that important, so....

 

Well looking at your signature you also bought a MBP with Nvidia 9600. Probably you were not looking for the most powerful GPU then. Just like the Sony F is not about having the most powerful GPU.

 

True, but they could do better. I enjoyed my FW290 but I sold it when I bought the MBP figuring the 9600m and bootcamp was just fine. That laster all of 4 months before I bought the ASUS. It works very well but I did really like the look of the Sony and hoped one day they would add more performance in the 16" model.

The 4650 is better than the 330 and I prefer ATI to nvidia, unfortunately not many notebook OEMs are using high-end ATI these days (Alienware and ASUS are notable exceptions)

I play at full native resolution so I would prefer a higher end GPU at this price point in a stylish case. The Windows systems I own are only for games (RTS and limited RPG only - no FPS)

Have to have a Mac for work. Best I could do that supports OS X and Windows 7. I'd like Apple to use better GPUs too!

Cheers,

 

I completely agree with you that you need a higher end GPU if gaming is your main application. A laptop as formfactor instead of regular PC is then a good choice if you want to attend LAN parties without having to carry in heavy equipment. For optimal performance (i.e. using the heaviest graphics cards) and the possiblity to upgrade the graphics card later on you would need a desktop though.

My usecase differs from yours. I use it for regular mail, web, software development, multi-media, and then occasionally for gaming. In fact I use linux most of the time with windows only for gaming and for other software I need that runs only on windows.

 

I have 4 kids and 6 grandkids and when I visit them I like to carry some gaming power so even though I can drive most of the time a desktop is inconvenient. I just really liked my FW290 and have been watching to see if Sony ever beefed up the specs. I suppose I'll stop looking now. After 4 revs it's not likely to happen.

And did I say I don't like nvidia (still bitter after the 8x00 GPU fiasco).

Cheers,

 

Panzer, HP also use ATI graphics. A good example is the Envy series.

 

Not many people buy Macs to play games. Perhaps that is why he is buying a PC. Plus he already has an Asus so obviously he uses both as I do. Even so the 9600 GT 512MB on my MBP (same model as his) does just fine. I have no issues playing the Mac version of Call of Duty 4 on an external 1680 X 1050 monitor for example. Nvidia is playing name games with their cards anyway...a 9600M GT is pretty much the same thing as a GT 140 for example. Their direct competitor is the Radeon HD 4670.

 

Actually, I think that the GT330 should be on-par with the 4650, since it's rumored to be an overclocked GT240m - I just wish there were some benchmarks to show how well it actually performs, though.

But I completely agree with panzer06's sentiments about nvidia/ati. I'm really disgusted that the gt3xx m line is a gt2xx m rebrand (which itself is a gt 1xx m rebrand, which is a 9x00 series rebrand). I'm also slightly disappointed that there isn't one of the new ati dx11 mobile gpus in this, but I'm hoping there will be in the next refresh...

 

Laptopmag's review has several benchmark tests for the "F", and you can compare with various machines manually: http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/sony-vaio-f-series.aspx?mode=benchmarks

 

guys I know im not a mod but can we move this discussion to the
F series owners lounge?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5729579#post5729579
.....so its easier for ppl to find info.

 

Discussion about the F series can continue in the F owner's lounge:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=448894

 

Opened just to add that i moved some of the recent discussion over to the owners thread.