Review: Sony Vaio SA

Hi guys,

First sorry for my english, one question, recommend celan install? This laptop includes so much "crap" ? (unused and software trials)

Thx

 

I've played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 at high settings, native resolution no problem. However, I do prefer a resolution of 1360x768 since the screen is so small.

I've played for 2 hours, and the right side of the laptop gets warm. The laptop is somewhat noisy, but it's no noisier than my old laptop when it tried to play Minecraft.

It doesn't get warm enough to act as a heater, though It's currently winter down in the southern hemisphere - I don't expect to be able to game for extended periods during summer.

 

Clean install? No. Just remove most of the Sony crapware. When you get the laptop, ask around in the SA/SB/SC owner's thread for more help Some of the Sony stuff is good, some is bad. I removed most of the preinstalled crud when I first got the unit, then did a clean install later on when I installed a SSD. Both installs were about the same in general performance and battery life. You just have to know what to keep, and what to toss.

Hmmm... something isn't right The i7 should give off a max of 35W, the GPU a max of 20W or so. A 55W heater should be relatively worthless, even during the summer! A normal lightbulb would punch out more heat!

 

ok, thanks

 

i just checked out the SA at the MS Store, and I must say I feel sorry for whoever bought this piece of crap (mainly I am saying this because of the thick bezel and such LOW END lcd)

The device design is B+ but it takes a hit when you are an avid vaio owner in the past and you come across such a thick lid bezel to look at and also such low end lcd display..

 

lol, the bezel is okay to me, but I am comming from a m11x

 

That's what happens with most smaller laptops and gaming during the summer: lots of heat. Even my desktop gets hot because of how warm my room is in the summer.

You could invest in a window fan and try to cool down your room or buy a desktop to play games while maintaining a lower temp in the summer.

Opinions.

 

Did you know, the new Z, Sony's flagship notebook has that same wide bezel as on the SA, but with hi-end display.

 

yes. its conceivable now that sony is taking that direction which is unfortunate.

putting a thick bezel on a small 13in screen is not the best in design. especially for people coming from thin bezels. but again when I use the Z, i dont think i'll ever to go SA

 

Just got my SA290X CTO black with i5 2520M and 128 SSD as the options checked. Came with free sheet battery, thanks Sony. Also: Built, shipped, arrived in exactly 7 Days. Not bad considering it traveled from China to the East Coast, USA.

After a couple hours playing with it here are my thoughts:

First, the screen. Yup, its not great. Its basically the same as my Vaio SZ from 2006 in regards to brightness and view angles. Obviously the resolution is better 1600x900 vs 1280x800, but thats about the only plus for the SA although the SZ screen is .5" taller. Also, quite disappointed that the screen only tilts back to about 120degrees. My SZ went to flat, which is very useful in my experience.

The placement of ports is questionable, the headphone jack in particular, but I knew that before hand. Ultimately it shouldn't be a big issue.

The body seems very sturdy to me. It almost give an impression of being tough...that is until you get to the screen, it's just barely hanging on there, and it can be flexed a bit. Also, the bezel around the screen is kinda big, they could have EASILY made the screen 14.5". I believe the variable pressure on the hinge is to make opening the screen with one hand possible.

Idle temps seem kinda high at about 50C give or take 5C. I wouldn't game without a cooler (but haven't gamed on it yet).

The chrome mouse buttons are going to drive me crazy.

Finally, the SSD. I tried to find out what SSD brand and model was in there before I bought but couldn't find a thing so here it is. The 128gb SSD is a Toshiba THNSNC128GMMJ. It has no case, its also very small 1.8" i think. After using some of the SSD optimization techniques, there are about 75gb of free space out of 103. Crystaldiskmark says seq 195MB/s read 179MB/s write.

I'll be keeping it, although probably not for 5 years like the SZ.

 

The idle temps are different for everyone. Mine idle at ~39C at work/friends with ~77C gaming, ~50C idle at home (hot room) and ~90C gaming.

 

How did the purchase work out for you? You haven't yet left feedback for the seller - so just curious....

 

Just tried a quick gaming session with Vindictus (source engine game) on medium settings. Temps reached 89C in speed mode with that jet engine in the back blasting out hot air. Idle on stamina mode on the other hand drops to about 48-49C from 55C in speed mode. Still seems too high. Ambient is about 25-26C.

 

Those are perfectly normal temperatures with that ambient temperature.

 

In case anyone wants to see or put in the first post, I found a lot of reviews of SA/SB:

SA:
Sony VAIO S Series VPC-SA21GX/BI Review - Watch CNET's Video Review
Sony VAIO S VPCSA290X (2011) Notebook Review | Ultraportable Laptop Reviews | Laptop Reviews
Futurecat – Michael Karek Blog Archive Hands-on with Sony?s VAIO SA premium ultrathin
Sony VAIO S Series VPC-SA21GX/BI - Tech Reviews, News and Prices | TechReviewSource
Sony Vaio S-Series ‘Unplugged for a Day’: My ‘Hardcore Gaming’ Test|Gear Diary

SB:
Sony VAIO S Series Hands-On - Opinion - Trusted Reviews
Review: Sony VAIO S (VPCSB16FG) Review
Sony Vaio S Series - Laptops - Hardware - Reviews - ZDNet Australia
Sony Vaio S-series review (VPC-SB1V9E/B) | Expert Reviews
Review - Sony VAIO S early 2011 Review | Electronista
Sony VAIO S Series: 13.3-inch ultraportable with 14hr runtime - SlashGear
Sony VAIO S Series reviewed: sharply tailored for business and pleasure - Notebooks & Workstations - Business - Reviews - PC & Tech Authority
Review Sony Vaio VPC-SB1Z9EB Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews
Sony Sony VAIO SB Series (VPCSB16FG) - reviews - Notebooks - All Purpose - Good Gear Guide
Sony Vaio SB review – a premium 13.3 inch notebook
Sony VAIO S VPCSB16FG Balances performance - Online Best Latest Price Reviews | Features in India

 

Okay, so I've got my SA now - CTO bought direct from Sony UK with extra battery slice. I managed to get a 5% discount after a quick online chat with the very helpful and non pushy salesperson - I imagine most people could get it (eg by saying you're looking at a cheaper Lenovo, Asus etc - which I certainly was). I've also seen there's a 5% cashback deal at Quidco, which I missed when I ordered mine unfortunately, but I don't see why you couldn't combine both sets of discounts to get 10% off.

Anyway, quick review - all seems good for the price. First things first, screen is absolutely fine for my needs - easy to find a usable viewing angle, bright and non-reflective. I don't think it looks washed out or dull - does the job for me. The extra resolution is a real boon - more usable space and text is still very legible. In short, I have no problems with the screen - but then graphics / picture use is non-critical to my work.

Screen hinge / lid - yes, subjectively it feels a bit less secure than other laptops I've used, but still no problem - it goes up to where I want it and stays there - easy to use. There is the acknowledged change in stiffness / looseness at 90 degrees, but it does feel like it was designed that way - though no idea why. To be honest I can't imagine it causing me a problem or irritation.

Keyboard feels pretty good to type on - just getting used to it as it's my first implementation of the scrabble tile system - not masses of travel but as a touchtypist I think it'll work well enough. Maybe the Lenovo keyboards have the edge, or maybe I'm just not used to the scrabble tiles yet. The trackpad is okay - I needed to adjust the settings so the mouse speed is set near the fastest setting - though I'm not sure about the buttons at the moment - a bit stiff and with little travel and feedback, so they spring back upwards unless you apply quite a lot of pressure (ie when you're dragging something). They feel a bit cheap / non premium grade to be honest, but we'll see how they hold up in time.

Heat / noise seems acceptable - when the processor's working very hard it's noisy and hot air is blown out of the back like a jet exhaust, but for the most part when idling it's okay - and pretty quiet in stamina mode. Having said that it could be a problem if you're using it to game on your lap and in speed mode - wouldn't fancy that heat output on my lap. The upside of the heat and noise is that the processor (i7) is snappy and with 4GB of RAM (I've got 4 more to put in) it feels very snappy and boots / loads programs quickly.

Overall the SA feels well made and sturdy enough for moderate use - I'll be putting it into a neoprene case and then into a padded laptop rucksack and it certainly feels up to that. Without the battery slice it's thin and lightish, with the battery it's a tiny bit bulkier though noticably heavier, but still easily luggable.

So far I'm happy. I'll update if I have any other issues or observations.

 

Bro I seriously need your help..
I am going to buy a SONY VAIO SB 26FG..
Here's my question: I have a lot of 1080p videos, is it okay if I played them on SONY VAIO SB 26FG? Smooth?
Thanks a lot!

 

They schould play fine, they play on my VGN-SRxxx
using Media Player Classic ( its free )

 

They play fine on my SA. I even view YouTube in 1080p when I can and see no difference in smoothness compared to lower resolutions.

He didn't mean if he can actually play them but more if the laptop can handle 1080p videos without problems. Other laptops that try to view 1080p videos on a lower resolutions cause the video to be out of sync, choppy, etc.

 

Hello Willysp, the laptop came in perfectly without any flaw. I've been using it for near two weeks and I really like it, especially with its less than 20 seconds boot-up and 2 seconds wake up time. Transaction was smooth as well, and it got shipped very quickly.
All in all, I only paid $1400 for a $2000 gig, so I don't really have anything to complain. Btw, you just reminded me to leave a comment for the seller lol.

 

Glad you like it. I've had mine for a month and quite happy with it.

You got a great deal! Congrats again.

 

okay thanks!

 

Thanks a lot! i'll get my SB soon

 

So, been using my new SA for a few days, occasionally intensively, so have a few more thoughts. Overall I very much like the machine - it's light, powerful and versatile. The screen is fine, at least for my needs - vertical viewing angles are very limited but it's easy enough to find a usable sweet spot. The screen itself has the infamous wobbble, but stays put wherever I want it - though I would have liked it if it went back a bit further.

The trackpad buttons seem to have loosened up a bit and I find them much more useable now - or maybe I've just become more accustomed to them. Either way, they're fine now. Battery life is acceptable rather than impressive - though I could make the power saving measures more aggressive to prolong battery life.

Only a couple of gripes so far - and I'm surprised that no one else has mentioned it - is the sharpish corners on the front - I find they sometimes stick into my wrists / palms, especially the right hand one, when typing and especially when using the cursor / arrow keys. I'll probably get used to it but more rounded corners at the front would have helped avoid this problem.

The other issue is that even after just a few days of use some of the black paint on the metal on the case is scratching slightly or the paint has been rubbed off a bit - nothing much, but just a few tiny marks. It's happened a tiny bit at the front corners and and the lower left hand side of the wrist rest (although I do wear a metal braceleted watch so maybe this is to be expected). Laptops are work tools for me so this purely cosmetic issue doesn't really bother me, but thought I'd flag it up none the less.

Those points aside, I still feel it is probably the best laptop for the money at the moment, at least for my needs, combining aesthetics, power and portability.

 

I've had mine for a month and no scratches or rub marks - and I use mine for work and have carried it for over 10K miles. I'm careful when I put it in the neoprene case. I also wear a heavy stainless steel watch, and am definitely careful - but it costs more than my SA25GX, so I'm just as careful with the watch!

 

Been away from these forums for awhile now. Since then Vaio SA has been introduced and has come in stock and the New Sandy Bridge Z is in preorder or may have come in supply.

I was previously looking at the Lenovo E420s but it turns out they won't be doing discrete on it and the New SA has a higher resolution screen.

Only 2520M and 2540M meet my needs or the 2620M due to its enhanced featureset in the CPU. The 2410M's cpu excludes several features.

The cheapest price Ive seen to date from a top ranked vendor is coming from Techonweb.com ? Competitive, Low Price on Computer Parts, PC, Notebook, Netbook, Laptop, Camera, printer, monitor, phone

They have the unit in stock with an i5 2540M, 128GB SSD, Intel 6205 wireless, fingerprint, tpm and windows 7 professional. 4GB Ram, DVD-writer, and all the stock Sony stuff with the AMD 6630M

The Sony Store has a CTO with blueray reader, an i7 2620M, but a regular stock HD, worse wireless option and the like for a similar price and one would have to wait on the unit.

Decisions decisions. Im not going to spend $1600+ right now though which is what it will cost on such a unit. Plenty of inventory has already arrived on the SA which took forever to get here with a decent specification.

I haven't seen the unit in person but it looks like its pretty much living up to spec and since they changed around the configuration of the mouse buttons and upscaled it, those previous initial flaws in early SB's don't seem to be present on the new VAIO SA.

So Vaio SA is my frontrunner again right now. Just wish it had thunderbolt (the new Z requires a dock for it and I want an all in one configuration). Considering this model is all new, it will take ages for the Ivy Bridge refresh to arrive and the differences don't look to be all that significant unless Tbolt was included in that release.

A fully loaded SA is selling extremely well at J+R for $2499 with RAID SSD as it is a top seller. High end buyers seem to be liking this unit a lot.

Am I best reviewing this model at J+R, B+H or the Sony Store in Manhattan?

I wonder which place will be best for actually viewing the machine. Seems like a well crafted unit and if I did get a notebook today, the VAIO SA would be the one though I am still holding out but there really isn't anything left sans Ivy Bridge but the differences appear minor and the wait on that will be a long time away.

 

Yes - that's true. Had mine a month, love it.

But you also said you weren't going to spend $1600 - so why looking at the $2499 version?

Confused - how does it matter where you see one? What feature that the 2410M lacks do you really need and would use? What are your needs?

With all due respect, are you really a serious buyer? The SA is not perfect - you'll wait forever until you find a perfect machine. Ivy Bridge, Thunderbolt, x, y, z - the day after you buy something it will be obsolete!

Do what makes you happy - but sounds like analysis is what make you happy.

 

I think you missed the point. Had the 2410M been on J+R's top seller I would have mentioned that one. It just happened to be the fully loaded Sony VAIO that was on the list.

As to where to see one, it does matter. Each vendor sets up the units differently. Either different lighting conditions in the store, or differently sets up the machines or just plain easier to view.

But if your job requries the latest and greatest their are plenty of professions which require fast computing hardware in a mobile and I guess those are where the VAIO comes in. I would be curious to know the demographics of those buyers and their fields or if they are just wealthy folks with plenty of money to burn.

As I said, the specifications on the VAIO are nice for the thin and light market with lots of performance and high resolution displays and this matters for various fields so the SA has a lot of clout for serious users if they need a notebook today for their task and if they can do without thunderbolt.

The game for the VAIO SA range is really one of MacBook Pro vs Sony VAIO SA. The SA gives you more hardware except the missing thunderbolt which the Apple has. But the SA does give you all the frills including dual RAID on the high end.

Thats another question I have:

Is RAID included on all the VAIO SA models so you can upgrade it to RAID if you bought one with a single hard drive in the future?

If it has the RAID onboard even without the extra drive, then you really aren't getting more with the Signature edition.

 

My CTO SA from Sonystyle USA came with Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205

You can't upgrade manually to RAID. As mentioned a few times before, Sony's implementation of RAID SSDs uses a proprietary connector as well as 2 Samsung SSD bare boards which measure < 1.8", hence they squeeze 2 such bare boards into the space of a normal 2.5" HDD slot.

 

Connector is meaningless. The question is if the motherboard has RAID on the BIOS implementation in all versions.

SSDs come from the factory and are premade. Sony isn't getting custom sized boards. You can buy (2) 2.5" formfactor SSD's and use one case for both module. The module sizes for 2.5" should be the same as 1.8", just the case size is different so you can easily fit it into a different drive bay. It isn't hard to find out how Sony configured once a unit is obtained.

The question is only the BIOS implementation part and if the motherboards for all SA's have the RAID chip on board.

Memory modules are obtained at SPOT market prices from the varies suppliers.

 

Rant

I was going to buy an SA but no Firewire/Expresscard killed it for me since I could not use my audio interface with it. Is there any way to squeeze a firewire port out of it or am I just clutching at straws now?

If not, why has Sony stripped the Expresscard slot out of their entire range of notebooks?

I've pretty much given up on this generation of notebooks because I haven't been able to find a small notebook with a non glossy high res display and an expresscard slot and/or firewire port.

Macbook Pro 15 is basically the only option I've got at retail now but it costs a fortune with or without the high res/anti glare upgrade. Another potential option is an old VPC Z series but most units in the outlet come with 3x USB 2.0 so no firewire and thus, no point. Sigh. Oh and even if it did it would probably cost as much as, if not more than the MBP so welp.

I suspect that a good deal of MBP's reputation among creative types is that it is literally the only notebook out there with a firewire port/TI chipset for people that are running Pro Tools on Digi003s or doing video capture into MC5. That and it now has a display with high enough res to be capable of reasonably fitting a tracker, piano roll and a mixer on the same screen.

It would be ok if any of the MBP's challengers could dock and get legacy ports on the docking station. But literally all of them either have no dock or when they do its a port extender that can barely be considered more than an overpriced powered USB hub. No firewire gyaaaah!

/Rant

 

Just read some reviews of the SA and some mention that it has the worst speaker quality ever! Don't mind too much regarding the speaker but is the actual sound quality, i.e. the audio controller, any good?

I intend to use my next laptop for everything inc. watching movies etc at home so if I connected it to an external sound setup via the headphone port would it sound ok? Thanks.

 

Speaker quality sucks, audio quality (with headphones/speakers) is excellent.

 

Super! Thanks.

Will probably get this soon. Considered the Z2 but can't really justify the extra cost for my needs. Also, the SA has the advantage of having discrete graphics built in and small SSD + large HDD combo so it really can do everything without extra peripherals.

Shame there is no DisplayPort but I think I can live with that.

 

Singapore. Awesome economy. Sony VAIO's will sell extremely well in the developing first world as it has excellent characteristics for the thin and light market.

What are you or others planning on using the VAIO SA for?

 

You can try enabling Dolby Surround + Audio enhancer to make speakers sound better

BTW anyone here with the Asia model VPC-SB18GG/VPC-SB17GG tell me what make and model is their HDD ? I heard Sony uses Seagate Momentus XT in the 7200rpm models. So just want to know what HDD is used in these models. Thanks!

 

The shop let me look inside two SA models. The non-SSD was a Toshiba hdd2j11. I believe this is 640GB 5400 rpm. The SSD was a Samsung mz-rpa1280. I'm not finding much information about these.

They only offer 8 models here in Taiwan, no customization. My plan is to buy the low end SA add a 4GB SoDIMM to the empty slot (4GB RAM on mobo). Then take out the Toshiba hard disk and put in an SSD, say a Corsair F240GB3 or an OCZ Vertex 3. These are Sata 3. Trying to confirm if internal plug is sata 3. May use Acronis to clone the drive.

One small disadvantage of Sony's built in SSD is that RAID SSD can't use TRIM. Another of course is that I can't find an information, let alone bench test, of how fast they are, I have to suspect they are not as fast as the models I'm planning to use.

If anyone has done the above operation, or has any ideas, please reply. I havent' found a teardown but it looked quite easy to remove a few screws and then upgrade the memory and disk.

 

changing the hdd to ssd is real easy. just remove the screws, pop the old one out and pop the new one in.

the internal plug is sata 3.

speeds of sony's ssd:
Test Sony Vaio VPC-SA2Z9E/B (i7, SSD, HD 6630M) Subotebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

it's pretty damn good. Sequential Read: 868.31 MB/s
Sequential Write: 632.68 MB/s
4K Read: 11.69 MB/s
4K Write: 29.11 MB/s
4K-64 Read: 323.07 MB/s
4K-64 Write: 88.16 MB/s
Access Time Read: 0.252 ms
Access Time Write: 0.116 ms
Copy ISO: 422 MB/s
Copy Program: 181 MB/s
Copy Game: 807 MB/s

 

Those speeds beat the OCZ... wondering why you went with an OCZ Agility 3 instead of the stock sony SSD. I wonder if its a big deal to lose the TRIM with RAID. I wonder how many 4K IOPS the sony does... maybe 29.11MB in a second is 29110KB in a second is 7277 4K blocks written in a second, which newer drives handily beat. But I'm not sure what all that means or what 4K-64 means. Anyway I suppose I simply have to go down this road since the Sony SSD models sold here only come in this brown color that looks ugly. OK good the swap out is as easy as it looked. Just have to use maybe Acronis to move the OS over first.

 

Unfortunately there is no price competition at all in Singapore. All the stores sell things at the exact same price although sometimes get freebies. No internet shopping to speak of. IT fairs are usually a waste of time for current products.

Personally, the SA shall replace my aging laptop and iMac so it will become my only computer. It shall be used for work (programming etc), multimedia, browsing etc... pretty much everything. Will spend most of the time connected to external monitor/tv so am not worried by the average display. Just a shame it doesn't come with DisplayPort because I want to keep the laptop for at least 5 years and I know I will eventually want an external monitor with a resolution higher than 1080p.

 

Did you try ShopParadiso.com in Singapore? I don't know if they are still in business but Singapore must have shopping engines although price differentiation could be minimal. It is the largest port in the World but since it is a smaller island in Asia with high density, imported goods make up a huge percentage.

I would expect though that goods made in Singapore are probably cheaper there. The new Crucial M4 SSD's for instance seem to be coming from Singapore but Singapore does have a higher cost of labor than some other markets although if its made in Singapore external tariffs wouldn't exist.

IT Fairs are a waste in the USA too. Cheapest prices come from shopping on the internet or ordering direct from Sony.

IT Fairs back in the days were big but always were just local smaller shops peddling their goods. Since then distribution models have changed and things have gotten more evolved making online sales much lower cost.

I would suggest in Singapore checking the prices @ Sony vs internet vendors that exist. If there is minimal price differentiation perhaps Sony is the cheapest.

Singapore likely has internet vendors with huge volume sales just like New York City. It is a very computer centric and literate economy.

Not really sure on the display port option tho and if it has to be implemented natively on the system itself.

 

Taiwan sounds similar to Singapore... here they only offer 8 models, no custom config. And, only sold through Sony dealers at fixed list price.

One fine point, of the 8 models here, only 3 are SA. The top two only come in some crazy brown color. So we are going with the low end SA. SA23GW/Bl = Black.

That model comes with an install CD or DVD. BUT... its only for windows 7 32-bit... and the reason must be that that model ships with only the 4GB RAM on the motherboard. Therefore, if I increase the RAM to 8GB with a 4GB SoDIMM, and swap out the hard disk for my own SSD, there's no point in copying the 32-bit OS off the original drive, nor installing off the CD, since I need 64-bit windows to access the full 8GB of RAM. Fortunately we have a site license. I'll have to find some sony drivers on their website or maybe on an included CD?

As much as I like these new Vaio's, I have to say the Macbook Airs Apple rolled out last week are just as fast and half the price. OK I'm not sure Apple's non-RAID SSD is just as fast. But at least they're not that ugly BROWN color...

 

The model VAIO SA I like only seems to be coming in Black. No silver in the retail stores but a CTO may be able to come in Silver or Black.

The signature seems to come in the brown. At least the one I saw.

Colors don't really matter much to the usage but Silver is a nice color choice these days.

 

That's for the 256GB SSD, 'coz its a 2x128GB in RAID. And it is way overpriced for a 256gb SSD. And i only need a 120/128gb SSD anyway.

The SSD has internal garbage collection but nothing beats TRIM, really.

 

Yep. Taipei Zhongshaio and Fuxing SOGO stores (idr which one, but it's the one with a semi-zen garden on the 12th floor) has 8 configs. I don't recall if one is a sexy black model, but I liked what I saw. I also didn't note any differrence in the SA hinges... No looseness, at least.

 

Not to put too fine a point on things, but...
- Sony says the RAID is 64GBx4 not 128x2 (though some models say 128x2)
- This Sony SSD has a price midway between a Corsair F240 and the famous OCZ Vertex 3 240G, but it outperforms them in many metrics, so it isn't way overpriced.
- Found out that Sony calls the color Gold... not Brown or Tan or Copper or Bronze...
- Sony says the model does ship with w7-pro-64... though I did see a 32-bit recovery/install CD/DVD inside... so I'm not sure what's up with that

Based on my computer science degree, I believe it is technically possible to make a RAID driver that handles TRIM. Now, if you roll your own SSD RAID you won't get TRIM. I am not sure what (hardware or software) driver Sony uses for their SSD RAID, or if they wrote their own that handles TRIM. But IMHO it is technically possible.

 

That's the newer of the two Sogo's near that intersection. Maybe I don't need to go to the computer market, can just buy at Sogo. Anyway its Sony who decided there are 8 and only 8 fixed configs sold in Taiwan, nothing to do with Sogo.

I dunno about the hinges, but in another thread people did sit around complaining about the screens, how the SA screen wasn't any clearer than the SB screen, how an expensive laptop should have a fancy screen, etc. etc.

I think the bottom line is, pound for pound, this is a very fast machine with decent graphics and high resolution. And you pay for it. I guess Samsung and Apple will contend with it.

 

As I've mentioned, the Sony SSD has garbage collection. It's something that Sandforce SSDs have as well, but that one works on a controller-basis. When the SSD is idle it queries the OS to find out if its filled blocks have actually been deleted in the OS already. Hence it works differently from TRIM which is about the OS telling the SSD controller immediately upon file deletion.

Of course a RAID TRIM driver is possible, Intel has been trying it for their RST drivers but it hasn't materialized yet.

As for the 64gbx4 or the 128gbx2, it depends on where u bought it from. I'm speaking solely for SonyStyle USA.

Not sure what the rep said, but I believe the official name is Signature Brown.

And the USA VAIOs don't come with the install CD, rather it comes with a recovery partition and the option to burn recovery CDs.

Now, back to the main point. OCZ Vertex 3 240gb is $499.99 on Amazon.

If you were to go to SonyStyle USA and customize the SA, for a 500GB HDD 7200rpm, it'll be $1249.99. For its 256GB SSD it'll be $1799.99. That's $550 more.

So it's US$50 more expensive than the OCZ Vertex 3, for
1. 16GB more space,
2. no TRIM (yet, for a long long time until Intel settles its drivers)
3. Sony's SSD that benchmarks better but probably performs similarly to OCZ Vertex 3 in real-world performance.
4. For warranty for the Sony SSD which lasts only as long as the warranty for your laptop (1 year by default, additional $250 if you up it to 3 years). Whereas the OCZ SSDs have 3 years warranty, something that is VERY important for SSDs.
5. Sony's SSDs which do not have Sandforce-specific features such as real-time compression which reduces write amplifications, extra spare blocks, AES-256bit, etc.

So, it's up to personal opinion. To me, the Sony's one is still overpriced.

Similarly, like I said i only need a 120gb/128gb SSD. The Vertex 3 is $240 only (vs additional $300 for the 128GB Sony SSD) But I went with OCZ Agility 3, which is $200 now only, still $100 cheaper than the Sony SSD. And, looking at the 128GB options for the SA, it's only 128GBx1, no RAID, so it's speed will be about half of the 256GB one, it's definitely not worth it for me.

 

This was true from June 7 when you wrote it, up to July 20 when Apple released the new MacBook Airs. They give Sony a run for their money and are actually cheaper to the degree they can be compared (Apple always has SSD and always lacks DVD drive.) Its almost worth getting an Air just to install windows on it.

 

Except the Airs use a ULV processor, have a lower resolution screen (even if it's 16:10 vs 16:9, 1440x900<1600x900, more resolutuon wins out), and don't come with a ODD bay (which may be used for a second SSD or a data HDD).

Airs have their place, and that is to compete vs Intel Ultrabooks. Not vs. fully fledged notebooks that come with a switchable AMD GPU, either of which is faster than the Intel IGP.