Review: Sony Vaio SA

Is that video on youtube? I can't seem to view it in my browser.

 

Can anybody please write his experience about battery life on Sony Vaio SA.
Thanks

 

Can someone just put an old Z screen on that damn SA lol

 

Yes that's the store.

 

There's this grocery store in that shopping center, they put fruits and other produce at the front of the store. Amongst those, they have

(drum roll)

Champagne mangoes, incorrectly labeled by the store as Manila mangoes (you can tell since on the boxes and stickers it says Champagne mangoes). Champagne mangoes are just wonderful I've been searching high and low for more of them...

 

Please kindly excuse my ignorance.

Are the screen sizes the same? Isn't the VAIO Z screen 13.1" while the VAIO SA screen is 13.3"?

 

he meant to say the same kind (Vaio Display Premium)

 

Oh, my bad. Your explanation definitely makes sense.

 

Thank you for the video Now i´m looking for a comparison video z - sa series. is there on on the web?

 

If you want to see a comparison in screen display quality of Z vs. SA go to page 16, post #154 - oltx1008 posted 4 pictures comparing the laptops.

 

Just registered to post here. I'm also stuck between getting a Refurb Z and an SA, Think I'm going to go for the SA though. But just so everyone knows, I discovered (from a friend (Sony Employee)),

The Sony factory that produced the Z series was destroyed in the Japanese Tsunami, hence the very sudden EOL for the Z series. I was told they are considering bringing it back, but will probably just replace it. the SA/SB series are a stopgap product until they can get Z series production under way again

 

Funny how no one is talking about putting the SA screen into an SB anymore. Before the SA was released, a lot of users were dreaming about doing this.


You have to keep in mine that the SA is the only 13.3" computer with a 1600X900 screen, so if Sony didn't contract a "premium" display from the vendor, you're not going to be able to find a higher quality screen.

 

If the connector for SA screen is the same as the old Z, which someone would have to dissemble to see, I would totally just buy a SB and a $500 Z screen from eBay and put it on. Problem solved. That being said, I would never buy the S series, it's too ugly for my taste with that huge bezel.

 

The bezel would be even huger with your method since the Z screen is smaller

 

Your friend lied.

 

Your friend is wrong.

 

I just read this on the Sony website: (here)

"Does the Sony online store have a price match policy?
We offer a Price Guarantee policy. If the price of your product drops on our website within 30 days of your receipt date, we will refund you the difference. Please email us or call us toll free to request your refund. Sony also offers price matching on select offerings. Please call us toll free at 1-888-289-7669 and speak with a Sales Specialist for more information."

Maybe you can get some money back.

 

Hi sorry to budge in but does anyone know how the Sony Education Store works? I thought I was supposed to have 10% discount on all laptops but after ordering the SA, even at the final payment screen it still hasn't deducted the 10%?

Already signed in with my .edu account

 

So is the screen Reallythis bad? I want a laptop replacement which can do any sort of task including gaming, the GPU does pretty well I think but does the lack of the premium screen really ruin all of this? I wont be able to get a laptop until the end of the year and maybe the z series will be back by then. I just want a lovely expensive laptop which isn't a mac or an alienware because I find the former bland and the latter way too flashy.

 

1. Does the webcam for the SA HD (720p)?

2. And does the clicking on the touchpad button smooth (like thinkpad) or kinda hard?

Can you guys with the laptop post more pics especially keyboard and the touchpad.

 

I am definitely a newbie. It seems that their have been generally poor reviews of the SA so far, by those comparing it to the Z.

Are you guys just super computer geniuses, who are looking for perfection, but may never find it??

It seems that the Z is a different animal. For those who have never had or seen a Z, is the SA so bad compared to what else is out there?

I mean, if you need a new computer between 13 and 15" what other options are there?

The SA has the bells and whistles, is a good size and weight. I have been looking at so many computers the last couple months, I'm getting dizzy.

Dell - Vostro, Lattitude, xpz15
HP- probook, elitebook
Lenovo- T420, t420s, e420s
toshiba tecra

No matter what I get today, will be outdated by the time I open up the box.

Do you guys have any better suggestions of what to get? I'm not a computer geek, just want a computer to do office, movies, web etc...and great for travel on plane....HELP PLEASE.

 

austinro: SA's screen is disapointing. Simple.

 

I've seen the screen on SC, but not SB.

But on the SC, it's really disappointing. It looks washed out.

 

I still cant believe there is no Official review on this laptop! Sony keeps disappointing...

 

austinro30, you might be ok with the SA screen. I would always recommend that you try and view it before you buy. There are some people in the Sony SA/SB/SC/SD owners thread who are very pleased with their laptop and the screen.
People do have different tolerances screen wise.
From what you wrote i think you could possibly be ok with it.

 

I need to go to the Sony Store to see in person. But what makes the screen so bad? The viewing angles? The colors? Is this just horrrible???

I am coming from an 15" HP pavillion dv5000, thats like 6 years old...so i dont even know what to look for.

If you want to have the most current Sandy Bridge, What other options are there?

 

view angles are "bad" and colors are "washed out" compared more premium displays (like the Z). However, this is the case with like 95% of the laptops under 15" - that don't support FHD. For most people the SA screen is probably ok..its kinda of industry standard display. SA is the perfect laptop except for display quality.. other sandy bridge options are ...maybe the Thinkpad X220 (if you don't game)? which has a above average display quality but resolution of 1366x786 (which is suppose to be ok since its 12.5"). Besides that...i can't think of any other laptop..


FYI - I bought an old refurbished Z for $999...i dont think the difference with latest technology will make as much of an impact compared to the screen quality for my uses.

Def. go to the Sony Store and see the Vaio SA yourself. some people think it looks fine, others don't - it just depends on the person. While your there at a look at some of the bigger 15" sony models that support FHD and see how it compares to the SA.

If you want to see a comparison in screen display quality of Z vs. SA go to page 16, post #154 - oltx1008 posted 4 pictures comparing the laptop displays.

 

i´ve never seen a vaio Z myself, so I haven´t seen neither the full hd or the 1600x900 screen, but those pictures as mentioned by requiem made it really clear to me how bad the SA screen is. And that´s with the limitations of digital cam image, which is different from seeing live. I believe if I had both notebooks in front of my eyes the difference would be even worse for SA.

 

I had exactly same dilemma for a while: buy used/refurb Z or new SA.

I currently own F11 series (for over a year) and I was quite happy despite really poor glossy screen. BTW before F I had FW series with beautiful premium matte HD screen and I owned Z11 for less two weeks (needed bigger screen so I swapped it for F11). F11 screen was so bad I had to install anti glare screen film. Colors were really washed, and the viewing angles s..ked. Then I follow instruction (on this forum) how to get better colors with new profile. The profile change improved colors dramatically.

So, I read all your SA reviews and still went last Friday to check it out by myself (I am a very stubborn person). I played over 20 minutes and I have to say SA screen isn't really that bad. It's much better than F1x series. Screen is pretty bright and colors are somewhat vivid. I'm pretty sure it can be fixed with right color profile.

Anyway making long story short, I decided to order SA with i7, 4GB RAM and 500GB HDD. I immediately purchased additional 4GB of ram in store for $60 (same memory as originally mounted) and slice battery. On Saturday I ordered Intel 510 120GB SSD. I'm all set.

I will be using it to finish my Mechatronics degree, mostly on AutoCad, VS2010/Codeblocks and Matlab.

Seriously guys, stop bashing that SA/SB/SC series. Every laptop out there will have something you don't like. It will be either battery time, missing camera, no dedicated GPU, no finger reader, low screen resolution, case color and etc. Give me 3 other laptops in this segment and I find 5 things I don't like about them. I know for sure I picked the best laptop for my current needs.

 

I also had a chance to look at the SA this weekend and its really not that bad. I should point out that I own a Vaio Z and work only with IPS monitors on my desktops so I know what a high end display should look like.

The SB display is atrocious but the SA is clearly better, with superior colors and better contrast. Although not a great display by any means, I think its perfectly usable for almost all users. The laptop itself was also quite well designed and well built. I really liked the display on the Vaio CB but the the build quality on that is quite poor. It's a shame that Sony does not have a high end 15 inch laptop with FHD screen.

So my advice to buyers is not to rule out this laptop due to the screen unless you are ultra picky, in which case you should get a Z or a 15 inch model like the CB or the HP dv6t.

 

Would the screen be good enough for graphics/film editing? I just started doing film so i'm not sure how good the screen has to be. How is the hinge as well; its seems to wobble the screen and didn't seem to strong. I've seen that the HP dv6t has some problems where you have to manually specify which programs used the gpu.

*Edit: Just remembered it has the manual switch.

 

I found the SB and SA to have almost exactly the same display quality (and others have backed this up). However, there also seems to be quite a few people that said SA has better display quality than SB...weird.

lol, any chance Sony is using 2 different displays for SA??

 

^SA has a 1600x900 screen, SB has 1366x768. That would cause many to state the SA screen is "better", regardless of the color, etc.

I think the consensus is that colors, viewing angles, etc are similar across the 2 panels, with SA having the edge due to resolution.

 

How difficult would it be to put a display from an SA into a SB? provided one can obtain the panel?

 

But the people saying it's better are saying that the colours and contrast are better. Just like the post he quoted

 

yeah i dont get it..unless people are mistaken...i think most people do agree it's basically the same screen, as beaups mentioned.

i saw SA and SB side by side...i couldn't tell a difference....believe me...it was exactly the same quality. Of course, resolution was better...thats it. whhhatteevverrr....

 

I´m also confused now. Someone´s mentioned there´s a leaking in the display which could be the cause of more bad impression about the SA´s display quality. Perhaps some are receiving with the leaking and some not?

 

Yeah, from what I saw at the Sony Store this weekend, I put the SA and SB side by side and the screen quality, viewing angles, etc are exactly the same, only difference is the resolution. With that said, I'm still getting the SA since it's lighter and they don't carry the 6630M on the SB anymore.

 

I saw two SA's side by side in the SonyStyle store. It was probably just a defective model and an isolated incident. I did notice a bit of difference between the SA/SB after going through a bunch of images on InterfaceLift on both computers. Subtle but a few differences. Again it could be other factors but I think the SA screen is slightly sharper (not resolution but actually) compared to the SB.

 

Anybody has an idea when the preconfig models will show up in Europe?
I live in Poland / Belgium and these 2 countries don`t offer custom vaios (just my luck)

 

Sounds like the best idea for me is to check out this laptop for myself. To Liverpool!

 

i posted this in a different thread - hope it helps...

Got my SA today and she'll be back in Sony's hands very soon...here is my review

I purchased all the highest specs...i7, 8 gigs of ram, 256 SSD (which is really more like 200 gb of free space), bluray etc...

Screen Res/color/clarity is an improvement to the SB as it loses that yellowish tint. However, the colors are still washed out and looks awful next the Z's 1080p screen res.

I knew it would not be as good as the Z in terms of screen res but I that for the price I paid, I thought it should have been something at least close to it....and this is not.

This one is my fault...I underestimated the amount of drive space I needed for my SSD which is one of the main reasons Ill be returning it.

As far as noise....she is definitely quiet as can be so thats good. The extended sheet battery is a great addition.

Speed wise, she runs nice and smooth....

Intel Wireless Display is definitely a cool thing and works great.

Battery life is good, so far I almost never plug it in. I will say that the only way you will get 14-15 hours of battery life with the sheet is if the you lower the screen brightness to the point its almost not read-able

Angles are really not bad at all.

I am disappointed with the size of this notebook. I know this has been discussed already as we already knew what it would look like from the SB but there is so much un-needed space on the left and right sides of the keyboard that I dont see why it would have been an issue to put "End' and "Home" keys which I use alot.

Disappointed with the look of the computer. I guess I thought it would have like a brushed aluminum body like some of the Z's but its just plain black and not overly attractive.

My biggest pet peeve and one of the main reasons I am returning it is the touchpad buttons. They are INCREDIBLY stiff and hard to click and I hate tapping. I know its a small thing but I dont care if this was the most amazing computer of all time, it completely ruins the experience of usage and navigation. And for someone like me who does alot of graphic design which requires precision clicks and dragging, this just will not do. The SB did not have this problem.

I waited months for the SA to come out and I guess I'll just wait even longer for a new Z or updated SA. Back to my clunky HP...

 

The buttons need to wear in. Takes a bit of time!

It seems some people don't have any patience...

 

I dont think these buttons will wear in sorry...they are ULTRA stiff and should not be this way

 

Tested the SA in-store and the buttons were NOT stiff.

I think you should read the post again; takes time. My old ASUS had stiff, metallic buttons and they softened up after a month or so of use.

 

Definitely not "ULTRA" stiff. A little stiff but not bad at all.

 

Use a mouse. IMO i don't know how people stand trackpads, they suck, all of them (Apple has the best by far though), except for short periods of time.

I'll go over to a friends house and he'll be playing a FPS with a trackpad....

 

@Stradevarius, so your signature description states that you mounted already second drive in SA, is that correct. Could you please post a pic of the bd drive connector?

I'm still waiting form my SA.

Thanks

 

I use trackpads more than a mouse. As long as there is some sort of option to set it as ultra sensitive I'm not fussed.

 

Anyone who travels a lot probably uses the trackpad more than a mouse; I couldn't see anyone sitting outside on a bench with a mouse but that's just me.