Review: Sony Vaio SA

Oh excellent. The experts are on it!

I use a hybrid drive in my old SZ, didn't notice much of an improvement over a traditional 7,200rpm drive. That could be the fault of the other elderly components in the SZ though.

 

I wouldn't call it that way We still need someone with monitor calibrating device.

 

Anyone know if the SA supports two external monitors, either natively or through dock (VGPPRS20)? Z can't do it either way.

 

Anyone got any knowledge if there is going to be more preconfig models of SA released here in northern Europe (Sweden), right now, the only model available for ordering is VPC-SA2Z9E, which got all the upgrades available (256 GB SSD & blu-ray burner for example), I rather see a mechanic HHD and DVD reader instead, (mostly for the price tag). I really don't understand why Sony won't let us config our models

 

I believe the hybrid drive in the SZ was only 5400rpm and it had 1/16th of the on-board memory. I don't think the previous hard drive optimized anything except for boot-up times.

 

I talked to sony (in sweden) They told me that we'll be able to configure vaios this fall. Late september / early october. Hopefully.. :/

Jag funderar själv på att beställa från Tyskland. En SA med 4GB, Hdd, DVD, kostar 13100kr. 120 GB SSD och minne kan man ju köpa själv för ca 2000kr. Tangentbordet är nästan likadant.. En kompis i Berlin står för leveransadressen och så skickar han vidare den eller så åker jag dit och hämtar upp den. Om du vågar kan vi göra gemensam sak

 

I don´t have my SA in hands now, so see it by my perspective guys: I read all the criticizing people with respect, I also criticize it by myself, so when I finally have it in hands I want to have a great surprise, shut my mount and be very positive with my SA, which will be much better than expected

 

Take everything with a grain of salt, be it positive or negative (at least I do).

In the end I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the SA

 

Me too. I really like the keyboard! super smooth, except for my up arrow make a click sound haha

 

Mine too, except it's arrow down. I'm hoping it will go away with time.

 

^ +1 !!!

 

Has anyone tried minecraft or Stalker: Call of Pripyat on their laptop yet? How well does it look/run?

For the programmers out there, is the 1600x900 screen big enough to do coding well as in, its not too small?

 

I miss my F11 16.4'' Full HD screen just a bit. However transition from 1920x1080 to 1600x900 was kind of smooth and just after couple of days I already get used to smaller screen. I think I'm still amazed with laptop weight. I like to have couple apps open side by side. With SA res I got two apps open and still work really comfortable.

I'm glad I bought SA.

 

I can code perfectly fine with the resolution, my F series had the exact same resolution as my SA and I coded a whole system on my F with relative ease.

 

Well, it feels small at first, but when I get used to it, it's better than the 1366x768 that I use before. I can see more code in one page.

 

I've played minecraft a few times since I installed in on my SA, and it looks great and runs silky smooth. I have all settings maxed and with the render distance on super far it still never hiccups. It's lag free. So much better than my old netbook which froze every half second.

 

I love the distance of genre.

Minecraft works fantastic and Call of Pripyat might have a few hiccups here and there. The engine isn't the most optimized so don't expect to run it with very detailed graphics. Might have to turn down a few things.

 

You need an IPS display. Very few laptops have those displays: HP elite book with the dream color screen, Dell precision with the IPS option. Lenovo x220 and x220 tablet, and appearently the Dell mini 10 or 12 ( you'll need to ask on that one because it wasn't listed in the specs)

Anybody else know of a laptop with an IPS display

 

I asked the rep at a Sony store, and he said it could. Not sure how much he actually knows, but yeah.

 

The Sony Vaio F 3D has an IPS or a VA with IPS characteristics i.e similar viewing angles and color as any other IPS workstation monitor. Sony does not detail what screen type it is but most reviews tend to believe it is using an IPS screen.
Hopefully the new Z also has the same IPS/VA grade screen

 

LGP330 13.3 will have an IPS display. It most likely as well will have a 1366x768 res. It will also have GT555M graphics and features Optimus.
I probably would take an exceptional 13.3 1366x768 IPS displlay over a very mediocre 1600X900 TN display.
YouTube - ‪LG P330 Notebook röviden megtekintve (Hu)‬‏
It lacks an optical drive which is a no no for me and it also probably will lack wwan which again is a no no for me.
The design looks very good and if you don't care about the above then it's one to look at.

 

If anyone has a Microcenter near them, they started carrying the SA. Seeing it in person...wow the reviewer wasn't joking. That display is HORRENDOUS. We're talking Sony CW 1600x900 levels of bad. I had the CW and currently have the Z among my stable of laptops and the SA screen is flat out terrible.

 

oh crap...

 

I think we've realized by now that the SA screen is no Z screen. But if you look at the overall market what are the alternatives? There aren't that many. If I just say I want a matte screen about 80% of all the newly released notebooks are out of the question. If I then look for a 13' screen with a resolution of 1600x I will hardly find any competition for the SA. Yes there is the old Z and there will be a new Z. But they cost more money and serve a different purpose.

So to me it makes no sense in complaining about the SA screen at the moment. Show me one other laptop with uptodate technology, usb3, wwan, backlit keyboard, matte screen, 1600x resolution, decent battery life (plus a swappable or expandable battery), decent integrated graphics and the same price segment then you can start complaining again.

 

Yes but all your rational and logic thinking serves no purpose of making the SA´s screen good. It´s still a bad quality screen.

 

nobody said the screen was good...everyone's saying the screen is average, just like most other matte screens out there.

 

This is the only one I can think of

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lg/585292-lg-p330-i7-nvidia-555m-7.html#post7641788

Pricing though is still up in the air. We'll know soon enough I suppose.

It's a bummer that other laptop makers aren't stepping up to the plate.

Asus are you LISTENING?

The Acer 3830T is the perfect example. It's priced dirt cheap with a ROBUST video card for the chassis. Christ, they can charge a few extra hundred dollars for a premium 1600x900 screen and voila!

 

^But the thermals don't work, thus all the throttling issues with the 3830TG.

We'll see how the LG fares in the real world.

 

i have a bad feeling about this LG...idk why...

 

Oh my God Sony screwed up big time! This is a situation analogous to the 12" PowerMac (another discontinuation that was highly mourned for many years)...

The VPCZ is perfection itself---it looks like we will go at least another two years without a completely powerful, no-compromises 13" all in one.

I'm so happy I bought the 3 year extended warranty on my VPCZ!

 

There is a new Z coming out eventually so I don't see how exactly they screwed up. They even said the S series is not a replacement for the Z. I think sony did just fine with the S series offering a 13in notebook that's not breaking the bank ala the Z. The screen is really not that bad. After messing with the brightness, contrast and gamma in the sony store, it looks fine to me. Plus the crappy viewing angles is kind of like a built in privacy screen.

 

That CW screen was the worst I've ever seen in a VAIO. Everything else was really nice though. It sounds like the SA is the new CW.

 

Yes the LG could have been an alternative but if you look here Engadget article you will see that it has a shiny glare screen, not matte at all. Also it won't be released before Q4/2011. As you said the price is also unknown and many people speculate it will only have a resolution of 1368x768 maximum.

Sorry to say but most of the recent Acers are trash and I don't like the overall concept with the new Acers of integrated batterys and now way to swap or extend it easily.

Yes the SA screen is not great. But I'm confident that with a little Spyder3 calibration it will look quite ok!

 

I live in Brazil can anyone in USA do that Spyder 3 stuff?

 

The problem is none of the SA/SB/SC users own a Spyder.

 

Well actually I own a Spyder 3 Elite but I'm still waiting for my Vaio SA to arrive.

 

Awesome 'cause I almost convinced myself into buying one. Once you receive your SA and calibrate the screen I hope you will share your color profile with us.

 

when are you receiving it?

 

Yes I can definetely share the profile with you as soon as I have my Vaio SA. I don't know exactly when it will arrive: It was shipped from the factory last Friday and therefore I hope that it arrives sometime this week but next week at the latest. I hope to get a definite delivery date from sony as soon as the SA arrives in Europe.

 

The new VAIO Z will not be an all in one. It will rely on the Dock for GPU. Therefore, there will be no laptop from Sony that offers the combination of beautiful LCD, serviceable dedicated GPU, optical drive, low weight, high resolution that the discontinued VPCZ did. Perhaps the LG will compete but it sounds to me like we will not see such a computer from Sony in the near future.

This is why the VPCZ refurbs are selling out. People were waiting to see if the SA screen compared. And it didn't.

Personally I am not much bothered by this... the current gen of 13" dedicated GPUs are incremental improvements only over the 330M... another two years, hopefully Sony recants and relaunches the Z as an all-in-one... and by then the GPU improvement will likely be significant.

 

So having had my SA for almost a week though I would share my impressions.

Build and appearance
Having opted for the black colour scheme I was very pleased taking out of the box. The silver hinge looks a bit odd and I did try opening it the front at first. Despite not being cf it has a nice feel and is very light. The footprir is quite big but it does mean once opened it space for you wrists.
The screen opens easily and can see a bit flimsy with only a central hinge having used it for 8 hrs this weekend on the train I did not notice any wobble.
The touch pad is a good size and works well once you have altered the speed. However the single finger side scrolling is not prefect and getting the right pressure takes some getting used to, like wise the buttons initially seemed very stiff but improve with use.

Performance
Not that much unique, I got the i7 with 8g ram and put in a 256g M4 and it files through everything I have thrown at it since I updatedthe SSd firmware.
Not you will have to do his on a separate mcgine s the Sony does not allow you to change the sata mode in the bios. Not had a chance to test the graphics beyond Dawn if war 2 which loaded up fine with the intel hd3000.

Screen
I guess this is the key point for most people often coming against the z benchmark. I had a z13 for a few days which went back as faulty and can say his screen is not in that league. It has difficulty with blacks due to minor light bleed and even with reeling the colour are not as full and rich
That said I amhappy with it. The resolution is great giving plenty of working space, the Matt works eel like o said used it on train and was great even with low sun reflections.
It all depends what you expect for your money. My SA with 3year warranty was £1558. The new Z with same specs would be £2740 or £2340 if you didn't get the powerdock.

Battery
From the initial runs on balanced mode with bightness about 60% I was looking at 4.30h video playback on vlc with the wireless off.

 

i don't really understand why you complain that much about "an average monitor" in a 13" laptop.
you buy a 13" for mobility, and with SA you get i7 all kind of connections for a lower price(1230€ in italy) than direct competitors (portège r830 1350€ / macbook pro 1449€ ).

if you buy a 13" you'r not an architect, nor a designer , in my opinion, and you're not going to watch films for the most of the time, you're doin that kind of stuff on a larger monitor. i can assume you'll do code, or office work, and i don't think contrast or narrow viewing angle is going to be a discriminating factor in choosing a laptop.

i've been struggling for a month and i still can't decide if buying a MBP. but 0,5 kg less, discrete VGA, usb 3.0, hdmi and 200€ less....i think i'm ordering this SA, still being in love with the MBP monitor.

what do you think? am i totally wrong?
by the way, sorry for my english

 

So the SATA runs in IDE and not AHCI mode, am I correct?

Hmm AHCI would be much faster for the OCZ Agility 3 I bought, I think. Won't know until my SA arrives.

 

The SA runs in achi mode, it just that to update the firmware on the crucial M4 you need to bf in either ata or IDE mode and you can't change this on the Sony. I had to put my drive in an old dell laptop to update the firmware which now works perfectly with intel lpm and rst which appear to have been problem with a lot of new sata3 ssd's, not sure about the ocz though.

 

Ah I see... good good... for OCZ it's the other way around. I need AHCI to update the firmware.

 

Hi guys, been lurking around here for a while, and now that I own an SA myself, thought I'd share some feedback.

Coming from a 4 yr old Dell Inspiron 1420, the build quality on this laptop is just simply amazing. The chassis feels firm, no flex on the keyboard, and all around it's a well built laptop.

So about the screen... I have no qualms with it whatsoever. Colors seem alright to me, it's bright enough, and the viewing angles are better than my old laptop at least. I've yet to hook it up to my monitor to compare the colors, but I'm sure it'll hold its ground. I guess I'm lucky enough that I don't have the Z series to compare it to, so for those who never had that premium laptop, the screen will definitely suffice.

One thing I must point out is that the speakers are sub-par. I understand that it's on a 13.3" laptop, but still, my 4 yr old 14" laptop plays much much better sound. The SA's speakers are tinny, not loud enough, and the frequency of sound it plays is very limited. That being said, my computer is connected to speakers most of the time, so this is just some nitpicking.
Just thought I'd throw in my opinion about the speakers since nobody else mentioned it in this thread so far.
I also must add that the webcam is so-so to subpar, for those who are curious.

And I must suggest one more thing for those buying a CTO SA. Consider upgrading to Windows 7 Pro so you can get the Fresh Start option. No bloatware = amazingly fast boot up.

That's my 2 cents. I really like this laptop so far, and I'm pretty sure it won't disappoint those who are considering getting one .

 

Quick question for those who have replaced their HD with an SSD....

I read the reviews and I saw that with both the OCZ and the Micron you need to update their firmware but I am not quite sure how easy the process is for either with the different modes.

Would you all recommend going with the Micron (and use another laptop to update firmware) or the OCZ for easy of install.

 

wasn`t the SA supposed to have a HD webcam by exmor?

 

I would say it sounds like the ocz is easier to update the m4 can't have it's firmware updated in the SA as it I'd not possible to set turnips to either IDE or ata mode. You need to put the drive into another machine first to upgrade the firmware. It's not actually to difficult to install / remove the drive.
I can say once updated the m4 works fine. I guess if you spoke to crucial and ordered over the phone you could see if they would send a drive with firmware rev 2 on it.

 

You can check out the new Z here
Sony Vaio Z 13-inch shows up in Europe | Crave - CNET

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-z-series