S15 Orange-gate fixed?

Looking at this post from a new S15 owner: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony-owners-lounge-forum/669429-official-2012-sony-s-series-owners-thread-502.html#post8939868

Looking good, maybe Sony pulled a HP and done a stealth fix on the S15 orange-gate issue. Would still be nice if someone with one of the new screens could post an image showing 255 Red on their display and if possible next to another monitor without a red issue also displaying 255 red, that would confirm it once and for all.

If this is true I encourage all S15 owners who are still under warranty and not fully happy with their displays poor ability to show pure red, to take their laptop in to Sony and ask for a replacement panel under warranty.

Back when I had a S15 and was deciding if I wanted to keep it or return it due to this orange-gate issue, I spoke to one of the Sony reps at my Sony shop about my options and the possibility of getting a replacement display panel if Sony fixed the problem a few months down the line. He advised me that as long as I could display the fault; which people affected by the orange-gate issue can, there would be no problem swapping my display for a new one under warranty.

I hope for the sake of current S15 owners that this is true and the display has finally been fixed.

 

It is very encouraging. Not that I doubt the poster, but has anyone else seen or even heard about this?

 

These were the original pics
View attachment 87239

View attachment 87240

I'm gonna add some:
In paint Red 255,0,0 and inside an orange square (orange is R255 G128 B0). The other screen is from an HTC Flyer.


Netflix page


Ferrari wallpaper video


I think no orange gate is present and if it is, I really do not care about it.

 

Well that looks good enough to me, looks like it's fixed. That is definitely nothing like the orange-reds the old display showed on 255,0,0 red. They look like proper reds, at last. Thank you for the pics Kiowa +rep.

If I was still a S15 owner I would be on the phone to Sony asking for a replacement screen. Good news indeed.

 

Kiowa, thank you so much for posting these. What excellent news! I have a strong inclination to go out and buy one ! When did you buy yours, and from where? Does the S have the production date on the bottom as the Z's do? If so I would appreciate knowing the dates on yours. +1 should go without saying!

 

I've bought it from here one week ago, do not know if I can post the link or not. Remove it if is considered spam or so.
http://www.acuista.com/en/x/39037675--/

I do not know the production date. There are some labels down there. What numbers or whatever I have to find exactly?

By the way, another comparison between to known banks and their colors: Santander and Ing Direct

 

Thanks Kiowa, would be good to hear from more new S15 owners to see if this is now across the board. I would be surprised if a number of S15 owners were not on the phone to Sony asking for replacement panels. I guess we first need to establish if this is resolved for all new S15's.

 

Well, I think you should get some kind of award for discovering this! This might be asking too much, but if you could take a picture/copy of the bottom of the laptop and black out the last couple of numbers of your serial number (for your protection), that would enable us to determine what production lot numbers have the new screen.

This is truly exciting! It was the perfect computer at a great price - except for the damn orange screen!

+1, again

 

Agreed, if it was not for the orange screen I wouldn't of bothered returning it and spending the extra cash on a Lenovo W530. I have no regrets as the W530 is a great laptop but a different beast to the S15.

The S15 is very light, portable and has a very nice screen apart from the orange-gate, if this issue is now fixed and with the BIOS mod that turns the 640M LE into a 650M capable of playing most modern games on decent settings, it becomes one of the best value for money, lightweight quality laptops on the market.

Still don't like the floppy screen, I think they could of made the housing more ridged but it can't be perfect. If the screen is fixed across the board I would highly recommend the S15 for the price.

 

Well, there's no need to take pics al the bottom because serial can be found in many places, for example within Vaio Control Center. To be sure I've checked those with the label at the bottom and yep, it's the same.

The laptop is for me the most perfect one I've owned. Less than 2 kg for a 15,5", almost 4 hours of endurance, stunning full hd screen, well capable of playing games, completely silent when on stamina, fingerprint working like a charm... I'm waiting for my SSD Samsung 840 pro and it will be simply astonishing.

 

I'm sorry, I don't think I was clear. I was hoping you would tell us what your serial/lot #s are (with last 3 digits of serial number blacked out for privacy) so that when shopping we could ensure that we were getting one of the post-orangegate models.

 

Even if you just type the numbers for us, if you can't take a photo and upload it that is. Sure many new S15 buyers would like to know. Thanks.

 

It's in the attached pic bro, at the right bottom corner surrounded by an ellipse, with last two numbers of each group partially deleted. Nevertheless, they are 545115XX - 00002XX.

 

It beats me why they don't offer the S15 with a touchscreen option. That's the only thing preventing me from buying it. Perhaps the hinge design isn't sturdy enough for pushing & prodding the screen.

 

The hinge on the S15 is in no way sturdy enough to support constant touchscreen use, the screen is very floppy, one of the things I wish Sony would change but it's not a major issue for a non-touchscreen design. The S15 is already a very good laptop without the touchscreen, I don't think there is anything similar in weight/performance and price that offers a touchscreen. I personally don't think laptops need a touch screen, it's only since windows 8 that the whole touchscreen debate has come into light but not everyone runs Win8 as the OS.

I think a touchscreen is good on the convertible ultrabooks which can fully flip the screen around to be used as a tablet, I don't think they have a place on a standard laptop like the S15.

 

Win 8 is best used with touch even on a standard laptop. I played around on a friend's touch ultrabook. It's much more easier to navigate the start screen as well as zoom in & out of photos, maps, scroll long webpages etc with touch. Even positioning the cursor in a Word document was easier than using a mouse. All the new apps in the Windows store are also made for touch. Touch is awkward with the old-school Win 7, but Win 8 has turned the tables. I recommend that you get a hands-on with a touchscreen laptop.

 

I agree with you Sagar Jacky regarding Win8 being best on a touchscreen, it was designed with touchscreen input from the ground up. However I still see Win7Pro staying as the primary business OS for a long time and I question how many consumers will make the upgrade to Win8 or stay with it if they already own Win7.

Win8 has many advantages to Win7 but the GUI on a non-touchscreen display is not one of them, least not for most users I know.

Hence I see a substantial purpose in touchscreens for convertible notebooks/ultrabooks that can be used as both laptops and tablets , maybe with Win8 that is the way most notebook devices will go but I don't see much purpose in a touchscreen in a traditional laptop like the S15, it simply was not designed to be used that way.

Anyway don't want to get too far off topic, that is the great news that orange-gate may be no more on the S15.

 

Sorry, I didn't even see the picture. I think i need more sleep! BTW, seeing that it's in Spanish (can't get much by me ) I was wondering in which country you purchased it. Could be new stock makes it to certain countries first. Thanks again.

I have to agree here. I guess it's a matter of taste, but i don't see the benefits of W8 for using a laptop in the conventional way. It seems more like a clever strategy to get people to buy new OSs and computers with touch screens, Then again, I was slow to adopt the mouse when it first came into use, so maybe I'm just a luddite! The one thing I like about Win 8 is the pretty home screen; Thinking maybe I'll take a screen shot of one and make it my desktop wallpaper, lol!

 

Now, looking at the comparison photo on S15's IPS one can't really judge!
Besides, it takes a good camera to make a photo trustworthy..

Has this really been confirmed or is it just a speculation?

 

Until we get more people posting their results with new S15's it is still speculation. All we have to go of is the OP's photos which look like fairly good evidence, he did use a common webpage as a reference and did a 255,0,0 red test.

When I had my S15 I could use a basic iPhone5 camera and could clearly see the orange-gate issue when putting the S15 side by side to a standard display that didn't have the problem. I see no reason to believe these photos are not accurate but more examples from other users would help.

Sony may never confirm the fix as they have never admitted there was a problem to begin with. HP didn't even confirm the fix, they simply did the same as what Sony seem to have done and new models started coming in without the problem.

 

So can any of us original SE 15 owners get a warranty exchange on the screen?

I'm kidding... I actually don't really notice it anymore... but I'm not a graphics designer so it doesn't bother me.

 

If it's finally fixed as in all new batches are coming with the fixed screen then the answer is yes, least here in Australia. I checked with the Sony shop in AUS when I had a S15 and they said as long as I could demonstrate the problem vs say a new S15 they would have no issue replacing the screen under warranty.

So if all new S15's come with the screen fixed and you go to the shop and put yours next to it, showing them the orange-gate problem, it shouldn't be an issue getting a replacement screen.

I think it's worth doing even if you are not a graphics designer, I couldn't live with the orange-reds but that was me. I don't think you should have to get used to that kind of defect on what is otherwise a good quality laptop.

 

To demonstrate that you would have to be in store.. I'm in the UK but my S came from a factory in China via Germany. If I was to return it for warranty or otherwise, I'd have to send it to Germany, so I couldn't be physically present to demonstrate the difference. BTW, I only bought mine a month ago, but it's still Win7 version.

Here's a shot of my screen (by SE Xperia Arc), orange rectangle on red #ff -- looks really horrible when singled out.. Not all that bad when there's less red on the screen though!

 

I think it won't be so necessary to go directly with your laptop to an store to compare with new models. Those users like 66z can use the pics of this thread in order to get their laptop changed in warranty.

Just to mention, I really do not want to give the impression that I am here sharing these pics to be "the only guy who has a VAIO S with a fixed screen while others has a damn poor screen in comparison, so I laugh on them.......hahahahahahah, are you jelous?" This would be simply a retarded attitude. But if only one user can get a replacement using these pics or this thread I am satisfied enough. Lots of times customers are unprotected between huge companies and other's experiences can be really helpful to gain some attention at least.

BTW, this is last comparison pic, I promise
Left: 66z capture with his Xperia Arc. Right: my capture with my Galaxy SII. Both in my vaio s screen. On the left I can see a pale orange square inside a dark orange wallpaper, on the right I can see a orange square inside a red wallpaper.

 

Yeah, indeed, even I can see the difference, the orangeish became even more orange, and the pic on the right is obviously more red.

 

It is clear that there is a difference between the screens.

@66z your screen has the orange-gate issue just like mine had and I know it looks even worse live than what your pictures show.

Like Kiowa said, you can use some of the pictures taken on this thread to show the difference. You can call the online store where you purchased the laptop and if they have a physical shop front you can ask them to perform the simple mspaint 255,0,0 test on a older stock demonstrator and put it next to any S13 display or iPad displaying 255 red. That way they will be able to see the problem with their own eyes,

Otherwise if you can confirm your retailer has new S15 stock which we assume is now fixed, you can simply send yours back as a warranty claim armed with the pictures shown here demonstrating how 255 red should look on a fixed S15 and how it looks on yours, tell them how to run the simple test and let them go through the process. It will then be clear to them unless they are color blind, so you don't need to be in store.

Regarding your photo taken with your Xperia Arc, it's not a bad example but maybe you can get an even better one for use when sending your laptop in for repair, due to the lighting and shutter speed of the camera, I think it is actually displaying slightly more Red in the pic than it looks in real life. Best way to demonstrate the difference is to forget about putting the orange square inside the red-orange, just fill your whole screen with red using mspaint and put it next to another screen that also has 255 red but doesn't have an orange-gate issue. An iPhone 4S or 5 or iPad2 + will also do the trick (plenty of free paint apps), take a photo of the two together and the difference should be clear for all to see.

Try taking the photo with the screen displaying only the 255 red and try have no whites or brighter colors in the frame of the photo, just the redish orange. Due to the increased brightness of whites it can cause a camera to under expose which would make other colors look darker than they are in real life. You want to try have even lighting, as you can see in your image the corners look more red than the bright centre, even try take a shot with natural light in the room. You want the best picture to demonstrate your issue and make your case stronger, hence why it's important to have an accurate photo.

@Kiowa - I don't think anyone thinks your trying to show off or brag about your screen mate, it's clear you are trying to help people.

 

Thanks for the advice, Flickster.

As much as I don't want to part from my laptop now, I would really appreciate a more accurate screen so I don't need to buy external monitor to be able to do occasional colour grading. The difference is small enough to not be bothered while consuming the media but it is big enough to be unreliable when it comes to working with graphics.

I bought my laptop from Sony UK shop, and while they have outlets in London where I live, I don't think they would deal with something bought from the online store. As much as I gather the Sony treats each company as a separate entity, and although there might be some overlap, in my experience even the closely related divisions had struggled to communicate between themselves.

Anyway, I should call to find out. Emails and Sony doesn't mix. And I hate being on phone, really makes me nervous holding this thing at my head for extended periods. Also telling the same story over and over to each next person you get forwarded to, only to end up with someone even more stupid or lost than the previous. Why not develop email service? It is much more streamlined, it can be forwarded as needed, all the details are written down for reference, and the customer service can take their time to research if necessary, without wasting that of customers. It is also much easier for them to multitask, and to organize their cases. It might not work for people who don't know what they want but for those who do, especially experienced users, this might work extremely well, cause they are asking very specific things.

But let's not get carried away. I still feel the difference is not 100% confirmed although looks pretty credible. I need faith to stand up to Sony, cause you know they won't give up without a fight. The best way to prove this case would indeed be to put two S15s side by side. Perhaps I take my machine down to the store, granted they have S15 on display at all. The colours in my photo are messed up because I can't manually adjust white balance, there are just 4 presets and none really corresponds the panel's backlight too well.

 

@66z - As you mentioned, I think the best thing to do is take it to your local Sony store and put it next to a model from new stock. Also if you want to demonstrate the issue in person you can put it next to one of their S13's (no orange-gate) to make it clear to them that it is a substantial issue. I know when I did this at my local Sony shop the sales people couldn't believe that was the maximum red for the display and were more willing to help after seeing the problem in-person.

At the end of the day it's a Sony and you are taking it to a Sony shop who represent the brand so even if it's not the shop you purchased it from, they should still be able to process the warranty claim or at least help with it. Nothing beats demonstrating the issue in-person. Hopefully you can also confirm at your local Sony shop if they have new stock and maybe even check your screen against that.

 

Someone posted a video of his new S15 :

 

Well, those windows 8 tiles are exactly like mine, red one is red and next to it the orange is orange. Furthermore, from the music videos I can see reds, no orangeish. So I think we can confirm new models come with fixed screens, I'm glad not to be an exception and I fully recommend a warranty claim for users having the issue.

 

On my "old" SVS1511 model, with the unfixed panel I can very clearly distinguish both red and orange panels in Windows and those videos alike. Also I can clearly note huge differences in the comparison images posted above.

Truly I can't say that those images \ videos are any different from my screen, which leads me to think it may still be the same panel.

 

Just received my S15 yesterday, the Orangegate is still there. Build in China and received in Canada :

Product: CA-SVS151290S-LBOM
Component: English only with Backlight
Component: Microsoft® Office 2010 trial version
Component: Kaspersky® Internet Security (30-day trial)
Component: 500GB (5400rpm) hard drive
Component: 4GB (4GB fixed onboard + 1 open slot) DDR3-1333Mhz
Component: CD/DVD player / burner
Component: Black
Component: Internal lithium polymer battery (4400mAh)
Component: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE (1GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
Component: 3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7-3632QM (2.20GHz / 3.20GHz with Turbo Boost)
Component: 15.5" LED backlit Full HD IPS display (1920 x 1080)
Component: Windows 8 Professional 64-bit
Component: Imagination Studio™ VAIO® Edition software
Component: No Fresh Start
Quantity: 1
Description: VAIO S15 Series Custom Laptop
Date shipped: 11/14/2012

 

I really hope yours is "fixed" but the one I just received is clearly still OrangeGate.

See picture. The VAIO S151290S beside a DELL Vostro 3700 and a Blackberry Bold. Orange versus red...

Altough the dell is a TN so change your viewing angle a bit and you also get orange, but the S15 stays orange no matter what.

The JPG used is "ferrari-wallpapers_9644_1920x1200.jpg", just goggol it.

Gorgeous screen, superb computer otherwise.

Cheers,

 

That is... odd. Doesn't the picture aggravate the effect when compared to your eyesight?

For example, watching this page I can clearly see a darkish red in the logo square, the upper rectangle saying "ipad walls" is of a brownish orange, and the counter in the right is clear orange, for instance.

I tried to snapshot it with my TZ5 but I couldn't get a decent picture, the colors would always appear off and orangish for some reason. Are you sure that isn't happening with yours? Because I dare say that the Ferrari logo in my screen looks redder than the 3 devices you had in the picture, especially the Sony which appears as light orange and the Blackberry as clear orange.

 

You clearly still have the problem. Depending on what angel you view the image from will have some effect on how bright the orange-red looks but there is no denying that even the most redish part of that image on your Sony display is still a red-orange, exact same problem that I had with my display and many other have, and for those that don't know, yes the problem is that bad on some images. Hence why I returned my laptop for a refund.

You may have got older stock, with the old display. This is why it is important to look at the serial number and batch, however I don't know how to make head or tails of it. I know some other people here may be able to tell you how you read the serial to work out the date of manufacture.

 

He truly has a weird panel, even mine which is an "old" SVS1511 doesn't show that much difference in that image. The red in the blackberry is a bit orangish but the red in the other laptop shows as mine.

There are a few shades of red that tend to go orange, but mine at least can still show red.

I don't have a truly accurate monitor at home for flawless comparison, but from my experience most monitors show distorted colors and have different gamuts, even "decent" ones. Most people don't do witch-hunt on laptop panel colors though, else I think most laptop owners would be pissed with theirs.

Maybe during the next weeks we can have a clearer picture about the new panels.

 

I have a new vaio s 15, and am pretty convinced that the orange situation is still here. From my eye, the reds still tend toward orange, especially on pure red sources, it is still noticeable, but without another screen to compare as others have stated, not that bad for day to day use.

I think that many people are basing their opinions of the photos posted here, but photos can be so subjective, depending on the lighting and the specs of the camera. So i decided to take a few photos from different angles, and different brightness levels on the devices to test this. Here are the results,

*note that all photos were taken with my Galaxy s3 camera. The devices are my new s15 (production date sticker, and model number in first photo) a standard Dell 21" monitor, and an TF101 (asus transformer 1st generation tablet)

 

Looks OK Patchseven. The reds are still far from great but passable for day to day use if your not into photo/video editing type work, which I do some of on the side as a hobby.

However it still seems to have the orange-gate issue just not to the same level as my panel had which looked like nt123's photos. It also depends , like you said, on the angle, lighting, white balance, exposure etc conditions when the photo is taken as this can have a massive effect on the final result.

Yours was manufactured in Sept 2012 which could mean it's still old stock, not sure what manufacture date kiowa has on his laptop? That would be the best indicator seeing that his panel doesn't look to have the orange-gate issue.

Is your TF101 set to display 255,0,0 red in that shot? Looks terrible if it is. Even most cheap TN desktop displays can do a decent job of showing 255 red, not sure why there is such a problem getting this right on a premium laptop.

 

Yeah, that's why I put the production date sticker, hopefully some other users will have newer stock and can post for comparison.... mine is definitely new stock, as it has the updated processor (i7 3632) but that doesn't mean they didn't still use old stock for the screen.....

The pad I didn't have tme to find an app which would let me choose the exact color shade so I just set the desktop to red... who knows what exact shade of red that it's.... but looking at the specs it's ips panel is only rated at ~60% rgb gamut anyway, so it helps just to put things in perspective

 

New to the Forum, and hello!!! I ordered a custom S 15 (SVS151290X) online 2 days ago. When it arrives, I will let you know how the display looks. I am hoping that since it's a custom order, it will be a "new stock" display. The one in the store was from the beginning of October and was definitely still orange. Salesman said it was from their first Windows 8 batch. Hopefully November is the magic month. Thanks to everyone here for all the great information! I've learned so much about my computer since I ordered it and if it weren't for this forum, I wouldn't know about this until I got my machine, and I also wouldn't have known not to mess with the BIOS yet in windows 8 for the 640m le overclocking. Will keep you all posted!

 

Cheers Mike_d it will be good to see if your custom S15 has the fixed screen. So far there only seems to be Kiowa and the videos posted by Amal that show what looks like a non orange-gate display. Hopefully yours is Nov stock and has the fix.

 

This week I went to a store in Germany were they sell Sony Notebooks. They had a SVS1512S1ES next to an old Win7 one and you could clearly see the difference, the red was much better. I ordered the one with the i7 arriving on tuesday, hopefully with the same improved screen. I can post pictures then.

cheers,
Martin

 

So finally this is coming from someone who had compared the panels side by side..
Myself haven't had any time to go down to the store, and won't be having up until mid-December.

 

so what's a reliable way to check the display if there's no comparison to an older S15 possible?

 

Just had a look around town and it seems the red is still quite orange-ish (very obvious the red ain't red) on S15126. It is even more obvious when they put the S15 next to Vaio Z.......

 

I am among the first group of people who get the new win8 S15 model in USA. I get it on Nov 1st, just right after Sandy. Unfortunately, I was the also one of the first group of people to confirm that the orange gate is still there.


The screen on the right is my new S15, on the left is my old Y430. It looks really bad on this pic, but it doesn't when you actually use it. However I never use the new S15 to browse pixiv.net or any other pic sites. The color bias matters in such situation.

 

Well, the first video inspires me. At 2:20, where there are two red tile in the lowest row. And yeah, indeed they look red in my new S15 screen. I mean, it is the same red in my old Lenovo Y430. Then I do a print screen and analyze the color, it was RGB [174, 25, 62]. Now that I get the right RGB value of red, green, blue on S15 screen, is there any program that can map other colors to the right RGB value?

Now they look nearly the same to each other with the adjusted RGB value.

 

Well I think it's easy, with your eyes - The old panel with the orange-gate issue is easy to spot when you set mspaint to 255,0,0 RED and fill the screen with that colour. You will clearly see it's not even close to a proper rich red but if you want to double check just get an iphone 5 or ipad 2 or 3 (if you have one), get a free paint program and do the same 255 RED test and put the screens next to each other. The difference will be night and day.

Also look at the images posted here by 66Z of the Ferrari team, save that image or try find one the same, it should be a bright red.

So it looks like there is some new stock coming with the fixed screen but I guess we will have to wait a few weeks to confirm this unless someone can show us a screen from a Nov 2012 manufactured S15.

 

I've done a video with the ferrari wallpaper in different angles.

 

Looks very promising! I will post my findings when I get mine.

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