SB series has terrible design/ build quality issues

Depends on which Apple you mean. The Macbook Air is sexier, no doubt -- and I'm not an Apple fan.

 

Will have to see if the VAIO's improve in quality control.

I have to go to the store in a few months give or take when all the new models are out and compare them side by side.

But if it was bad with gaps and poor quality control like that I would have sent it back and asked for a replacement unit.

 

By the way, when I checked out the SB at my local Sony store, I noticed that the Windows Experience Index for graphics was very high. It was 6.1 or 6.2. Assuming that the GPU was the HD 6630M (rather than the HD 6470M), this is still much higher than I expected because my HD 5730M only gives a 5.2 index score.

Background info: The HD 6630M is supposed to be the successor of the 5650M.. a mid-level GPU outperformed by my HD 5730M.

 

6.1 or 6.2? That's actually lower than I expected. The HD 6470M only has a score of about 5.7 or something close for desktop graphics (6.4 for gaming graphics) My Z has the 330m which *supposedly* is inferior than the 6630M, but it gets a score of 6.3 (for both desktop and gaming graphics).

 

I was surprised with the ODD gap underneath although it's not that of a big deal to me so long as the drive face sits flush. The fingerprint reader does look misaligned. Maybe that's why they didn't include it in NA. Hopefully these design issues get addressed in later models. Not enough for me to return mine though. Working great so far.

 

actually the 5700 series (including yours 5730) are now rebranded as the 6570, so you can guess what the performance should be.

the 6770m is on par with the 5850m (using DDR3 that is), and this actually matters since the difference in the 6600m and 6700m series is the memory type that is used, GDDR3 in the 6600m and GDDR5 on the 6700m, off course the clocks are different. But you can overclock the card and reach the levels of the 6670m with the 6630m.

The problem is that people tend to think that notebookcheck is a reliable site, which it isnt.

Btw WEI != from reality, I was messing with a desktop today, it was from a friend, the config was basically:
CPU: Athlon II X2
GPU: 9500 GT
RAM: 4g DDR2

and the score was actually higher than my laptop, which in processing and gaming power trounces that thing, lets just say that if I lent him my SSD, he would have a base score of 6.5, which is extremely high for a 4+ year old desktop.

 

Nice. Thanks for the info. This is good because I am quite satisfied with my HD 5730M for everyday casual gaming already.. so the HD 6630M will be even better. I was worried that getting the Sony SA would be a downgrade in terms of gaming. Is it safe to overclock these GPUs?

 

Hello, long time lurker first time poster here.
I have had a SB (us version) ordered since March 10th, I have gotten 3 delay letters. However I then received a phone call stating my shipdate is now 'unknown' but the website/email will not represent it.

My delima is, I am very picky when it comes to build quality. I have been trying to buy a laptop since October (hp envy 14 beats) but HP had a screen issue that made the top few pixels cut off. I returned it and waited for SandyBridge laptops to come out.

With this delay and possible build quality defects, should I wait for the SA (the higher res screen really temps me + faster gpu) or just wait on the SB to arrive?

My main needs are to use it for school work, and gaming in the summer.

 

the gpu performance is the same.

if the higher res screen tempts you, well just get the SA.

 

It will also be a lot pricier, but if you don't have to get that laptop as soon as possible, and you can increase your budget you should wait for the SA or possibly other options. Personally, I wouldn't cancel my order based on these little design flaws.

I agree with this post. And this all doesn't mean the build quality in terms of solidness is worse, it's just not perfect and indeed some things doesn't look that nice if you look at it too closely. Furthermore, compared to those glossy plastic consumer laptops, the Vaio SB is built way better.

 

Thanks for the advice! I am going to leave my order in. I hope my laptop can ship next week, as I have the patience of a 10 year old and have been waiting since October for a new toy hehe!
For any quality issues I wen't with the warranty so I really have nothing to think about.

Also, I am thinking of swapping the hdd for a Intel 510 ssd, any guides on how to open these up hehe?

 

IMO, SB is far from solid. It flexed wherever I touched on it. I dont even want to mention the optical-drive area.

 

That's hilarious, how exactly does aluminum flex exactly? Now if your talking about the display, it's supposed to flex. If your talking about the keyboard or deck, I went to the Sony Store and saw one and it definitely doesn't flex when touching it. Oh man, the back near the odd has a 1 mm gap, the horror! I definitely dont recommend yotogging anywhere near an Asus then..

 

It's quite obvious from the photos that the only "issue" is that the door for the ODD is less than a mm too short. It has nothing to do with "them cutting the bottom too short to fit the drive. The ODD door sits perfectly flush with the side of the laptop, if it didn't that would be a problem. The only reason it is any way noticeable is because that area happens to be silver instead off black, making it a bit more obvious.

If there is some problem with the function of the laptop that is directly affected by this please let us know.

This will be my first Sony laptop but can say that on pretty much every laptop I have seen, it has the same exact thing, if not more of a gap.

 

err what is the difference? if the bottom is too short its going to have a gap, if the odd door is too short its going to leave a gap, but yes you made me take out all my laptops,

1 lenovo
2 toshibas
1 hp
1 msi

all of them have that 1mm gap in there, with the notable exception of the lenovo, since the door wont cover the bottom of the unit.

 

I'm a first time poster and I've been reading this forum for awhile researching for my new laptop. I just went ahead and ordered a CTO VAIO SB last week and just saw this thread about quality issues. The only thing I have to ask, is are you guys being serious about this? You're complaining that there is a gap between the bottom of the laptop to the cover for the CD drive? You're complaining about a fingerprint reader not being completely aligned with everything else (not that it matters since it seems the SB no longer has it). It's one thing to complain about the quality of a laptop, but I just saw the SB in person for the first time today and I have to say I was really impressed. I didn't notice any kind of flex and the laptop was as solid as the Macbook Pro. I truly feel a majority of the people on here bashing the SB are MBP owners who are afraid that the MBP is getting more and more inferior as the year goes on. I actually persuaded a friend of mine today to not get the 13" MBP and to get the SB instead as it can be customized to be better than the MBP in every single way and still be a lot cheaper. Honestly don't see why everyone is hating on this computer though, it's a gap for crying out loud! My Dell Inspiron has a gap between the ODD and the bottom of the chassis, so what is the big deal?

 

Thank god, I'm glad I'm not alone on thinking this is the dumbest thread I have ever seen.

 

dude we're not bashign the sb..just pointing out that it can be made better, and that these things are obvious effects of quality control...i dun have a MBP, i recently bought a z, theres a thread on here, just a few of the guys are pointing out, compared to other vaios made such as the z, the sb seems a bit off the mark on the quality side thats all dude..

 

I think you might have missed what I was saying, looking at my post it was a bit confusing, I was agreeing that nearly all laptops have a gap and that it is not a sign of bad build quality nor is it any kind of issue.

 

it is obvious you can't take negative comments about your precious SB, fortunately not everyone want to embrace ignorance like you in this forum.

 

Haha, I'm pretty sure there's a fine line between taking negative comments about something and taking completely silly negative comments. The fact that there is a small gap between the disc drive and the laptop body does not scream quality issue to me. Now if the laptop was completely made cheaply, the keys were falling out, the screen was wobbly, etc. I would understand those being obviously quality issues. But complaining about a small gap between something that it seems all laptops have is just silly. How many people really look at the bottom of their laptops when they are using them anyways?

 

i do........

 

Sure, since no one can see your underwear, it is ok to have a hole on it. you sound exactly like that "benny90". lol

 

EDIT: don't feed the troll, they freak out whenever someone makes actual sense.

 

Looks like a troll smells like a troll, is a troll.

Don't feed the troll, its obvious he has issues.

 

Mine was also jumbled, but yeah, having a gap is going to annoy people, but seriously all of those laptops, are of different quality, being one of the toshibas a higher end model, and all of them have it. And I guess you were right after all.

This is to teach sony to use slot loading drives

 

look who's talking? a guy with 23 posts.

 

Slot loading drives have a higher chance of scratching up your discs.

 

All right, let't say I agree, different price = different quality.
Anyway you are talking about the smallest of the problems.
This system is potentially defective or, quoting intel, 5% of the systems ARE DEFECTIVE and WILL show that they are defective, it's just a matter of time... of course I'm talking about the chipset rev. B2 revision problem.

 

bah I dont use dvd. But for learning purposes, where do you get that statistic? Is it new?

Maybe its the insomnia or something, but it appears that my posts arent getting through right now. The stepping debacle, as I described it, is not as bad as people try to make it seem, since the issue has a fairly low probability rate to manifest itself.

The major issue here is that intel put an embargo on all boards that would use the sata ports that werent the 0 and 1. And this is a violation of that agreement, and thus would lead to unknown consequences (we dont know what kind of deal was made between intel and the OEMs, we dont know anything about the responsibilities and other important matters)

As I said, and I say again, the terrible thing is that Sony sold some B2 stepping boards, and this should not be tolerated.

 

It's well-known among audiophiles as one major pitfall of a slot loader. The slot edges does get in contact with the disc media while being pulled in which could cause scratches especially with edges getting dirty with time. I don't have statistics for this but it makes sense to me.

 

people also say that theres is a higher failure rate, but I dont see any hard info backing that up as well.

Being an audiophile myself, I still use LP to enjoy the musics, and I do know that most of the things we say are true are in one way or another misguided.

 

Sounds like a load of bollocks to me. I had a decent quality slot loading Pioneer drive that was used for the best part of 7 years and didn't damage any discs. I guess cheaper drives could cause an issue, but if people choose to use cheap junk that that's their fault.

I had two MacBook Pro's with slot loading drives, again no issues.

 

Then what would you expect for almost half its price? The same top-notch quality, or a bit less? I think the latter one, and that's exactly what the Sony Vaio SB has to offer, build quality still way better than those glossy plastic consumer notebooks which I mentioned before.

 

one of the biggest issues I see about the quality concern is the location of these notebooks.

I have seen and physicall examined a couple of SBs in (USA) specifically NYC/NJ area. Build seems top notch and we don't have the fingerprint reader and the gap on the CD drive is just milimeters as with about every other ODD.

So I see the problem as people in different countries complaining about their system which is a different system in another country. We have someone complaining about their notebook from India, and then another one in Europe somewhere and then another in USA and then another in China. It seems all these notebooks have different configurations and probably different build lines.

So I have to currently disagree to say there is "terrible design/build issues".
I think this thread should be country/location specific and then we can possibly say overall, or USA only or Europe only, etc where there are quality issues.

I ordered a CTO and it should be coming soon. I will try to do an open box review and update all. I am from USA just to let you know.

update*
I can from an alienware M11x which has minor quality issues but bothered me too much that I had to request a full refund. LCD lid gaps, corners sharp they can cut skins, keyboard lighting issues, screen/keyboard build concerns, etc. This was world wide issues as those notebook has same build processes it seems aside from different keyboards for different country's. I just hope there are no heat issues with my SB which i7 with AMD 6630M 1gb card

 

In my experience, CTO machines tend to have poorer quality builds than standard models.

 

Some things may be so in the audiophile world but considering most well-respected cd player makers use top loading or conventional tray loading cd players, I'd stick with them.

Could be bollocks and I also think this is not as big an issue with data discs as it is with audio cds but until more info on slot loader durability comes out and scratchproof discs are used(gorilla cds anyone), it's the conventional drive for me.

 

Dont limit yourself by certain ghosts, they are there to entertain us. Unless hard data is there, enjoy!

 

I looked at the pricing of the Z...it's more than double what I paid for the SB which is why I don't understand the constant comparisons

 

I'm talking about the deck and the keyboard and it definetely flexed especially on the right side. Appereantly they used a very thin piece of alu on the deck. Sony Z also had a alu deck bu it did not flex at all. I'm not trying to bash SB, I actually really wanted this laptop but It is simply not a well built laptop.

 

everything flexes when you push hard enough, even your z and even a macbook pro.

Thing is, this doesn't flex in normal use and its strong enough to withstand abuse.

 

Well slot loading drives are common in cars so I guess I do use one.

 

My VPCSB1AGX/B has already started giving problems, touchpad has stopped working (when I restart it works for a few secs but then stops), I think HDD has started to fail as well (blue screen), I had already mentioned the clicking sound from the HDD. I am going to return it.

 

Is it a CTO? Sorry to hear that. Those are major issues. Better for it to fail within the return period though.

 

One of the main design disadvantages of S11/S12/S13 (2010) is IMO the soft lid (magnesium).

No... it is supposed to protect and not to flex when you put 100g. on it. Of course everything flexes but you can't even start comparing it to MacBook Pro which has a very hard lid!

The screen is basically not protected at all by the lid!! I hoped they would realize and fix this in the next models...! Pity if the haven't.

 

No, its a prebuilt ($1500) model, It does not have a Hybrid HDD (Actually it should be having), when I tried to talk to tech support regarding Hybrid HDD, they told me that laptop does have a hybrid HDD, then I said it has a toshiba mk5061gsy which is not a hybrid. so the tech replied that "Sir dont go by the brand, it is the technology that SONY has embedded in the laptop", I just could not control my laugh. Stupid tech support does not know anything.

 

Well you never know, and maybe this time Support has it right this time
It`s not impossible to put a 4GB NAND chip somewhere on the MOBO and make it work together with the HDD. We can only Hope

 

Well i dont think it is, as i hav a toshiba 7200 rpm drive. But when i open vaio care it says hdd diagnostics provided by seagate which indicates that it should ha the momentus xt.

 

The HDD diagnostics software is provided by Seagate...

 

Yes!! It doesn't matter what your actual HDD is - it is just the diagnostic software that is written and provided by Seagate!! It is like that on Vaio S as well, although it came with Toshiba too and was never supposed to be anything else! It is just the software developer and has nothing to do with the actual hardware brand!