Vaio F13

I live in the US and I want to buy the F13 but I have some questions. I have been reading all of the posts possible but cannot find the answer. I know there are at least a few people on here who all ready bought the F13 but I am not sure from where. US, Canada, Europe, etc. You can see what I am getting below except I canceled the order because I decided to get 4 GB of memory and buy and install 8GB my self because I will save $120. I am also going to remove and install a SSD.

I also notice that people refer to two different premium screens and that one is better than the other but it always seems like people are unsure or might not have hard evidence that two different premium screens exist. Maybe there is only one premium screen and some people like it and some people do not. Therefore, maybe people believe there are two different screens. Any comments about the premium screen?

There also seems to be people who know how to disable the screen dimmer and others who do not. People who know how to disable the dimmer seem to be happy with the screen where people who do not know how to disable the dimmer seem unhappy. Any comments about the screen dimmer?

Here are the questions I am really concerned with:
1. Is the screen matte or glossy?
2. If it is glossy do I have an option for the matte?
3. Is the palm rest plastic or leather?
4. Does the MB have a raid chip so I can configure raid?
5. Does the keys scratch or damage the screen?
6. Is it worth paying $100 for a larger battery or can I get the battery cheaper some where else?




Product: US-VPCF1390X-LBOM
Component: LED Backlit Keyboard
Component: No Fresh Start
Component: Adobe Bundle (Free - $448 value)
Component: DVD +/- R DL / DVD +/- RW / DVD-RAM Drive
Component: Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
Component: Standard capacity battery
Component: Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
Component: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M GPU (1GB VRAM)
Component: No Engraving
Component: Intel® Core™ Quad i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz
Component: 16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080)
Component: 320GB Hard Disk Drive (5400rpm)
Component: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Component: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Per Unit Price: $1,474.99
Quantity: 1
Total Price: $1,474.99
Description: VPCF1390X Configure-to-Order
Ship Method: Expedited
Estimated Ship Date: 10/12/2010

Sony VAIO F13, F Series, F1390

 

Its annoying so I turn it off. I'd rather have manual control of screen brightness which you can do with FN + F5 & F6.

You need to see this for yourself at a Sony centre. In the F series owner's lounge thread there is some encouraging news for you guys in the US. Some guy said he saw an F13 side by side with an F12 in store in the US and he said the F13 screen was matte finish and it looked great. This would seem to indicate that the US guys are finally getting the much talked about EU premium screen as reviewed by notebookcheck. The one you want is the EU VAIO Display Premium 1080p. This is the matte finish one. All the other screens are gloss finish including VAIO Display 1080p and VAIO Display Plus. General rule of thumb: if it doesn't say 'Premium' and '1080p' in the description then its probably one of the nasty panels.

No. Theres only one screen with matte finish (VAIO Display Premium 1080p).

On the F12 series all of the premade F12s had the plastic palm rest except for the VPCF12 Z1E/BI. All of the F13 premade models have the plastic palm rest including the VPCF13Z1E/B. Confirmed by a user in the Owner's Lounge thread that recently accepted delivery of his F13Z1E/B. If you want the camera grip palm rest you need to look for the models that list the finish as 'Premium Black'. If it says just 'Black' then you get the plastic palm rest. If you want the camera grip palm rest on the F13 you need to customize it. The pictures on Sonystyle.com make it look like the Premium Black is more of a plum colour than normal Black but its not like that. In fact, both are the same charcoal colour. The only difference is the palm rest.

The chipset is Intel PM55, though Sony have severely restricted BIOS access so that the only thing you can change is system date/time, boot order and whether to enable Virtualization technology or not. F series does not have Intel RAID support enabled but you may be able to do it with software RAID. Ask in the Owner's Lounge thread.

No. The palm rest is raised and there are rubber feet on both sides of the keyboard. Furthermore, the baffle around the edge of the screen is raised (by about 2 or 3 millimetres and theres rubber feet on the top corners). However the screen is reasonably thin so it may be possible to scratch the screen if you apply alot of pressure around the VAIO logo behind the screen. But looking at it side on, you would need to apply alot of force for this to happen. I can't see it happening by accident.

Sony has a process that cannot be disabled which prevents you from using any battery that isn't Sony. It just won't work. Battery life on the F series is something of an achilles heel because its amongst the worst in its class. If you feel like you need battery range then you can consider buying the extended battery as the standard one will barely get you over 2 hours of wireless with the screen dimmed. However, if battery life is critical for you, you may want to consider a different model altogether without a quad core processor. Sony are not known for their good battery life generally and its worse still for quad cores without switchable graphics.

The Z series manages good battery life because it has switchable graphics, runs on the lower TDP Arrandale cpus and has a smaller display. The F series has none of that but the really big battery killer is the lack of switchable graphics. Forget about Optimus support since Clarksfield quad cores do not have integrated graphics on die whereas Arrandale does. Sandy Bridge quad cores will have integrated graphics however so if you feel like waiting out anywhere from 6 to 9 months to see if Sony refresh the F series with Sandy Bridge you might get what you need. But you won't get good battery life figures from the F series right now.

 

1. glossy if you live in the US, although the "premium" sounded like matte screen for the F13 models very recently, things might have changed for the better
2. no you can't get matte screen in the US (F12) for F13, see if people have reported clearly. I would wait for people who actually bought the F13 and stated it's matte finish (may be with photos)first if i were you
3. the palm rest is plastic in the F13 models i believe, if its CTO, then make sure it's premium black finish and not black if you want the rubber palm rest
4. Not sure.
5. shouldn't damage the screen i dont think
6. depends what you need it for really. Most people use the F series for desktop replacement so the battery doesn't matter too much.

You could try get one in Europe if you are desperate for the matte finish screen and rubber palm rest for absolute sure, although i should warn you it's a lot more expensive over there. If not, wait for a week or so and see how people with F13 comment on it.

 

This is some good info thanks. Now I just have to see what new F13 owners have to report. Otherwise if I do buy it now I can report back here what my new F13 has.

 

I'm living in Europe and the Sony Vaio F series is one I'm very seriously contemplating. However, I'm planning to buy it in the US (as I'll be down there in a month or so). For a similar configuration, you pay about 400 Euros more in Europe!!!

However, indeed, it does seem the Europe model is indicated to be "Premium Black" and the pictures do seem to show a camera grip palm rest. The US customizable model does seem to have the plastic one.

About the display, the US customizable model indicates it as "Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080)", so I'm not sure if it's the matte or glossy one.

Further, I'm reading quite bad reviews about the speaker quality of the F series and that is rather putting me off getting one of these.

 

Alrighty, firstly about the RAM make sure the RAM you buy is compatible. About the auto brightness, taken from here,
"1.In Vaio Control Center/Display/Automatic Brightness Settings uncheck the box that says "Adjust brightness automatically" and hit Apply
2. In Vaio Control Center/Display/Color Mode Setting, check "Do not apply color mode" and hit "Apply"
3. Make sure screen brightness is set to maximum using Fn and F6 on the keyboard"
Note that Fn+F5 will turn the brightness down.

Now onto your questions, by the way all this information is taken from the owners lounge threads so it really is all there.

1. We do not know if it is matte or glossy, a poster in the owners thread commented here on the F13 screen and said it was a great deal better than the F12 screen he compared it to side by side. That could mean a new glossy panel for the US or that the US has the same matte premium screen that Asia and the EU have. So you'd have to either wait a week and see what posters state their new F13s have as a screen or go to a store yourself and see. The F11s and F12s 1920x1080 screens were called premium in the US also so I wouldn't take anything from the wording on the US site, it'll take someone actually looking at a US F13 to see what screen it actually has.
2. If it has a glossy screen then the only way for you to get a matte screen would be to buy the laptop outside of the US or to replace the screen yourself (but nobody knows the matte screens model # yet). This said if the F13 screen really is much better than the old US version then I doubt you'd be too bothered as at least it's an improvement whether it's the matte or a better glossy.
3. From the US site I think the CTO's now state the colour as Black so the palm rest will be the plastic one and not the faux leather, for the faux leather the colour should be stated as premium black. People have differing personal opinions about the faux leather anyway.
4. Considering that there is only one HDD bay whether it had a raid chip or not wouldn't matter, that said AFAIK it doesn't and raid configuration isn't available in the BIOS although the F13 may have a new BIOS, even so it'll still be restricted. On the subject off HDD's if you upgrade to an SSD and wanted more internal storage you can follow JoeB's guide to replace the optical drive with a HDD, giving you a SSD for speed and a HDD for storage depending on if you wanted your otpical drive, otherwise you can use an external drive. The guide is linked here thanks to JoeB.
5. As mentioned above it shouldn't no. Unless very strong pressure was applied.
6. The larger battery is reported to add around an extra hour of life with a certain usage scenario, and also improves airflow under the laptop as it's raised. JoeB who was a frequent poster in the F owners lounge in thread 4 found how to disable the Vaio's checking of the battery, whether it's official or not. Unfortunately he's involved in a ban situation with NBR and so wont be able to report back for now about the large capacity battery that he ordered. He ordered a non-sony battery and if it works with the method of disabling a process I think it was then that's a cheaper option. Only problem is if that battery goes wrong it's not covered by warranty etc. If the extra +/- hour of battery life is important then get the large capacity battery rahter than risking an unproven method.

Other than that, there are many guides and helpful posts for many things such as montior calibration profiles, clean install methods and so on so just search the owners thread and also ask your F related questions there. many posters will be able to answer questions you might have, but I advise you to search the threads a little first as there are now 5 and there is a wealth of information in them, as you can imagine after that many posts, many questions will have been answered already.

 

Thanks for all of the help guys. I am going to order the F13 tomorrow. When I get it I will report back here about the screen and give feedback. I will definitely being using some of these tips and guides.

 

I have had a F11Z1E/BI, which is the same as a F12Z1E/BI to look at, and I have to say that you are wrong about the F12S1E/B being the same apart from the palm rest, when in actual fact the top cover on the F12Z1E/BI is black.

 

Does anyone know if the US f13 hd screen is any different to the f12 or if it is even the euro matte version yet.

 

If you have the funds get the lager battery.
Short battery life is the only real complaint I have with my laptop fitted with the standard battery. It was no option in the Netherlands, just a accessory for 199 euros.

 

It is not matte. It is glossy. The F12 and F13 US screens look very similar to me. Some others think the F13 may be slightly better but none of these people have looked at them side by side. Mine certainly is not any better but individual screens may differ of course. If you've seen a US F12 HD screen but cannot get to see an F13, I think it would be best to assume it would look the same.

Edit: BTW, I did see the F12 and F13 HD side by side at a store at the end of October and that's what I'm referring to as looking very similar. No one has reported an exact part number for a US F13 HD so we don't know if they are actually the same screen, but visually they looked to me like the same with just the slight differences you would see from one laptop to another. My opinion is that whether or not they are the exact same screen, they are of the same quality (for good or bad).

 

Thanks - really appreciate it. Despite being discussed an awful lot, nobody has actually got down to the bottom of it - it's been a bit like one of those loch ness monster documentaries where you never get to see Nessie

I own a 1290x us version, but live in the uk - the benefits being able to buy the 840qm and back lit keyboard which are not available here - and cheaper too!

Do you know if the new 425 graphics card offers up any difference in performance compared to the 330 at all?

 

Well it depends actually. Yes it is better than Nvidia Gt330m but not significantly. 425M should be about 5-10% faster

 

At the end of this page there are many benchmarks: NVIDIA Geforce GT 425M - Notebookcheck.net Tech Hit the "+" next to Compare/Comparison. Not all of the comparisons have the 330 card too but most do. What you'll see is that depending on your settings and what is being tested, there can be anywhere from a few percent difference to a very significant difference. So, look at what is most important for your uses and see what it says to determine if it would be worth it to you. There are also many specific game benches on that page if that is what you are interested in.

 

F13 with the Premium screen is €989 ($1285) on sony.fr. Hey, Americans, jump now, it's $1149 with FullHD in the US and $1285 with the real mighty Premium matte Adobe RGB screen on sony.fr, only $136 more, not the end of the world. You can buy with any card as long as you deliver it to some friend/relative in France.

There's a promotion on sony.fr, the base configuration is i7-740qm, 4GB, Premium screen, 320GB, Premium black, DVD, any keyboard. If the promotion dies, look on .nl, .at and .de sony sites, these are the ones with the lowest prices across EU (and you can choose the keyboard).

For Europeans: the usual price for F13 is ~€1200-1300, now it's only €989 in .fr, time to buy.

Here's what I'm doing:
- ordered the base model for €989;
- ordered a Corsair Force F120 SSD for 189 EUR from pixmania.fr (promo);
- will remove the DVD and put the 320GB HDD instead (<€20, see this link);
- will put 2x4GB 1333MHz CAS9 for €80 (sorry, that's the price in RO, even less than in the US).

So I'm getting an F with i7-740QM, 8GB, 120GB Corsair Force SSD, 320GB HDD, Premium screen, Premium black for €1278. It's like getting the SSD upgrade for free.

 

I purchased an F series last month. I replaced the OEM hard drive with one of the Seagate Momentus 500gb SSD hybrids and did a clean Win 7 install. I added a second 4gb memory card so it now has a total of 8gb.

I also ordered the 9 cell 7200mAh Japanese battery from eBay. I disabled ISBMgr.exe and added the Bios patch and the battery has been working well for the last few days with no nuisance notices.

 

Where can one get the Bios patch for a F1390X? I have downloaded various bios patches from V1.0.0.11 to 1.0.0.14 and none seem to support it. Getting that patch would save me a bundle on a second backup battery.