Vaio Flip: the Yoga hinge comes to Sony

Yes, it was set to 150%.

Just tried and it worked! Awesome! Thank You,JtheChemE!!!
Sold the duo so there isn't a stylus to test. I tried with the Samsung wacom pen from my samsung ativ 500T but it didn't work ;-( ( yeah I knew they are two different systems but I was desperate :-(

 

Welcome to the forum,
To me it feels fine typing and as long as one does not pound the keys there is hardly any flex.
I've posted a video of the keyboard flex below.

Finally. I really love her reviews. That is so awesome. Curious to know what size she is going to review though. it would be nice if she did both the 13A and 15A.

Anyway, I ran the battery test last night and it came back as 5 hours and 48 minutes, but i am unsure if I did it correctly so i currently running it again. I figure by early evening tonight I'll get that result and post it. It really is hard not doing anything with the laptop running these tests. Its like restricting a kid from eating candy.


As for what accessories I bought, so far its a shoulder bag and the stylus holder. I created a accessories list in Google Drive, but haven't finished it yet to post up. In the meantime here are the links to the bag and to the stylus clip.
Shoulder bag - US Amazon or UK Amazon
Stylus Clip - US Amazon or ebay (can't find it in UK Amazon)


TS out

edit: just realized that pdagal is Lisa, even more awesome. :thumbsup: and its the 13A (i was busy typing this post and so many were posted before it.

lol You weren't the only one. I did that too. Also desperate.
ironically I bought a Galaxy Tab 7.0 yesterday and got a stylus that Sprint was offering for it the ifrogZ. ironically enough it works on the 13a. But I wouldn't recommend using it for the art apps on the laptop or photoshop since the tip is big and round.


TS

 

Thanks, TS, for all things that you have been sharing. i'm going to order the clip for the stylus as well. ( The duo 13 came with a nice stylus clip holder I wonder why they took it away from the flip )
Btw, what camera that you used to record the video?

Thanks,

 

No biggie. just an average joe which loves this stuff. As for the camera, just the regular camera from the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. btw, side note, it totally blew my mind that Lisa from MobiletechReview posted. Her reviews should be the template for others to follow.

also as for the clip, it drives me nuts that manufacturers have a good thing going and just don't implement such little things across the board. The stylus holder on the Duo is one example. As simple as that holder is, by being hidden and able to pop up when needed, I can't seem to understand why the Flip didn't incorporate it.
So in my search of accessories, I figure maybe use this USB stick, but wasn't sure how big the hole was.

but that would only work if the A; USB was plugged in all the time, B: if the hole was big enough for the pen
still, it won't work when in tablet mode on ones lap or carrying it around.

Then I found the stylus clip that looks like it would work. being that it stretches from one side to the other and seems thin enough to allow the display to still be used in viewer mode and tablet mode. But I won't be sure until it comes in a few days to really test my theory.

ok battery test is done and this time it showed 5 hours and 28 minutes. So unofficially, between the first test of 5 hours and 48 min and this one, It seems that 5 1/2 hours is it. Hopefully we will get more accurate results from the upcoming mobiletechreview tests.

TS

 

Ok Here we go…

The order has moved to the next status!!!
Production ready, handed over to the shipping partner.. (loose translation of the dutch text)
So I am on the 3th tab of the sony order system

Let's see how this is going to progress!!!



edit: But no tracking code as of yet

 

Thx mate! I still cannot understand why the Duo has so much more batterylife. It is nearly the same system with haswell and all. Maybe the poor wifi of the Duo saves battery - lol

 

Thanks twospirits for the battery tests and all the valuable updates.

Shame Sony went with with such a meagre battery, portability on the 13A is inadequate at 5h.30mns for all day use away from a power socket :-(

 

Thanks TS...yeah pretty disappointing for the battery life which seems to be the only real dealbreacker (for someone of course)...but the test is made on what activities?? I mean 5:30 hours doing what? Waching videos? Surfing? Thanks

 

Does the 14" flip have a larger battery? After the battery life results I'm considering changing from a 13 to a 14 with an ssd.

 

I only did the test as per the instructions that were posted a while back. Just ping a site and ran the battery app and didnt do anything else. At this point I'm hoping a update may help out much like what just happened with the Surface Pro. That update improve the battery life. Regardless, I would rely on this unofficial simple test thst I did and look forward to Lisa' more in depth analysis over at mobiketechreview later this week.

 

Darn spell check. I mean I wouldn't rely on this simple battery test.

 

Got excited and checked mine - no change. Phoned Sony to check - another delay, now the 6th - 14th November delivery window as delay due to "stock not being available". Continual joke of CS with no information being provided unless asked. Good luck with yours, keep us informed!

 

So, what does 'in production' actually mean? If indeed it did go to production, does this mean they have slowed / shut down the production line to wait for the parts to come in? That sounds like great way to run a factory. Or does "in production" mean that it has been put in the system to be produced...and it will come out the other end when we get round to it. Seems rather odd that a laptop should take over a week to go from one end of the production line to the another. It took Audi less than that to build my car!

Similarly, 'shipping' will mean: we've asked the kid from the warehouse to come round with a trolley, when he can be bothered.

Mine went to production on the 29th Oct (13A, 8gb, 256 SSD). No change since. It still says, estimated delivery 26/10 to 6/11. Well, that ain't gonna happen.

 

The 13,14,and 15 all have the same small 3100mah battery. Suppose you get a lil more battery time using SSD

 

What's the magic going on in Cupertino anyway?? How is possibile that a MBA 13" can last for 13 hours and this one goes on for 5:30, 6 top...that's disappointing... With 10 hours of battery life this would be THE ultrabook/convertible

 

From Sony Website:
13A-Battery Type : Internal Lithium Polymer Battery (VGP-BPS41 3140mAh)
14A-Battery Type : Internal Lithium Polymer Battery (VGP-BPS40 3170mAh)
15A-Battery Type : Internal Lithium Polymer Battery (VGP-BPS40 3170mAh)

According to laptopmag, a 14A with a spinning disc...

"Battery Life
Thanks to its 3,170-mAh Lithium Polymer battery, the VAIO Flip 14 has enough power to last almost an entire workday on a charge. On the LAPTOP Battery Test, which involves continuous surfing of the Web with the brightness set to 40 percent, the notebook lasted 7 hours and 17 minutes, beating the thin-and-light average by nearly an hour"

I'm guessing a primary variable is going to be screen brightness. Anyways, looking for more empirical methodology soon to come from other reviewers. I'd be satisfied with 7ish hours, but I'm so used to my Duo 13 lasting all day, I don't even bring my charger when I leave home in the morning.

 

What's really strange is the 'marketing specification' of the battery life according to Sony's website. It's as follows:
13A: 6 hr
14A: 4:45 hr
15A: 6:45 hr

And that with all having almost the same battery and the 15 inch model has a much larger screen. Does anyone have any idea how this is possible, íf it's possible?

 

IfrogZ is a capacitive stylus, so you won't see any great performance from it. If you are looking for a cheap n-Trig stylus, Amazon has the stylus from the old HTC View/Flyer for $10. They also do free two day shipping with prime. I have that stylus as well as the Sony one, and there isn't a significant decrease in performance. Although the Sony does have slightly smaller latency.

 

I'm pretty dubious of all those estimates. Not sure why the 14A has such low life in comparison to the 15A. I don't generally put much stock in the manufacturer estimates, especially when each screen size has so many individual configurations. I have a 15A on order, and if it actually gets 6.5 hours, it will probably replace my Duo 13.

 

In this case I've chosen only configurations with i5 processor and the two larger computers with mechanical HDD's, so it shouldn't differ this much. I must say I never believe in these estimates either but normally it can give a good comparison between models of the same manufacturer.

This review says the 15A will do 5:07 hr but I guess we'll have to wait to see for ourselves...

 

Hi all,

I've been following this thread and after my latest phone call with Sony I decided it was time I shared my situation.

I have ordered the following conficuration on the 11th of October from the Dutch Sony web store:
13,3" Vaio fit multi-flip, silver

• Intel® CoreTM i7-4500U 1,8 GHz
• Windows 8 Pro
• 256 GB SATA Flash SSD
• 8 GB 1600 MT/s DDR3L-SDRAM
• 33,7 cm LED, 1920x1080
• Digitale stylus
• No Wi-Fi- and VGA-dongle
• Warranty extension to 4 years

Estimated delivery time: 29/10 to 30/10.

So far so good.

On the 29th I received an e-mail stating that the production of my system had started and that it would be shipped between the 2nd and 7th of November. The status on the website is still 'delivery 29/10 - 30/10' and in green 'production of your system has started in our factory'.

I called Sony on Thursday (31/10) for some explanation. I did not get too much information out of them other than that there were some problems and they were now solved.

Yesterday (3/11) I sent an e-mail to customer service, stating that the delay, but especially the lack of communication from Sony is not acceptable from a company of their stature. Got a confirmation they would (try to) reply within 24 hours. Not having received a reply yet, I decided to call again. Apparently the person I got on the line was working on that very reply (he recognized my name). He had another nice surprise for me: my unit would not be sent before the 10th of November. Shipping will take another 2 to 5 days. This got me even more displeased. Especially since configuring an identical system in the store right now gives an expected delivery date of 19-20 November!!!!!!

He went on about production problems and the lack of information from the factory to them. They had 'already' escalated the problem within the organization. It can't really satisfy me. At least they would send me a voucher for compensation. We will see.

I still want the machine, but the fun of ordering early and receiving it before it's in the stores is gone completely. I'll keep you posted about further developments.

 

No idea what 'production' mean in this case. Mine has been in production since the 10th Oct the same as some other folks on here. Estimated delivery was from the 10/10 - 23/10! Oddly the little green line that recently popped up stating "your order is now in production in our factory" or words to such effect has now gone too. Does this mean they have finished the laptop and are waiting for Jonny with his trolley to come pick it up, or 'we got half way, ran out of parts so stopped and are waiting again'?

The only definite thing known is that Customer Services definitely knows nothing!

 

Ordered on Oct 8. (13A, i7, 256 SSD; 8GB) and Sony said they would ship it on Nov 7. Should arrive on 11th or 12th October. Kind of said, estimated shippind Date was 22/23 October and I still waiting to use it in University.

 

Well, if you order one with a 2880x1620 screen right now, delivery will be somewhere in 2014 (yay!)...

 

same here, now i am desperate to have an ultrabook (living without one from last 2 months). After hearing all the issues with Yoga 2 pro I was hopeful about flip 13 but now even doesnt seem a good option. perhaps I will go with Yoga 2 pro

 

Got a voucher for € 50 to use in the Sony store, valid until the end of this year. It's better than nothing. Still, I would have preferred to get my Vaio sooner.

 

Weird that it differs between the two with mechanical drives, battery life should be much better with an SSD, I put one in my old laptop and got an extra hour or more of battery life just by using the SSD

 

Hi

I hope the fan noise won't be a thing on the 15" model.
I couldn't find anyone who got his 15" model so far.
Only a customer question saying it hits the stores 7 November in the us.

I've ordered this configuration from Sony.de - in prodution since 28 Oct
Intel® Core™ i7-4500U 1,8 GHz
8 GB 1600 MT/s DDR3L-SDRAM
128 GB SATA Flash SSD
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 735M 2 GB
39,5cm LED, 2880x1620
Stylus
Black
+ free 4 years warranty
1400€

Sadly more RAM is only an option with a bigger drive but i got an external 2.5" 2TB drive for storage.
It's strange though that only 59GB of the 128GB Drive is available for use.

 

How did you manage that? I also ordered from sony.nl but the costumer support told me they cant give away any 'free' stuff.

 

I didn't directly ask them to give away anything. I did write an e-mail describing my annoyance with the situation (without using abusive language of course) and asking them how they are going to explain the delay and lack of communication on their part plus how are they going to alleviate my dissatisfaction.

 

Is anyone in the US able to get this free warranty? I seem to only see European orders with that on their order.

 

you could only get it if you placed an order till 21 Oct. after that they had a free RAM upgrade (4GB to 8GB).
(for all vaio notebooks)

 

Hi,

It is important to be aware that not only the mAh counts. Besides that you need the number of cells used (and there voltage. But that is in general about 3.7V).

The best way to compare batteries is in Wh.
Looking to some Sony sites in Europe you can see:
13A has 35,325Wh
14A and 15A has 47,55 Wh
So 14A and 15A have about 34% more battery.

Using the values you have above and assuming 3.75V per cell (seems Sony does this) we can see that Vaio 13A has a battery with 3 cells while 14A and 15A one has 4.

My guess here is:
13A -> SSD
14A -> HD
15A -> SSD

Taking in account that the battery of 15A is about 34% larger I would expect an improvement of more that 12,5%.
So either the test of the 15A was done with the High Resolution screen or the extra components like two SODIMM, Ethernet and other extra Ports consumes a lot.

The 14A, taking in account it uses the same battery of the 15A, takes quite a hit here.

 

On the german Sony website it says:
battery life up to:
-5.5h (15A)
-9h (14A)
-8.5h (13A)

 

A few new reviews out now for the 14a

Sony VAIO Fit 14A multi-flip review | PC Pro

Sony Vaio Fit 14A multi-flip, design originale con anima poco brillante - Autonomia - Pagina 6 - Tom's Hardware

 

Another email from Sony: New shipping date Nov 8 - 13. This is getting ridiculous, I guess they'll just keep moving the shipping date whenever the deadline comes closer.

Already got a Yoga 2 Pro this weekend (it is available in grey by now in Germany) - but the puke-green-yellow is a serious problem, otherwise that could have been a great option. But I'm not gonna pay 1300 EUR for a laptop that is not able to display yellow. So gonna give this one back and wait if Lenovo is ever gonna be able to fix it or change production to a different panel.

Not too keen anymore anyway, since I've experienced Windows 8.1 - it is SUCH an effort getting used to it, it keeps doing things I don't want it too, and I never know how to get the settings the way I want them to be. Probably gonna take me a few weeks to figure everything out, which is why I'm quite happy with my good old Windows 7 laptop now.

 

I would have cancelled the order already, and possibly ordered again later, if prices hadn't gone up so much. Kind of worried that when they finally do deliver, I'm not gonna get it for the same price as when I ordered (1175 EUR vs. 1399 EUR now for some config, i5, 256 GB, 8 GB RAM).

 

The battery results from that first review matches mine. 5 hours and 48 minutes. But the second review, ouch.

Well I received the stylus today, as well as the shoulder bag, ( shown here) and hdmi to vga adapter. The stylus clip is still in transit though.
According to the stylus instructions I should take out the stylus tip and put on the supplied one in the bag, but for the life of me, I am having a hard time pulling that darn thing out. Anyway, I set it up at work and used the stylus and so far I like it. But to be honest, I still like the Samsung Android wacom stylus better. I also attached the hdmi to vga adapter and hooked it up to the kvm switch and Plugable UGA-2K-A usb to vga/dvi/hdmi adapter for multiple monitors. It took a reboot to accept the drivers but it works perfectly.

The only issue I have is being that the extra monitor at work is 1280 by 960 and the home monitors are both 1440 by 900, and transferring apps between monitors is not even and will take some time to get used to.

TS out

 

My thoughts exactly, also you'll lose the free 4 years warranty.

I got an email just now that shipping is delayed to 9-11 and 14-11. Also the greentext stating that production has started disappeared on my sony account.

 

Hey guys. Been eyeing the Vaio Flip for awhile now. Now that it's out, I would like to purchase one. Been deciding between 8GB vs. 12GB of ram. Anyone know what would be the advantage (or disadvantage) over one or another? My friend has a Vaio Duo w/ 4GB running at 80% memory usage, so it seems like Win8 would be a memory hogger to me. Anyone think 12GB would be too much or probably be at a disadvantage as well? I noticed it was one stick 4GB & one stick 8GB. Thanks!

 

Wow, 80%? I'm using windows 8.1 right now and it's 'only' using 42% of the 4GB installed. That's with only one tab open in chrome, but even with 15 tabs opened, photoshop with three projects and a lot of background processes I've never come close to using all my memory.

And ofcourse you can always upgrade your memory yourself if you deem it necessary in the future. In the 14 and 15 inch versions Sony uses normal SODIMM DDR3 memory modules if I'm not mistaken. (WARNING: not possible in the 13A!!!)

 

Yeah, I wasn't 100% sure if it was worth it to go with the 12GB over the 8GB. I will be getting the 15A Flip in a Silver color. The strange thing is that my friend uses his Vaio Duo 13 daily, and we always work with a decent amount of Windows (OneNote, PowerPoint, multiple browsers opened at same time, etc.), and I see his memory usage at around 60-80% in the task manager -- which sounds crazy to me. He's using Windows 8 and hasn't upgraded but I doubt the upgraded would cause memory to be affected that much. Hence, I wasn't sure if 12GB would be excessive. My goals were to eventually use this laptop for audio editing. I just wasn't sure how intensive Windows 8 can be. I also use Microsoft OneNote a lot and it has to deal with large chunks of graphics and information. I figured with inking and the stylus, this would draw up a lot of memory consumption, so...

 

There is a new review out there for the 15A:
Sony VAIO flip 15 | Computer Shopper

 

What specs did they used ?
didn't see it on their review ...

 

I wanted to purchase this laptop today. I just wanted to ask about the fan noise. Is it on all the time or only if you're doing something intensive.

I used to have an HP envy and the fan noise on that was unbearable. It was on all the time, even when I was just browsing.

Thanks.

 

Hmm i am confused that some of you are getting more delay.
Since yesterday mine is shown as "sent" in my Sony account. I did not get a email with the tracking code though.
Placed my order on 10th Oct. with 13A , i5, 256SSD, 8GB Ram to Germany.

I will call the support in the afternoon after to work to find out what this is all about

 

Same here, no tracking number although the status is 'sent' since yesterday..
Ordered on 8th Oct. 13A Black i7 256SSD 8GB, the netherlands.

Don't know how long it takes between the status change and receiving a tracking number.. But until I have a tracking number I am not confident that we are running into another delay..

 

What I don't understand is why almost all of these tests are based on the relatively heavy 15" version or the lowest 14" configuration. In my opinion the Flips strongest and most interesting version is definitely the 13". Due to its very competitive weight it will be a lot more usable as a tablet and its flip design will shine a lot more. Waiting anxiously for the review from MobileTechReview.

 

Well that depends what you intend to use it for !
Personnaly , I will use for Desigs Jobs : Photoshop / Light 3D renders / Music / Etc.
The 15A is perfect on paper :
Large Screen / Digitizer
16Gb RAM
2Gb Dedicated Graphic
SSD
>= 2kg

the specs of the 13A are well to low for my usage !
the 14 dont have sense in my opinion as its missing the specs of the 15A otherwise it will have been just a perfect machine

I do agree on the fact Reviews until now are just useless !
I'd like to see an Full Specs 15A review, but i guess , I will receive mine before that happens....

 

The thing is, that the tests so far don't seem to be aimed at the work you wish to do, but more towards the hybrid capabilities of the Flip. In that respect it is strange, that they don't choose the 13A for their tests.