Vaio Flip: the Yoga hinge comes to Sony

Thanks Franek, for the extra info on the WiFi router. :thumbsup:

TS out

 

I wonder if there's some kind of noise absorbing padding that could be placed somewhere inside the laptop (perhaps on fan casing or heat sink) to reduce the fan noise ?

 

Hi folks, how long does the flip 15 with i7, dedicated graphic card, and 8ram last normally？ （From your daily experience)
If it is able to last 6 hours, I would really consider to buy it instead of Thinkpad Yoga

 

@twospirits:
Could you please do a quick test for me?

My university usage scenario involves 3 hours of lesson in the morning, then a 1.5h lunch break, then 4.5 hours of lesson.
I would like to get a tablet pc to take notes during all my lessons, so in theory I'd need at least 7.5 hours of battery life.
I was thinking that I could get the Flip anyway if it manages to charge its battery quickly during the break.

So the test I would like to ask you to do, if it's not too troublesome for you, is this:
- Start from 100%, and use it as you normally would (but please no heavy usage)
- After three hours, take note of the % left
- Shut it down and plug it
- After 1h 10m, turn it on and take note of the % of battery.
- That's it. Post the two percentages.

If you could do this test I'd be very grateful, as I'm on the edge between getting the Flip, the Duo 13 or the Thinkpad Yoga. It all depends on battery life!

 

For me it's kind of the same. I need about 6h straight. I thought of an extern battery pack like the Anker® Astro Pro2. When I got my flip 13 and the battery life isn't good enough I will get the pack.

 

Are the SSD / HDs upgradable in this Sony device? Not sure if Sony has decided that the HDs/SSDs are soldered in or are they upgradable? Trying to decide whether I should get a 1TB HD/16GB NAND flash versus a 256GB SSD. Trying ot see what the differences are and what the pros/cons would be.

 

Look like 13a uses small sata ssd, similar to macbook air (look for OWC aura pro ssd),
14a and 15a uses simple 2.5 sata. Right now its bettet to upgrade 13 in sony store, and for 14/15 by yourself

 

Funny I almost did this yesterday but I forgot to write the numbers down. It did end up being 5 hours and 38 min before I plugged it back in to charge and the battery indicator said 6% left. I doubt I'll get back home early. Right now I'm at the Thor marathon and the last movie ends about 11 Pm. But ill make sure to do the test if not tonight then tomorrow early.
TS out

 

LOL, our video editor is processing it now. Should be up in an hour or so on YT, and on our site tomorrow.

 

Awesome Lisa, Thanks!

Your review is pretty much going to determine whether I trade my surface pro 2 in for a 13a or the Duo 13. Cant wait!

 

Just curious, why are you returning the pro 2?

 

According to the tracing my order has touched europe.. Is now on transport out of Liege.. Looks to me on time for a delivery tomorrow!!!
At least I hope.. right before the weekend.. Then I can do some playing and I'll sure write a review if wanted
13' i7 8GB 265SSD

 

I purchased it with the requirement of a fast pc with a digitizer. However the one hurdle that I wasn't sure I would be able to get over is the one that will have me replace the system, its screen size. I overall love the pc, its fast awesome and just an overall fun system. However I use this computer for work and I just need more screen real-estate.

If the surface pro 2 had a 12/13 inch model I wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

yeah I was going for the surface pro 2 but the screen is just too small to work with it

 

That battery pack sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure if there's a connector available for the magnetic plug of the 13A.

 

I'm still wondering about the screen issue. $300 is a decent investment for a "nicer" higher-res screen (2880x1620), but would I run the risk of having things be extremely small? Anyone know? I wasn't sure if the actual font size/graphics/text would be changing because of the increased screen resolution as compared to the normal one. There was another report of whether the 2880x1620 screen actually looked good or just scaled everything so small that it was not usable. Hmm... if only Sony would start shipping out their custom configs, so at least someone can review if the 2880x1620 is much better or actually much worse.

 

What do you guys think about using a solar power to charge the laptop on the go?
This way the vaio flip basically is extended for a few more hours...
Like this one here on amazon: Solar Charger for Laptop

 

I find it interesting that Lisa was getting a bit more battery life in the review. I wonder if its my settings that are stopping me from going over 5 1/2 hours.

TS

 

Got a link to the review?

 

I wish I could buy your Surface Pro 2.... What are the specs of your SP2?

 

Sony VAIO Flip 13 Review - YouTube

 

Windows does allow you to scale font and other things to make it easier to use with higher res screens. It's something I noticed that is lacking with Mac OS when I hooked up my dad's Mac mini to a HD tv. We keep the resolution at 720p instead of 1080p because otherwise it's impossible to see the text. Pretty much makes the point of connecting via HDMI pointless.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Really? Darn... I thought you could scale back without any probs. Argh. Is this the case for all high res screens or just particular for Sony?

I originally assumed if you don't like the higher resolution, you can always go back to the smaller resolution (1920x1200)? In the event that I do purchase the higher resolution and do not like it, all will still be fine right? However, I guess this is not the case?

 

Hi twospirits,

How does the pen perform in legacy program like Photoshop and CoralDraw? I get that it work with OneNote and all, but I think the problem is with the legacy stuff as they only have WinTab input. I am wondering if Sony has implemented the driver update.

 

I think you misread my post. It's only a problem for apple macs.
Here's how to make things easier to read in windows 8 without changing the display resolution.
http://mobile.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/software/3446402/set-correct-font-size-for-display/

You can still lower the resolution if you want to, but then you do lose the benefits of having a higher res screen.



On a good note, looks like my moaning has paid off! My 15A is finally in production.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah, that's what I figured. But, what I was intrigued by with high res was that it would be clearer in comparison to the same resolution (maybe more DPI?). For instance, let's pretend that we have two 15" monitors, one at the normal resolution and one at the high resolution. Obviously, the normal resolution would have LARGER sized text/font/graphics in comparison to the high resolution. This makes sense because we're talking about just the dimensions of the resolution. Low resolution = larger sized everything (less ability to see anything), high resolution = smaller sized everything (but with ability to see MORE)

However, if we were to both zoom in at one point for both screens and scale it to the same thing (like both monitors are viewing the same graphics/font/images at the same size regardless of resolution), then would we see a difference? Imagine if you had two laptops and you were zooming in on certain text and so forth, would you see a difference now that we have two different computers with 2 different internal monitor hardware setups? Although the res is different, I'm just focused on at that one particular scaling where both monitors show the same size of text/graphic. That was more of my concern because I knew going with the higher res meant that everything would be smaller... but would they be clearer/crisper/smoother -- is what I'm trying to define.

If not, then what IS the point of a higher resolution? What do people use higher resolution for in comparing two same sized monitors? Does "better/superior" hardware (giving the ability to see increased resolution) have anything to do with it... or is it just all marketing? Would I see any difference in reducing the resolution or zooming in at the same point if I did a side-by-side comparison of the two monitors? Would one be more clear over the other, or would I see the same scaling/DPI/sharpness? Hope this makes sense, lol...

 

You would definitely see a difference in the sharpness of the display if you put two same sized screens with different resolutions together.
If you put the same picture on both screens, you would have to zoom in further in order for the picture to look the same size on the higher res screen.
The main thing would be that the higher res screen, with a higher pixels per inch (PPI), would have smaller pixels and it's harder to tell the pixels apart. The images look less like they're made out of lots of dots.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

These huge delays, the dissapointing communication from Sony and an average product (it is at least for me - the noise and the below average battery life is just not satisfying) made me cancel my order. I would have expected more from a big company like Sony. Shame on them!

At the same time I bought the new Surface Pro 2 with the new Type Cover. I'll use it mainly at the university for note taking and I think that it'll suit my needs perfectly. The only downside I can see right now is, as you mentioned, the screen size but I can live with that. The Surface is also is lighter, more compact, has Wintab drivers and is available right now.

 

Would you say this would be a good thing or bad thing? My goal was to get crisper images despite me having to probably zoom in A LOT (if I went with the high res one). But I certainly wouldn't want to sacrifice quantity over quality.

 

I just received my Flip 13A, finally!!! (and actually a bit early, the original message after shipping from TNT and Sony said monday Nov 11). Not tried it out yet, only unpacked it, it looks pretty awesome, the hinge mechanism looks really sturdy and the power adapter is really small as well (because sometimes you get this really light laptop with a really heavy/bulky power supply).

I paid 1175 EUR for a 13A with i5, 256 GB SSD, 8GB RAM and the stylus pen included (in Germany, it's included in the 13'' models), so I'll see whether it's worth that money...

 

A good thing if you want crisper images. It's the same reason I went for my nexus 4 over a phone that was the same size as my desire z. I saw that a lot of phone screens were the same resolution as my old phone despite being bigger screens and they just didn't look as nice.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Got mine today as well, will the same configuration. Looks like Vaio Update is not working right now in Germany and i couldnt find drivers on the german homepage either
Still it is running and looking good.

 

Look forward to the early impressions and some photos.
Can you guys please post a photo of how far back the screen goes when in laptop mode.

 

I can't post a photo right now, but I just tried and in laptop mode it doesn't really go back at all, maybe like 1cm further than the "classic" 90 degrees laptop position.

 

Thats what I feared, do you find your self trying to push the screen back in the short time you have used it?

 

initially you can open indeed as Ally1234 said .. but you can push it further .. it is quite resistive but eventually you can get at probably 120 degrees in 90 being straight up..
I have no need to push it any further then this max!!!

 

Hey Ally, since you have the pen with you, I am wondering if you are willing to test this out with legacy program like Photoshop and CorelDraw:
http://www.n-trig.com/files/WinTab_Setup_x64.zip

This is n-Trig's WinTab driver (which they hide), want to see if pressure is enabled in those legacy program.

 

It's not a bug, it's a feature (cit).
It's made that way to decrease screen bouncing when touching it.

 

Has anybody on here gotten the 14"? My quest for a PC with digitizer continues and couldn't keep the 13A due to the fan noise. If anyone has any first hand input on the 14, it would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, looks like Best Buy will soon carry the Sony Stylus.

 

i just got a mail from sony saying they're sorry that i might got multiple delivery dates.
also saying the last mentioned date is correct. well i got no date at all ^_^
and a voucher for 25% for vaio accessories

 

Same thing here !
now need to know if there is anything useful to buy with it !

 

Same here, I'm going to use it towards a spare charger.

Shame I can't use it towards an SSD upgrade.


Martin

 

Regarding the fan noise issue, according to mobiletechreviews the CPU usually runs very cool, problem is the fan is always on. Would someone who has the Flip already be willing to try install SpeedFan and see if it will detect/control the fans? this could be an easy fix to the fan noise and if SpeedFan works then I am definitely getting this laptop.

 

Would I see a difference if I zoomed in a picture/document to the same scaling (same size) if I compared them side by side on two screens (one normal res, one super high res)?

 

I, too, was wondering about using SpeedFan to control the fan if that is a problem. Has anyone been able to try this yet? If anyone has advice on how to best configure the program for use with the Flip, that would be very helpful.

 

Most probably yes.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Got that too, would prefer a date though! Online account says its in production but no email to say otherwise.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

What differences?

 

The higher resolution screen should have smoother edges. A similar comparison would be printing out an image of a fixed size at 70dpi and 300dpi, or seeing the same image printed in a magazine and in a newspaper. Or even compare on 2 smartphones with same screen size and different resolution.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

i opted for the higher res so i can have more stuff open.
1080p is not enough (thats why i have three 23 1080p screens)