Vaio Flip: the Yoga hinge comes to Sony

This is kind of the difference between Apple and Sony.

Apple's patches didn't make much difference either. But because Apple released a patch, everyone (bar part-time owner-users like me) assumes the problem is fixed even when they're still having pretty much the same issues. It wasn't just for the Sony I carpet-bombed my house with AC access points.

 

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5100655?start=1680&tstart=0

According to this thread, the issue still exists and the fix didn't really fix the problem. Some seem to gave up on waiting and bought a WIFI USB instead.

 

It's definitely the VGP-BPS40, you can read it from 1:37 - 1:39 when they zoom in on the insides of the notebook. It says "RECHARGABLE BATTERY - VGP-BPS40". Is it definitely the 13'' version they are taking apart? How disappointing is that...

 

However, when you look at this spec sheet, it says "VGP-BPS41" for the 13'' model...

http://presscentre.sony.eu/ImageLibrary/DownloadMedia.ashx?MediaDetailsID=264514

 

I think VGP-BPS40 refers to the 15" on the US Sony site.

 

I think I'm slowly realizing that these Sony Flips are not the droids I was looking for! It has the correct form-factor and design, correct OS platform I need, and digitizer pen for annotations, but it appears to be greatly hampered by a ridiculously low life battery :-(

 

Live chat support on Sony UK says:
14'' and 15'' have VGP-BPS40, 13'' has VGP-BPS41, and that "the 13" has slightly more battery life, it is between 7-8 hours"

Specifications on Sony UK also say it's the VGP-BPS41:
Model Name VGP-BPS41
Battery Type Lithium polymer battery
Weight (g) 202
Battery capacity (Wh) 35.325 Wh

 

Ethernet port + 2 USB ports = Flip 14.

 

Thanks for the info!

But apparently, the BPS-41 which the 13'' model has is even smaller than the BPS-40 of the 14'' version... *lol*

 

The unit in the video has no camera on the back. I thought only the Flip 15 has no camera?

 

I might wait till i see some reviews on the 13A (should pop up within this week i guess), but so far it doesn't sound good at all. This is so disappointing since this could have been a perfect ultrabook. I'm already looking at alternatives though since i'm 90% sure that sony screwed this up (with noise and battery life). I'm close to buy the Acer S7 392 now, it's available here and for 1900$ i get a 2560x1440 display, i7-4500U, 8GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, a 6280mAh battery and a completly silent ultrabook!

 

Always had an eye on the XPS 12 as it seemed a nice unit. Only problem is IMO the sliver surround/support for the screen looks terrible! Was playing with it in PCWorld and hated it - IMO didn't seem sturdy enough and kept reminding me of plasticy flex. I appreciate it is no doubt of metal construction and your opinion will differ, just the reason I held out. Otherwise the reviews have been very good, except the high price I think.

 

The big problem for me with the XPS 12 is that it was a boat anchor - and it's still a boat anchor. Given the weight disparity between it and other cutting-edge convertibles (or between convertibles of a similar weight which offers more bang somewhere) I'd definitely expect it to be built well, and I've been quite surprised for an XPS (which, notebook-wise for me at least has been synonymous with 'fall apart on demand') that it is - zero problems on mine to date. But the mass and the continued lack of digitiser support means I won't be refreshing when I give the '12 12 a 'meh' sendoff soon.

 

Ah, fair enough. I didn't realize that. Also, lots of new ultrabooks these days seem to have WiFi issues, even the first batch of Yoga's had bad WiFi.

 

I've preordered a 13A, i5, 8 GB ram, 256 GB SSD and 4 year warranty for $1400. Think thats a really good price for an innovative product likes this. I am not that worried about the battery life as many here are. The battery seems to be similar to Vaio Pro 13 . A friend of mine has a Vaio Pro 13 with i7, and the batterylife is really good, sometimes up to 10 hours in light use. A review i read showed that a video playback of 720p movie lasted almost 8 hours in 150 cd/m2 brightness. An Vaio Pro 13 with i5 would have even more battery life. Personally, i would be happy if i get 7 hours in a similar test. Thats more than enough for me.

 

Higher ampere wouldnt necessary mean higher Wh and higher battery life. The simple formula for Wh (battery capacity in one hour) is Voltage*mAh=Wh. So a laptop with really high voltage and low mAh could have similar Wh as a laptop with low voltage but high mAh. However, the "term "Wh" is a far better formula of understanding battery life, and is basically the only thing we need to know. For example, if the battery is 60Wh, and the computer only needs 1 W, then the computer could last for 60 hours, or only 1 hour if the computer needs 60 Watt. So the only thing we need to look at is the Wh.

A Sony Vaio Pro 13 has 38Wh, and reviews with an i7 CPU, SSD harddrive, shows that the battery life is still really good. So an Sony Vaio Multi-Flip 13A with i5 processor, SSD and 36~38Wh battery would (theoretically) have atleast the same batterylife, if we would assume that the motherboard or some other component wont consume more energy.

 

Although battery might be 'just' 6 hours and perhaps the WiFi is not up to par and unstable (don't understand me wrong as I am worried about it !!)
But I never use a machine 6 hours straight ..so in 'normal' work mode you would last longer, and although you aren't supposed to, I can always but in a mini USB wifi adapter for 20 euro.. and wait until the wifi problems are solved, if ever ...

Again don't understand me wrong I expected better from a 'big' company like Sony but real life tests should provide the 'real' answers.. Another week and we will see several reviews passing I guess!!!

 

Can anyone tell me how much the choice of the processor contributes to the battery life (at energy saving settings, not at full power)?

I ordered the 13 inch model with the i7 processor, but since I highly prefer a longer battery life, I would change my order to one of the lower ones (i5, i3).

So I guess it's i3 > i5 > i7 in terms of battery life, but how much are the differences?

 

Just order a 13a i5 8gb 256 gb pcl. Im not too worried about battery as this model should last at least 7 hours. Hopefully the fan noise isnt too loud while watching youtube or light gaming. Also hopefully my laptop doesnt have a defected wifi and if so, hopefully it can be fixed. If it isnt, then i always have a 30 day return policy.

 

So let's do the math for the 13A: Sony JP:

, Wh of the 13A: 35,325 Wh -> 35,325 Wh / 9W = 3.925h... The Vaio Pro 13 has (according to Sony JP) only 5W consumtion, that gives it 7,6h, which seems to be true in normal-low usage.
So I have no idea why the consumption of the 13A is so high, but i don't think that sony got their facts wrong and they're delibaratly not showing the battery life of the 13A because it's so embarrassing!
Might as well cancel my order right now...

 

I was just doing the same calculation. *lol* This is really depressing... why would you sell a supposed-to-be ultraportable device with an awful battery like that?

Oh well, I'll just have to see, maybe there is some battery miracle after all...

 

According to the specs site that number is the consumtion during idle (no tasks in background) which quite high. As for the 14A it is 11W and if calculated the same way the results would be 4 hrs without any tasks running, therefore I don't think it works that way,

 

Lol, didnt know that they had provided numbers for the power consumption. However, i think the 9W is to much for an i5 at 1.6 GHz. It may be the i7 at 1.8 GHz (and higher turbo boost asweel)... I'm really hoping something is wrong here I wont cancel my preorder yet, waiting for the reviews for 13A.

 

Well it might be with WLAN on and display brightness on a normal setting. But the calculation definitly works like this, sorry to inform you So either sony got the consumption wrong (why would they?) or it really is this bad.

 

I'm thinking of preordering the Fit 13 or 14, need some more reviews, battery life and noise is not much of an issue. Other than that, the reviews so far have not brought up anything that would be a deal breaker. Nice_shoes, real-life and usage conditions change how long your battery lasts, so basing how long a battery would last on pure math would be forgetting the external factors.

 

But something is wrong then, because here they say that the battery life is about 12 hours! - ƒXƒyƒbƒN | VAIO Fit 13A | »•iî•ñ | ŒÂlŒü‚¯ | VAIOƒp[ƒ\ƒiƒ‹ƒRƒ“ƒsƒ…[ƒ^[ | ƒ\ƒj[
Thats really hard to believe. However, their numbers for the 14A and 15A seems to be in coherence with reviews... Hmm

 

You guys have to take into account that they were using hdds not ssds

 

Review of the 13"
Review: Sony

I don't know, the review doesn't hold high class, felt like it was written in haste and not thought through. I rather wait for notebookcheck, anandtech or a user review.

 

We had this already: The 12h are based on the JEITA Test: What is JEITA A measuring standard? : FAQ : Sony Asia Pacific, so basically 12h in sleep mode

I really don't see any hope anymore, so i ordered the acer s7. I hope they stick to the flip design and build an awesome second gen out of it. But they clearly ed up here...

 

interesting, seems like battery isn't an issue after all (at least for the US version, that is...)! But the fan noise is still killing it for me

 

The bad

Despite aluminum and plastic construction, the laptop is overly flexible throughout
Screen is bright and colorful, but slightly grainy
Lid lifts computer off of the surface it’s on while open, and the hard plastic standoffs make the laptop less stable on a hard table or desk


The ugly

Fan spins up with very little provocation, making the Flip noisier than most competing Ultrabooks


that kills it for me, 3 things that I hate the most; wifi issue, fan noise and lid that lift off the laptop when open. Why!? sony why!?

I am more toward xps 15 now even though there is no digitizer or maybe wait for macbook pro haswell to come out

thanks Sony, you ruined it, yet again

 

second thought. I am more interested about the refresh R7 haswell., hopefully they fix the wifi issue. Anyone has anything bad to say besides to its form factor?

 

Yep, that review made sure that the fan noise is inherently part of the flip.

After my Dell XPS 15 fan disaster, i've made next-to-nil fan noise top priority. Unfortunately this device doesn't hit the right notes for me. :/

 

how bad is the fan in XPS 15? do you think the new xps 15 haswell will have the same issue?

 

I have a Dell XPS 2013 (Haswell) and unfortunately I can report glitchy wifi as well - frequently disconnects from my work and home networks while other computers do not have an issue. Maybe there's something to the earlier suggestion that Haswell machines have wifi issues.

 

My XPS15 is the sandy bridge version (i7-2630).
It's been noted the fan noise is an actual problem, there are many posts about it if you Google it. It will roar even if you load a webpage AND have silent settings.

I can no longer game on it because it will always crash from insufficient cooling.
I had a temporary solution to underclock the gpu(gt540m) using MSI afterburner, but it ended up not being good enough to game on. Dropped gaming on it entirely.

Personally if i was ever given the option to purchase another Dell, I would stay the heck away. Their customer service is offshore in some south-eastern country; useless support.

I wouldn't know if the haswell refresh is any better, sorry. :/

 

I was big fan of the convertible design and thought sony got most things right with this one but below average battery and slow SSDs and above average Price killed this laptop for me

 

13A:

VAIO Fit 13A - Camera & CamScanner - YouTube

VAIO Fit 13A - Hinge & Swing - YouTube

VAIO Fit13A - Display Scratch Test - YouTube

 

I looked again at the teardown video : Sony VAIO® | Flip PC Teardown - YouTube

the battery is like you guys described the VGP BPS40, also its say 15V.
so here is my queston as 15" flip got 19V charger VGP-AC19V76 the baterry should then be 19V also no ?
this could mean more battery life.

Anyway, I have MBPr aswell battery life is not crazy maybe 5hrs when using it.
I don't see why people that are after a 15" model with i7 + Discreet Graphic Card + Lots of RAM (16gb) are hoping to get crazy battery life. I dont think that it's possible just yet.
of Course i am pretty sure 13" / 14" flips will have a pretty fair battery life , if used with SSD, and maybe i5...

 

Shame, shame, shame, looks like will have to wait till next year for the Flip 2.0 when they iron out this year's issues. Real shame about the fan and battery life.

 

I ordered 128 to get only 60 GB , I hope i will be able to do a clean stripped, install, move recovery to USB, disable swap (with 8 Gigs ram), and since i have SSD disable hibernation files, so i could get 110-115gb for my stuff.

 

Read through the Flip 13A review, yeah the 802.11n wifi module is no good, performance drops way off from 10 to 30 ft distance. That is completely unacceptable, Sony knows they have had WiFi issues stemming back from awhile now and the Pro and Duo 13 ownership community has been very vocal about their problems, absolutely ridiculous that not only has Sony not addressed them but seems to be carrying the exact same problems through to their next line of ultrabooks.

Yeah, this is generally known, I believe a 128GB Surface Pro comes with only about 80GB of free space, rest is taken up by Windows... most people recommend you get a 256GB SSD these days to get any real usable space.

Anyways, very disappointed with all the Flip reviews so far, looks like another typical case of great Sony design but very poor execution. Form over function will never win out in my books, I think the Thinkpad Yoga is pretty much the only option I have left.

Sony really went aggressive with the base-pricing on these units but I was playing around with the customization and as soon as I start optioning in components that would actually make the system useful for me (i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD etc.) the prices literally explode.

 

I think i will be able to strip down system to 10gb with this
Create Reduced Size, Automated Windows 8 Installation CD
and this
How to Increase the Free Space on the Surface Pro | Pocketnow
I will let you know final size

 

Explode how? In my market it's slightly cheaper than a Barbiebook Air in the same i7/8/256 trim. Is Canada magically different?

 

Well, here in Sweden i preordered Vaio Multi-Flip for a really good price. As we have high taxes, the prices are higher than other parts of the world, however, i payed $1400. Sony Vaio Pro 13 for instance with similar configuration cost $500 more. Acer Aspire S7 with similar config costs $800 dollars more... So there is a really huge price difference for me, really hoping that the 13A reviews for Multi-flip will be more positive.

 

The Flips are not on Sony Canada's website yet, I played around with the customization on the US site and the the Flip 15 for example, when you add in an i7, 8GB RAM, 256SSD and the higher res screen and all of a sudden it's an extra $1000 on the base price of $799 up to $1799. Or it might be the 16GB RAM option I can't remember exactly, but that still seems pretty hefty.

I think the 256 SSD upgrade alone is an extra $380 and going to an i7 is $350 extra, that seems a bit much to me when those individual components costs substantially less. I understand there's a markup but those are Apple-level markups which is also why I'm staying away from Apple for my next system (I have a 4+ year old MBP right now).

 

So? Do the same with a Dell. You'll probably end up in the same place.

Off discussion but the 15A doesn't really make sense to me - given that it's a relative behemoth with a U and a lower-midrange GPU. I understand the GPU given Sony's track record but you'd think they'd sling a quad core in there or something.

 

Sony VAIO Flip 14 Review | Laptop Reviews

seems like the 14 inch is the best option right now according to this review

 

Why do the FLIP have such poor graphics benchmark performance when compared to its competitors? From the link above, the FLIP graphics benchmark has the worse score out of all its competitors yet they use the same integrated HD graphics 4400. The difference isn't negligible. Sometimes its worse by 50% or more. Some of the difference might be due to the 1080p, but the DUO is also 1080p and yet it also consistently performs worse than that model.

And what's with the 3170 mAh for the battery? My Note 2 smartphone has similar juice at 3100mAh.

Sony had so many things right with the convertible flip design, beyond HD display, dedicated graphics and 15"...if only the few deal breakers weren't there (wifi, battery life)....

Unfortunately...the flip is the closest thing I'll get this year to what I'm looking for.

 

Sorry for saying this, but are you really that stupid?