Vaio Flip: the Yoga hinge comes to Sony

Here's another review. of the vaio flip 13 this time Review: Sony

 

Btw, the Lenovo Yoga 11s now also seems to be available with Haswell (at least on Amazon Germany). However, the only option right now seems to be a model with i5 4210Y, 8 GB and 128 GB SSD for 999 EUR. Maybe there's more to come... I do like the way the Yoga folds, and I like the orange color. But even with haswell, battery life is only listed with 6hrs...

http://www.amazon.de/Lenovo-IdeaPad...XF&s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1381956173&sr=1-15

EDIT:

And the Yoga 2 Pro seems to be shipping from tomorrow (available in different configurations from cyberport Germany)...

For example:
Intel® Core™ i5-4200U Prozessor (up to 2,6 GHz), Dual-Core
33,8 cm (13") 16:9 Touch LED Display (3.200x1.800)
8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD
Intel HD 4400 Grafik, HDMI, USB 3.0, WLAN-n, BT
Windows 8.1 64 Bit, battery life 9 h, 1,4 kg
1.299 EUR

Looking at battery life and weight, this could well be an alternative to the Flip... especially since I don't really care about that pen...

http://www.cyberport.de/lenovo-idea...56gb-ssd-qhdplus-windows-8-1C31-2GT_1688.html

 

That has been posted already However, i think the battery is pretty good. They tested it on 50% brightness and continuous loop of Wifi browsing test, which lasted almost 7 hours. Videoplay back with 720p movie will most probably land on atleast 8, if not 9 hours.

 

About the battery life: Could it be that they will offer an additional battery? As far as i know this option exists on the pro/old fit models? 200-300g extra but double battery life , would be amazing for me.

without this option and just 6 hours, the flip 13" (i7/256gb ssd) i offered will suck and i could straight send it back.
in that case anyone knows an ultrabook with 13" 8/9+ battery lifetime and no problems like ty wifi, flexing keyboard or noisy fan, these things are more important to me than the digitizer ?

 

I don't know these benchmarks in detail, but maybe it's because their Flip is equipped with a HDD instead of a SSD and the other contenders in the benchmarks are SSD-units.
The HDD could be a problem in terms of noise and power consumption too.
Another thing i suspect to draw the (relative) small battery is the screen: Some reviewers call it "very bright" with good viewing angles. I guess it's an IPS-panel, which would be a potential battery-eater.

My biggest fear so far concerns the glossy screen. I can't work with the laptop if it's a mirror... And i don't want to ruin the quality of the screen with a matte display protector.

 

According to the Sony UK live chat support I asked yesterday, there will be no additional battery available, unfortunately.

Like I said, Yoga 2 Pro could be an option. You'll have to wait for reviews regarding wifi, keyboard and fan though...

 

Buddy one powers a 5.5" 720p, the other a 13.3" 1080p screen + different silicon = different wattage draws etc etc...

 

Why sony ? why? with this option the flip would be "light and thin" with a small battery and "low" battery life but if you want it to last longer you can just add the additional battery and everything is fine, everybody would be happy

 

Drat was hoping they would have one available. Just about every other laptop they sell has one, why not this one? I was going to watch the teardown video to see if the charging points were apparent on it, no point now I suppose.

 

Ya..that was the point I was making. I would assume the one powering the 13.3" 1080p screen should have a way bigger battery storage capacity...yet the battery they chose to put in is similar to the one powering my 5.5" 720p...so obviously battery life would suck.

Hope the Anker Astro Pro2 external battery works for this laptop (has the correct tip)....gonna be a necessity if you plan on taking it out to a place without a wall charger.

 

Acer s7 392, great battery, no wifi problem, sturdy, silent. Check out the reviews, seems to be a really nice machine. Gonna pick mine up tomorrow and cancel the sony

 

There are definitely better alternatives than the sony flip if one is not looking for dedicated graphics + above HD + tablet feature. Actually dGPU + tablet feature is rare...if any

 

But the price... I have to pay $800-1000 more for Acer S7 392 here in Sweden :/ Even though it's the same configuration (almost)

 

outch, here in switzerland it's almost the same price (and we even have the 2560 x 1440 display on the s7) if you don't include the 25% discount i got with the sony. So afterall i also have to play about 400$ more but the above mentioned benefits make this more than worth it

on topic:
13A Pen use: VAIO Fit13A - First use : Music, VDO, VAIO Paper with Pen - YouTube, minute 3.40 and ongoing you can clearly hear the very annoying fan, also the delay of the pen is quite huge.

 

The uploader says, with regards to the fan and input lag:

Yep, because i set this PC to High Performance, that's why fan is so loud,
if set to balance it's will be OK

Hi, Mardorst, after read your comment and back to check, I found some error in driver conflict of Intel Graphics card.
Real Production should be fix this problem and may be less laging after driver fixed.

 

I'm going to the Sony store on saturday to see if there is demonstration units on display, I can try to debunk my doubts. Fan noise and battery life isn't a major deal breaker to me, I'm more looking at if I like the device. Coming from a 5-6 year old Sony Vaio laptop, anything is an upgrade.

 

I just canceled my order for the 13A Flip, since I'm not sure anymore that this is the right device for me. I'm a student and what I need is good battery life and it shouldn't get too loud - I'm learning most of the time in a library.

This doesn't mean that I rule out the Flip - I'm just not a fan of trying devices at home and sending them back afterwards. I'll just test it in a local store, together with the two alternative devices I'm thinking of at the moment (my requirement: convertible + digitizer): Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga + Surface Pro 2.

Of course the latter two will also have their drawbacks, apart from being pricier than the Vaio Flip. We'll see..

 

fobboy is correct -- HDD or SDD should have no impact on the graphics benchmarks. Were those benchmarks for the Flip 13/14? If so it might be possible that the memory in the 13/14 is only single channel. Single channel memory would definitely have an effect on integrated GPU performance since the GPU uses the main memory. (This is never an issue discrete GPUs which have their own graphics memory). But I'd be surprised if this is the actual reason. The Duo has dual channel soldered onboard, and I would expect the Flips to have it too, but you never know.

 

Duo 11 had dual channel, Duo 13 has single channel. In the benchmark we saw the Duo 13 perform better than the Flip unit they had.
Well, i guess we should not overrate benchmarks with a unit that doesn't have the final drivers etc. Although we should continue to observe it

 

Actually the ram in the Duo 13 was confirmed by Sony tech to be dual channel. This issue was raised because the product page made it look like it only was single channel -- something like "8GBx1". But Sony tech confirmed that it is 8GB soldered in dual channel. I think I recall the 4GB config is also dual channel, but I'm not 100% sure about this.

 

i think the lag is mostly from the software used.

 

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but after some serious searching I came upon a site that had the Thinkpad Yoga cited as the "Thinkpad S1 Yoga" with the i7-4500U and the HD 4400 clearly displayed third photo down. I'm heartbroken. I was desperately hoping for the HD 5000 or 5100 as an option, but that seems unlikely now.

Thinkpad S1 Yoga高清图赏 屏幕可360°翻转_新闻频道_美丽天下网

 

sorry for the crazy link >.<

 

And then I found a crazy Brazilian site with screen shots with i7-4650U AND HD 5000 graphics! This must be out there in English somewhere. Why have I not found this??

Blog Lenovo Brasil | For Those Who Do

 

i'm not denying that... it shows that sony throws out half finished products which could have been brilliant if they took 2 months more time. I'm not willing to spend 1500 dollars for a product that MAYBE will be worth it's money someday...

 

Looks like it's available for pre-order in the US at store.sony.com. Only one configuration: i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD. $1600. Estimated ship date of October 30

 

Was more thinking that if you use oneNote or something then the lag will be significantly less. I tend to never use the manufacturers software, its most of the time not as good as third-parties software.

 

Sony said the Flip will come with Nvidia Geforce cards. Does anyone know what card that is? Is this going to come preinstalled with SSD like the Pro/Duo?

 

Only the 15A has an option for a dedicated GeForce 735M, everything else is integrated HD4400.

The Flips are also on Sony Canada's website for order as well, custom configurations only (which are non-refundable). The base 13A starts at $1150, base 14A at $850 and base 15A at $900.

 

The program works with only minimal lag for me (but definitely a more noticeable lag than e.g. Onenote) on the Duo 13 (albeit an i7/8Gb spec). There's got to be something else going on, but it's hard to believe even on a base spec it'll lag that bad.

 

Looking at the status of my order at sony there is no difference for the whole time.. Packing item, will ship when ready.. Hmm.. according to the dates it should be here the 22nd or 23th.
Looks like there not gonna make it !!! :-(

 

Jag vet. Acer Aspire S7 är riktigt jäkla dyr här i Sverige om man jämför med andra länder och främst deras internetbutiker...

 

Jo, den datorn är riktigt jäkla dyr i Sverige. Tråkigt, enligt mig är det den bästa du kan få.

 

Here is a small user review for the 15A & the digitizer.
Confirmed: Sony VAIO Flip 15A definitely an option for Manga Studio users

interesting point... still no real answer about the photoshop support pressure...

 

No, whoever wrote that didn't actually test the Flip 15A as it wasn't available in the Sony Store they visited, rather that it was available for preorder.

Their assumption that the Flip 15A will be a good option for Manga Studio or Clip Studio Paint is based on their experienced using those software on the Duo 13.

 

my bad .... I actually misread the post , and thought he tested it on Vaio 15.

 

Honestly, I don't know why everyone is freaking out over the flip. The reviewers had an hdd and a 15 in model. I'm getting the 13 in model and with the SSD and a smaller screen, the battery life should be better, the fan noise should be reduced, and it will be more portable and easier to use as a tablet since it's smaller and lighter.

 

well maybe because most of us want to get a 15 incher?

there is many options for the 13 inch with digitizer but for 15 inch, only vaio flip and r7

 

atm there's just one review of the 13" flip from arstechnica and in my opinion its not a good review, to short and not thoroughly done. I'm waiting for good sites like anandtech or notebookcheck to come out with their verdict before i freak out =) Or a thoroughly done user review here! Im supposed to get mine here between the 23-25 oct. I've ordered the 13" with 128gb ssd, i7, 8gb ram and black finish. So if nothing pops up i could do one also. Never done one so you guys probably have to come with suggestions to what i should test and such ;D

 

Scandinavia really is ridiculously expensive when it comes to technical stuff (I am from Germany, but have lived in Scandinavia before, which is why I understand Swedish ).

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Has anyone received any message from Sony regarding shipment of the first orders? According to the order confirmation, shipping should take place 22nd or 23rd of October, which is tomorrow or the day after. However, I have not received any news... so either they are shipping tomorrow, or there will be a delay...

 

Unfortunately no news from Sony here either. However, from past experience they usually keep the shipping date. So let's keep our fingers crossed

 

Same here, expected delivery between 22nd and 23th .. but no shipping info on received .. Still packing..

Fingers crossed..
Hopefully they will send them out with 'real' couriers, then they still can be on time..

 

I think I read something about TNT when ordering, but not 100% sure if I remember that right.

 

If it is TNT then we won't receive our order on time .. At least my experience with TNT ain't so positive..

 

Interesting, does yours say 'shipping' (ie the third tab) or still on 'preparing your order' (ie the second tab)? I ordered on the 8th and have the faintly ridiculous delivery window of "between 10/10 & 23/10" quoted! Mine is still at the 'preparing your order' (since the 8th). Interested if yours has moved on.

 

Mine is still at the 2nd tab (even though delivery is scheduled for 22nd-23rd).

 

preparing your order.. (but than in dutch 'Klaarzetten van uw bestelling' ) that is the only status I have seen thus far!
So don't worry .. we don't see any different then you I am afraid!!

But the 10 up to 23 .. that's a big window..
Mine is just 22/23 ..

 

Same here, still at the second part. Last time when I ordered my DUO13 (also TNT) it was there in time, took them 2-3days from Japan to Germany.
Dont know if they ship it from China or Germany this time. Two days left and I dont have a good feeling.
Ah I need a Notebook, Uni has already started :x

 

I keep hope as I've heard they are normally accurate in their timing!
But on the other hand.. If delayed would we be notified somehow?!

Or is it all ' Thanks for ordering! If and when possible we will try and deliver!'