Vaio SA / SB negative points

I am thinking of buying a Vaio SA or SB (more likely to buy SB). Compared to others of similar price, there are a lot of things I like about these laptops but in the interest of making an informed purchase I'd like to get opinions on negative points. I will read through the long general threads on these laptops which I am sure will contain relevant discussion, but I'd like this thread to just focus on the negatives. Below are the negative points that I have seen highlighted in various reviews:

* Very noisy under load
* Relatively poor display
* Relatively poor sound
* Flimsy / not-robust screen hinge
* There is no mic input jack or combo headphone/mic jack

But users have more time to form opinions than reviewers so I'd welcome any comments (e.g. do you agree or disagree that they are significant negatives). Can you point out any other negatives? On the noise issue - I can live with noise under load but would hate it if the laptop were noisy whilst doing non-intensive tasks in an office/meeting environment (e.g. MS office software).

 

* Very noisy under load ---- definitely big setback according to me. Even in idle mode..i can see the CPUs running at high temp and the fan is noisy in balanced and stamina mode.

* Relatively poor display ---Unless you are into photography or something that requires IPS displays..I think you can live with it..Although the contrasts are not that great. The SA atleast has better resolution.

* Relatively poor sound ---This is true. The external speakers are pathetic. But if you connect your headphones and enable the Dolby option..its bearable..But you definitely have to crank up the volume even through ear phones.

* Flimsy / not-robust screen hinge ---I believe this is more of a design issue. From 90 to 70 degrees the screen is extremely loose. I suspect this was an intentional design. Other than that, the screen stays in its place and I did not experience a lot of wobble.

* There is no mic input jack or combo headphone/mic jack --- There is a combo headphone/mic jack. I have not used the microphone at all. So I would let someone else comment on that.

Just to let you know...I returned my VAIO SA a couple of days ago only bcos of the noise/heat issue. If you plan to do anything intensive..I somehow felt that the machine is not going to survive for a long time.

Hope this helps!

 

* There is no mic input jack or combo headphone/mic jack

The jack's a combo headphone/mic... i plugged my iphone earbuds in and it records just well.

I take some issues with some of the negatives though, because some of them are general to ultraportables.

* Very noisy under load
* Relatively poor sound
One word: Ultraportable. You can't expect the HP Beats Audio speakers on ultraportables man. And not many ultraportables have an AMD dedicated 6630M graphics card in it. It also has a standard voltage high-speed CPU where most ultraportables have low-voltage low-speed CPUs. What Sony gives you here is the OPTION to have speed or stamina when you want it. You can control the heat/noise output by switching to stamina mode AND reducing maximum CPU frequency in power options when you need low heat/CPU(which would still make it much faster than other ultraportable CPUs)


This are the only two i truly agree with and am very irritated by:
* Flimsy / not-robust screen hinge - REALLY irritating.
* Relatively poor display - could be better

Other minor irritations:
Black SA tends to attract fingerprints a little
No home/end dedicated buttons
flickering when changing graphics - no auto-switching
hd webcam that needs to have saturation maxed in order not to be grey.

 

Minor SB complaints-
the webcam isn't very good.. it isn't hd
the screen is somewhat movey like people have said
screen angles could be better

I haven't had any noise issues at all. laptop heat issues seem to relate to the temperature in the room

 

I personally prefer the matte black on the SA compared to any gloss. I like the smoothness and non-stick feeling when I'm typing and hard at work. Easy fingerprints but easy to clean.

 

Thanks a lot for the comments - very helpful.

Glad to hear the headphone jack is in fact a combo jack. Its not what I was told when I asked a sales rep over the phone (I was asking about about SB), but he also told me other things that were incorrect. Is it possible that its a combo jack on SA but not SB?

I suppose I assume that review sites are comparing like-for-like (ie relative to other ultraportables) when they say the sound is poor and the laptop noisy.

There seem to be reports of heat/noise being an issue even in stamina mode (e.g. yubie, 2nd post). But encouraging to hear others claim they don't have an issue (gnrtool82). I assume it could be more of an issue with SA than SB due to faster processor - does anyone have a feel for whether that is the case?

What exactly does the stamina/speed switch do? Does it just toggle on/off the dedicated graphics or does it (or can it be set to) additionally switch power plans?

 

Its a combo jack on all new Sx models. The sales rep is uninformed. btw, take review sites with a pinch of salt

 

Re: the noise and heat issue. Setting the maximum processor state to 60% (when on battery) seems to help. Nowadays, my SA's fan does not becomes audible much. It's usually the optical that sometimes power up and gets heard. And SSDs are silent and cool. It also helps that on a clean install, there aren't any fancy SONY software (specifically the media related ones) to constantly scan the harddisk for media.

 

Thanks for tip. After a clean Win install, do you add any Sony software/utilities?

 

Welcome. Tell if it works for you.

The drivers, shared library, notebook utilities, smart network, location utility, vaio update, vaio care, and vaio update.

My install sequence (based on this) is below (I religiously rebooted each time the software asks me to):

Graphics Driver
Bluetooth Driver
Ethernet Driver
Chipset Driver
SATA Driver
Wireless LAN Driver
ME (Intel Management Engine) Driver
Audio Driver
Memory Card Driver
USB Driver
SFEP Driver
Pointing Driver
Fingerprint Driver
TPM Infineon Driver
Sony Shared Library
Notebook Utilities
Fingerprint Utility
VAIO Smart Network
VAIO Location Utility
VAIO Update
Quick Web Access
Vaio Care Update


UPDATE: I've documented my entire clean install process in a new thread.

 

I've had my SB for a while now.

* Very noisy under load -- For me, it only gets loud when I'm playing games on SPEED mode. Others have reported loudness in other situations, but I've never had it get loud on STAMINA mode.
* Relatively poor display -- The display is on par with most notebook screens I've seen. It's not the best, but 'poor' is definitely an overstatement. It's one of the few matte screens I've seen in the category, which is a huge plus for me. If you go SA, the high resolution on a 13.3" is also quite rare.
* Relatively poor sound -- Virtually all notebooks have bad speakers. At least they're not located in an absurd location like I've seen in other notebooks. Use headphones or external speakers.
* Flimsy / not-robust screen hinge -- The screen does wobble and it is pretty annoying. According to a notebookcheck review, it's not an issue on the SA.

The switch allows you to switch between the Intel integrated GPU and the AMD discrete GPU. I'm not sure, but I think you can set it to switch between the Windows power plans, too.

By the way: If you're looking for more GPU power but don't want to spend extra on the SA, I suggest looking at the Samsung 14.1" QX411. For $900 you get an i5-2410m and an Nvidia GT 525m. You do get a larger form factor and lose the backlit keyboard and matte screen, though.

 

So it means I can use my smartphone's mic-headphones for (let's say) Skype?

And how can you see it's a combo jack?

 

You need a special connector which has mic+headphones built in. (it should have 4 pins, not 3). People reported the latest iphone one working.

how do you see its a combo - RTFM

 

The manual that I have downloaded (for VPCSB Series) has no mention of a combination jack. It just refers to it as a headphone jack. I also wonder how you would tell if the iphone headset mic is actually being used (versus the laptop using the built in laptop microphone, which I think is on the front below the charge and hdd indicator lights).

FYI, the reason I think a combo jack would be desirable is because there are situations when I would want a more local mic pickup than the one provided by the built in microphone (e.g. when there are people speaking in the same room as me whilst I am having a skype conversation).

 

keep the external mic away from laptop and whisper into it... and observe the recording. that way you'll know if it works or not. then keep it away and speak into the built-in and nothing should be recorded.

 

Thanks. My original list of negatives were just all the general negative comments that I had read about, and not all are significant negatives from my perspective. e.g., I am not particularly bothered about the screen or the speakers.

But noise is a big issue for me because I plan to use the laptop in meeting settings. So I am glad to hear reports that it is ok under stamina mode.
Can anyone say whether it is significantly quieter when stressed under SPEED mode with the lid down to properly expose the air vents (using an external monitor) versus with the lid up?

Build quality & design decisions are also a concern for me. I looked at the laptop in a store today and was instantly concerned with the wobbly screen and placement of the air vent. Also, the keys on the left side of the keyboard were a bit rattly (in two stores). In contrast, I thought the 2010 VPC-S1 sitting next to it in the store felt very well built with firm keys and better air vent location. However, the 2010 VPC-S1 didn't have TPM which is a must for me (built in optical drive, keyboard backlight or a downlight, 4-5+ hours battery, and 13.3" screen are highly desirable). I would rule out the Samsung you mentioned for lack of TPM.

 

Mhm..Nice to know Maybe someone should do a skype conversation with someone and tap on the Headphone's mic I think it's more accurate

I'm using Vaio FW11M now and the mic can hear lots of stuff. I mean, I got an aquarium in the other room and my friends could hear the aquarium like I'm next to it. And my aquarium isn't even loud :-/

Anyway, I'll try it when I receive my Vaio SB

 

My biggest issue is the touchpad. Physically it feels nice, but I don't like the way the mouse moves. I feel like there's a lack of sensitivity or resolution, as I'm having trouble making very fine movements with it (when I try, it ends up floating a quarter of an inch automatically instead of giving me good precision). Also, I can't get the scrolling how I want it, though I guess I could learn to use the swirling motion. Does anyone have any tips on how to improve the touchpad? Are there any drivers out there? I looked but didn't find much.

The only other issues are the speakers (though adjusting some setting has made the sound with headphones okay). Also the fact that I can't download any of my games off of Steam because of my school's wireless network (I had no idea) so I can't see the laptop handles games. But I guess that's not Sony's fault.

 

The touchpad works well for me. <s>I was disappointed with the lack of two-finger scrolling, but</s> the 'swirly-scroll' is easy to pick up and I actually prefer it to two-fingers, as I never have to lift my finger off the trackpad to scroll indefinitely. <s>AFAIK there isn't a way to improve the trackpad with drivers.</s> Try adjusting the sensitivity to your liking. I had to crank it quite a bit before I felt comfortable with it.

Edit: Two-finger scrolling is enabled with an updated driver.

 

I've tried Vaio SA/SB in 3 or 4 different stores now (including one with several setup). On one machine, the trackpad was not working well, but on all the others it was fine. I assumed the trackpad sensitivity was not set properly but I didn't try changing it.

I too would have liked 2 finger scrolling. But I think I can learn to live without it.

What is swirly-scroll?

 

You can scroll on the side of the trackpad like a lot of laptops but once you slide from the top to bottom or vice versa, you can continue to scroll by moving your finger in a clock-wise or counter clock-wise motion.

 

Actually, a user here has found some updated drivers for the ALPS touchpad that enables two-finger scrolling here, so take that into consideration.

 

I'm using those right now, kinda finicky, but better than nothing.

 

Will do. Thanks for sharing!

 

Are you sure about this? Maybe it is because I did a clean install and manually installed all of the drivers from the Sony site, but my tests indicate that it is the notebook's internal mic picking up sound and not my headset.

The VPCSA / VPCSB user guide describes connecting external speakers and headphones to the "headphones jack" (pg 109) and no mention of mic.

If it is a combo jack, I would REALLY like to get it working. As it is now, I can't take any calls / conferences unless I'm somewhere quiet.

 

I have just started using a Vaio SB. I can't get combo functionality either. I have created a new thread for this specific issue:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/607396-vaio-sa-sb-audio-jack-headphone-only-combination.html


I'll post my take on the negative issues raised in this thread after a few days of use.