Official Sony S11/S12/S13 (2010) Owners Thread

[BSalita]

Got mine today. I replaced the HDD with an Intel X25-V SSD (40GB). I prefer the greater speed and quiteness to capacity. I highly recommend the X25-V if you can live within 37GB (18GB free after install). Generally I'm pleased but there's a couple significant issues. Maybe I can work through them.

Pros:
1. Lightweight (4.4lbs) for a computer with a built-in DVD.
2. Lighted keyboard is really great. Mouse buttons are fine.
3. Fast as expected.
4. Fan noise is noticeable, a bit annoying, but not loud.
5. The automatic keyboard backlighting works great.
6. I hope HDMI can bitstream advanced Blu-Ray audio (via USB Blu-Ray drive or ripped files). I don't have a decoding receiver to verify it. If this works, the computer will do double duty as a high-end HTPC. Fingers crossed.
Update:
7. Battery lasts 5+ hours for surfing. Note that I'm using Core Win2010 power settings and a Intel X25-V SSD so YMMV. Fabulous.
8. Battery depletes at just under 1% per hour when shutdown and not powered. That's fine.
9. Touchpad supports only one and two finger gestures. One finger gestures are scroll, pinch zoom, and rotate. Two finger vertical flick support verified in Firefox as backward, forward. Two finger horizontal flick support verified in OpenOffice as page up, page down. Firefox and IE don't respond to vertical flick. Why is that?
10. Two year warranty.
11. Display is very good but out of the box settings are bad. Change the settings as described below.
12. ExpressCard slot.

Cons (mainly driver issues):
1. Anyone get a periodic display in the middle of the screen showing two icons "Save power" and "Increased performance"? It's really annoying. I haven't found a way to get rid of it. It may be related to my Windows 7 reinstall. It stays there for several minutes and overlays the top window. This is a major problem. Update: issue seems to occur only on "High Performance" power setting. Apparently it thinks there's a discrete graphics chip to switch to.
2. Battery comments moved to Pros section.
3. The automatic display backlighting is too dim. Anyone know if this can be set bumped up? I may need to turn off that feature.
4. I set the power mode to "silent" which is suppose to avoid fan noise. Unfortunately it doesn't work well enough because the fan turns on and off every minute. Again I'm using "high performance" power mode. Another mode may be quieter.
5. I thought I read that "Blue Label 2" would require slot loading DVDs. This computer has a tray. Not a big deal.
6. I thought "Blue Label" required an eSata port. There isn't one. Inconvenient.
7. The Intel Wireless Display feature is a real disappointment. See my next post.
Update:
8. Display has a narrow vertical viewing angle. This is a very common problem with notebooks.
9. Display is preset to pretty bad color fidelity. It's really important to reset the display. Try these values.
Right click on desktop -> Graphics Properties... -> Display -> Color Enhancements
Brightness: 0
Contrast: 52
Gamma: 0.9
Hue: 0
Saturation: 7
10. Warranty appears to be USA or Canada only.

[BSalita]

I'm disappointed with Intel Wireless Display (IWD) + Netgear Push2TV device. It's inadequate for discerning home theater users. The resolution is limited to around 1280x720. That's not bad but the image looks pixelated and there are frequent artifacts. I'd rate it as cheap DVD player quality. When playing a Blu-Ray, the sound frequently went out of sync. I ran my tests with the notebook about 8 feet from the Push2TV device. IWD feels like the 1.0 product that it is. Perhaps it will improve with time.

I used Media Player Classic and Blu-Ray discs for testing. Unfortunately, using WinDVD 2010 with IWD completely freezes my computer -- my only choice is to hold the power button to reboot.

There may be room for improvement by using other software players or player settings. We need more user reports.

IWD is probably pretty good for business presentation use but it's not the home theater solution that is being touted.

[SSJ]

You forget there are other brands making notebooks.

From the top of my head the Z will still stand out with its (larger) SSDs, the 330m graphics card, much better screen and the auto switching stuff. There probably is more, but it's late and I'm too tired to really think much. :P These are pretty interesting aspects and make the Z rather unique.

Isn't the Z's buildquality on another level?
This would be quite a shame if it is the same buildquality as the S/SR-series....

[Solinx]

4. I set the power mode to "silent" which is suppose to avoid fan noise. Unfortunately it doesn't work well enough because the fan turns on and off every minute. Again I'm using "high performance" power mode. Another mode may be quieter.

First off, thanks for listing the pros and cons
Now I must admit, you lost me on point 4. You have the power mode set to silent, while at the same time you're using the high performance power mode? Are those two different power modes?

@SSJ:
Yes, the used materials and construction are indeed another difference. As for the buildquality itself, it depends on the qualities you look for. I've seen customer reviews that point out the weakness of the screen of the Z and say that therefore the SR line, being more sturdy, is actually of higher buildquality.

[dubbs]

....When playing a Blu-Ray...

I used Media Player Classic and Blu-Ray discs for testing. Unfortunately, using WinDVD 2010 with IWD completely freezes my computer

Wait, our S has a Blu-Ray rom? I don't have one so I couldn't test that. If so that's cool, but I don't know why they didn't advertise that at all on the box or anything.

[dubbs]

I think the battery drain issue is when the laptop drains battery even when the laptop is off.

Have you experienced any battery draining with your S-series? I've heard horror stories about the SR-series draining about 30% of battery life overnight when it was off (Turning it off at 100% at night and waking up the next morning with 70%).

Also, there doesn't seem to be any battery drain--guess they fixed that problem. Will test again tonight I suppose.

[Rollerfreak66]

Picked up my s series yesterday and so far am very happy with it.

I needed a laptop with decent battery life with the mild ability to play some games and the i5 chip has really exceeded my expectations

First thing i did once receiving the laptop was go home and do a fresh install of win 7 64 bit pro. Not that there is a noticeable amount of bloatware when u first get the notebook, but its just nice to have a fresh install.

So far:
- Im impressed with the keyboard, (have never used a chicklet style before)
- backlighting feature of the keys is extremely convenient
- the overall quality of the notebook is quite high, with the exception of a loose battery (im not worried of it falling out, but if you shake the notebook a tiny bit u hear it moving a little bit more than i would like)
- Hulu streams perfectly
- i play Aion, which is a pretty graphically demanding game and the i5 runs it much better than i had expected (med-high at 40fps)
- battery life is pretty decent, looking at approx 5-6 hours on balanced
- touchpad and buttons are also pretty nice to use, not too clicky

these are my quick impressions so far, ill write more in a few but i gotta run out to lunch.

if any1 is curious about anything ask, and ill get back to ya later

[BSalita]

Update:

1. Battery life while surfing is 5+ hours. That's really great.
2. I fully charged the battery then shutdown and removed the power. In the morning I found the battery discharged at just under 1% per hour. Even with that, I got five hours of surfing.

[BSalita]

Wait, our S has a Blu-Ray rom? I don't have one so I couldn't test that. If so that's cool, but I don't know why they didn't advertise that at all on the box or anything.

There's no built-in Blu-Ray player. To play Blu-Ray, either attach a USB Blu-Ray drive or play a ripped Blu-Ray.

[Avor]

Update:
I fully charged the battery then shutdown and removed the power. In the morning I found the battery discharged at just under 1% per hour. Even with that, I got five hours of surfing.

So the drain problem is still there, isn't it. Too bad =(