Official Sony VAIO F Series i5/i7 owners thread *Part 3*

[Willscary]

Anyway, im real happy with my F12, even if it was pink, so im sory if i was trying to help and was misunderstanded, maybe it was my fault, and my english isnt good to the point i cant explain myself

I will not mention the screens anymore, but i make one last post with some pictures of it tonight. so you all can decide if you should keep pressure on Sony to get better screens or if you are all happy with them.

Gandolf,

My screen (US 1080p) is great! There is very little light bleed and it is better than my Dell premium desktop screen was. Is it PERFECT? No, I am not so sure there are many electronics that are absolutely perfect.

That said...you say your screen is PINK? My screen had a pinkish hue until I used my Huey Pro to calibrate it. Now it has great color. As Joe has stated many times...I also learned many years ago to calibrate all displays. Al lof my TVs, along with all of my family and friends' TVs have been calibrated by me. All of my family's computer moitors have been calibrated, again, by me. This is a very important step.

I wish that displays did not need calibration, but for some reason, they all do. I do not understand why all of the manufacturer's do not run a 2 minute calibration program on each display (TV or computer) and save the profile in an EPROM. It is strange that we spend a lot of money on a display and the colors are never correct...no matter how expensive or how good the display is.

Most displays can be calibrated to where they look stunning. I have never seen one that is PERFECT after calibration, but they do come very close.

As Joe has repeatedly said in his posts...if you want a decent display, CALIBRATE! If it is still aweful, then return it.

Bill

[bigriderfan]

[QUOTE=zebra3;6393787]No returns of CTO models? I think that's only in engraved cases. Or maybe outside USA.

The warning about Engraving during the CTO selection process says:
"Please make sure your spelling is correct as shown. Engraved notebooks cannot be returned. The 30-day return period does not apply to engraved products. These products may not be returned for refund or exchange unless they contain defects in materials or workmanship or are otherwise returnable under applicable warranty provisions."

However, in the fine print of the Shipping & Returns policy it states:
"2. Can I return my SonyStyle.ca purchase?
...
All Customized Computers •All sales are considered final. We offer exchange or repair on defective CTO models."


They will be doing a lot of repairs/exchanges if they don't at least come close to delivering (after calibration) on the following claim under their Display selection section:

"VAIO Premium Displays
A VAIO Premium Display is a Full High Definition display. Premium displays allow you to enjoy the clarity and brilliance of a 1080p High Definition viewing experience wherever you take your F Series notebook. Whether you're viewing a Blu-ray Disc™ movie, gaming, viewing photos, or just plowing through your workload, Premium displays deliver an industry-leading viewing experience marked by super-crisp hi-def detail, richer colors and a brighter picture."

[To no End]

Hey, if somebody is gonna spend so much money anyway...might as well get the colour you want! R8 in all black please. Thanks!

R8 in black!!! hahahahaha....Good choice!! I test drove one of those late last year. They're cheaper than a Gallardo with more or less the same engine and have lower scheduled maintenance costs.

[MelodyMaster]

What i was trying to say with my previous post was that you guys shouldnt be satisfied with a good product if you are paying for a premium product.
.

The F11/F12 is a BUDGET notebook. It is at the cheapest price point and construction possible while offering high-end features. The Z-series and such is Sony's PREMIUM line of notebooks.

[MelodyMaster]

[QUOTE=bigriderfan;6394272]

No returns of CTO models? I think that's only in engraved cases. Or maybe outside USA.

The warning about Engraving during the CTO selection process says:
"Please make sure your spelling is correct as shown. Engraved notebooks cannot be returned. The 30-day return period does not apply to engraved products. These products may not be returned for refund or exchange unless they contain defects in materials or workmanship or are otherwise returnable under applicable warranty provisions."

However, in the fine print of the Shipping & Returns policy it states:
"2. Can I return my SonyStyle.ca purchase?
...
All Customized Computers •All sales are considered final. We offer exchange or repair on defective CTO models."


They will be doing a lot of repairs/exchanges if they don't at least come close to delivering (after calibration) on the following claim under their Display selection section:

"VAIO Premium Displays
A VAIO Premium Display is a Full High Definition display. Premium displays allow you to enjoy the clarity and brilliance of a 1080p High Definition viewing experience wherever you take your F Series notebook. Whether you're viewing a Blu-ray Disc™ movie, gaming, viewing photos, or just plowing through your workload, Premium displays deliver an industry-leading viewing experience marked by super-crisp hi-def detail, richer colors and a brighter picture."

Yah, so what's the problem? The display IS full 1920 X 1080 full motion HD, as "crisp" as you can get; the colours ARE accurate and very pleasant (though not 100% Adobe and the one-lamp CCFL is blindingly bright when auto-brightness is disabled.

[Joe Bleau]

...Yah, so what's the problem? The display IS full 1920 X 1080 full motion HD, as "crisp" as you can get; the colours ARE accurate and very pleasant (though not 100% Adobe and the one-lamp CCFL is blindingly bright when auto-brightness is disabled.

+1 -------------

[bigriderfan]

Just as long as I get the "industry leading viewing experience" and not the "move your viewing angle slightly and the picture looks like experience".

[mangosango]

Thanks Mango,

For me the Sony Control Center looks like this:

+ Display (no options just)
- Display settings ( Monitor - Resolution - Colours )
- HDMI Resolution Settings
- Long Battery Life Wallpaper ( :/ wat )

No mention of auto brightness. Which version of the control center do you have? The very latest one?

Hmm that's so strange - I have the one that came pre-installed with the computer (version 4.1.0.10160).

You may want to download the control center off of the sony esupport page (Sony eSupport - VPCF1190X - Software Updates & Drivers for my F11 - VPCF1190X). The Control Center is available on the Drivers page under the Notebook Control and Utilities section as part of the Original Sony Notebook Utilities download.

Good luck

Here is a screenshot of my Control Center:

[Joe Bleau]

An interesting read: Roundup: 2.5-inch Hard Disk Drives with 500 GB, 640 GB and 750 GB Storage Capacities (it's recent: 2010-06-16 & 11 drives are compared). The Hitachi 7K500 won the Editor’s Choice award. There is interesting data to help make a decision considering speed/power needs/storage capacity.

I live in Costa Rica & 4 months ago a US friend was coming to visit me & offered to bring some stuff that I needed to ship to him besides my_F11. My first choice was a pair of Hitachi 7K500's but for some online ordering/shipping address limitations, I could not ship them to him. Got a pair of Seagate ST9500420AS 500GB 7200rpm instead and so far so good with excellent benchmark results but for a similar price & capacity the Hitachi 7K500 is faster & has a lower power consumption @ idle (.91 vs. 1.15 Watt) for better battery life in the 7200rpm class when surfing or doing light work for example.

While the start current power consumption is higher, in the rest of their tests there is no significant differences except for the Seagate's 2.59 vs. 2.21 Watts sequential read consumption. More info in the Roundup's Power Consumption page.



BTW the power consumption data for the Seagate 5400rpm 640 GB and Scorpio Blue WD7500BPVT-22HXZT0 with 750 GB are quite surprising considering their large storage capacities & are good candidates for a secondary HDD in the ODD bay if aimed at storage.

Naturally if you can afford it, nothing beats a large capacity SSD. Price drop, where are you?

[ddmeightball]

Just took the plunge and bought my own Vaio F12 (my friend is buying one tonight) on the SonyStyle.com website!

I got the educational discount plus got express shipping since I chatted online with a customer service rep. I noticed, and when I chatted with the rep he confirmed it, when you choose a warranty (2 year or 3 year) you get an additional promotional discount so I went ahead and chose that as well. This is the educational, USA side of the site btw.

I tried calling Sony 4 different times to see if I could get a better discount and was told each time, by different reps, that I would have to purchase at least 3 accessories before they would give me a discount greater that the student discount I was already receiving. Oh well. I am happy with what I got.

I plan to comb the unification posts again now that I have my own Sony to configure. Can't wait for it to arrive!

Product: US-VPCF1290X-LBOM
Component: Standard capacity battery
Component: Intel® Core™ i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
Component: 16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080) (Reg. price $100.00)
Component: NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
Component: No Fresh Start
Component: LED Backlit Keyboard
Component: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Component: Blu-ray Disc player
Component: No Engraving
Component: Adobe Creative Bundle
Component: Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (30 Day Trial)
Component: Black
Component: Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
Component: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
Component: 500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
Per Unit Price: $1,376.54
Quantity: 1
Total Price: $1,376.54
Description: VPCF1290X Configure-to-Order
Ship Method: Express
Estimated Ship Date: 07/06/2010
Extended Service Plan: 3 Year Express Ship Service Plan for Notebooks
Price: $161.99