Official Sony SB/SA/SC/SD Series Owners' Thread

[bob6789x]

Mr MM mentioned a few above. I also really don't like the look of Lenovo's, but that new X1 looks really sleek! If you end up going the MBA route, they will be upgrading to Sandy Bridge next month, so I would obviously hold off until then. Honestly there really isn't very many fully comparable laptops out there right now, and really there aren't any. If your not liking some of the SB aspects I would fully advise against going Acer/Asus, I have had many of them in the past few years and they make the SB look like a million dollar notebook! When the MBA upgrades to Sandy Bridge, they will only have integrated graphics, so if that's an issue..

It's a nice laptop, but I wouldn't consider it in the same ballpark as the SB. The build is more mainstream that the SB is, and it obviously only has integrated graphics. The SB is way nicer and much better equipped IMO.

Can't beat a MBA in weight and rigidity. Also the screens are better than **MY** SB maybe not everyone's and is higher res at 1440x900. I am a follower of Macrumors so I have seen the SB rumors and would most likely wait for that. The integrated graphics would probably be ok enough for my casual gaming uses on the go. Can't really say the SB is better equipped is a fair statement given the MBA came out in october? and is lighter/thinner, they are basically two different classes of computers. I do agree however on your statements about acer being way behind Sony. My SB is certainly a fine windows based machine as a whole, just has a few things that trigger my pet peeves.

it is your pc going from sleep into hibernate. it needs some time to copy contents of your memory to your hard drive. depending on the size of your memory and the speed of your hard drive, it might take a while. if that bothers your, you can go into your power options and disable hibernate option for whatever power plan your are using.

This makes sense because it does usually say resuming windows a lot after it has sat a while. However, that is the DUMBEST default option EVER. It takes 20 seconds to "resume" windows for me and about 15 to boot it fresh. The windows logo doesn't finishing building on boot with my SSD. Using the SSD and 8GB of RAM I would think it would go to hibernate faster than the average 1 minute it runs with the lid closed. I just disabled hibernate, but don't know if I will notice it again if I end up returning it this weekend.

[bob6789x]

For anyone curious about battery life I thought I would post an update.

Using the slice right now I have had the laptop in "hibernate" from 8am until noon and it woke up with 100% battery around noon. I have since used it for 2 hours and 45 minutes with 82% battery left (slice 64%, internal 100%) and it is estimating 12 hours left. This is with school use sitting in a classroom with the laptop being used every couple minutes to type a couple lines of notes. So it appears 13-15 hours is possible during extreme light use and my brightness is between 50-75% most of the time. When I start clicking a few webpages the estimate drops to 7-8 hours on top of the 3 hours of use it has already. This is also under stamina mode with power saver selected in power plan.

[officer_hardass]

So has anyone in Canada actually received their SB CTO yet? I'm so tired of waiting.

nope nada nothing

[dragonmagician]

I tried emailing Sony to get an update on my order, but I did not get any reply yet; I guess they don't reply to emails.

I tried calling as well, but didn't know which option I was supposed to press to get the correct person to speak to; not that it matters, as some of you who called seem to be getting incorrect information anyways.

Estimate for new SB CTO is now May 9; I wonder if my 3 week old order will arrive by then.

[area306]

Yeah mine is specced exactly the same, except with 6GB RAM. Are you in Canada as well? I'm leaving the country in a few weeks as well, could be problematic if they take much longer haha

Yes I am in Canada

[benny90]

Just completed the trifecta of internet speed improvements!

1. Completely rewire coax throughout house with direct connection to outside.
I had one of the Charter technicians come out to the house the other day to figure out why I was having issues with my internet. Basically, the cable connecting the house to the grid was almost entirely chewed through. Amazing that I could even get TV let alone surf the web! After exchanging that the guy went way above and beyond what would normally be done and pretty much completely reroute all the cables throughout the house as well as install power conditioners. Spent about 4.5 hours doing everything! Simply amazing, as the other guys who have come out would pretty much do nothing and leave as soon as they could, and I'm sure you guys have experienced that as well.

2. Get new Docsis 3.0 modem. Went with the Motorolla Surfboard extreme (SB6120), got it at a awesome price. And holy $hit is it fast! HUGE difference!

3. Upgraded my wifi card in the SB to the Intel Centrino Advanced-N pcie card, as mentioned before.

Now, everything is almost instant! When I load up the forum, which used to take atleast 10 seconds to fully load with all the pictures, now takes less than a second! If your tired of your slow internet I highly recommend these additions as it has made an amazing improvement, much more than I expected. Netflix HD, no problems at all, haven't seen the bar load that fast ever. Also, this is on a platter HDD.

[Crotia]

I tried emailing Sony to get an update on my order, but I did not get any reply yet; I guess they don't reply to emails.

I tried calling as well, but didn't know which option I was supposed to press to get the correct person to speak to; not that it matters, as some of you who called seem to be getting incorrect information anyways.

Estimate for new SB CTO is now May 9; I wonder if my 3 week old order will arrive by then.

Its option 1, 1, 3, 1 - I've called quite a few times :P

[benny90]

I have my Corsair 128GB SSD coming in tomorrow. It's a Refurb I picked up from Fry's for $140 that will be coming back from Corsair since the first one was DOA (only took a week from them getting it to me receiving the replacement BTW). It will be interesting to see what kind of speed improvements the Corsair offers over the Momentus XT Hybrid HDD. I have a feeling I will definitely be happy with the Corsair, 270/195 transfer rates.

Crucial just released their C300 update today, the M4, with upgraded specs. I'm going to see how the performance of the Corsair is before considering to upgrade to a SATA III SSD, due to the price difference in what I paid for mine.

[area306]

For anyone curious about battery life I thought I would post an update.

Using the slice right now I have had the laptop in "hibernate" from 8am until noon and it woke up with 100% battery around noon. I have since used it for 2 hours and 45 minutes with 82% battery left (slice 64%, internal 100%) and it is estimating 12 hours left. This is with school use sitting in a classroom with the laptop being used every couple minutes to type a couple lines of notes. So it appears 13-15 hours is possible during extreme light use and my brightness is between 50-75% most of the time. When I start clicking a few webpages the estimate drops to 7-8 hours on top of the 3 hours of use it has already. This is also under stamina mode with power saver selected in power plan.

I found 2 reviews on the SB that included battery runtimes. They both are on VAIOs equipped with the 6470 video card.

This first one says that you get 3 hrs 19 mins with the SB under heavy load, and 6 hrs 5 mins under light load.

The second one says the VAIO has a rundown time for blu-ray viewing at 3 hrs 57 mins and a light reading rundown time of 8 hrs 40 mins with a recharge time of 2 hrs 47 mins.

The first review is an introductory review of the VAIO SB (Australia) while the second one is a review in which they have examined it from top to bottom and have done a bunch of different tests on the VAIO SB (Europe).

Sony Sony VAIO SB Series (VPCSB16FG) - reviews - Notebooks - All Purpose - PC World Australia

Review Sony Vaio VPC-SB1Z9EB Subnotebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

[bzboy]

Hi all. I've been lurking and finally pulled the trigger on a new SB. My specs are as follows:
Product: US-VPCSB190X-LBOM
Component: Blu-ray Disc™ Player
Component: Large Capacity Sheet Battery
Component: AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB VRAM) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
Component: No Fresh Start
Component: Norton Internet Security™ 2011 (30 Day Trial)
Component: Adobe Bundle (Free - $448 value)
Component: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Component: Intel® Core™ i7-2620M processor (2.70GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.40GHz
Component: 500GB Hard Drive (7200rpm)
Component: Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter (Click More Info for details.)
Component: Black
Component: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Component: 13.3" VAIO Display with LED backlight (1366 x 768)

Loving the new computer. My old laptop was an SZ. Couple key differences I've noticed
1. Hinge on old SZ was held on the sides. On the new SB hinge is directly in the middle. Definitely doesnt feel as secure as the old side hinges on SZ.
2. Stamina/Power button doesnt require a restart on SB vs. SZ.
3. Light sensor is located right next to the Stamina/Power button. Takes about 2 seconds to kick keyboard lights up.
4. Case on the SB is a definite fingerprint magnet, more so than the old SZ.
5. There is a dedicated eject button for the DVD drive on the SB vs the old eject button directly on the DVD drive on the SZ.
6. DVD drive located on the left side. USB/hdmi/sd card/memory card slots located on the right..
7. webcam is run by arcsoft. tested it on windows live messenger and looks nice. there is a built in microphone but havent been able to locate it
8. slice battery is great.

Thats all i can think of right now. no dead pixels thank goodness and really loving the speed of this machine. already installed bioshock 2 and it runs perfectly on med settings. got a thermaltake laptop cooler and ordered a new logitech anywhere mouse.

oh one more thing
1. my old bluetooth mouse (kensington) loses connection quite often. Im guessing it is interference from 2.4 wireless modem. hence my switch to a newer logitech mouse.