This is some of the best news I've heard in a while.
My perfect lappy would be something with a 14.1" IPS display at 16:10, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1440x900.
I don't think that is all that much to ask, and even eIPS is cool with me. Anything better than the awful TN panels out there.
I don't mind lower resolution as much in a laptop, at least to a certain extent. Windows 7 is ill-equipped to really make the most of high resolution displays in smaller screen sizes anyway.
"I don't mind lower resolution as much in a laptop, at least to a certain extent. Windows 7 is ill-equipped to really make the most of high resolution displays in smaller screen sizes anyway. "
Why do people keep saying this? I've used Windows 7 with high DPI mode and it works flawlessly in my experience.
You must be nearly blind. It works terribly in my experience across many different displays, VGAs, and DPI settings. It's not Windows' fault, the apps just don't play nice with a DPI change.
I'd say it's probably about 50-50 for apps playing well with the DPI setting. Most MS apps are fine, obviously, and the web works well for me. But there are definitely major applications where playing with the DPI setting causes issues. I have a 30" LCD and for a while I used the 125% DPI setting, but eventually I got sick of the glitches here and there and went back to the default scaling.
If only there was a hybrid hdd on this. Though, I think it is a bad decision to do only 1x4GB sticks. The performance will degrade in some applications. 2x2GB is better. I also wish there was an option without a CD Drive. The hinge problem is sad. It could have reached perfection.
oh... and FIRST! I know you guys will hate. I cannot wait.
Considering you're not actually first, I fully expect some hate as well. ;)
But I agree, I wish manufacturers would start including an option for a hybrid HDD. The thing I hate most about buying a laptop is having to pay for the crappy HDD they stick in which I'm going to want to swap out first thing.
1 4GB stick of RAM costs $20 or less. Just order it without any RAM stick and put the 4GB module in, leaving you with 2x4GB=8GB. 2GB soldered on would have been horrible. I'm already sick of 8GB and want 16GB in my laptop. I will when I get a sandy or ivy bridge laptop. My arrandale only supports 8GB.
the screen, relative light weight (you'd be hard pressed to find any other 15+" lappy @ 5.4lbs let alone 4.4), and price really were what sold it for me
I was going to go with the 13.3" S series for its portability, and while the 13.3" S series 1600x900 screen was definitely a cut above all other PC laptops that are stuck with 1366x768, the 1080p IPS of the SE really was that much more gorgeous when comparing them side by side in store.
The HDD is a disappointment, however I just upgraded my desktop from a 128GB Crucial M4 to a pair of Samsung 830s, so I was able to plug that M4 into the laptop, as well as replace the 2GB module with a 4GB (was less than $20) for 8GB total. Those two simply hardware upgrades along with a reformat with only the essential software and drivers (all of which can be found pretty easily and conveniently from Sony's support site) lead to a very awesome overall computing experience.
The last upgrade I did was grabbed an external USB DAC. The Speakers on this laptop are extremely anemic, and the onboard sound leaves much to be desired. I have a Creative X-Fi GO! (was less than $30) for when gaming and chatting (has both plugs for headset and mic, laptop itself has only one jack so you can't have both headset and mic, and thus would have to rely on the built in mic on the laptop which is passable but not ideal) and my trusty FiiO E7 when just watching movies or listening to music
The 128GB SSD might not seem like much, but its certainly enough for the OS and apps, and no laptop will be able to satiate my gaming like my desktop, so very few games get installed to it anyway. Anything else (mostly large media files such as music and movies) can be handled via portable USB HDDs and flash thumbdrives, of which I converted the 640GB HDD to a portable drive with a portable 2.5" USB3.0 enclosure.
I'd take the tn panel 95% ntsc color gamut (The clevo one you were talking about) I have one in my np8130 and it is absolutely amazing. Contrast and brightness is most important thing imo, then viewing angles.
I disagree. You're not going to be using a laptop for serious colour sensitive work, but you might have a laptop out to watch a video with a few friends sat around it.
On TN panels the gamma changes (usually dramatically) with even a slight movement off-axis. They're completely unsuitable for colour-sensitive work unless you're going to lock your head at the optimum position.
There certainly are people who need a decent portable screen for reviewing images, but the available options are very limited.
I'm not quite as worried about the hinge, but after three months with my base SE, I agree with the rest of the review, for the most part. I immediately swapped the HDD for a 128GB Crucial M4, and did a clean Win7 install, so performance is pretty good. I only get about 4 to 4.5 hours runtime, but I'm running the screen at fairly high brightness (82%) and turned off a couple obscure power-saving tricks. I'm very picky about noise. Luckily, fan noise is very low for my typical use, which involves browsing, Visual Studio, and video playback. I usually use a Targus wedge laptop cooler, which I don't plug in. Clicks are noisy. The trackpad is placed too far to the right, and I really miss two-finger scrolling. The keyboard is excellent, except for the spacebar, which often doesn't register left-side presses. It could use dedicated volume buttons. I like the manual graphics switching, except that it takes several seconds.
Bugs: Scrolling usually quits working after waking from hibernation. To fix, open the mouse control panel, and click OK. The BT hardware sometimes quits working upon resume, even after the driver update that supposedly fixes it. When running on battery, the DVD drive switches on and off regularly and often, which causes the standard hardware attachment/detachment sound notification.
The screen is easily the best I've used on a laptop. It also bests my old Dell 2405 desktop S-IPS in brightness, contrast, and of course sharpness, but not quite in gamut or accuracy.
I bet Dustin wouldn't have minded getting his hands on this laptop to review, how did AnandTech decide who had dibs? Coin toss? Rock-paper-scissors? Fight to the death?
Dustin got the Z2, I got the SE... wasn't sure which would be better, but ultimately the Z2 is too costly for what you get and the keyboard doesn't appeal as much.
When I look at the MBP review, I see Windows laptops on some of the graphs and charts. Especially the ones about color gamut, etc. I would like to see a straight-up comparison. Put OSX *or* Windows on the MBP, MBA, etc. and include those numbers in the tests for battery life, display quality, heat, etc. I understand that some benchmarks only run on Windows, and even if they are available for OSX then it might not be fair to compare between the two because of the OS differences. I get it. So put Windows on an MBA or MBP using Boot Camp and include them in your comparisons. Some things, like h.264 playback battery life, might make sense to test under OSX and include as a direct comparison with Windows machines. Do that if you feel like it. If not, the same test with the MBP running Windows is good too.
Every laptop that is reviewed on AT, I eventually end up comparing to the MBP. Please make this easier for me to do so I'm not switching back and forth all the time. There are plenty of people out there who use a MBP as a Windows-only machine. (I'm not one of them, but I do run Windows 7 in Parallels.) The MBP has a reputation as setting a standard. Please start including it as such. No need for a full article on it, just start including the numbers in your charts. Thanks.
Let me make it easier. The mbp 13" with a 1280x TN screen, integrated graphics and 4 GB RAM costs 1200$(In Europe it costs about 1500$). Now compare it with this SE and every other suggestion at the end of this review. And if you're thinking about bootcamp, "add" at least a 30% battery penalty.
Hence I immediately ordered it at store.sony.com, came out $1190 total with base + 6630 GPU + windows 7 pro + taxes + express delivery, plus FREE Sony dock station (promotion until April 14, hurry up folks!)
Hehe, this is something to pwn a few MacBook 15 toting friends of mine, I gonna have a few nasty surprises for them hehehee like much better IPS screen with better resolution and viewing angles, lighter weight and ability to extend battery life to 12 hours, I gonna enjoy their smug little faces when I'll be demoing this new baby to them hehee :)))
Only thing is that MBP15 is still built better than the VAIO SE, particularly on the cover/display/hinge. But in terms of bang for the buck, it's definitely a good laptop.
The MBP15 is more expensive; pricewise, his acquisition should be compared with the entry level mbp13. I mean come on that entry level is a tough buy until a potential refresh later this year.
Which is what I imply when I say, "in terms of bang for the buck, it's definitely a good laptop." No one (sane) buys MBP because of value. You buy for the build quality and overall quality, and you buy to run OS X.
Personally, I hate using OS X -- I don't feel any urge to learn how to use it. I'd rather use Linux than OS X, but I don't even want to do that. I'm comfortable and happy with Windows, MacBooks lose battery life and other optimizations under Windows, so unless you want OS X with the option to run Windows on occasion, I'd find something non-Apple rather than going the Bootcamp route.
I wondered if someone was going to ask that... it's from Microsoft's UK wallpapers. They're not enabled by default for the US, but you can find other regional themes in: C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT
Copy the appropriate folders to C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper and you can use them. :-)
Much appriciated but I ment the castle name itself not the picture. That hilly out cropping on the sea is just so weird wanted to try google earthing it and look around:)
The se13fx/b is the original version of the SE series that is basically identical aside from some minor CPU/GPU upgrades on the new Se2. Mine has the i5-2430M, 4GB RAM, 6470M and same display... So yeah you can get this laptop for well under $1000 from a very reputable vendor.
Oh and btw the Lenovo X220 with an IPS has sold for ~$750 on many occasions...
My only beef with sony is the lack of availability of keyboards other than english on many of their models. Why the hell did they send a 5400rpm drive equipped unit for review is a mystery to me. Maybe they just can't avoid being stupid.
"NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology switches on-the-fly between IGP and discrete graphics as needed, you can still get driver updates from NVIDIA and Intel without worrying about compatibility issues"
Will those driver updates have to come through Sony? If so, it could take a while and they might only release a couple of them.
No, that's the beauty of Optimus: all the major OEMs participate in NVIDIA's Verde driver program, so basically every laptop with NVIDIA graphics (Optimus or discrete only) can use NVIDIA's reference drivers. The only laptops that aren't part of the Verde program (AFAIK) are laptops with manually switchable graphics--like the old ASUS UL80VT (I think that's the correct model) or the early Sony VAIO Z with GT 330M.
Manually switchable graphics does have an edge in compatibility. No software support is needed; but a reboot might be needed to switch graphics around.
That was really kind review for this laptop - I mean THIS quality (or lack of it), faulty cooling design, flexible screen and overal issues that this hardware has ... it is Amazing that it got Editors Choice.
Well ... I highly recommend less "influenced" (biased?) reviews on notebookcheck.com. They do some serious tests and if something lacks quality, stablility (Anand do You really think that this laptop will not throttle down with this temps?) then it is always pointed clearly in bold, not "mildly mentioned".
I've also experienced many issues with those laptops, warranty policy is ridiculous, and there are (were) cases in court in my country regarding refuse to service laptops. Sony states that after selling laptops there is no their responsibility but only company that service for them is responsible and also decide whether free repair is granted or not. Also they will not exchange LCD if there are badpixels , less than three as I remember in "central part of screen". Servicing company for SONY is sued because they refuse to repair broken lcd (vaio hinge desing and lack of sturdines brought cracking tension to screens) here is link: http://www.twojeartykuly.info/rozne/laptop-sony-va... (Or english via GTranslate: http://translate.google.pl/translate?sl=pl&tl=...
First off, while this is AnandTech, Anand doesn't review all the hardware. I wrote the review, and I clearly spelled out the potential concerns. The hardware did not throttle for most use cases. If you want to run Furmark or do heavy 3D rendering or video encoding, then I'd stick with other options -- Dell's XPS 15 comes to mind as a competitive solution that can handle a quad-core CPU.
Claiming bias just because someone likes a laptop that you haven't even used or probably seen is... well, biased. As for Notebookcheck, all they have is links to external reviews of the same laptop, most of which give the SE an 80%+ rating. That's a pretty good score in my book.
Sounds like you just have an ax to grind with Sony, with your complaints about customer service, dead pixels, etc. If you buy a laptop in the US and you don't like it, you can pretty much always return it for a refund -- worst case you pay a 15% restocking fee. For Poland (I assume that's where you're from), maybe they're not as willing to take back hardware. But once again, you're biasing your review off of your own location.
VAIO SE summary: Good IPS display, a display that's better than any TN laptop IMO, reasonable cost, good performance Not perfect colors, questionable exhaust location, loose hinge
The editor's choice is almost purely for the virtue of including an IPS display for a laptop that costs less than $1000. There are many users who want exactly that. "OMG bias -- you like good displays!" Yup. Sorry.
The temps are likely a design decision, not random. The fan probably is running at the minimum speed while keeping temps below some threshold. Sony's engineers probably decided that 90-ish degrees is acceptable.
Screen wise, some idiot manager/marketer probably forced that through to shave an extra 0.5 mm off the thickness.
I'm really concerned about the hinge issue that Anand reports especially in combination with blocking the exhaust.
I see my current 2004 laptop die of heat issues and the hinge is really loose. I don't know if I want to go back to the same problems. The laptop before that died of hinge issues as well.
Also, why not offer this with an i3 and make the AMD Graphics optional. I really want to lower the entry price ~ $850 so I can swap the hard disk to external and replace it with an SSD internally. Then we are talking Sony!
Another issue with this particular type of design occurs when the thermal exhaust port is in the back of the notebook, and very close to the screen itself.
With prolonged exposure, the hot exhaust can end up producing a discolored patch on the LCD. I have a Compaq with a rear exhaust port that experienced significant darkening on the adjacent patch of the screen, which became noticeable after perhaps 7-8 years of use -- so it's a slow process, but will eventually happen if you keep the notebook around long enough.
From the way all of you at Anandtech go on and on and ON AND ON about IPS displays I was expecting WAY WAY more. There are TN panels in your chart that out-score the IPS panel. AND IPS panels have more latency. I am thoroughly confused as to why you STILL insist IPS is the way to go. Viewing angles are better, fine, I get that. But on a laptop I don't even want good viewing angles, I prefer for other people to not be able to, or at least have a hard time, seeing what I'm doing.
TN sucks for so many reasons, that any display that's not TN is almost certainly going to be better. Yes, a good TN panel can can deliver scores in an ideal setup that are better than a decent IPS panel (e.g. the VAIO SE LCD), but viewing angles REALLY matter for me on a laptop. As an example, I used an XPS 15 on a flight and because of the angle of the seat and laptop, I ended up needing to slouch down just to see the display properly. Sure, the display had theoretically better contrast and colors, but only if you're looking straight at the display.
As for latency, IPS is fine and anyone going on and on about latency in a display isn't talking about a laptop. "Oh no, I have 5ms more latency on my IPS display...on a laptop running at 25 FPS and moderate detail settings!" Furthermore, this isn't a gaming laptop, so there's no real concern with a fractional increase in latency. The only displays I've ever really had issues with on latency are S-PVA, but no one is putting those in laptops.
Finally, if you're worried about privacy, IPS has wider viewing angles and that would be "bad", but TN panels have reasonable viewing angles from the left and right as well so you don't even get privacy with them. It's only above and below that get completely whacked out on TN, and with a laptop on your *lap*, you will often end up with the "viewing from above" issue. If you really want privacy, don't sit next to people and use your laptop, tablet, or even a smartphone! Good luck with that....
Incidentally, I've used computers with "privacy screens" before, and while it does make it very difficult for anyone other than the person sitting right in front of the display to see what you're doing, such screens also look like crap. While you might want privacy, I'd rather the person next to me be able to glance over and see what movie I'm watching (or what I'm typing if they've got really good eyes and don't mind being rude) while I can actually enjoy the movie/work from a variety of angles. You'd have to be accessing very sensitive information to think that someone is going to spy on you and read it. It's pretty easy to tell when someone is staring at your laptop unless you're totally oblivious to your surroundings. "Um, excuse me, sir, but you've been staring at my computer for the past five minutes. Please go away."
I took comparison shots of my own between the SE1, SA2, HTC desire, and HP monitor. there is no red at all on this screen. I can't even see the difference when viewing these photos on the SE. I have to look at them on my HTC. the violets do not show, and there is a yellow tint to everything. to reduce the yellow, I set in Intel graphics properties a hue shift of +8 and blue gamma to 1.2. HP reportedly will fix this problem but haven't said how yet. Sony won't tell me anything about it. http://i41.tinypic.com/2zhpp8w.jpg http://i40.tinypic.com/9a5t0m.jpg http://i39.tinypic.com/58hoo.jpg http://i44.tinypic.com/5ko9y0.jpg http://i42.tinypic.com/maueco.jpg
the SE also has a problem with the headphone jack. it will not work with headsets with microphones unless the plug sits inconveniently halfway out or the call answer button on the microphone is depressed. its odd because none of the older vaio I tested today in the Sony shop have this problem. I emailed Sony but they deny this problem exists. my vpcse13fx and the vpcse15gb in the shop both had this issue. someone on notebook review says he has this also on his se1. I wonder if its been fixed on the se2?
also note that se and sa have sata3 disabled on BIOS newer than r1031h4. you'll be stuck with sata2 unless you flash to the old BIOS.
>>"the SE also has a problem with the headphone jack. it will not work with headsets with microphones unless the plug sits inconveniently halfway out"
This exact behavior can happen in certain cases where there are certain kinds of damage to your headphone's wiring (or the jack itself), I fixed an identical issue with my friend's laptop just recently (in his case, the defect was in the headphone wiring)
By hanging the plug partway out, you change where the segments of the plug make contact with their contacts -- I would recommend checking out the headphones and jack with a continuity tester for shorts and open pathways.
One other issue I have with the SE is the placement of the usb ports. They're too close together and I can't attach multiple usb drives because they're too wide for the too closely spaced ports. They're also inconveniently located on the right side where cables get in the way of my mouse.
I'm also getting a buzzing sound on my right speaker. It's only 2 days old.
I was trying to decide between the sa and se but I decided on the se. The se has much better viewing angles and contrast but had bad color problems and Is a bit big for traveling. The SA is the perfect size but the viewing angles are horrendous and colors are washed out. I think the perfect laptop would be the SA with a screen from the Z2. With both the SA and SE you can install your own drives, expand the RAM, and swap the odd with a hdd caddy.
I've got the SE and I installed Linux onto it. The first thing I have to say is that I don't use the switchable graphics, I run from the IGP all the time - as a result, I was led to believe the Stamina/Speed swwitch would be useless. This is not correct, and I discovered that the Speed/Stamina switch does something to change the thermal budget, as throttling will occur while the laptop is in Stamina mode, but it goes away as soon as the switch is moved to the Speed position. I don't know if this switch is changing thermal budget via BIOS (by being some kind of interface to motherboard jumpers), or if Linux has a driver to perform this based on the switch, but I observed the same behaviour in Windows.
Second of all, two finger scrolling. Two finger scolling works just fine in Linux, which means that the drivers for windows are not very good. This is probably a result of the base hardware in the touchpad already having support in Linux.
I did as recommended in this review, and performed memory and SSD upgrades by hand, as it was cheaper. I took a gamble with the memory, hoping to be able to replace two SO-DIMMS, but I found out the hard way that 4GB is soldered in, which is a shame as I wanted to fit 16GB in, but 12GB is reasonable.
I love the display, the viewing angles are fantastic and I'm not finding myself distracted by contrast shifts, which was the main reason for my choosing of this model.
How is the noise level on linux? Does the fan come on under load, or is it on constanstly? What's your subjective opinion about the noise? I'd like to buy this thing if I knew, it was relatively quiet.
If anyone has done accurate color calibration, could you please share the color profile with us and instructions how to use them? For the reviewer Jarred, did you calibrate during your color tests? Any improvement?
On my vpcse13fx the profile is pretty good, and makes the colors a bit more accurate, although red is still not there. It's still a bit yellow so in intel graphics properties on top of the notebook check ICC color profile I changed this setting:
The display is very good and laptop is a joy to use because of it's size and weight. I find switching into performance mode is almost never necessary. Windows 8 runs amazing on this laptop can't wait for the drivers to catch up, battery life is a almost half as long as with Win 7.
i hope that in the near future samsung will ship superamoled screens with their ultrabooks (at least the 11.6" ones) anyone else wants the deep black and ∞ contrast of their galaxy (whichever) on their laptops?
It looks like with the switch set to "Speed" (aka: use the 6630m), you get a more lousy result than if you set it to "stamina" (HD3000) - can someone explain this to me? PCMark's site was less than forthcoming as to what the computation really means.
Does anybody know if the new Sony Vaio with the GT640M LE will allow you to install updates from Nvidia? I would love this laptop if I can get updated drivers for it.
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ckryan - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
This is some of the best news I've heard in a while.My perfect lappy would be something with a 14.1" IPS display at 16:10, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1440x900.
I don't think that is all that much to ask, and even eIPS is cool with me. Anything better than the awful TN panels out there.
I don't mind lower resolution as much in a laptop, at least to a certain extent. Windows 7 is ill-equipped to really make the most of high resolution displays in smaller screen sizes anyway.
peterfares - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
"I don't mind lower resolution as much in a laptop, at least to a certain extent. Windows 7 is ill-equipped to really make the most of high resolution displays in smaller screen sizes anyway. "Why do people keep saying this? I've used Windows 7 with high DPI mode and it works flawlessly in my experience.
freedom4556 - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
You must be nearly blind. It works terribly in my experience across many different displays, VGAs, and DPI settings. It's not Windows' fault, the apps just don't play nice with a DPI change.JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
I'd say it's probably about 50-50 for apps playing well with the DPI setting. Most MS apps are fine, obviously, and the web works well for me. But there are definitely major applications where playing with the DPI setting causes issues. I have a 30" LCD and for a while I used the 125% DPI setting, but eventually I got sick of the glitches here and there and went back to the default scaling.Samus - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
Windows 7 with big desktop icons and high dpi is no comparison to Windows xp's "stretch only supported GDI objects disproportionally to others".hemmy - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
I think Windows 7 is great with high-res displays. Everything looks so crisp and small with tons of open screen space.laptop under - Saturday, October 7, 2017 - link
I totally agree with you. Visit <a href="https://laptopunder.net/">Laptop Under</a> if you are looking for best one.Machelios - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
If only there was a hybrid hdd on this. Though, I think it is a bad decision to do only 1x4GB sticks. The performance will degrade in some applications. 2x2GB is better. I also wish there was an option without a CD Drive. The hinge problem is sad. It could have reached perfection.oh... and FIRST!
I know you guys will hate. I cannot wait.
kyuu - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
Considering you're not actually first, I fully expect some hate as well. ;)But I agree, I wish manufacturers would start including an option for a hybrid HDD. The thing I hate most about buying a laptop is having to pay for the crappy HDD they stick in which I'm going to want to swap out first thing.
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
"I know you guys will hate. I cannot wait."Being stupid is your fate. Now run along home and don't be late.
peterfares - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
1 4GB stick of RAM costs $20 or less. Just order it without any RAM stick and put the 4GB module in, leaving you with 2x4GB=8GB. 2GB soldered on would have been horrible. I'm already sick of 8GB and want 16GB in my laptop. I will when I get a sandy or ivy bridge laptop. My arrandale only supports 8GB.piroroadkill - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
A perfectly serviceable specification and a great display, for a reasonable enough price.Everyone else needs to pay attention..
bunnyfubbles - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
the screen, relative light weight (you'd be hard pressed to find any other 15+" lappy @ 5.4lbs let alone 4.4), and price really were what sold it for meI was going to go with the 13.3" S series for its portability, and while the 13.3" S series 1600x900 screen was definitely a cut above all other PC laptops that are stuck with 1366x768, the 1080p IPS of the SE really was that much more gorgeous when comparing them side by side in store.
The HDD is a disappointment, however I just upgraded my desktop from a 128GB Crucial M4 to a pair of Samsung 830s, so I was able to plug that M4 into the laptop, as well as replace the 2GB module with a 4GB (was less than $20) for 8GB total. Those two simply hardware upgrades along with a reformat with only the essential software and drivers (all of which can be found pretty easily and conveniently from Sony's support site) lead to a very awesome overall computing experience.
The last upgrade I did was grabbed an external USB DAC. The Speakers on this laptop are extremely anemic, and the onboard sound leaves much to be desired. I have a Creative X-Fi GO! (was less than $30) for when gaming and chatting (has both plugs for headset and mic, laptop itself has only one jack so you can't have both headset and mic, and thus would have to rely on the built in mic on the laptop which is passable but not ideal) and my trusty FiiO E7 when just watching movies or listening to music
The 128GB SSD might not seem like much, but its certainly enough for the OS and apps, and no laptop will be able to satiate my gaming like my desktop, so very few games get installed to it anyway. Anything else (mostly large media files such as music and movies) can be handled via portable USB HDDs and flash thumbdrives, of which I converted the 640GB HDD to a portable drive with a portable 2.5" USB3.0 enclosure.
jigglywiggly - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
I'd take the tn panel 95% ntsc color gamut (The clevo one you were talking about) I have one in my np8130 and it is absolutely amazing. Contrast and brightness is most important thing imo, then viewing angles.piroroadkill - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
I disagree. You're not going to be using a laptop for serious colour sensitive work, but you might have a laptop out to watch a video with a few friends sat around it.charleski - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
On TN panels the gamma changes (usually dramatically) with even a slight movement off-axis. They're completely unsuitable for colour-sensitive work unless you're going to lock your head at the optimum position.There certainly are people who need a decent portable screen for reviewing images, but the available options are very limited.
Stacey Melissa - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
I'm not quite as worried about the hinge, but after three months with my base SE, I agree with the rest of the review, for the most part. I immediately swapped the HDD for a 128GB Crucial M4, and did a clean Win7 install, so performance is pretty good. I only get about 4 to 4.5 hours runtime, but I'm running the screen at fairly high brightness (82%) and turned off a couple obscure power-saving tricks. I'm very picky about noise. Luckily, fan noise is very low for my typical use, which involves browsing, Visual Studio, and video playback. I usually use a Targus wedge laptop cooler, which I don't plug in. Clicks are noisy. The trackpad is placed too far to the right, and I really miss two-finger scrolling. The keyboard is excellent, except for the spacebar, which often doesn't register left-side presses. It could use dedicated volume buttons. I like the manual graphics switching, except that it takes several seconds.Bugs: Scrolling usually quits working after waking from hibernation. To fix, open the mouse control panel, and click OK. The BT hardware sometimes quits working upon resume, even after the driver update that supposedly fixes it. When running on battery, the DVD drive switches on and off regularly and often, which causes the standard hardware attachment/detachment sound notification.
The screen is easily the best I've used on a laptop. It also bests my old Dell 2405 desktop S-IPS in brightness, contrast, and of course sharpness, but not quite in gamut or accuracy.
adece - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
...is actually appealing! What do you knowMrMaestro - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
I bet Dustin wouldn't have minded getting his hands on this laptop to review, how did AnandTech decide who had dibs? Coin toss? Rock-paper-scissors? Fight to the death?JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
Dustin got the Z2, I got the SE... wasn't sure which would be better, but ultimately the Z2 is too costly for what you get and the keyboard doesn't appeal as much.slashbinslashbash - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
When I look at the MBP review, I see Windows laptops on some of the graphs and charts. Especially the ones about color gamut, etc. I would like to see a straight-up comparison. Put OSX *or* Windows on the MBP, MBA, etc. and include those numbers in the tests for battery life, display quality, heat, etc. I understand that some benchmarks only run on Windows, and even if they are available for OSX then it might not be fair to compare between the two because of the OS differences. I get it. So put Windows on an MBA or MBP using Boot Camp and include them in your comparisons. Some things, like h.264 playback battery life, might make sense to test under OSX and include as a direct comparison with Windows machines. Do that if you feel like it. If not, the same test with the MBP running Windows is good too.Every laptop that is reviewed on AT, I eventually end up comparing to the MBP. Please make this easier for me to do so I'm not switching back and forth all the time. There are plenty of people out there who use a MBP as a Windows-only machine. (I'm not one of them, but I do run Windows 7 in Parallels.) The MBP has a reputation as setting a standard. Please start including it as such. No need for a full article on it, just start including the numbers in your charts. Thanks.
ananduser - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
Let me make it easier. The mbp 13" with a 1280x TN screen, integrated graphics and 4 GB RAM costs 1200$(In Europe it costs about 1500$). Now compare it with this SE and every other suggestion at the end of this review. And if you're thinking about bootcamp, "add" at least a 30% battery penalty.kenyee - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
Besides crap displays, that's my other beef w/ laptops nowadays. I still want to shove 16GB in one for VMs, photoshop, premiere pro...zaccun - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
Then you should be buying a workstation machine with 4 slots for ram like a Lenovo W520!(For real, that's what workstations are there for. And they even have good screen options, too.)
Pirks - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
Hence I immediately ordered it at store.sony.com, came out $1190 total with base + 6630 GPU + windows 7 pro + taxes + express delivery, plus FREE Sony dock station (promotion until April 14, hurry up folks!)Hehe, this is something to pwn a few MacBook 15 toting friends of mine, I gonna have a few nasty surprises for them hehehee like much better IPS screen with better resolution and viewing angles, lighter weight and ability to extend battery life to 12 hours, I gonna enjoy their smug little faces when I'll be demoing this new baby to them hehee :)))
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
Only thing is that MBP15 is still built better than the VAIO SE, particularly on the cover/display/hinge. But in terms of bang for the buck, it's definitely a good laptop.ananduser - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
The MBP15 is more expensive; pricewise, his acquisition should be compared with the entry level mbp13. I mean come on that entry level is a tough buy until a potential refresh later this year.JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
Which is what I imply when I say, "in terms of bang for the buck, it's definitely a good laptop." No one (sane) buys MBP because of value. You buy for the build quality and overall quality, and you buy to run OS X.Personally, I hate using OS X -- I don't feel any urge to learn how to use it. I'd rather use Linux than OS X, but I don't even want to do that. I'm comfortable and happy with Windows, MacBooks lose battery life and other optimizations under Windows, so unless you want OS X with the option to run Windows on occasion, I'd find something non-Apple rather than going the Bootcamp route.
goobah - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
Wheres the castle in the first display shot ?JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
I wondered if someone was going to ask that... it's from Microsoft's UK wallpapers. They're not enabled by default for the US, but you can find other regional themes in:C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT
Copy the appropriate folders to C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper and you can use them. :-)
goobah - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
Thank you for the reply Jarred :)Much appriciated but I ment the castle name itself not the picture. That hilly out cropping on the sea is just so weird wanted to try google earthing it and look around:)
jmunjr - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
The se13fx/b is the original version of the SE series that is basically identical aside from some minor CPU/GPU upgrades on the new Se2. Mine has the i5-2430M, 4GB RAM, 6470M and same display... So yeah you can get this laptop for well under $1000 from a very reputable vendor.Oh and btw the Lenovo X220 with an IPS has sold for ~$750 on many occasions...
jabber - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
...seemed to give middling performance.Still seems to be a toss up between a really good TN panel or a below average IPS as the best options.
Not a good position really.
Snotling - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
My only beef with sony is the lack of availability of keyboards other than english on many of their models. Why the hell did they send a 5400rpm drive equipped unit for review is a mystery to me. Maybe they just can't avoid being stupid.effingee - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
"NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology switches on-the-fly between IGP and discrete graphics as needed, you can still get driver updates from NVIDIA and Intel without worrying about compatibility issues"Will those driver updates have to come through Sony? If so, it could take a while and they might only release a couple of them.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
No, that's the beauty of Optimus: all the major OEMs participate in NVIDIA's Verde driver program, so basically every laptop with NVIDIA graphics (Optimus or discrete only) can use NVIDIA's reference drivers. The only laptops that aren't part of the Verde program (AFAIK) are laptops with manually switchable graphics--like the old ASUS UL80VT (I think that's the correct model) or the early Sony VAIO Z with GT 330M.Zoomer - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
Manually switchable graphics does have an edge in compatibility. No software support is needed; but a reboot might be needed to switch graphics around.Christopher29 - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
That was really kind review for this laptop - I mean THIS quality (or lack of it), faulty cooling design, flexible screen and overal issues that this hardware has ... it is Amazing that it got Editors Choice.Well ... I highly recommend less "influenced" (biased?) reviews on notebookcheck.com. They do some serious tests and if something lacks quality, stablility (Anand do You really think that this laptop will not throttle down with this temps?) then it is always pointed clearly in bold, not "mildly mentioned".
I've also experienced many issues with those laptops, warranty policy is ridiculous, and there are (were) cases in court in my country regarding refuse to service laptops. Sony states that after selling laptops there is no their responsibility but only company that service for them is responsible and also decide whether free repair is granted or not. Also they will not exchange LCD if there are badpixels , less than three as I remember in "central part of screen". Servicing company for SONY is sued because they refuse to repair broken lcd (vaio hinge desing and lack of sturdines brought cracking tension to screens) here is link: http://www.twojeartykuly.info/rozne/laptop-sony-va... (Or english via GTranslate: http://translate.google.pl/translate?sl=pl&tl=...
JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
First off, while this is AnandTech, Anand doesn't review all the hardware. I wrote the review, and I clearly spelled out the potential concerns. The hardware did not throttle for most use cases. If you want to run Furmark or do heavy 3D rendering or video encoding, then I'd stick with other options -- Dell's XPS 15 comes to mind as a competitive solution that can handle a quad-core CPU.Claiming bias just because someone likes a laptop that you haven't even used or probably seen is... well, biased. As for Notebookcheck, all they have is links to external reviews of the same laptop, most of which give the SE an 80%+ rating. That's a pretty good score in my book.
Sounds like you just have an ax to grind with Sony, with your complaints about customer service, dead pixels, etc. If you buy a laptop in the US and you don't like it, you can pretty much always return it for a refund -- worst case you pay a 15% restocking fee. For Poland (I assume that's where you're from), maybe they're not as willing to take back hardware. But once again, you're biasing your review off of your own location.
VAIO SE summary:
Good IPS display, a display that's better than any TN laptop IMO, reasonable cost, good performance
Not perfect colors, questionable exhaust location, loose hinge
The editor's choice is almost purely for the virtue of including an IPS display for a laptop that costs less than $1000. There are many users who want exactly that. "OMG bias -- you like good displays!" Yup. Sorry.
Zoomer - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
The temps are likely a design decision, not random. The fan probably is running at the minimum speed while keeping temps below some threshold. Sony's engineers probably decided that 90-ish degrees is acceptable.Screen wise, some idiot manager/marketer probably forced that through to shave an extra 0.5 mm off the thickness.
Conficio - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
I'm really concerned about the hinge issue that Anand reports especially in combination with blocking the exhaust.I see my current 2004 laptop die of heat issues and the hinge is really loose. I don't know if I want to go back to the same problems. The laptop before that died of hinge issues as well.
Also, why not offer this with an i3 and make the AMD Graphics optional. I really want to lower the entry price ~ $850 so I can swap the hard disk to external and replace it with an SSD internally. Then we are talking Sony!
Conficio - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
Apologies, should read "... that Jarred reports ..."Guppy - Saturday, April 7, 2012 - link
Another issue with this particular type of design occurs when the thermal exhaust port is in the back of the notebook, and very close to the screen itself.With prolonged exposure, the hot exhaust can end up producing a discolored patch on the LCD. I have a Compaq with a rear exhaust port that experienced significant darkening on the adjacent patch of the screen, which became noticeable after perhaps 7-8 years of use -- so it's a slow process, but will eventually happen if you keep the notebook around long enough.
Hrel - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
From the way all of you at Anandtech go on and on and ON AND ON about IPS displays I was expecting WAY WAY more. There are TN panels in your chart that out-score the IPS panel. AND IPS panels have more latency. I am thoroughly confused as to why you STILL insist IPS is the way to go. Viewing angles are better, fine, I get that. But on a laptop I don't even want good viewing angles, I prefer for other people to not be able to, or at least have a hard time, seeing what I'm doing.JarredWalton - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
TN sucks for so many reasons, that any display that's not TN is almost certainly going to be better. Yes, a good TN panel can can deliver scores in an ideal setup that are better than a decent IPS panel (e.g. the VAIO SE LCD), but viewing angles REALLY matter for me on a laptop. As an example, I used an XPS 15 on a flight and because of the angle of the seat and laptop, I ended up needing to slouch down just to see the display properly. Sure, the display had theoretically better contrast and colors, but only if you're looking straight at the display.As for latency, IPS is fine and anyone going on and on about latency in a display isn't talking about a laptop. "Oh no, I have 5ms more latency on my IPS display...on a laptop running at 25 FPS and moderate detail settings!" Furthermore, this isn't a gaming laptop, so there's no real concern with a fractional increase in latency. The only displays I've ever really had issues with on latency are S-PVA, but no one is putting those in laptops.
Finally, if you're worried about privacy, IPS has wider viewing angles and that would be "bad", but TN panels have reasonable viewing angles from the left and right as well so you don't even get privacy with them. It's only above and below that get completely whacked out on TN, and with a laptop on your *lap*, you will often end up with the "viewing from above" issue. If you really want privacy, don't sit next to people and use your laptop, tablet, or even a smartphone! Good luck with that....
Incidentally, I've used computers with "privacy screens" before, and while it does make it very difficult for anyone other than the person sitting right in front of the display to see what you're doing, such screens also look like crap. While you might want privacy, I'd rather the person next to me be able to glance over and see what movie I'm watching (or what I'm typing if they've got really good eyes and don't mind being rude) while I can actually enjoy the movie/work from a variety of angles. You'd have to be accessing very sensitive information to think that someone is going to spy on you and read it. It's pretty easy to tell when someone is staring at your laptop unless you're totally oblivious to your surroundings. "Um, excuse me, sir, but you've been staring at my computer for the past five minutes. Please go away."
azntwboy - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
I took comparison shots of my own between the SE1, SA2, HTC desire, and HP monitor. there is no red at all on this screen. I can't even see the difference when viewing these photos on the SE. I have to look at them on my HTC. the violets do not show, and there is a yellow tint to everything. to reduce the yellow, I set in Intel graphics properties a hue shift of +8 and blue gamma to 1.2. HP reportedly will fix this problem but haven't said how yet. Sony won't tell me anything about it.http://i41.tinypic.com/2zhpp8w.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/9a5t0m.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/58hoo.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/5ko9y0.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/maueco.jpg
the SE also has a problem with the headphone jack. it will not work with headsets with microphones unless the plug sits inconveniently halfway out or the call answer button on the microphone is depressed. its odd because none of the older vaio I tested today in the Sony shop have this problem. I emailed Sony but they deny this problem exists. my vpcse13fx and the vpcse15gb in the shop both had this issue. someone on notebook review says he has this also on his se1. I wonder if its been fixed on the se2?
also note that se and sa have sata3 disabled on BIOS newer than r1031h4. you'll be stuck with sata2 unless you flash to the old BIOS.
Guppy - Saturday, April 7, 2012 - link
>>"the SE also has a problem with the headphone jack. it will not work with headsets with microphones unless the plug sits inconveniently halfway out"This exact behavior can happen in certain cases where there are certain kinds of damage to your headphone's wiring (or the jack itself), I fixed an identical issue with my friend's laptop just recently (in his case, the defect was in the headphone wiring)
By hanging the plug partway out, you change where the segments of the plug make contact with their contacts -- I would recommend checking out the headphones and jack with a continuity tester for shorts and open pathways.
azntwboy - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
One other issue I have with the SE is the placement of the usb ports. They're too close together and I can't attach multiple usb drives because they're too wide for the too closely spaced ports. They're also inconveniently located on the right side where cables get in the way of my mouse.I'm also getting a buzzing sound on my right speaker. It's only 2 days old.
I was trying to decide between the sa and se but I decided on the se. The se has much better viewing angles and contrast but had bad color problems and Is a bit big for traveling. The SA is the perfect size but the viewing angles are horrendous and colors are washed out. I think the perfect laptop would be the SA with a screen from the Z2. With both the SA and SE you can install your own drives, expand the RAM, and swap the odd with a hdd caddy.
The red problem is very disconcerting.
thebumblebee - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link
I got the Lenovo X220 with IPS display and i5 CPU (2.4 GHz) and 4GB Ram under a grand last June and nowadays you can buy it for even cheaper.yaxattax - Saturday, April 7, 2012 - link
I've got the SE and I installed Linux onto it. The first thing I have to say is that I don't use the switchable graphics, I run from the IGP all the time - as a result, I was led to believe the Stamina/Speed swwitch would be useless. This is not correct, and I discovered that the Speed/Stamina switch does something to change the thermal budget, as throttling will occur while the laptop is in Stamina mode, but it goes away as soon as the switch is moved to the Speed position. I don't know if this switch is changing thermal budget via BIOS (by being some kind of interface to motherboard jumpers), or if Linux has a driver to perform this based on the switch, but I observed the same behaviour in Windows.Second of all, two finger scrolling. Two finger scolling works just fine in Linux, which means that the drivers for windows are not very good. This is probably a result of the base hardware in the touchpad already having support in Linux.
I did as recommended in this review, and performed memory and SSD upgrades by hand, as it was cheaper. I took a gamble with the memory, hoping to be able to replace two SO-DIMMS, but I found out the hard way that 4GB is soldered in, which is a shame as I wanted to fit 16GB in, but 12GB is reasonable.
I love the display, the viewing angles are fantastic and I'm not finding myself distracted by contrast shifts, which was the main reason for my choosing of this model.
tyrion - Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - link
How is the noise level on linux? Does the fan come on under load, or is it on constanstly? What's your subjective opinion about the noise? I'd like to buy this thing if I knew, it was relatively quiet.azntwboy - Saturday, April 7, 2012 - link
If anyone has done accurate color calibration, could you please share the color profile with us and instructions how to use them? For the reviewer Jarred, did you calibrate during your color tests? Any improvement?azntwboy - Saturday, April 7, 2012 - link
Notebook check had an icc color profile in their review.http://www.notebookcheck.net/uploads/tx_nbc2/SonyV...
On my vpcse13fx the profile is pretty good, and makes the colors a bit more accurate, although red is still not there. It's still a bit yellow so in intel graphics properties on top of the notebook check ICC color profile I changed this setting:
Blue brightness +4
instructions on how to install the ICC color profile
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/584506-review...
whiplash55 - Saturday, April 7, 2012 - link
The display is very good and laptop is a joy to use because of it's size and weight. I find switching into performance mode is almost never necessary.Windows 8 runs amazing on this laptop can't wait for the drivers to catch up, battery life is a almost half as long as with Win 7.
marius18br - Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - link
i hope that in the near future samsung will ship superamoled screens with their ultrabooks (at least the 11.6" ones)anyone else wants the deep black and ∞ contrast of their galaxy (whichever) on their laptops?
Jayayess1190 - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
Can I just say I got my X220 when it first came out for under $900, with the IPS display option.joeuser2012 - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
It looks like with the switch set to "Speed" (aka: use the 6630m), you get a more lousy result than if you set it to "stamina" (HD3000) - can someone explain this to me? PCMark's site was less than forthcoming as to what the computation really means.karasaj - Tuesday, June 12, 2012 - link
Does anybody know if the new Sony Vaio with the GT640M LE will allow you to install updates from Nvidia? I would love this laptop if I can get updated drivers for it.sarahjordan - Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - link
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