Sony S580 initial impression

Okay, I just bought a Sony VGN-S580 over the Sonystyle.com website. It's specs are:

Intel Pentium M @ 2.0GHZ . 1 GIG of RAM, Nvidia GForce GO6400 @128MB. Other than that, its just the standard 460 with a few tweaks. It still has wireless a,b,g with bluetooth, 13.3" XBrite screen, etc.

Originally, I had bought an S460 from Best Buy and found that it had these issues which were common to that model:

1. Loud fan and too much heat both in processor and on right palm rest
2. Buggy DVD that would work sometimes, but not others and would lock up and crash during DVD playback
3. Loose, rattling battery in back
4. Slow performance and sketchy battery life

So, I called SonyStyle and they told me that all of these issues were addressed in the new 580, so I ordered one. I just received it yesterday, and here are a few initial impressions. I will post a detailed review with pictures later.

Basically, this is exactly the same unit as the 460 but with some minor modifications in hardware. First, I will address the issues laid out above.

1. The fan issue has definately been resolved. The new fan is quiet and effective. However, the CPU and palm rest run even hotter than the 460 did. I used CHC to tweak it and now have it running at a steady 53-56 degrees, but it took a bit of tweaking to find the right spot. It is still annoying, but not a deal breaker.
2. DVD playback is right on and so far no bugs or lock ups. Looks like smooth sailing.
3. If the battery rattle in previous models could be rated at an 8 or 9 out of ten (in terms of severity), I would say that the rattle on this model is a 1 or 2...IT's still there, but decreased significantly.
3. This model ships with the extended battery standard, and thre are several observations that I have about this unit. The first is that running on VAIO Ultimate Battery setting with CHC undervolted and set to max battery, you can expect about 5 hours of use. On max performance setting, you can expect about 2.5. In my opinion, this is totally unacceptable life for an extended battery with undervolting and battery life tweaking. I don't even want to think about what you would get with the standard battery.

Additionally, there is an issue with battery life drain. with 100% charge in the battery, over 8 hours (overnight) with the unit POWERED OFF, it lost almost 18% of its charge. When I contacted Sony about this, they first told me that this was totally normal for laptop batteries. When I called their bluff, they said that I would have to send it back and wait 4-6 weeks for them to test it, diagnose it, and fix it and send it back. However, if it was shown that nothing was wrong (and he held that in his opininon this battery drain was normal and that I was overreacting) then I'd pay for the shipping.

All in all, I think that despite the bloatware that SOny is known for, this is a great machine that still has a few crucial flaws (mainly in battery life and battery power leakage issues). Personally, I am sending this one back and ordering an Asus W3V. Sony has just not been there lately, and their customer service really sucks.

Anyone who can share with me as to their own issues with the battery drain while powered off thing, please post and let me know what you have found. Thanks.

Chembook and Standby

Yeah, I am certain that I did not set it to standby. I always shut it completely down, and I still get the battery drain issue. There are some other posts on this site that complain of the battery drain issue, too. I understand that you will get a little bit of battery drain if you leave the machine turned off and sitting for several days, and I wanted to see what the average or "normal" amount of drain most people experience over a 24 hour period of shut off would be so that I can compare.

Which company makes the Chembook? I would like to take a look at it, although the Asus is a really nice rig, and leads the pack right now in my choices for replacements for the SOny.

Thanks.

Yeah, I looked at the FS series, but small size and low weight are key...the FS is just too big. As far as the S-360 goes, I've read some reviews and think that I'd rather stick with the 580...more power, better graphics card, etc. One thing that I like about this rig is that I can run FARCRY, Battlefield 2, Dungeon Seige, Etc. on it with a good deal of the eye candy, and it flows great. I havent dont a sysmark or 3dmark or futuremark score, but just from experience thus far, this laptop cranks the games really well (even when running on battery power). There are also none of the screen issues that were part of the Xbrite thing in previous models.

I will check out the chembook review and see what's up with them. The main selling points for me are small size / lots of power. Even the asus is "too big" for what I'm really looking for...so I'll check it out and let you know what I think.

I'm still tweaking the power using CHC...if anyone has experience with a good setting for CHC on Sony laptops, could you post up your settings so that I can try them? Thanks!

I encountered this same issue with the sony website...one page said 6400, the other said 6200, so I called sony before I ordered. It is definately the 6400 with 64megs of dedicated, and although officially it lists on the sony website as 128mgs max with turbocache, I have heard some people say that it can get up to 256 with a gig of ram. I have a gig of ram...how would I go about checking the system to see how much it can run in turbocache? if anyone can tell me, I'll check it and post back.

THis unit has bluetooth and it works just fine. I have tweaked th processor voltage and am now getting 5:20 out of a fully charged extended battery on the ultimate battery power saving mode, and my processor is running between 44 and 56 degrees. The more I tweak, the better this baby gets. What continues to impress me is that I can run Farcry and Dungeon Seige II on this with eye candy set to high on a few settings and it flies without a hiccup (that's plugged in, on max performance setting).

With DVD playback, fully charged battery on Max Battery setting, I can get just about 3:15. That's with screen at about brightness of 3. THe wireless is dead on, and I have not experienced any of the problems that the previous models had with getting the wireless to work.

The touchpad seems a little squirrely at times, but a few tweaks with the included touchpad manager should work that out. All in all, I am really liking this machine, and when you put it up against anything else out there, it packs a ton of freaking power into a 4.5 pound package. The extended battery adds about an inch of stick out in the back, but that only makes it fit perfectly snug into the BOOQ VIPER XM case that I bought!

The only real complaint that I have now is the battery drain issue and the bogus answers that Sony customer service is giving me in regards to it. Their customer service really SUCKS!! I own probably 15,000 bucks worth of sony stuff from plasma tv to disk changer to hardware and software, etc. This is my first computer from sony and the first time I have had to deal with their customer service, and I must say that in the future, I will seriously think twice about doing business with them again because of the atrocious support I have encountered.

There is also a small issue with the ridiculous amount of bloatware that the system comes with. It slows down startup time and eats battery life (because everything initializes on bootup). I am going to delete a lot of it, disable others, and if I run into problems, just do a clean install of windows and reclaim my 5 gigs of partitioned HDD space that they set up for recovery.

All in all, pretty psyched, although still considering trading in for the Asus W3V. I'll keep you posted and I'll answer anybody back who wants more info. THIS UNIT IS VASTLY SUPERIOR TO THE 460!!

It doesnt say on the sony how many cells are in the extended battery...the website doesnt say either. I'd have to call them. However, based upon previous experience, I would say that it's a 12 cell, but I might be wrong.

Where can I get 3dmark?

Thanks!