Thats great hehe! The FW is a nice laptop for entertainment and some 'studio' works. You don't need the Blueray Drive since the difference is too much. Unless you already have some HD movie discs collection and a proper Blueray player. Otherwise, if you want HD your priority should be on the TV side of things and not watching it on the laptop hehehe!

The only thing I like about the BD variant of FW is the screen. It has double lamp illumination and its really colorful and bright.

It all depends on how much you're willing to spend. SR12 or SR13, you already get the good stuff of a VAIO: up to date CPU and chipset, LED backlit screen, nice thin design, etc. The SR13 only provide a higher specification than the SR12: a dedicated 128MB HD3470 graphic chip, 1GB more RAM, additional 50GB of HDD space, fingerprint module with TPM, Vista Business instead of Home Premium, and some small insignificant goodies.

So it depends if you want to spend an extra for these. Otherwise, the SR12 is just as good as the SR13. Both has the same important specifications. Thats what matters. So I would go for the SR12 if money is slightly of a problem. Then you can add your own RAM later.

For myself, I just got the SR13 because I need the graphics chip for Adobe Photoshop processing (in the future). The SR-series is a nice balance from the price point vs features and design. I can't afford the Z-series but fortunately the SR has almost the same design cues. The screen is fantastic and the weight is just great. I brought it along during my recent vacation and it rocks when it comes to portability.

Yeah SR13 is only available in 'gun metal' black. But the lid looks really cool in that color with some shimmering. Think its due to the magnesium alloy material. But I do feel the black color looks a little too black and dull. Its not 'chrome' enough so no shiny or glossy effect. But hey, its good news if you don't like grease and fingerprints.

It would be great if SR comes in more colors. I get a feeling that blacks are usually reserved for higher end SKUs. Think higher end Macbooks, higher end iPods and Vaio TZ series which are only available in black. So it'll give you the feel of owning a premium product. Also Vaios are traditional black in color until the recent introductions of colors into the rest of its product lines.

As to flaws, nothing to concern about. Its pretty durable and stiff. My sis's SR13 actually had a dislocated disc tray. But it was fixed within the hour thanks to Northpoint. But I don't know how that could happen on a Vaio. Maybe a broken tray lock during shipment. My SR was perfect, all the assembly is great and with good tolerances.

Yeah, even their promotion flyer pictures a business-like lady carrying it. And another with the SR being used at a home office. But I have a feeling that Sony wants to make the SR more affordable so it cuts things here and there. The downgrade from Vista Business to Home Premium will also affect on the end pricing too. That'll bring the SR to a more accessible price range by people who wants to upgrade from CR-series since the price of the highest-end of CR is similar to the lowest end of SR.

Yes, the integrated GPU has an average of 30 minutes longer based on DVD playback (as benchmarked on the reviews), however if we talk about gaming and office/web surfing, the difference will be smaller. First if you're gaming, you're maxing on your power resources so battery lifetime will be insignificant cause it'll wear down in like 1-1.5 hours. I mean what difference does it make? Surfing however (I think) is tricky. Thats because ATI does have its power saving profiles and I think its quite power efficient. My SR13 can do on average 2.5 hours (with a very conservative power profile). The SR12 can do slightly more (probably close to 10-15 minutes more).

Oh ya, the new SR has been on the international market but Malaysia. It has been mentioned here before but no signs of it being announced yet.

I don't own the Z-series but I have a fair share of usage time demoing it every time I bump into a Sony store . Frankly speaking it is expensive and the lack of a Bluray drive makes it feels a lot more expensive. But other than that, its awesome. The built quality, the screen quality, the finishing, the hybrid graphics system, etc makes it very impressive technology wise. The screen perhaps gets the most score in my opinion. The color reproduction is just amazing. Very light weight too.

Anyway this is unrelated, I own the SR13. Nice laptop but one complain, the battery meter seems to be erratic and not accurate. Every time when I charged it to 100%, removing the AC and the level drops all the way to 93%. Plugging it back and it'll take some time to reach 100% again. Or 100% then reboot and it drops a lot. Sometimes, it shows the battery critical sign even though I just took it out of the AC. And this is not only my laptop, I found the same characteristic on some CR-series too. Any comments?

Actually there are rumors brewing that the SR will be revised with a HDMI port. The original SR already has a placeholder for HDMI port but the connector is not populated for the current SR12/13 SKUs. No exact timeline of when though.

Seriously, think about it. The SR12/13 is quite updated in terms of specifications. I am really puzzled if Sony only releases a refresh with only an additional HDMI port and 256MB ATI HD3470. So that gives it the reason to charge a higher price? Or it can give it a boost in the processor and graphics card section (HD 36xx???) but that'll whacked the price out of range.

Honestly, Sony should have included the HDMI at least for the SR13. The hardware is already there and is capable for it. It just a connector and the necessary wiring.

Yes, the VAIO brand worth a lot more. The Vaio brand has a long history of computer products in Sony.

Yeah, best would to add it in without any price increase. Sony seldoms add more than 2 SKUs in the same family series, so I would think they will completely replace the 2 SKUs in the near future. But looking at what is available at the moment (in terms of specifications), there is no real upgrade except for faster processors. So I hope Sony will wait for Intel i7 (Nehalem) update which is scheduled for 2009.

Not sure yet cause it is not announced in Malaysia. It will be replacing the CR-series while the NS will be replacing the N-series.

Yes, there is currently only one SKU available for N-series. But I would suggest you to wait for a little while because NS-series will be launched soon (around next year) and it will feature a better CPU. The current N-series only have Pentium Dual-Core processors, I think the NS will have the newer T-series Core 2 Duo.

The NS series is meant to replace the NR series. If you want something for replacement of CR series, you have to wait for CS series which will be due out soon.

The old CR is just as glossy but only on the LCD lid. The CS makes the entire casing thicker and glossier meaning its harder to take care now. Hehehe. But its very nice. They finally follow touch displays for control panel function buttons. Other than that, the rest look similar. Specs are pretty good.

Actually I am very impressed with the gloss quality of CR and CS series. Although they are both a fingerprint magnet, I don't see them getting scratches from the constant wiping and wiping. My wife uses a Red CR and I have been wiping and dusting the surface for her and I don't see it getting scratches. Very good finishing.

Anyone has a scratched CR/CS?

All users of VAIO using ATI 3470 (especially FW and SR owners) can use the most updated ATI Catalyst Control Center (CCC) driver suite by downloading from the AMD.com. You then need a Mobility Modder utility tool to patch the driver files. Basically, all it does is to add in entries of your GPU so it will install on your laptop.

This way you will get the most up to date driver versions every month. The ATi Catalyst Control Center driver suite is built on a unified platform. Meaning one driver for all AMD/ATI products including our laptop GPU. I fix most of my SR's game incompatibilities by using the latest CCC drivers.

For Mobility Modder tools you can proceed to HERE

For latest ATI CCC driver suite, you use the desktop version of HD34xx. Meaning choose HD3400 series of GPU. Download the driver installation file and extract it. Don't install. Then use the MobilityModder tool to patch the files you have just extracted. When done, you install it as usual. It will recognize your laptop GPU. Thats it.

It depends on what you are trying to use it for. Gaming, I would say simple games and previous generation games at low to medium settings. Video decoding no problem at all. Actually the Nvidia 9300 is used on the Z-series too. The negative things you have been hearing originates from Nvidia's 8 generation GPUs.

The entire promotion lasts until 31 January 2009. Its a Sony products promotions in conjunction of PC Fair. It is not a PC Fair deal. For PC Fair deal, you need to checkout who will be operating the VAIO booths. It may not be Sony Center/Style themselves and could be another company. They may offer their own promotions with the same free gifts (standardized one) plus some others. It may and may not.

So no reasons not to wait till PC Fair since the original Sony promotion lasts until next year. If you miss PC Fair, you can still get the deal. So nothing to loose.

Well, the Sony Vaio FW's Full-HD and 1080 sticker is a classic case of Microsoft Vista's labeling of Vista Capable case. The only difference it did not went down to a class action lawsuit. Hehehe... why? Because it is misleading. Allow me to explain:

For the FW-series, there are currently 3 variants. The 2 lower-end models only have 1600x900 resolution on the LCD. These are 'high' enough in terms of resolution for a laptop. Most laptop today have 1280x800 resolutions. The FW-series employ a 16:9 aspect ratio screen so it requires 1600x900 resolution screen which is higher than 720p of normal HDTVs. They do have 1080 stickers but it only indicates that it is capable to output to a display screen of up to 1080p or 1920x1080p via the HDMI output connector.

The highest end FW is the real deal here because it has a Full-HD 1920x1080 LCD display and it also has the same capability for the video output like its 2 younger brothers.

FYI, anything over 480p/576 PAL is considered HD already. So resolutions like 1600x900 or 720p is good enough for HD playback since your display size is so small. Marketeers use Full-HD to indicate the highest resolution possible on a HDTV and that is 1080p or 1920x1080. No difference, just more pixels and it is capable of filling larger displays.

The wireless switch is for both WIFI and Bluetooth. When you slide it to OFF position, both interfaces will be disabled. You have to use Sony's software utilities to manually disable either one of these interfaces. Alternatively, you can go to device manager and look for bluetooth module. Right click and disable it. On the SR, there's a control panel located on the top side of the desktop screen. SR users can easily switch off and on any of those interfaces.

Yeah, the battery indicators are a bit wacky. I posted the problem here but it seems like it is a normal behavior for Sony Vaio. When I first got my SR, it only charges until 90% and it keeps charging for a very long time. After a few rounds of usage, the battery goes 100%. Strangely, if your laptop is switched off when it charges until full, take off the adaptor, starting Windows and you will see your battery levels have gone down to 95% and then 88% is no time!

Or when your VAIO is switched on when the battery is charge till full, plugging the adaptor off and your battery levels drop down to 90-95%. Putting the adaptor back and you see it charge for 30min-1 hour. I guess thats some kind of trickle charge to slowly bring it back to 100%. So that gives me an impression that the Windows battery indicator is not accurate with VAIO laptops.