Sony Vaio Tap 11

[inteller]

Dude I didn't say it never would....just that RIGHT NOW IN THE PRESENT Microsoft has a slimy deal with Best buy to keep out SUPERIOR competition...probably through the holidays.

 

[thejoyofsobe]

no worries. it didn't read that way to me.

i think you might have mistook my 'people love to talk on things they don't know about' as to mean you. i was referring to my Best Buy guy, not you or yours. My Best Buy guy also said they'd be getting Tap 11's in with 8 GB of RAM even though those just don't event exist. Hence why I was calling into question his authority on the subject.

 

[houkoholic]

....or the much more plausible reason that the entire Japan had been hit with 4 massive typhoons in the past two months causing the shipments to be delayed. (My i5 Tap 11 is delayed as well, and I'm in HK, buying direct from the Sony Store).
Seriously do you think if MS signed such an obviously anti-competitive deal with Best Buy which is so obvious that a lowly sales rep knows about but the Sony lawyers wouldn't do anything about it? They would be all over Best Buy and MS within seconds and suing for damages. And why only the i5 model instead of the entire Tap 11 series when the i7 model upgrade is only about a 150 bucks extra? It makes no sense. The Best Bay/Sony rep is talking out of his ***, I'd even wager he's like a PlayStation ****** lol.

Also the Tap11 is in no way superior to the Surface Pro 2 - they are just products with different compromises, the only area where it really wins out is the weight. The Surface Pro 2 is superior it in battery life (nearly 9 hours now with the recent firmware update doing serious work, compared with the 5 hours most test shows the Tap 11 is capable of), a higher quality built material (vapourmag vs plain plastic), has a much better selection of accessories, and Wacom digitizer vs N-trig.

 

[houkoholic]

Well I got a surprised call from Sony Store today during work - telling me my Tap arrived and I can pick it up. So that's what I did and now I have the black i5 version here next to me, downloading the 8.1 update after about 60 windows 8 update first. Will see how everything goes after I get things up and running.

 

[inteller]

....or the much more plausible reason that the entire Japan had been hit with 4 massive typhoons in the past two months causing the shipments to be delayed. (My i5 Tap 11 is delayed as well, and I'm in HK, buying direct from the Sony Store).
Seriously do you think if MS signed such an obviously anti-competitive deal with Best Buy which is so obvious that a lowly sales rep knows about but the Sony lawyers wouldn't do anything about it? They would be all over Best Buy and MS within seconds and suing for damages. And why only the i5 model instead of the entire Tap 11 series when the i7 model upgrade is only about a 150 bucks extra? It makes no sense. The Best Bay/Sony rep is talking out of his ***, I'd even wager he's like a PlayStation ****** lol.

Also the Tap11 is in no way superior to the Surface Pro 2 - they are just products with different compromises, the only area where it really wins out is the weight. The Surface Pro 2 is superior it in battery life (nearly 9 hours now with the recent firmware update doing serious work, compared with the 5 hours most test shows the Tap 11 is capable of), a higher quality built material (vapourmag vs plain plastic), has a much better selection of accessories, and Wacom digitizer vs N-trig.

I was told of the MS/BB deal by a dude wearing a Sony shirt and claiming to represent Sony in store. I don't think a guy like that would risk his job by slandering MS/BB if the deal wasn't true.

 

[houkoholic]

I was told of the MS/BB deal by a dude wearing a Sony shirt and claiming to represent Sony in store. I don't think a guy like that would risk his job by slandering MS/BB if the deal wasn't true.

He risks nothing really, sales people talk such BS all the time if they are desperate to make a sale. Just because he is a Sony rep doesn't mean he is honest about what's going on inside Sony, in fact he probably has huge incentive to convince a person to NOT buy that Surface which is sitting right there with stock available but instead wait for a Tap by talking some BS. Again if this is true, Sony's army of lawyers would be all over BB and MS. Also it would be a massive PR bonus for Sony too which they wouldn't miss the opportunity to promote themselves. Imagine all the headlines which reads "Microsoft afraid of new Sony product and blocks its sale at BB with underhanded tactic", it would generate HUGE interest in seeing what is so special about this Sony product. F**ing awesome free marketing really.

So yes, I'd say the typhoon caused shipment delay is WAY more likely. We are talking about typhoons that caused the Japan government to evacuate entire towns with hundreds of thousands of people and flooded many major cities all over Japan here.

 

[thejoyofsobe]

Well I got a surprised call from Sony Store today during work - telling me my Tap arrived and I can pick it up. So that's what I did and now I have the black i5 version here next to me, downloading the 8.1 update after about 60 windows 8 update first. Will see how everything goes after I get things up and running.

awesome. look forward to hearing how it performs given that all i've had my hands on is a Pentium in Best Buy with the stylus but non-functional dual digitzer and another Pentium in a different Best Buy with no stylus.

EDIT: My order status changed from Processing to Manufacturing Started. can't wait

EDIT 2: Manufacturing Complete.

EDIT 3: Shipped from China

 

[Kosmeetik Kolja]

Wondering here, is Pentium 3560Y still better option than bay trail atom cpu devices?

 

[drachen23]

Just out of curiosity, where have you guys seen the Tap 11 in Best Buy? I'm in New York, and I've been to 3 Best Buys so far this week and haven't seen the Tap 11. (I've already ordered mine, should ship in a week or so. I just want to feel the device in my hand.) Then again, the Best Buy stores around here aren't great. At the store on 86th, the Surface table was empty except for one lone tablet: a Surface RT. I have no idea how that place stays open. Here's the sequence of events When I tried to buy a Macbook Air at Best Buy last year because they were $100 cheaper than the Apple Store:

I walk in and wait in front of the Macbook table for a salesman for 15 min and one finally approaches.
Me: "I want one of these." (I point at the 13" Air.)
He picks up a display card to see the model number.
Me: "No, this one. For the 13" Macbook Air." (I hand him the correct display card.)
He walks me over to the checkout counter, but I ask for the USB ethernet adapter for the Macbook.
He walk away for 5 min and comes back with a PCIMCA wireless ethernet card.
Me: "No, the USB adapter for *wired* networking."
He walks away for another 5 min and comes back with a Cat 5 ethernet cable.
Me: "No, I have a cable. I need the Apple USB ethernet adapter."
He walks away for another 5 minutes, but has a guy with an Apple shirt in tow.
Apple guy: "What do you need?"
Me: "The USB to ethernet adapter."
Apple guy: "We're out of stock on that. You should be able to get one at our Prince St or Grand Central locations."

It took 2 seconds for the Apple guy to answer out what took the Best Buy guy 15 minutes to figure out he needed help. It says volumes about the training and motivation they give their employees.

 

[houkoholic]

So I spent about 4 hours updating the thing yesterday (my internet connection is slow, so YMMV), and now today there's more driver updates, yayz. Anyway so even though I haven't got it completely setup to have all the stuff I need on the thing last night I at least got it up to be able to play some movies and the tablet streamed 1080p BD rips, including some 10bit mkvs, without any issues, so I'm fairly happy with that. However I have to say the stylus holder is in the worst position that Sony could come up with - this is not only because it covers up the USB and HDMI port, but being on the left side it really gets in the way for normal usage by a right-handed person ie you want to hold the tablet with your left hand along the left edge and interact with the tablet with your right, but with the stylus docked it is not comfortable to hold. Sony should have put the stylus holder along the top edge where it would be completely out of the way.

 

[inteller]

So yes, I'd say the typhoon caused shipment delay is WAY more likely. We are talking about typhoons that caused the Japan government to evacuate entire towns with hundreds of thousands of people and flooded many major cities all over Japan here.

except these aren't made in Japan....

 

[inteller]

Wondering here, is Pentium 3560Y still better option than bay trail atom cpu devices?

Yes, but not great when compared with the other i5 tablets this thing is really meant to compete with.

 

[houkoholic]

except these aren't made in Japan....

Ah yes now I have this it says made in China (little bit disappointed in that)
Except that would mean not only the 4 typhoon which hit Japan hard which started off the coast of south east Japan and went north east along the Japanese east coastline , but also another 4 which originated off the north east of Philippines and went north west along the south coast of China too! The commonly used Chinese shipping routes on the Pacific Ocean were hit hard with typhoon this year, we've never had this many typhoon (30 and still counting) in a year for 19 years.

So yeah, typhoon delayed shipment even more obvious reason then before.

 

[inteller]

they deal with it....it does not explain why a lesser model of the tap 11 is in BB when the competitive model is not, except the MS exclusivity agreement does.

 

[wpclimber]

Hi everyone,

I am really interested in this device, but I have a couple of questions that makes me doubt about tap 11 and surface pro 2. I would like to use this tablet to substitute my old laptop and for hand drawing works, so the digitalizer must be very accurate. One user said that wacom technology is an advantage over tap 11 digitalizer technology, is really there such big difference?

On the other hand I am concerned about the processor performance when working with large images or videos. I usually work editing videos and pictures with Adobe Premiere and Lightroom. I don't know if it would be enough with i3 or I should go to i5 or even i7...

I am waiting for good reviews about tap 11 and some video comparisons with surface pro 2, but there is not yet, there is only hands on and first look reviews...

Could you give me some advices about these questions?

thanks in advance

 

[Joe Acerbic]

N-trig used to be really unreliable, incompatible and inaccurate but some are saying that it has improved a lot. Wacom has been great like, forever.

 

[houkoholic]

they deal with it....it does not explain why a lesser model of the tap 11 is in BB when the competitive model is not, except the MS exclusivity agreement does.

Yeah the logistic companies deals with typhoons.... by delaying their shipping or re-route their routes to ones which takes longer time.
Also other reasons could be a delay in shipment and/or shortages of just these new i5 Haswell chips compared with the old Pentium ones causing less of the i5 models rolled off the production line, BB (or even Sony themselves) mistakenly thinking that a cheaper device is an easier sell in the US price concious market so they stock more of the entry model instead of the higher spec one (a thinking which plauges many PC OEM, not just Sony BTW). Allocation of stocks to specific markets over US (Sony IS focusing more on domestic market than US afterall, see how they just pulled out of US mobile phone space for example, and we also know that mobile device of Sony was doing really poorly). Any of these are more plausible than a shady deal which a rep knows but the entire company with an army of lawyers didn't act on (which Sony would certainly win too AND win lots of browny points off the tech media, whom are always ready to put MS on a stake and burn them). Really dude, take off your tin foil hat which that Sony rep gave you.

EDIT: Also FWIW, you cannot buy the Pentium model in HK or Japan - it is simply not available for purchase, lowest model available is the i3 version. So perhaps that was Sony's strategy all along too - they made the cheapest model only for the US due to the market's price concious factor over spec comparison and wants to push that one and prioritize the stock of high spec ones for the other markets where they are received much more warmly and has a strong brand awareness like Japan and other Asian countries.

 

[drachen23]

Just read the review of the Tap 11 on The Verge and the review is pretty awful. I don't mean that the reviewer gave the device a low score. I mean that the reviewer doesn't really know much about the product he is supposed to be reviewing. One of the most mind-boggling is that he thinks that the keyboard is supposed to act as an external battery for *the tablet* and complains that it's silly to recharge the tablet by covering it with the keyboard. Second, he complained that the stylus acted like a mouse pointer instead of acting like a finger swipe. I don't think he really understands the purpose of an active stylus. Most bizarrely, the author complains about the desktop icons and menus being too small in desktop mode. He changed the resolution Windows was running at to "fix" this rather than adjusting the scaling level for the icons and text. He also takes the time to complain that the Verge website looks silly as a narrow column surrounded by whitespace on the device. Uh... that's how your website is designed. You might want to talk to your web design people before blaming that one on the Sony. Pinch to zoom still works on the desktop version of IE with touch enabled. Oh wait, he's using Chrome, which he thinks is energy efficient.

The Verge is known as a very Mac-centric publication, but I really wish they would get someone besides just Tom Warren who knows anything about Microsoft products. He makes some valid points about the hardware but is clueless about the software.

 

[thejoyofsobe]

I had the same thoughts about the Verge review. unhelpful and misleading.

 

[internalaudit]

It's $674 through education pricing at sony.com:

Sony VAIO Tap 11 Windows 8 Tablet - $674 + Tax after student discount + 5x Sony Rewards 11-03-2013 - Slickdeals.net