Sony Vaio Tap 11

[houkoholic]

Today I had a chance to take my Tap out for some mixed work and private usage and I've noticed some things that I think is worth sharing:
* the form factor of the Tap really is quite nice, especially the weight. I was carrying the machine as is without any bags and it is almost as effortless as carrying any other ARM based tablets. The machine is really sleek (getting some curious stares from a few at the coffee shop where it was filled with hipsters with Macbooks lol) and the back is surprisingly resilient to scratches and is non-slippery which is really important because due to the kick stand this thing won't be inside a protective case for most of the time. I've been a long time supporter of the convertible tablet and had used several Windows tablet before (since XP Tablet Edition actually, where we are talking about tablets convertible laptops which weighs nearly 2kg but with only enough battery for 2 hours) and I think this year with the Haswells (and Baytrails, from some initial impressions of the Dell tablet) we are finally getting really close to getting there when it comes to a combination of weight, performance and battery life for a true hybrid device. If only the Tap have 7~8 hours of solid battery life like the Surface Pro it would almost be perfect due to the confidence of knowing that it would last almost a full workday without having to carry the charger.

* the keyboard - being wireless is actually quite liberating, and the size of it makes for a good typing experience, though just using it a little I think Sony missed a really obvious way to solve at least 90% of the "extra lose piece" problem during usage - they should have put magnets on the back as well so you can dock the keyboard on the back and still use it as a full tablet.

 

[melte]

Hi Houkaholic, thanks for the very helpful posts. It must be great knowing that Windows users are cool for once
Did you get the black or white version? I think I will get the colour which attracts more attention!

The big pluses of the Vaio Tap 11 as I see it:
(i) thinness and weight. It's surprising that mac fans gush over the ipad air, yet this machine gets so little attention.
(ii) 11.6" screen: this looks like the most appropriate size for productivity (10" surface pro just too small for me).

I am hoping if anyone can answer the following questions:
(i) battery life: most reviews say it lasts 4-5 hours. Will it last 4-5 hours of video playback? I will be mainly using it to play videos.
(ii) keyboard: for me this usually stays in the cupboard. If I do use the keyboard however then it might be for extended hours on end so I am hoping if anyone has actually tested how long the keyboard lasts on a full charge?

 

[thejoyofsobe]

Got mine in last night and the power went out during my download of Windows 8.1 so I'm not fully up and running yet and i'll have to try the download again after work.

Like houkolic said the form factor is awesome. I bought it with the understanding that the kickstand would kill all lapability but i've found i can use it in my lap by putting the kickstand on one leg and slightly lowering the other leg. It's pretty solid. Moreover the kickstand makes one-handed use A LOT easier. I can have my palm flat against the back of the device with the kickstand between my fingers and use the stylus with the other comfortably.

It's quiet too.

My only complaints thus far is that mine shipped with the old-style stylus holder which is super hard to remove as opposed to the new style i tried out in Best Buy and the known issue of the microSD slot being hard to remove a card from as in break out the tweezers kind of hard.

Once I'm up and running I can't wait to compare the performance of my new i7-4610Y and my old laptop's i5-540M when running RAW photos through Canon's HDR program.

 

[islanderhash]

Congratulations to those of you who have a Tap 11 in your hands. I am, unfortunately, a flight away from the nearest store where I could inspect one personally. If you have a moment, could you answer one or more of the following questions which I can?t seem to resolve through online searching?

Is the back of the *tablet* plastic or metal? (more than one ?hands on? review has claimed that it magnesium)

Have you been able to discern if there is an onboard GPS through device manager and/or navigation or mapping programs?

Have you gained any information about the SIM card slot in the included instructions or through the operation of the tablet/device manager (GSM-only? Is it active? Other modem details?)

Color Choice & Build Quality. From what I can see online, it looks like the black tablet has a ?sleek? look with very little visual contrast, perhaps being the conservative option. The white model has a flashier appearance due contrasting shades and the silver stripe along its waist. I?m wondering if the build quality was better/worse than you expected and has made you reconsider the color tablet you purchased. For the white model in particular: do you think the color amplifies any flaws, does the silver stripe detail appear low or high build quality?

 

[houkoholic]

Personally I find the styling to suit the black better (that's why I bought the black version lol). The white is shiny and probably makes the machine look more plastic than it is, plus I'm not confident regarding the white material being able to resist scratch marks on (unless Nokia makes this with their nice grade polycabonate material). I'm not sure what the material of the back is - it feels rubbery, almost like Lenovo Thinkpad materials, so instinctively I would think it is plastic....

 

[drachen23]

Got mine yesterday and ended up having some free time to upgrade to Windows 8.1. It's a bit sluggish sometimes to wake from sleep, much slower than my Surface RT. Often, when I wake the device up for a full sleep state, the DPI settings get whacked out. Instead of getting 3 lines of tiles on the start screen, I get 6. That's also the point at which the device stops allowing me to change the brightness manually. It's fine after a reboot (which is lightning quick). I'm hoping that is just a video driver thing and that Sony will release an updated driver soon, but it's seriously annoying. Have any of you guys found the same problems after upgrading to Windows 8.1? I've seen some very odd issues.


So far, things I like about it:
- Amazing form factor. Without the keyboard it's bigger than the Surface RT, but almost the same weight and waaaay more powerful. Picking up my Surface RT now, the Sony makes it feel "dense".
- The screen is beautiful.
- I've noticed very little fan noise at idle or just surfing, but it was definitely audible doing work, like tons of update installations.
- I like the back. Some have complained that it's not aluminum or magnesium but I love the matte plastic because it has a nice, grippy feel and it's not a fingerprint magnet.
- The keyboard layout and keys are pretty good considering it's size, but I'm still going to leave it in my bag much of the time
- The power adapter has a USB charge port on it, comes with an attached velcro tie to wrap up cables and is laptop-style with a brick and a figure-8 cable so it doesn't block up more than one power plug.
- The pen feels very high quality. I don't use pens for anything, so I can't really judge the digitizer performance
- The kickstand is great. I can see that people who use the device as an on-lap laptop would not like it, but I've used it in a prone position in a lounge chair and the kickstand works beautifully for standing the device up on my abdomen. Way more comfortable than the Surface's wide one-position stand.
- The speakers are stereo, good quality and nice and loud
- The start button is physical it's hard to push accidentally (it's also hard to push on purpose). I never use the button and always have to warn people about accidentally hitting the button when I hand people my Surface RT, so this is a good thing.


Things I don't:
- The screen seems a bit finicky. It registers "ghost" taps at the end of swipes every once in a while (my Surface RT and iPad don't, so it's not how I swipe) and I even had one incident where the charms bar started coming in and out by itself at high speed. Might be a hardware issue on my device.
- The keyboard is a fingerprint magnet, both the magnesium back and the plastic palm rests. The switch to turn on the keyboard is way too easy to switch to "touchpad disabled" as opposed to "on". The touchpad itself is on the small side has an upleasant texture and the buttons take too much force to push down. Luckily it supports tap and double-tap gestures so you don't have to deal with them.
- The magnets holding the screen on do an admirable job holding the screen on, but slide around with sideways pressure. I may try to get a slipcase for it for my bag.
- You can't really do anything with the keyboard when the device being used as a tablet other than find somewhere to put it. You also can't use the tablet while the keyboard charges.
- The power brick isn't as compact as the Macbook Air or Surface and only has a three-pin US power cable for some reason.
- The power jack is a little fiddly to get into the device and doesn't seem all that secure. There's no charge indicator on the jack itself, but there is on the top of the tablet. I wish they would move to a magnetic jack.
- I have the old-style stylus holder and it's absolute garbage. It feels like I'm going to rip it apart to get it off.
- The covers over the USB/mini HDMI ports and the microSD slots aren't great. The USB port is by far the more annoying of the two. The cover doesn't want to get out of the way of the USB. It doesn't twist enough. They aren't as bad as some reviews say, but I'd rather the ports be open. I can deal with them.
- The bugginess described above, which I'm sad to say is fairly typical with Sony. They have a lot of proprietary drivers and software that can't be replaced by updated OEM versions. The video driver is already quite out of date and can't be replaced by the new one on the Intel site. For those of you not familiar with owning a Sony device, this is the killer part.


Overall, an amazing, ground-breaking tablet with a bunch of questionable hardware features and some sketchy driver software. In other words, a pretty typical Sony Vaio product. I think the Surface Pro 2 is a better all-around device. It has a more convenient keyboard, better power connector and it isn't cluttered with extra Sony software. But for my mobile devices I go for the lighter and thinner devices and compared to the Tap 11, the Surface Pro feels like a brick. So far, I'm happy with it and prefer it over the Surface Pro.


@islanderhash: The back of the tablet is a rubberized plastic, not metal. There does not seem to be a GPS in the Windows Device Manager. There is a device called "Windows Location Provider", but there is on the Surface RT as well so YMMV. There is no SIM slot that I can find on the device and no documentation about any such thing, at least the North American model. Can't say about the white version of the device, but on the black version the brushed metal on the sides is very subtle. you don't even notice it's there unless you look closely at the texture.

 

[melte]

Thanks to all for posting very helpful opinions. I agree with drachen23 that the Sony Vaio Tap 11 is the preferable device notwithstanding that the Surface Pro 2 is probably the better all around device in the end. The chunkiness of the Surface Pro 2 is just not going to work for me as a tablet. I am hoping that when the Vaio Tap 11 ships in my country it is already loaded with Windows 8.1 so don't have to deal with the driver issues.

Regarding the fan, I saw a teardown video on youtube where someone basically took apart the whole thing- the fan looked really tiny so wasn't expecting it to make any noise at all!

For those of you who own the device, which cases or accessories are good to go along with it? I wonder if there are any good slip cases for it with some padding to protect the screen- particularly if I want to leave the keyboard at home.

 

[melte]

Here are a couple more new reviews:
Sony VAIO Tap 11 Review - ComputerShopper.com
Sony VAIO Tap 11 review | Laptops and netbooks Reviews | TechRadar

I can't say there is anything in these reviews that would make me change my mind though... still think this is the device to beat.

edit:
One more review here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2427135,00.asp

 

[houkoholic]

@drachen23

I had the problems with the tiles and screen size going off when waking from sleep as well. I think I fixed it by unchecking the settings syncing function in Windows. If you have multiple Windows 8.1 machine it may not be respecting the show more tiles toggle (I suspect it was reading some of my settings from my desktop PC). That, or one of the updates fixed it (I kept manually checking for updates).

Ghost touching is a bit of issue I have as well. I tried turning the double-click speed to fastest but not really noticing much improvements, I guess we may be at the mercy of Sony drivers then.

As for the power jack, I think it is not sturdy by design. I think it was designed to pop right off in the chance of when you forget to unplug it so it would just come right off when you want to pick up the tablet and go.

 

[drachen23]

@houkoholic: Glad I am not the only one that saw the DPI problem. I have two other Win 8.1 computers, a Surface RT and a desktop with a 2560x1600 main monitor. It makes sense that sync might try to stomp all over the Tap 11's DPI settings, although I never had problems with the Surface (screen too low-res maybe?). I'll let you know if turning off sync works. Thanks! Looking through Sony's support forums, the brightness issue is relatively common across different models.

I know that the power jack is supposed to come out by design, but it just feels awkward.

For those looking for sleeves, bags and cases, I just went to the Apple Store this afternoon and checked the Tap 11 against the Macbook Air 11". They're the exact same size when the Air is closed. The Air has more rounded corners and is tapered at one end, but the dimensions are basically identical. The thick end is about as thick as the Tap 11 with the keyboard attached. It's very likely that Macbook Air 11" sleeves, bags and cases will fit the Tap 11. As always, your mileage may vary. I'm going to pick up one of these sleeves from Waterfield and test the theory. They make sleeves with more padding and won't hesitate to make a custom sizes. They're a bit on the pricey side, but I would not hesitate to recommend them for quality and customer service.

 

[thejoyofsobe]

Got my Tap 11 set up last night to use Miracast to extend my desktop with audio and video to my big screen TV. It's a pretty awesome set up with the wireless keyboard cover and my bluetooth mouse. The Netgear PTV3000 works pretty well although I did do a firmware update on it first. I really like that it's USB powered by my TV so no need for extra cables.

I had it at work yesterday as my secondary device for OneNote, email, light casual browsing etc and with the PowerSaver scheme on I was able to get through the entire day with a few minutes to space which is exactly what i need it to do. Not great by any definition but serviceable.

Still very pleased with this purchase.


@drachen23
thanks for the heads up on potentially using Macbook Air cases with the Sony Tap 11.

 

[islanderhash]

Tap 11 Performance (Amazing/Acceptable/Lagging)?
@drachen23 @houkoholic @thejoyofsobe and anyone else with a Tap 11
Can you tell me how your Tap 11 is performing (Amazing/Acceptable/Lagging) with [Light/Medium/High] demanding programs?

I suggest:
Light: Word processing/Web Browsing, etc.
Medium: Hulu/Netflix/Youtube, etc
High: Photoshop, design/rendering programs, GIS, etc

Please note what processor you have [Pentium/i3/i5/i7].
If you were to return and repurchase, would you get a Tap 11 with a different processor?

Thank you for your previous answers.

 

[houkoholic]

In terms of performance on my i5 I find that:
Light usage such as browsing and word processing is more than adequate
Medium usage: playing back 1080p content, off my NAS, is perfectly fine too. Even 10bit h264 which has no GPU acceleration and relies on CPU grunt is fine.
Heavy: don't really do heavy usage so can't comment

I also got myself the Netgear Push2TV adapter and it's a bit of a mixed bag - while most things works sadly I think there just isn't enough bandwidth to stream 1080p content over WiDi so I'll go back to using the trusty HDMI cable (got my micro HDMI adapter too). If you want to enable this remember run the Intel WiDi Update Tool first if you are on W8.1 as it would run a bunch of test and updates to get the necessary drivers for WiDi to function.

 

[thejoyofsobe]

I also got myself the Netgear Push2TV adapter and it's a bit of a mixed bag - while most things works sadly I think there just isn't enough bandwidth to stream 1080p content over WiDi so I'll go back to using the trusty HDMI cable (got my micro HDMI adapter too). If you want to enable this remember run the Intel WiDi Update Tool first if you are on W8.1 as it would run a bunch of test and updates to get the necessary drivers for WiDi to function.

Are you using the Intel WiDi app or the Charms Bar > Devices > Project > Add a wireless display

I ask because I'm not having any issues with this method extending my desktop to the receiver 10-12 feet away and have never even opened the Intel WiDi app/update tool.

 

[houkoholic]

Are you using the Intel WiDi app or the Charms Bar > Devices > Project > Add a wireless display

I ask because I'm not having any issues with this method extending my desktop to the receiver 10-12 feet away and have never even opened the Intel WiDi app/update tool.

The Intel WiDi app when ran under Windows 8.1 will throw a compatibility error (which you can still force it to run), and when it does the app will complain that the device is not supported (which is a lie, as we know the Tap 11 has all the bits to run WiDi - Gen 4 Intel CPU with Intel GPU as well as Intel WiFI adapter). If you choose to not force the app to run and instead follow the help screen Windows will bring up the Intel page where you can download the WiDi update tool, when you run it it will automatically pull down all the latest Intel drivers (since the graphic driver is Sony optimized it prevents the installation of generic Intel ones, but it will pull down the WiFi drivers), and - surprisingly - *removes* the WiDi app. I think this is because 8.1 has WiDi built in and the old app (which was really released for Win7) don't play well with each other and actually needed to be removed to function properly.

 

[melte]

Its a pleasant surprise that the dimensions of the Vaio Tap 11 are similar to Macbook Air 11". I haven't seen the Tap 11 in person but from the videos i had the impression that the bezels were bigger than the Macbook Air 11". Well it looks like this is very portable and I can envisage using it quite alot on the couch watching TV.

 

[drachen23]

machine it may not be respecting the show more tiles toggle (I suspect it was reading some of my settings from my desktop PC). That, or one of the updates fixed it (I kept manually checking for updates).

Any other advice? I reinstalled Windows 8 and upgraded back to Windows 8.1 on Sony's advice (after turning off syncing on all my PCs and clearing out my settings on skydrive and I'm still having this issue. I'm getting really frustrated with this thing and may return it if I need to log out every damn time I turn on the device.

 

[drachen23]

OK, Sony got back to me about the issue via email. They say, and I quote: "Video driver update will fix the issue. Unfortunately, there is no video update available for Windows 8.1. I would recommend you to downgrade the operating System to Windows 8."

Seriously? Downgrade to 8? Flipboard *just* came out and it's 8.1 only. Sony, you're killing me. I love your hardware, but if I had a tumor, I'd name it "Sony".

 

[houkoholic]

Any other advice? I reinstalled Windows 8 and upgraded back to Windows 8.1 on Sony's advice (after turning off syncing on all my PCs and clearing out my settings on skydrive and I'm still having this issue. I'm getting really frustrated with this thing and may return it if I need to log out every damn time I turn on the device.

Hmm not sure what else you can do save for trying to hack the registry.
I had another run into some issue yesterday with the screen where the screen was mysteriously registrating touches right smack in the middle of the screen even when I'm not touching the device at all - I can just leave the the thing there on the table on the Start screen and I would see the screen registrating touches and opening an app where the tile is located in the middle. Didn't know what was causing it because my screen is literally sparkling clean and it took me a few restarts to get rid of it and I was scared that I had to take it back which thankfully I didn't have to.

The device seems to have a bit of teething problems with the 8.1 update, I knew Sony is always incompetent when it comes to software but this just adds more to my general lack of confidence towards Sony products. The form factor is still unbeatable and there's still a lot to like about the device and I don't think I've ran into any complete deal breakers yet - but if the problems aren't fix quickly I'll be keeping a close eye on the Surface Pro 3 release next year for an early upgrade....

 

[drachen23]

OK, I think I figured out the DPI thing. I downloaded the driver from the Intel site for Windows 8.1 for the HD Graphics 4200. Uninstall the current video driver and check the "delete software for this device" box. Reboot and install the Intel driver. It should be dated 10/3/2013 and be *exactly* version 10.18.10.3316 in device manager and no lower. It should *not* be the version from Sept that is something like 10.18.10.3309. The part that screwed me up is that Windows 8.1 thinks that the Sept driver is the latest compatible one. DO NOT use "Update driver software..." on the video device or install the driver update from Windows Update (it's an optional update, but not sure if it installs by default automatically). So far it's been good for me for the past few hours and hasn't screwed up my DPI.

An update on accessories: That suede Macbook Air 11" sleeve I bought for the Tap 11 just came in. I have the same sleeve for my Macbook Air 13". The sleeve fits the Tap 11 with the keyboard like a glove. It's a bit tighter than the 13" Air because the air is tapered to a point while the Tap 11 is flat and just takes up more volume, but it's a great, if a bit tight, fit. No fabric stretching needed. The Tap 11 might be a slight bit wider (as you hold the tablet screen facing you) than the 11" Air because there is less than 1/8" extra fabric at the ends over the edge of the device. There is about 1/4" over the edge of the 13" Air sleeve. Might just be how it's cut. As always, YMMV, but 11" Air cases and sleeves look to be a great fit!

on edit: Totally with you houkoholic about Sony's teething issues. The thing is they always come out with amazing, ground breaking, flawed, wonderful hardware designs. I keep coming back to them like a lover I keep breaking up with and just want to get back with. It's weird. I should seek counselling, lol.