Sony VAIO Duo 11

I got a question about the Duo 11: The i5 model has a 2GB RAM soldered + 4GB RAM replaceable right? Could I put a 8GB single stick RAM in the replaceable slot?

 

According to this post on Notebook review Vaio Duo 11 Owners Thread - Page 23 you cannot upgrade the RAM. At least not yet seeing that Sony is using custom modules.

 

As far as the pen cap goes, I left it in the box. It's of no use unless you're going to put a lanyard on it. For that matter the pen itself has a hole, I put a short lanyard on that. Also helps you grab the pen and pull it out of the slot in the battery slice.

I put Adobe Premiere Elements 10 on the machine a couple of days ago. It runs every bit as fast as on my Core 2 Quad desktop, maybe faster due to the SSD. I have completed a couple of AVCHD editing tasks. It's nice to be able to sit on the couch and edit rather than being tied to the desk. The stylus worked fairly well on the timeline. Not as good as a mouse, but definitely workable.

I may upgrade to a better editor, as I have been a little disappointed that Adobe does not have any accelerated GPU features on PE still. I've used PE for years and like it but it's slow to use and to render. Playback of HD remains jerky. I have read consistently good things about Cyberlink Powerdirector 11 as far as speed and power and ease of use go. The new version 11 is pretty unique in that it allows you to download a free companion Windows 8 Metro touch app, which is for more basic editing, but then you can apparently open the project with the desktop app for more intense work. Also the new version touts as being able to use Intel's video rendering speed ups, as well as acceleration for Intel GPU. Most video editors need an Nvidia or ATI for acceleration (if they have any at all.) Not having a discrete GPU on the Sony is one of it's drawbacks compared to a hot ultrabook, but if better use can be made of it's existing GPU, that would be cool.

I can see relaxing on the couch and doing the nuts and bolts assembly and cut editing on the touch screen. I'm downloading the demo now.

 

I was thinking doing the same thing if i have to buy the i5 version. Do someone know the possibility and how to go about it?

 

Has anyone installed the Sony screen protector? Any comments on pen noise reduction, screen glare, thickness, and general usability/feel?

 

Just a heads up. Anyone in the UK can currently get a free processor upgrade for Sony Vaios via the Sony Store online. Which means you can get an i5 processor Duo 11 for the price of the i3 processor. The offer ends on Dec 10th – although the last offer (a half price SSD upgrade) lasted longer than originally advertised, so there’s a chance this may as well.

 

I noticed portableone.com will let you customize one with a 12GB configuration. Not sure how they're doing this, but I'd be curious to know if anyone has a working 12GB configuration.

 

Well, I have bought Cyberlink PowerDirector 11 Ultra. It's workflow seems a bit odd compared to Premiere, however it is very quick, has plenty of power, has full screen preview, playback of HD is pretty good, rendering is extremely fast.

The touch screen app is very basic and dumbed down, buggy, and disappointing. Glad I didn't pay for it (unlock code comes with purchasing the desktop program.) It's usable I guess and will handle AVCHD. I had to rename all my .mts source video files to .m2ts to get them to show up, a trick only discovered by chance. It wouldn't render an mp4 output file ('transcode error'). I may be able to use this, exporting the project to the desktop app and rendering there. Not really sure it's worth the hassle.

The desktop app as I say seems to run pretty well with the Sony's limited GPU. It would probably be even faster with a discrete modern graphics card, but it's pretty impressive. I will try using the HDMI out on a 2nd monitor to see how that works. It would be nice to finally be able to edit with a dedicated full res playback monitor. Rendering times are about half what Premiere requires.

Anyway, that's one less thing I would need a giant megapowerful desktop machine for. Yay.

 

I have the 4GB 128GB version and have just struck an odd issue. I was playing with the PC settings and turned on the "High Contrast" setting under Ease of Use. Only problem is I cannot get it to turn off soeverything is black background and white text. Any ideas how to get t to turn off?

 

Too bad, I am not from UK....never heard that in Malaysia.