I recently (7/12) bought a new VAIO VPCF21Z1E, knowing it would be eligible for the Windows 8 upgrade offer. But now, I read Sony will not support Windows 8 on this model.
With a 1920 * 1080 FULL HD resolution Windows 7 is just worthless on this 16" screen laptop. Even with larger font (150%) setting in Windows, the dialog boxes, as well as some e-mails and url pages are too small to be readable. Especially photo handling programs such as CS (Photoshop), Lightroom I invested in are a problem to work with. Windows 8 is said to be solving this.
What I don't understand is:
Will I be able to download the W8 upgrade version and install this version, without having to comply to the Sony supported list? Microsoft's site suggests I will and Sony's I won't. Will I be able to browse or download drivers during this installation? How important is the Sony BIOS upgrade? What is the risk?
Did someone already investigate what drivers have Win8 support for this model?
Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM-processor; Intel® HM65 Express-chipset;
Blu-ray Disc™-station with DVD SuperMulti (Pioneer BD-RW BDR-TD03);
Hard Disc TOSHIBA MK6461GSY;
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M GPU; NVIDIA® Full HD 3D screen technology;
SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) x2 - High Speed USB (USB 2.0) x1;
Ricoh Memory Stick Duo / SD-memory card combined; Memory Stick™ PRO-HG compatible, MagicGate; SDHC-, SDXC compatible / CPRM;
Microsoft USB2.0 HD-webcamera with Exmor
Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter; Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller;
NVIDEA + Realtek High Definition Audio;
I hope someone can help.
Without Windows 8, supporting many permutations of physical screen dimensions, pixel densities, and resolutions, this laptop seems to become a show off flop.
