SXPS 13 vs Sony SR = Sony seems better deal?

Hey, so after weeks of deliberating between the old XPS m1330, the new SXPS 13, and the Sony VAIO SR590, I think I'm ready to go for the Sony SR. The primary reason is because of I've been really turned off by all the heat issues with the XPS 13. I don't want to go through having my computer die and be repaired over and over again as so many countless people with the XPS 13 have. Other than that, it seems to me that with 2 virtually identical configurations of the Dell and the Sony, the Sony comes out to be a tiny bit cheaper, lighter, & better considering that it doesn't come with the heat issue. Check it out and let me know what you think. Any good reason that I should still go for the Dell? Thank you.

 

The sony batterly life estimates are way out of proportion. I wouldn't expect to get more than about 3 hours out of it reasonably. Also, the SXPS techinically has two USB ports, it's just that one doubles as the eSATA

 

The Dell does A2DP Bluetooth just fine if you order the BT module. Also, the Dell has DisplayPort in addition to HDMI and VGA. The Dell uses ExpressCard 54, but I don't know what the Sony uses. Does the Sony use any kind of aluminum frame or metal "backbone?" After getting used to the stiffness of the SXPS 1340, other laptops seem really flexible (and squeaky) and it's annoying.

 

FWIW, I have a XPS1330 (now the gal uses it) and an SR... I know the SXPS is better than the 1330...

I have a T7500 in the XPS and have a P8400 in the Sony... Dedicated GPU in both, only the 8400 and 3470 though... I like them both about the same, minus the GPU issue with the Dell.

Customer service (I had to use both), Dell wins.

Additional avenues of support, I would take Dell... Be it a good thing or bad, there appears to be more active members in these forums that can help troubleshoot, or know of drivers etc... with Dell's. Not that the Sony pages aren't useful, but in my experience, more people have modded, updated drivers, disassembled, destroyed, and typed about their Dells compared to most other brands... If you are interested in that kind of thing.

But they both appear to be great machines... My SR gets about 3 hours or so with wifi on.

 

Thanks for the replies. Let me clarify how I feel about the differences between the two: I don't care at all about the Bluetooth or the # of USB and other ports. The differences that I do care about are the Video card, the weight, the warranty, and most importantly the known problems.

I'm not interested in having to do any kind of modding or fixing. I want a machine that works as best as possible on its own, with the least probability of failing hardware (overheating) and needing repair. That being said, if the SR has less of a chance (statistically?) of dying on me, then I don't care about warranty being 1 year instead of Dell's 2 years.

As for the video card, I am NOT a gamer. I watch hi-def movies, and I do some video editing. What do you think?

 

I looked at both of these laptops extensively, they were my top 2. I liked the SR for the nice graphics card, lack of SLI, lack of heat issues, good battery life, and light weight. In fact I ordered one. But then I saw it in person and was pretty disappointed by the design so I returned it. Very plasticky, flimsy flexible top, poor viewing angles, and it was bigger than I expected.

If you aren't a gamer, then I'd go for the SXPS 13 with the 9400m GPU, which is still a very respectable GPU. No SLI, no heat issues, slick design, backlit keyboard, and higher quality materials than the SR.

What did I get if I returned the SR? I actually got an Envy 13 which I am incredibly impressed by, but yes, it is ridiculously expensive.

 

What's wrong with SLI? IIRC the new GPU for the SXPS13 is pretty beefy, getting 5000-ish in 3dmark 06

 

"Statistically?" Really? Do you have actual statistics or just going by the complaints on this board? Mine is awesome, but if I stuck with the board "reviews" I wouldn't have it (and the Envy 13 wasn't available yet, but I've got friends who work for HP and they don't care for their own laptops).

And what kind of video editing do you do? Are you doing a lot of compression and format conversion? You might want the faster RAM interface then; I do a good deal of Blu-ray rips and conversion from one format to another. I'd get the fastest CPU available (it was the P9600 at the time for me, and I love it) and stack it up with RAM (maxed at 8GB). I also love the eSATA port for moving large files on and off quickly, and backing up my laptop to a 1.5TB drive using Acronis.

 

Obviously I don't have actual statistics. But from all the reviews I've read here and across the web, I think the majority have reported problems with the heat, ranging from just getting more hot than it should, all the way to hardware failure and damage to the screen. I don't want to have to do any thermal mods. Nor do I want to have to use a cooler. I just want a good out-of-box experience with the hardware as it's meant to be used. I wouldn't mind getting the XPS, but it seems to me I'm more likely than not to experience some of these problems. Or is my logic wrong somewhere? My mind is not made up at all yet, so I would love some guidance.

I think going with the fastest processor and RAM is out of the question for me. That'll be way too expensive. I think 2.53 and 4GB is good enough for me. If it means a bit more processing time, then so be it. It'll still be a big upgrade from what I had before, and I don't do video stuff often enough to make it a top priority.

 

You can overclock the SXPS13 so processor power isn't really an issue

 

I believe most of the heat issues are related to the GPU. I have never heard of a single person having heat issues when running only the 9400M. I have heard conflicting reports about the G210M - some people say no heat issues, other say it gets just as hot as the 9500 does. If you do get the G210M, you can choose to turn it on only when you need the extra power, and run only the 9400M other times to avoid the extra heat and battery usage. I have a MacBook Pro and when I run it with the 9600M GT, it can get extremely hot, probably on par with the SXPS 13 with the G210M. When I run it with the 9400M, it stays very cool.

 

Mine is fine with just the 9400 on, and I leave it on a notebook cooler (Zalman NC1000) when I want to fire up the 9200 in SLI. Also, I can't understand how the G210M is supposed to be cooler when it's clocked significantly higher, even with the reduced fab size. I think it's going to be around the same, and with A07 it was fine for me. BIOS A11 brought even better power management, so I've been really happy with my unit.

 

Also! XPS 1340 goes up to 2.8ghz core 2 duo... the 2.8 processor is available under business section not home.... just letting you know if you decide to get xps1340 order it from business dell site... But with the 2.8ghz they dont let you choose 210m card..... maybe it will generate too much heat thats why they dont include both... but with 2.5ghz u can get sli 210m...

If you are scared of buying xps1340 due to a lot of negative complaints I dont blame you.. I wouldnt want to take the risk in your shoes.

 

Also, Sony uses last generation DDR2 RAM. You probably won't notice a difference depending on what you do, but the newer HW will account for some price increase in the SXPS 13.

Biometric sensor is bs: Technically the SXPS 13 has a facial recognition then.

Get a 1-year warranty on the Dell and tell me what the price is. You can't really measure warranty value easily.

Heat issue: Do a little more 2nd-hand research. People who claim that "I heard from a friend of a friend that the SXPS laptops overheat easily" don't count. FYI, I just played CoD for a good 2 hours just now with no cooler or heat mod on my SXPS 16, and it's fine. My hand was on the laptop the entire time.

 

To Fred... Theres a big difference in heat from xps13 to xps16! its bigger more cooling.... 2 heat sinks 1 for cpu 1 for gpu..... xps13 if you get 9400m u get one shared heatsink, and if you get sli,,, one of the cards is still gona share a heatsink with cpu... causing more heat...

Btw I have xps1340 only with 9400m,, even copper moded yes the internal temps are ok but externally you cant put it on your lap!

XPS16 and 13 are different in heat comparison!

I was playing crysis on all low settings,, after 3 mins the top left corner where the heat vent got boiling hot. blowing hot hot air into the screen...

Im not promoting sony,, i dont like how it looks compared to xps13 but sony is known for good screens... also to corrent the person who posted this thread

Sony SR goes up to 3Ghz

 

Hey nycguy620,

After lots research, I'm considering the same two laptops. I do a lot with Photoshop, Premiere, web design, etc. I've pretty much settled on the Vaio SR. I'm on my second Dell laptop right now, and have gotten tired of so many little things either breaking, or just not working right. They are no doubt, both good machines, but the thing that settled it for me is the percentage of owner satisfaction / dissatisfaction. When you have a thread called " Studio XPS 13 Horror Thread" that's got 15 pages of posts, that raises a definite red flag for me. I need to focus on the work I do, not the machine and how to keep it running. The Vaio SR owners forum, on the other hand, has lots of owners who love their Vaio SRs, and very few complaints or procedures of how to "McGyver" your machine to make it work right.

Cheers! - nojiri

 

Beware with sony customer support, it's garbled, terrible and not something you want to deal with. Dell is much better layed out

 

Customer service with Dell in my experience is better, and whether or not you are a "modder" or "gamer", you will run into issues with any computer. I have found that the Dell forums seem to have more people modding theirs or doing other stuff, which in turn adds more knowledge in the forums or possibly knowledge that is easier to extract.

Just try to find any info on removing the keyboard from an SR...

 

Have to agree with you here, been there done that with Sony never again.

 

Actually the 1340 has an esata and usb together. Don't get the sony i had for a week it sucked, it was horrible i couldn't stand it. Just about everything about it bothered me.

 

The heat issue (for me anyway) has not been an issues at all with the latest BIOS update. I've notice that most heat related posts were from earlier in the year, but its hard to find people with updated BIOS complaining about heat issues.

 

would you mind elaborating on that? Which sony did you have? And what exactly was so horrible about it that you couldn't stand it.

 

My experience is exactly the opposite. I returned my Vaio SR to Sony and it couldn't have gone more smoothly, and they did not charge me a "restocking" fee. Dell on the other hand was a nightmare for me to deal with. I won't elaborate, but I will never consider a Dell again because of it, at least not anytime soon.

 

I suppose I should have been more specific, I have no experience with either companies support for sending products back but my experience with dell has been great so far. I had a bad power adapter, called them about it and got a new one the next day for free. All the manuals and user services guides are well set out in dell too, they even give you a recovery cd and a cd with drivers on it. Sony on the other hand, is a nightmare in my opinion. I wanted to find a useer manual for my mums desktop from sony and they didn't even have one online, the site crashed multiple times, nothing was well labeled, there was a different manual for every single possible variation of the machine when just having a standard manual for all in one line of computers would be more practical.

 

I will never buy a dell again either.. too many problems they cant fix! hardware dies too often on xps 1340... how many times can they change the same part and it still dies after 3 months??

Sony's are world known as high end company, with premium quality displays, weather its tvs or laptops the displays are beautiful.

Plus someone said earlier in this thread on Sony SR page there are mostly happy customers and just a few unhappy ones..

Also think of this:

Sony has better display
Sony goes up to 3.06 ghz!
battery life on standard settings and default battery is 6.5 hours
dell's is 3 hours!

Sony has a better video card!
While nvidia was busy the whole year fixing their problematic video cards. (another reason not to go for dell since they carry low end nvidia cards)

Sony also offers bluray option which xps 1340 lacks.


Honestly I hate myself for selling my macbook and buying xps1340 with that money.. mac was a lil lower on specs but no problems!


So go for SONY!

 

Lol.. i can see that you hate your dell xps that much but i really like the SXPS' keyboard. Ummm, i don't know where you get your information from. Nvidia had some problem with the 8 series. By the way, if you have three or more replacement parts, then you can ask the dell rep to have the system exchange for a new one. Does Sony do this? I don't know

 

^^ how can I not hate xps if Im having nothing but problems with it... by the way I owned a sony vaio back in the day and many other laptops on which I never ever needed to call customer service for any problems.. Stricly bought the product and enjoyed it.. without having to download bios updates/ patches and all that bs..

As for getting a system exchange dell wont let me because I bought it through their retail partner Best Buy and not directly through dell.com

best buy also wont exchange it because they only give 14 days to exchange systems.

So ho do I blame for the laptop? dell! they are the ones that build this crappy machine..

btw I like the keyboard a lot too! and Im glad you enjoy your xps 1340. the keyboard is one of the best I had. but the keyboard doesnt outweight the problems im having day in and out.

 

I would buy neither tbh. I used to have a VAIO but it was brittle and the parts started to break after a year. Sony's customer service is mediocre and they provide near non existent software updates.

Dell has arguably better service especially with the complete care program. However build quality of the laptops vary so its a gamble. Although I don't personally own a XPS 13, it is heavier than its predecessor runs just as hot with poor battery life.

 

The primary issue with the XPS 1330 wasn't the heat itself but rather the resulting degeneration of the GPU due to Nvidia's defective 8xxx series (which isn't so with the 9xxx series). That said, I'd expect the heat to be reduced with solely the 9400M G running.

 

I know it isn't entirely Dell's fault but the new XPS 13 still runs too hot for my liking.

 

Both of you have a some truth in your statements
the 8 series by nvidia are all problematic and all die fast and cause over heat

although 9400m is a better improvement from 8 series..Nvidia still revised their 9400MG chips 3 or 4 times already... changing dies on the chip itself so it would cause less heat...

the first time I got my motherboard replaced on my xps 1340 the supervisor told me they are going to send me a new revised version of the chipset... so I googled it and thats where those gode names come from at the end of the chipset "a-1, a-2, b1, b2....

so heat wise 9400mg is still isnt good but hopefully its nowhere near 8 series..



I just personally think this whole chipset with display driver isnt as thought out yet, and its better to get a chipset by Intel that supports many functions like intel turbo boost..... and getting and ati seems somehow safer..

To me it just seems like more NVIDIA cards die out faster than ATI... I might be wrong... but lets see 1330's card is a fail.... 9400mg is kind of a fail.... some alienware laptops that have high end graphics cards from nvidia fail too.... I might be very wrong, but I havent seen that many complaints about ati


and look at all " big premium laptops " carrying ati now
xps 16, hp envy 13, and 15.... Imac i7 with 4850.





You should buy a cheap COMPAQ with no gpu just intel accelerator... and you wont have any heat problems lol

 

Huh? I was under the impression the only chipsets on the SXPS 13 were B01 and B02. My unit when running only the 9400M G certainly doesn't run very hot.

Regarding your comment regarding "big premium laptops", you conveniently mentioned the iMac (which isn't a laptop) instead of the MacBook Pro XD. More OEMs seem to have adopted ATI's GPUs after the 8 series fiasco. That said, more gaming systems still utilize Nvidia GPU's over those of ATI for sake of performance.

 

I used iMac as one of the ex: because it uses mobile technology inside.. mobile processors and gpus and etc.... its neither a desktop and a laptop, its called All in one... but all all-in-ones use laptops parts

Im glad to hear dell uses b1 and b2..... the earlier macbooks used a1-a2, now they all use b1 or b2 due to recalls or heat complaints

 

Ditto (what he said...).

 

I know what an All-in-one is. All-in-ones don't always use mobile parts. Apple's iMacs use desktop CPUs and optional mobile GPUs (i.e. only the 9400M G). AFAIK the iMac with a Radeon 4850 is referring to the desktop GPU unless Apple is falsely advertising a Mobility Radeon.

 

then I was wrong... Im soooooooory.. It would be interesting to know what the Poster or this thread is gona purchase