Did you XPS1330 owners consider Sony SZ?

Just wondering if you guys that bought the XPS1330 considered the Sony SZ series. They seem pretty comparable in weight, features, and price. I've never owned a Sony, only Dells and a Fujitsu. Just wanted some opinions.

 

I like Sony's laptops, but their support blows.

I had couple of laptops in 2.5k range w/ 1yr warranty in the past, and everytime I had problem, the tech's support began w/ formatting. I just ended up googleling, and found my own solutions.

Reason I come back to Dell is the warranty support which I like over other companies, and the specs per price/bang for the buck is best in the market IMO. (I got my last 2 Dells via Craigslist and Ebay though - I guess I should add easy ownership transfer too).

 

use to own a m1330, now own a sz and personally i think the sz is much better! the ability to turn off the graphics is a major plus! plus i like how its lighter, more battery life, etc.

and although the m1330 has hdmi, the sz has dvi through its docking port so thats not a one up for the m1330 (i own the docking port though)

but a plus to dell for having the ability to have SSD. and i dont like how changing hard drives voids sony warranty (its not simply on the bottom, you have to open the case) - but ofcourse you could just switch back if you ever have a problem


but i do agree that dells support is better! and i like how both offer onsite warranty

 

Dell doesn't offer onsite?

I had tech's coming to my office to fix my first M1330. Isn't that onsite?

Just bit confused about your posting.

 

edited, didn't think they did (sorry )

 

Don't get me wrong though, not like I'm loving the field tech coming to open up my laptop/onsite service.

I ended up w/ new system replacement because the field tech made a project out of a simple replacement of LED screen.

I wanted to cursed out the guy when some objects started breaking off my M1330, and fly off, but I was at the office, told him to call Dell CSR, and ask for a brand new replacement, and I got one.

 

Yes i considered a Sony in the summer. I actually ordered one from the UK Sony style store one of the standard models and not one with the LED screen. I never even knew that the B range didn't have an LED screen at the time that i ordered I only found this out recently.
Anyway Sony offered me free warranty and i ordered a SZ5/B range with the 1.83 processor. I decided to cancel as i thought that the processor was to low and that it was also quite expensive and that i could get a better deal in America where i was going on holiday.
I was undecided at that point in time whether to get a Sony in the US or an Asus W7S so i went to go and have a look at them in store. I saw a SZ5 premium model and i was quite under whelmed. It was sitting there right next to the Asus and it made the Sony look like a pretty bland computer to me. It looked like it was designed well but i thought that the Asus looked a lot better to me.

To cut a long story short. I was going to get the Asus then i decided to get the XPS M1330 and give that a go because the price was right for me. I also liked the design of it a lot as well.

The Sony offered me no real warranty if i was to buy from the US and the prices in the UK was to high for the premium models. The Dell was a lot cheaper and i got an ok deal with Dell. I also like the fact that Dell are offering some colour options.

If you are in the US choosing between them maybe harder because the Sony is cheaper in the US than it is where i live.

Kickace mentioned a lot of the differences. The Dell though has a 128MB dedicated card compared to the Sony 64MB. The Dell can also address a full 4GB of ram in Vista 64 bit. It is also pretty easy to get some discounts with Dell as well. The Dell as well comes as standard with Vista Home Premium which i think is better for entertainment purposes.
If you want to spend some extra money then you can get a docking station for the Sony but the Dell comes with a HDMI port. The Dell also comes with a remote for media entertainment stuff. It also has some touch screen buttons which are a nice touch as well.
I like the fact that the XPS M1330 has a slot loading drive as well but that was not exactly a deal breaker for me but it is a nice touch though and makes the computer look more modern. The Sony is aimed at a business user and the Dell XPS M1330 caters really for the home and business user.

If you want to do a bit of gaming and need the best battery life possible like you needed more than the 4 hours that the XPS M1330 could offer you (with wifi of and bluetooth of doing word processing etc) with the dedicated card without an extended battery then get the Sony.You should be able to get about 3 hours 30 minutes in power saving mode with brightness lowered to 30% with wifi on and bluetooth of with the dedicated card doing pretty continous web surfing with a 6 cell battery. If you don't game and don't do 3D application work then consider getting the XPS M1330 with the integrated graphics card for even better battery life.

Try and see both for yourself and see what you think.

 

I do like Sony's hybrid GPU idea. I only wish they made it like an hybrid SLI lol.

 

yah that would be nice if they offered a hybrid integrated and sli 7950gtx, talk about a battery difference

 

wel... i had a Sony SZ93 but its spec wasnt a rle good one so what i did was bought the XPS m1730 for the gaming rig and the SZ for a school rig

 

I did. At the time I was shopping, the SZ was woefully out-gunned by the 1330. Slow, lower capacity hard drives, weaker video card, no multimedia buttons, no Vista Home Premium, lots of bloat-ware, and a little more expensive to boot. So, based on what I needed, at least, the 1330 was an easy decision.

 

The Video option on the SZ is nice.

But the SIGNIFICANT price premium and possible subpar after sales support is not something that bode well for Sony.

Besides I got great price on the M1330 through my corporate sales, so I aint complaining. You get what you pay for.

The other 13.3 I was comparing to was the Portege M600. Not much of a looker though.

 

I wonder if the prices have fluctuated. I just configured a 1330 on Dell's site and an almost identically spec'd SZ @ PortableOne and the Sony was $200 cheaper (but the Dell came with 15 months of Norton or McAfee). So probably about a $125 difference. I was surprised, I expected the Sony to be more.

So you guys think the Dell XPS support is far superior?

How about build quality?

And what about the screens? Is the Sony X-Brite better or worse?

 

I own a Sony and just recently got the m1330. I'm in Malaysia so things would be different compared with other localities. Here's a few comparisons I've made:

Specs: Dell is better since it's configurable and easily outmatch the Sony.
Dimension: Sony is smaller and lighter.
Build: Sony has a more solid build.
Support: Dell has onsite warranty support.
Maintenance: Dell has the option for 3 years warranty which covers almost everything. Sony replacement parts cost a bomb.

 

When I last checked, the SZ used the older non-Santa Rosa chipset, which means slower performance per clock cycle and ability to address up to 3.25 GB of RAM.

Dell's M1330's HDMI is awesome, built-in, and included in the price.
Dell provides 3, 4 or more years on-site warranty (if you pay for it), including accidental damage (again, if you pay for it).

A 1 year mail-in warranty on a $2,000 machine is, to me, a deal breaker.

 

The XPS M1330 LED screen is really nice.
I have seen a Sony LED screen and it was no better.
Check these threads out as they look into the screen issues.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=178257
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=177982

The Sony SZ premium does not seem very solid built to me although it does seem well built. The XPS M1330 looks more solid built to me and Sony SZ B range also looks quite solid built to me as well.

With the Dell as been said already you can get better deals if you call them up to place your order.

Also Sony have moved to Santa Rosa quite some time ago now. The Bios of those models still seem like they can still not address up to 4GB of ram though in Vista 64 bit.

 

Sony who?

 

Thanks for all the help guys. The Sony's look pretty to me, but I always have this nagging thought in my head that they aren't a computer company and that the service is going to show that. I think I'll stick with Dell.

 

sony has onsite warranty also which i have, and they also have up to a 4 year onsite and accidental warranty just like dell

 

not true at all, im running 4gb of ram now in 64 bit vista, there is no bios problem at all

 

If you go and look in the Sony forum you will see posts by SZ6 owners who have tried to get the SZ6 to address 4GB of ram in 64bit Vista and they have said that the Sony bios does not recognise the full 4GB of ram.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=168760

Maybe they addressed this now?

 

I second ur opinion...I had a look at SZ series in Best Buy and was not impressed !!

 

The US versions of the SZ6XX can handle 4gb ram but the european can't. How strange is that. I can't understand WHY Sony decided to criple SZ in europe, it's not just the max ram size of 2gb....there's more. No WWAN and no hybrid hard drive. In scandinavia they do not offer any kind onsite warranty or similar...it's only rtb. Many issues like changing harddrive equals voided guarantee and so on made me forget about the SZ. Sad.

Now I'm waiting for my m1330 it left the factory yesterday.

 

I spent a lot of time drooling over the SZ series before getting the M1330.
The reasons I didn't get on in the end were:
They were out of stock of LED lit screen models when I first went to buy.
They didn't have Santa Rosa when other machines did.
In China they don't offer an option of English OS.
In China (or most places outside the US) they are not price competitive.

Now that Sony have switched to the Santa Rosa chipset and NVIDIA GS8600M graphics they have left a significant drawback in that their GS8600M has half the RAM of the M1330 one.

Some 'features' of the M1330 I am not really keen on:
Touch sensitive media controls - too easy to to touch them by mistake by resting a finger on them when hitting delete key through the spam in my mailbox. Dark sides of the machine make it hard to see to plug in a port (Macbook's probably win here).

Overall, no regrets.