T420S versus Sony SA

Hi guys,

I'm currently deciding between these two laptops. Doing a Core i5 setup with 4 GB of RAM..

What I see as differences:

Pros for Sony:
Graphics (honest not a big thing for me)
Battery Life (about 1 - 1.5 hrs more)
Possibily screen?? (Based on some of the issues with the T420s)
More options - Blueray, etc

Lenovo:
Keyboard
Durability
HD Webcam

Any thoughts?

 

Depends on what you use your laptop for. Given how much of a pain and how expensive Sony's can be to fix, I would avoid Sony completely (I'm a Sony ASP at my workplace).

Is there a reason you are going for the T420s and not the standard T420? Any s model will be more difficult to track down parts (bezels, casing) as they are not sold as much and are significantly more expensive than the base model.

 

Need something as thin and light as possible... And want a higher res screen.

 

If you don't need the latest CPU power, you could look at Lenovo's x series, ultra light and portable, closest thing to Sony's Z series. You could look at the x200s or x201s, both are 12.1", offer 1440x900 resolution. T420 is quite bulky/heavy compared to the x series offering.

 

The T420 is marginally thicker, allows for the 9-cell, and also has the same HD+ screen.

 

Look at the x220, its pretty thin, light as a feather, and can pack pretty much everything the sony can except graphics (which you don't care about anyways)

 

Nothing really holds a candle to the SA. It's like the "Thinkpad X320" done right. Its stats are pretty impressive.

But The X220 does come close. Better screen quality (IPS) at the sacrifice of resolution but doesn't come with a ODD. But comparing the X220 to the SA is comparing Apples to Oranges.
Point is that although the SA is a better laptop (can even be compared to the T420 as well as the X220), Sony support is very lacking according to these forums.

 

14" Toshiba R840 is almost the same weight as a T420s, is 1" thick, has a 900P LCD option but improves on the T420s by offering decent capacity (66Whr) 6-cell battery + 9-cell option. If interested, I'd suggest avoid the R840's HD6450M option since it's not switchable.

See here for a comparison of the SA vs T420s vs R840.

 

I bought a Sony Vaio SA, and absolutely hated it.

Battery life isn't as good as advertised, and even though the graphics are better the laptop heats up like the sun even when just watching a movie.

I bought the T420 normal version and it is very similar in weight compared to the SA when in my backpack.

 

I don't get why people want thin laptops. Great, it is not even 0.5" thinner, but is still roughly the same size in the other 2 dimensions. You won't even feel the difference in a bag, and the only thing you'll notice when you carry it is that your fingers hurt less from the thicker models as you don't have to curl them as much. Sure, it is a bit lighter, but I find my 6lb-ish W520 to be pretty OK for carrying around and I'm probably one of the weakest guys on the planet.

 

Funny now you say that. I wanted a 17" laptop for college...using my dad's Inspiron 6000, 15.4" is still big. My Vostro 1500 with 9 cell is over 6 pounds, and I took that with me traveling along with my Latitude 13. I can tell you, I am never lugging around my Vostro 1500 for traveling anymore.

Also another argument for any ThinkPad vs Sony is support.

 

I also own a netbook (Compaq Mini 110-1100CA, something like ~1" thick and 2.7lb), and besides the obvious length and width difference, I don't notice too much of a difference when I'm carrying my netbook or my W520 in my backpack. Though, my argument wasn't really about length and width, but rather height (i.e. thickness). I honestly don't think that having a 1.5" thick laptop that is maybe 1lb at most lighter than a 1" thick laptop is going to kill anyone, and the normal T420 is about 1.25" thick. From my experiences, it is actually more comfortable carrying around a thicker laptop than a thinner one by hand as I don't have to curl my fingers as much (maybe I just have bad hands, but my fingers actually hurt from having to grip my netbook). Having the extra thickness also usually translates to better cooling and whatnot. And in this case, double the battery life (or something like that) with a 9 cell battery on the normal T420 vs T420s with just integrated battery.