Which one would you choose: Sony Vaio vs Lenovo Idealpad?

Main purposes for web designing, developing, and programming + watching some films + playing non-hardcore games.

Sony VPCEE3Z0E: £500
Primary Drive: Blu-ray/DVDRW
Processor Type: AMD Phenom™ II Triple-Core Processor P840
Features: 10/100 LAN Card, Operating System, USB, WiFi Enabled Processor Speed: 1900Mhz
Memory (RAM): 6GB
Hard Drive : 500GB
Display Size: 15.5
Screen Size: 15.5TFT
******* AMD with 2.7 kgs in weight but with Blu-Ray plus the price is quite reasonable *******
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Lenovo Idealpad Z570: £530
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2410M Dual Core (2.3GHz, Intel Sandy Bridge Architecture, 3MB Cache, Intel Turbo Boost up to 2.9GHz)
Screen: 15.6" (Lenovo Glossy, LED Backlit, 1366 x 768 Resolution Screen)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
RAM: 4GB (DDR3 1333MHZ)
Hard Drive: 750GB
Optical Drive: DVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)
Graphics: Integrated (Intel® HD 3000 Graphics with up to 1274MB Shared Memory)
Integrated Webcam: Integrated 2MP Webcam with Microphone
******* New Sandy Bridge Tech with Core i5 but Intel graphic card and nothing else fancy: no fingerprint, blu-ray, and 3G *******
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Sony SB1V9E: £950
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-2410M Dual Core (2.3GHz, Intel Sandy Bridge Architecture, 3MB Cache, Intel Turbo Boost up to 2.9GHz)
Screen: 13.3" (Sony Vaio display, LED Backlit, 1366x768 Resolution)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional Edition 64-bit
RAM: 4GB (DDR3 1066MHZ)
Hard Drive: 500GB
Optical Drive: DVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)
Graphics Dedicated: AMD Radeon HD 6470M with 512MB Dedicated RAM
******* 13.3" is it too small for web developing? It has everything I need but the price and no blu-ray *******

 

The AMD triple/quad cores have no turbo so on single threaded applications they get destroyed by the Core i5. And all of AMD's setups run hotter than Intel.

I'd stick with the Ideapad as 13.3" is too small for me to do any real work.

 

If you're programming and web designing you're probably going to want to have a resolution higher than 1366x768, especially if you're getting a 15.6" laptop. I would hate to program on anything less than 1440x900 or 1600x900.

For the Vaio, look at the 14" C/CB Series and get the 1600x900 screen, and look at the 15.6" C/CA Series and select 1920x1080. (don't get preconfigured shipfast options unless they have the upgraded display)

For Lenovo, there's the T410 w/ 14.1" 1440x900, the T420 w/ 14" 1600x900 and T510/T520 with 1600x900 or 1920x1080. (don't get preconfigured shipfast options unless they have an upgraded display)
For some reason the latest T420/T520's aren't showing up on the Lenovo UK website though.

It's not about size, it's about resolution. A 14" 1600x900 display will be better for doing work than a 15.6" 1366x768 display.

 

Go with the Ideapad. I bought the ideapad in my sig for 699.99 from lenovo. Newegg has the y560, the 15 inch version of mine, for 750 plus free shipping last time I looked. It comes with a better graphics card than mine.

 

This is really good advice. Programming and web design, You'll want more screen to work with and the ideapad series I'm referring to unfortunately does not have options for resolutions higher than 1366x768. Great specs, horribly low resolution.

 

I had 2 Vaio's that were totally cr@p. Quality were bad. You can see ripples on the screen just by adjusting the lid up or down. But this was a long time ago and I'm not sure how their quality is now.

 

Get a proper Thinkpad. T420 or T410.

 

I was referring to OP's question. Of course you would be better off with CTO model with higher resolution but given those 3 choices, I'd still take the IdeaPad.

I'm assuming they didn't consider a proper ThinkPad for price issues. Don't know if you can get a ThinkPad for ~500 quid...unless it is old.