A "premium" FW would be my dream laptop right now

I currently have a SZ premium w/ 13.3in LED and I'm looking to upgrade to a larger display.

The 13.3in is fine for me on a desk, but the majority of my laptop use is used on my lap (big shocker right?)...when on my lazyboy or couch the screen is too small for comfortable extended viewing.

Why would they put DDR3 memory in the Z and not the FW? Why no LED on the FW? Even the 17" macbook pro has an LED option! Why no fingerprint scanner on the FW? How about a premium model with carbon fiber?

What would the big deal be in making a 15"+ notebook sleek and super portable? Is the macbook pro really my only option for a sleek large screen notebook? (I dont want a mac!)

I always said to myself that making an SZ premium laptop with a 15.4in higher resolution LCD would be a huge seller!

OH! And why no black FW? My last 2 vaios were black with some gun metal grey in there...do I really have to get a WHITE laptop?

My last 2 laptops were vaios (been vaio exclusive for 3 years now) and both had 13.3in LCDs...I'm ready to upgrade but I feel like my options kinda suck. BTW, the Z looks like an amazing piece of technology and no doubt if it were 1 or 2 years ago Id pick it up in a heartbeat...but I realize for me to really get some work done on my laptop I need a larger LCD for extended viewing.

Anyone else in the same boat?

 

to some degree yes

 

I think the reason for not putting LED into the FW is because their dual lamp technology looks much better (even though it may use battery life). But battery life is not really a concern for a desktop replacement...

 

Cause it's cheaper and does not have a performance impact.

Cause LED is more expensive, battery life is not so import for the FW and it does not look better than a double lamp CCFL. I would even say that the color accuracy of a double lamp FW beats MBP LED.

Primarly keeping it as cheap as possible. And I don't think many people need a fingerprint scanner in a home environment.

FW is priced relatively cheap for a Sony.

Have you considered Dell 1530? Pretty sleek, light and LED.
Have you considered BZ? it has LED and it's black.

Yeah man I'd love a 14" 1.7kg laptop with 1680*1050 resolution.

Well said

 

it still gets a great battery life. so the question would be is the extra hr worth the downgrade from the dual lamp screen thats in a league of its own? Obviously to sony and a lot of its multimedia customers, NO. lol.

the premium FW will still get a good 2.5-3 hrs on the standard battery. far more than than the average desktop replacement.

 

yeah Ive yet to see a Hi-Color in person, all these stores like Best Buy only carry the crappiest standard config so unfortunately I can't compare the LED vs Hi-Color. But...a huge plus to the LED is the ultra-thin LCD bezel (and like you said battery life). Atleast give us the option, not everyone buys a 15"+ notebook to be a desktop replacement.

 

Thanks for the comments, it seems the majority point to Sony making the FW reasonably priced...which goes back to what I originally said, how about a true "premium" FW offered where price isn't a factor. You'd then satisfy both consumer groups.

 

Also, why no "fresh start" option?

 

Well the only thing missing from a true premium would be a stronger card than the 3470. But otherwise I don't see much of a problem with the premium version of the FW since its a multimedia desktop replacement.

build quality is great.
looks good.
HiColor screen is incredible.
Battery life is good.
Its light.
And packs good performance.

LED isn't a premium option in my mind when your talking about a multimedia laptop. You want it to have the best screen possible for that use.

 

Premium FW

 

Lol. Everything you're asking for are business / portability options. (LED/fresh start/TPM/DDR3/Carbon)

The FW is a multimedia / home oriented laptop.

Why did Sony choose it that way? Probably because they believed this would make them more money.

 

because unlike with the ultra portables there isn't much of a need to conserve space. Also the companies give sony money for putting trials on your laptop, effectively making it cheaper.

 

I can relate...

 

will this give you Sony support or "local" support as that looked GOOD

 

But John what about Sony BZ and Dell 1530? They tick many of your boxes.

 

Yeah I've checked out the Dell 1530 before, just not a fan of the Dell appearance & styling.

I didnt see the BZ when I visited sonystyle is it on a different sony site cause its business?

lol, the Z offers a 320GB drive. Anyway, I think the main benefit of fresh start is having your lappy speedy right out of the box.

 

I think FW already a premium laptop at very good price point. I looked it, touched it and came away pretty impressed.

Also, I don't think Dell will ever learn how to make premium products. By premium I don't mean premium specs, but premium feeling which it does NOT have, hence I bought XPS and sold it within a few days.

 

This is what the FW series premium model should have been:
CPU: P9500 2.53Ghz. (25W) [power efficent when paired with a powerful GPU+same speed as T9400]
GPU: ATI HD3650+, maybe even the HD3870
Hard Drive: 320GB 7200RPM, 500GB 5400RPM
RAM: 4 GB DDR3
Screen: Hi-color 1600x900 (already comes with this)
Other:
5.1 or 7.1 dual channel speakers with a subwoofer
Blu-ray player
Back-lit keyboard
Possibly fingerprint reader

Now this is what you call a DESKTOP REPLACEMENT NOTEBOOK...
Why didn't Sony think of this?

Take a look at the Toshiba F55 (15.4"), Acer Gemstone Blue(16.4"), Asus G50 (15.4"), Sager NP8660 (15.4") and so on.

Cheaper companies that give more powerful configurations than the FW series premium model for a much lower price.

Will Sony ever be able to make a decent desktop replacement notebook?
It seems that Sony is best at making high-end ultra-portable notebooks.

 

Check this out:

http://explore.toshiba.com/laptops/qosmio/G50

 

I was only giving examples...I didn't mean the G55; it's a 18.4" notebook. I was talking about the F55.

 

Dudes, seems like we need to start a new forum entitled "Laptops That I Want But Can't Get" and move these kinds of threads there. Personally, I am tired of reading how Sony didn't do this and Sony didn't do that.... particularly with the frickin' graphics card. If you are so worried about gaming why don't you just build a tower system with quadcore CPU, dual $500 NVidia cards, and super fast RAM. And leave the laptops to doing what they were meant to, namely internet, word processing, email, multimedia....NOT GAMING!!

 

The AR is a very decent desktop replacement. Sager is a gaming notebook end of story.

Now i would advice you to go look at the weight and battery life of those machines and compare it to the FW. Also think which is better for multimedia. the FW with a video card that supports a large amount of HD encoding and the latest DivX version and arguably the best screen and design in the market or the ones mentioned above.

Each notebook is created to meet a certain requirement. the FW is created as multimedia laptop and it does that very well.

 

so why didn't you get any of those, if Sony isn't "premium" enough? If you look beyond nice design FW doesn't offer anything new... Put those specs into a plain looking sager, would you still get it?

 

Good idea. The Sony Model Complaints thread.

 

would be full of pointless whinning i suppose

 

We need a "Gripes" forum.

 

lol. we should all contribute to that forum.

Why doesn't the FW look like crap? Why couldn't sony make it weight a good, solid 20 lbs? Why is the battery lasting more than an hr? This is a horrible desktop replacement. lol

 

Dudes, that's why we have choices