Acer 3820tg vs Sony z series

i just went through both notebooks on notebookcheck and was wondering how the 3820tg costs half that of the sony, but manages to put in a stronger graphics chip, and run more quietly at full load by an astonishing 12.4db?

i wouldn't be surprised either that if acer used the same materials on its 3280 that sony could afford to use on its z, like carbon fiber and light weight aluminum, that there wouldnt be the 1lb weight gap between the laptops

is the stronger cpu / better screen / smaller size / 1lb weight difference worth it? am i missing something?

and off topic: if sony implemented optimus, would the physical switches still allow you to switch the gpus manually but without the screen flicker and having to close all programs using the gpu at that moment?
also.. i'm a newbie on optimus, but can you switch the gpu manually in the OS with optimus, or is it fully automatic and doesn't allow you to switch?

 

You are missing a lot.

3820tg has no optical drive, depending on your config likely has no SSD, has a panel that isn't in the same league as the sony, is built cheaper, has a worse keyboard and a cheaper WLAN card.

Not sure I believe the DB delta, but if true I'd reckon since the sony is much smaller so needs to spin the smaller fans at much higher speeds to produce the same amount of airflow.

They are both great machines, but the Acer isn't in the same league as the sony. Not even close.

 

3820TG has two fans, one for GPU and one for CPU, so they can spin slower (and therefore quieter) to get the same amount of cooling flow. Also, 5650 is stronger, but I don't think it is hotter than GT 330M.

The price difference is large, but it's not double. An i5-520m Z122 retails for $1900 while i5-450m 3820TG retails for $1100-1200 at least. People in the Acer section that import from Taiwan happened to come on a sale time when Taiwanese retailers are cleaning out the stock so they managed to get it below $1100 (including shipping). Right now you can buy Z122 for $1650 shipped as well because it's also on sale.

Then, you have to factor in all the different features. You still pay some Sony premium for sure, but really if you need or want those features that premium is very little because there is just no other choice.

 

Yes it is. The HD5650m will walk all up and down the GT330m (especially with Sony undervolting). And no, they run about the same temp usually, with the GT330m getting a little hotter under full utilization. Honestly I think this is the only other notebook that can remotely compete with the Z series. Also, the sole reason the Z is so expensive is it's SSD's. Get that Acer, with the 5650 option with 4GB of RAM, an i5, and a good Intel SSD, and it'll cost very close if not more, than what Sony is asking for with the Z. Only thing is the Acer has a MONSTER graphics card for it's size.

HD5650m = 400 Unified 5-D shaders (roughly 80 nvidia style SP's)
GT330m = 48 SP's.

Clear winner. Notebookcheck even rated it as almost the same performance as a GTS 250. AND the 5650 supports DX11.

 

5650 is the clear winner there, no question. But the reason I pointed out it's not hotter than GT330m is that it also means if Z can handle GT330m's heat, it can handle 5650's heat. Now, if only Sony can see how people rave about 5650 and 3820TG and come back to ATI for Z's replacement.

 

The Keyboard totally sucks on the Acer, not because it has no backlit, it is just a pain to type with this keys.
The screen is a mess (not only compared to the Z' screen) and it is glossy.
Thats actually what you pay for.

 

I agree that the Acer 3820TG is really the only challenge to the Z in the portable ultra-power market. Earlier this year when I was in the market, I narrowed my decision down to these two computers, and was tempted by the Acer's cheaper price and more powerful GPU (which were both significant factors for me). But in the end, I went with the Z for the better screen, keyboard, build quality, SSDs, and integrated optical drive. (Oh, and it was actually available in the U.S. )

 

You guys are forgetting one VERY important factor: the weight.

How much does the Acer 3820TG weigh? I kinda doubt it comes even close to 3.0 lbs that the Z1 pulls off. 3.0 lbs is the same weight as a MacBook Air! Hell, many 10" netbooks are like 2.5 lbs!

Edit: Just as I thought, the 3820TG is 4.0 lbs! Of course it's gonna have higher specs and lower price.

 

The only spec the acer wins on is gpu.

 

Link please.

 

i wish sony would forego the .. almost useless optical drive and put in an extra fan like the 3820, that would solve it's biggest con for me.. the noise, and they could put in an even better gpu... not to mention how i wouldn't be surprised if, even with all that, the laptop would be even smaller/thinner/lighter

and shurcool, like i mentioned above, i wouldnt be surprised if that 1lb could be accounted for by the different materials used and the fact that the sony is 13.1 vs the acer's 13.1

anyway, the z series looks like the winner here, in overall quality and features, but like the previous z, is lacking with it's gpu and noise levels

i'm hoping that once the huron river mobile platform is released this coming january, that other notebook manufacturers release notebooks that can rival the sony z series in quality but put in a better gpu and have lower noise levels.. i wish sony would release a new z that includes those improvements.. but that's just wishful thinking

 

^speak for yourself, no optical drive is a deal breaker for me.

The 330m is decent, but it's not a gpu for hardcore gamers. The z is marketed at the executive-type and I think they nailed it.

 

why would it be a deal breaker for you? you can always use a usb optical drive, i would imagine that the majority of notebook users hardly ever use their optical drives and in effect, all the z's optical drive does 90+% of the time is add weight and volume

if the z were purely for business use, it would have a quadro card rather than a 330m

 

Link here: $1655, free shipping
Buy.com - Sony VAIO VPCZ122GX/S 13.1" LED Notebook PC - Intel Core i5 i5-520M 2.40 GHz - Silver WSXGA Display - 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM - 128 GB SSD - DVD-Writer - GeForce GT 330M, Graphics Media Accelerator HD - Wi-Fi: Yes - Bluetooth: Yes - HDMI: Yes - Web

 

I use the optical drive a lot. By your logic, you could carry around a vidock with a fast gpu in it

As for the GPU I said executive, not engineer

 

Im also one of those people who think that optical drives have no place in the portable/ultraportable world anymore. But the CTO Sony Z allows for the drive to be upgraded to a blueray which is definitely something that fits the Z's image. For that I doubt they will ever remove the OD.

I was in a similar situation debating but ultimately it came down to a few important aspects :
The 3820gt only beats the z in three areas. Gfx (gaming), price, and battery life. It falls considerably behind in screen quality, availability, and overall build quality.

I ended up with the z mainly because I don't have access to a 3820t and I don't plan on gaming much.

 

3820TG also is quieter under full load, but funny thing is that it's not exactly cooler -- the two fan streams are not as hot as the single fan stream in Z, but the overall chasis is slightly hotter.

 

I wonder why nobody mentioned the screen-finish. The Z' screen is (close to) matte finished, timeline screens are glossy.
THIS actually is a deal breaker for many out there. There are the Travelmate series notebooks with matte screens and better keyboards, but you won't get a 13" of them with a graphic card better than the 310GT (i guess its much slower then a 330GT is) or a display output like HDMI.

If the travelmate would have the same specs like the timeline or at least close to and a digital video-port, i would go for it.

 

IMO, the Z is kinda a show-off product from Sony. FHD, bluray burner, QUAD SSD, the fastest mobile dual-core and superior connectivity (hsdpa WWAN and N wifi) in a 13 inch, lightweight carbon fiber and alimunium chassis. If you watch the product presentation movies of sony on YT, you will see that all those japanese sony guys talking about their ideas on the Z really look more like perfectionistic artists wanting the ultimate superlatives than engineers wanting just satisfy the professional's needs.

For me, the Z is perfectly what they seem to intend with that, it only lacks a ultra-bay-like optical drive for easy HDD/ODD swapping like the HP, dell and lenovo professional laptops.

 

I'm in the camp that prefers ODD options available on laptops. I use my ODD every day. The availability of the ODD in the Z is one of the features that swayed me in its direction over the 3820TG. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I like the security of knowing all of my old CD-ROMs from 5-10 years ago can still work with the new technology.

 

I like how small and light the Z is given that it has an OD, but personally I would prefer not to have it built-in. I use OD very rarely (only when I have no easy alternative, like installing Windows XP OS), since for most things you can either use the OD of a desktop, or simply mount a disk image, etc.

So I'd be perfectly ok with an external OD, which would in turn make the Z more ultraportable: lighter, smaller, and more solid.

 

I still wouldn't buy a main computer without an OD drive.

I must be old fashioned or just want a straight forward life as possible. I like to watch movies sometimes in bed and i don't want a usb dvd drive hanging by my side and i don't download movies either. It would eat up too much of my bandwidth and i prefer to have a physical copy of a DVD. Also, i have no inclination to start ripping DVD's to my HD or an external.

I also have quite a big music collection and still buy CD's. Again i like having a physical copy of my CD's.

I back up my pictures and family videos up to DVD's and my external HD.

A removable optical bay is the best solution.

 

I'm going to have to say that build wise, the 3820TG may be heavier, but the Z is not superior. It's superior only in being a Kg lighter. Sure it has carbon fiber/aluminum in it's build materials, but that makes one want to baby it more, and god forbid if it gets scratched deeply. I also agree that the Z is still a marvel of engineering, but it's strong points don't impress me for long term feasibility. Economics wise, the Acer is the clear winner. I've been trying to justify buying a Z, and there's just no way I can do it with other machines doing everything it does with only a Kg more weight, much lower price, and stronger internals. The ODD makes no difference to me, but I can see how others would miss it, and in that regard the Z will be the absolute choice for some. But does ultra-portability mean that much to some people? Sorry for the spiel... I've just always been fascinated how some people can spend upwards of $2000, all the way up to $4700, on a notebook that's not intended to last but only a couple of years. Technical obsolescence tells me it's just wrong.

 

Not arguing with you, but can you identify "other machines doing everything it [the Z] does...?" I don't know of any other machine that does what the Z does: offer a powerful processor combined with a discreet GPU in a 13 inch package with an ODD included (and with SSDs in RAID 0). The only one I know of that comes close is...well...the Acer 3820TG. The Acer beats the Z on the GPU but on nothing else really besides the price. I hear your argument regarding the Acer being more economical, but it just doesn't offer what the Z does. The Z really is in a league of its own at present. I'd be very curious to discover any other ultra portable that offers discreet graphics, a premium screen, and an ODD and SSD included stock. I really don't think there is any other machine in the market now that offers that.

 

Forget the video card. The Z is 1600x900 or 1920x1080. *This* is truely what you pay for. At the end of the day... now that they Envy 13 lost it's 1600x900, the Z is the only sub 15" notebook with that type of resolution. The Acer is a run of the mill 1366x768. Boring crappy resolution.

PS> the acer beats sony in battery (at least advertised).

It's pretty hard to justify the Z on anything but the screen resolution, the rest is found elsewhere.

 

No. Take a base Z @ $1700 and take a 3820 and add an ssd and i5. You are within a few hundred $$ of the the Z's $1700 cost and you have no optical drive, a heavier weight, cheaper materials, a crappy keyboard, and a miserable screen. And you have an Acer. No contest IMO.

 

The rest is found elsewhere? Really, ignore the resolution...show me a 13" with an optical drive that weighs 3lbs. No? Show me one that weighs 3lbs with discrete video, a full voltage cpu, and SSD's.

It's not for everyone...but it's definitely NOT found elsewhere.

 

In my opinion, the Z is not even overpriced if you compare with other laptops specced out to a Z. Let's say you want a basic Z with 1600x900 screen, i5-520m, 4gigs of ram and a 128 gig SSD drive. You pay 1600 for that. If you configure a 13" MBP the same, you are getting over 2k as well as a lenovo x201.

 

Hurts so much you are getting a Z for 1600$ with 128 gig SSD drive. In germany you have to pay 1600€ to get one with an 320 gig HDD.
It costs an extra > 300€ to get the SSD version

 

Not true, the basic config with i5-520m, 4gig, 128gig ssd is at 1799,- and if you use the e-coupon EDU148DV you get the laptop for 1673,-

 

I thought a 3820TG owner should wade into this discussion. I have to tell you, it's a tough choice. I looked at both long and hard. My use is purely professional, no gaming here. I compared cost, looks and every other factor I could think of. A few of you know that I lurked in these threads for a couple of months trying to make up my mind. What I was looking for was the ultimate mobile workstation. Or, at least something that could make into the ultimate mobile workstation. I settled on the Acer. I bought it for $850 but had to import it from Germany. I added English W7 HP and a backlit US keyboard (modded). I went with the German Acer in spite of the obvious warranty issues.

The Acer has far exceeded my expectations. The display quality seems to be hit or miss. Mine is excellent. The 720p resolution is fine for my purposes. I do some editing of satelite images but my work is limited to splicing. I don't need access to individual pixels like a graphic artist would (24" 1080p HDMI is made for that anyway).

The keyboard is much maligned. I find mine almost ideal to type on. I am a touch typest who uses the keyboard 4-6 hours/day. The Acer has a light touch and quick action. I like it.

The power of the Acer is nothing short of amazing. What everyone ignores is the ease with which the components overclock and the level of performance you can get out of the OC'd components. Both the GPU and the CPU (in most machines) can be OC'd and their performance is significanty increased. The GPU performance can easily add an additional 40%. Acer seems to have a fairly maleable bios that, unlike the Sony and HPs, does not limit the ability to coax more performance out of the components. With a reasonable OC, the Acer performance comes very close to mobile workstations, which are far larger and nearly twice as heavy. Moreover, with the astounding cooling capacity of the 3820TG, it does not get hot.

As far as looks are concerned. The Acer holds its own with the Sony. I've had them side-by-side at meetings and everyone agrees that the Acer is beautiful.

To be sure, the Acer has its flaws. I would prefer a matt display. But, mine, with backlit KB, 128 GB Crucial SSD, shipping, etc, costs ~ $1,200. At the time I bought it, you could not get a Sony for less than $2,000. Even if the prices were closer, I think I would still have to go with the Acer because of its power.

I don't mean to denigrate the Sony. It is a great computer. In fact, the warranty issues alone would drive most buyers to choose a Sony. It's just that, when I hear comments like "it's not in the same league as the Z," I cringe. I think comments like that are uninformed. In some ways, the 3820TG is in a league of its own.

Bronsky

 

Bronsky, can you have a look in Everest and confirm that the 3820TG's ATI GPU is only connected through PCIe 1x (not 16x)?

 

But thats not really true. You can buy 2 versions in the UK - one with an SSD array plus optical drive and one with no SSD and a HDD in the optical drive bay. I call the latter the 'Econo-Z' and the base configuration clocks up at £1,579 STG. For reference, the base configuration of the SSD/optical drive version is £1,779 STG. You will be lucky to find 2x 64gb SSDs at retail for less than £190 STG so the price difference is not in the SSDs.

In my humble opinion the Z series is so expensive because its desirable.

 

I agree that optical drives will be phased out, I do not know when. I feel that when networking technology becomes advanced enough that we can stream BlueRay movies from anyplace in the world to our laptops, we won't need these drives. But, I don't know when or if we can achieve that.

What I do know is that ever since I came to know of Steam I stopped buying CDs/DVDs

I think so too, which is not a bad thing because they don't have to spend that much (compared to the revenue the rest of the company generates) to produce something cutting edge, something to show the rest of the world how the future can look like (and that's priceless). I think it's the Z's combination of form factor and components that's difficult to attain by other laptop companies and hence it can command a higher price. When there's no reasonable competitor, the price goes up more.

 

Totally agree. I struggled with the decision between the two of them, and this was even before Hendrickson's thread where I learned about the overclocking of the CPU. In the end though, I went with the Sony. But I still love the 3820TG for what it offers.

I just don't like Steam that much (yet anyway ). I don't like how inflexible it is. I tried to put a game on a portable hard drive and I couldn't (it has to be in the Steam folder on the local hard drive)--so now I have two accounts. I also don't like their technical support, as I tried to create a technical support account (which is in itself annoying) to resolve my issue, and it errored out and put me in an endless loop of verifying my email address with now no way to get in touch with them. So I'll still lean toward buying a DVD game from the store rather than buying from Steam.

 

Steam has good deals, I think I still haven't tried some I bought (first time in my life ). I installed Steam onto an external drive, and so it installs the program files there too. But I agree, it would be great if we can choose where individual games are installed. Anyway...

 

I agree.

While the Z is really light, I don't think it feels very solid. By solid I mean you have no problems picking it up by an edge with one hand, etc. without feeling like it's bad for the laptop. A MacBook Pro with it's aluminum unibody is a good example of a solid laptop. I think the Acer is likely to be closer than the Z in that regard.

 

Be careful, Travlar is going to tell you you could get Z for $1200 from Microsoft Store 40% off clearance that sold out in two hours (from 12-2AM PST, no less) because he got one.

Actually, comments like that are quite accurate. If 3820TG is in a league of its own, then it cannot be in the same league as the Z...

At the end of the day, both are niche product that satisfies a similar, but not exactly the same, niche. Z with Blu-ray that is priced three times as much as a 3820TG is selling like hot cake in Taiwan and you have to order and wait for a couple weeks for yours, while there are enough 3820TG from Taiwan to ship to the world.

 

Oh trust me, a feather is never going to feel any more solid than a porcelain vase, but guess which one breaks when they both fall from 3 feet above ground?

 

The fact that Acer decided not to release the 3820gt in the US really upset me as much as confuses me. It doesn't make any sense at all... I can't really think of a legitament reason on why they wouldn't release it in our market. We see a bunch of gimped 3820ts but that's about it.

For those of us in the US, its hard to argue in favor of the 3820gt when most of us have never even seen one in person. Bronsky is right, the Acer is probably much more of a powerhouse and excellent machine for a DIY kind of person. With such a low price on the base configuration there's lots of wiggle room for improvement. But I'm not going to risk $850-$1000 on a machine that has a hit or miss screen and keyboard ( and any other issues that might come up... you never know). I've read far too many mixed reviews abut it on the Acer and not being able to physically test one means a no go for me. Especially one without warranty that you can't return.

In terms of availibility Acer took a huge hit and has lost much of my respect based on that alone. So on that same note, I would argue the Z IS in a league of its own for the current US market.

 

I would not call a 150 cd/m², reflective 170:1 contrast screen hit or miss. It's just bad. Perhaps thats why there is not even a higher resolution option.

 

Out of curiosity, anybody know how much a typical laptop's screen would cost? What's the price difference between say an IPS screen versus a TN screen?

 

Both laptops would break after a 3 foot fall.

If you want an equal weight example, consider the MacBook Air. It, too, is exactly 3.0 lbs as the Z, yet it feels much more solid.

Even my $200 8.9" Acer A110 netbook feels very solid despite its 2.0 lbs weight. It's just pretty fat while being small, which makes the body quite tough (no flex).

 

No laptop screen is IPS; they're all TN. I don't know why, really, but it must be some valid technical reason preventing non-TN panels from being used in laptops. >_>

 

I live in Europe and I advised my brother to get the Acer when it was first launched here based on the stats alone. Then later, I was offered a used Sony Z11 for the same price he paid for his Acer (Yeah, I know it was a bargain). So now we could put both machines side by side and compare them.

Pros Sony:
- much better keyboard
- kb. backlight
- weight
- overall system snappiness due to SSD
- display quality (better colours, better angles, matte etc.)
- display resolution
- optical drive
- more responsive touchpad with better tactile feel (this one is subjective)
- relatively light power brick (compared to the uber-heavy acer brick that increases the travel weight significantly)

Pros Acer
- more powerful machine for gaming (both GPU and more robust cooling)
- significantly longer battery life

Now for the same price I see this as a no brainer, unless 2 great pros of the Acer are significantly more important to you than anything else. As so the price difference... it all comes down to how much money you have. In my opinion the Acer is a very good machine for the price and gives Sony a run for its money in the value-for-money department, but in terms of my overall evaluation they really play in different leagues.

 

Can you tell in something about the battery-life in numbers?
What is the avarge battery life you get out of the acer and the sony?

 

i think theres the lone TT that has a IPS if i am not mistaken. not sure why sony took a step backwards after that and went back to TN panels.

 

I get an average of 4 hours of wireless productivity (wifi on, light surfing and usage, low-to-medium brightness) under XP on Z12.

 

Or maybe the laptop companies did a survey and found that 99% of the consumers don't know the difference between TN and IPS (or even that IPS exists). The 1% who do know hang around forums like this

I actually didn't know about IPS screens before I began reading forums. I had bought an IPS widescreen about 5-6 years ago, without knowing anything about IPS or that it was an IPS screen

 

Well... We have not done extensive testing so I cannot really say. The Sony is brand new, so I have not really had a chance to test this aspect. But my Sony says 3:40 when at full charge and his machine about 6-7 hours.