Acer 3820tg vs Sony z series

Battery times would be about the same if they had an equally sized battery. The Z battery is only 57wh/5200mah and the 3820TG is 67wh/6200mah, so that explains the difference in time there.
aka fatter notebook = fatter battery = longer battery life ^_-.

Although i cant agree with sedo's comment about the more robust cooling on the 3820TG. Yes the Z only has 1 fan, but it works good enough? I've never had moments it was getting like ''hot''.

And secondly. Performance of the GT330M is at least in benchmarks mostly the SAME. My GT330M also scores ~7100 3dmark06 points. I know the 5650 can also overclock some more, but i mean, the difference ain't that ''huge'' as all of you say.

 

The OC'd 5650 in a 3820TG has broken 10k in 3dmark06 and averages in the 9800 mark range. The difference is significant.

The 3820TG's cooling is nothing short of amazing. That is why it is an overclocker's dream.

BTW, I tired to buy one of those $1,200 Z11's from the microsoft store but could not get my credit card accepted in time.

Bronsky

 

That is not correct. The problem you speak of was corrected very early on.

Bronsky

 

People in the Sony Z owner's thread reported GPU temps of 80-90 Celsius after a little bit of gaming and that is with a factory-underclocked video card. So even without overclocking the Acer tolerates gaming better imo, although I have to admit I have no first-hand experiences yet in this regard and what I am writing is based on what was reported in the owner's thread.

 

battery life is 3:30 for the Z. u guys must have brightness very very low. mine is usually at 60%. perhaps its the 1920 x 1080 screen.

 

Yes that is where temperatures generally fall during gaming. But that is also with the 330m significantly overclocked, not just with the stock underclock.

While I agree that the Acer's cooling system is "better" in the sense that it has two fans to keep it cooler, the Z's cooling system is nothing short of excellent. The fan keeps the GPU and CPU well under throttling temperatures even under heavy load with an overclocked GPU. And this is in combination with the potential of playing a game from an integrated optical drive. I wonder if the Acer would stay as cool if you took away its second heat sink and replaced it with an optical drive.

 

I don't know about that. In my opinion the 5650 is a significant step up from the 330m. Your GPU gets a 3DMark06 score of 7100 with no overclock? The stock clocks on mine gets in the low 6000s. My understanding is that the stock 5650 can get around 7000. I can overclock the 330m to get close to 7500. But this still is significantly under the high 9000s 5650 owners are reporting (at least in the overclocked 3820TG). Those more than 2000 points will make themselves felt in real gaming/GPU intensive scenarios.

And don't forget that the 5650 supports DX11, which the 330m does not. All things considered, I wish I had a 5650 in my Z.

 

I keep my brightness at 20-30% when on battery. I also lower the refresh rate, change the colors from 32-bit to 16-bit, and turn off power to the DVD drive. On an 80% charge (I have Battery Care or whatever it's called enabled), I can get about 4.5 hours.

 

i never lower the refresh rate, using 1980x1080, 32 bit, processor half clock 1334MHz, Ram 8 GB, Optical drive off, brightness lowest available, battery care 80% and i get 4 hours.

 

It depends on what you really do.
You can make your CPU run on 95% and fill any amount of RAM with only Firefox up and some Plug-Ins

 

I was deciding between precisely these two laptops, and the Sony was extremely tempting, but it ultimately came down to paying more for:

1. Significantly better screen (the only genuine, unqualified plus IMO - the Acer's screen makes my eyes hurt)
2. 400g lighter, but battery life approximately halved and weaker CPU/GPU (I actually think the Acer lasts too long - I don't actually need ~7 hours, but 4ish hours would have been way too tight, and having to carry the power adapter with me would defeat the purpose of comparing weight)
3. DVD drive (it's insane that Sony managed to squeeze one in and still keep the weight below 1.5kg, but I have no real need for a DVD drive)
4. Backlit keyboard (which is very nice, but largely unnecessary unless you are unable to touch-type, which is ... mostly people over 50, I hope =P)

The Sony has superior build quality and is pretty much an engineering marvel, but a $750 premium (it's actually closer to $1.3k here because the luxury manufacturers think we're all suckers) for a nicer build and a better 13" screen but lower performance/battery life isn't worth it, IMO. Not when a 27" IPS monitor can be had for ~$640. Sony has always made awesome, premium sht, and charged accordingly. The problem is that tech stuff devalues so quickly, whether or not it is branded or premium.

 

^The CPU offering in the Z is the same as the Acer, not weaker. The battery life is better than half the Acer. And the biggie is the SSD's. Once you add a nice SSD to Acer it's than a $500 premium for the Z.

 

In other words you could buy a HHD Z from sonystyle : cheaper, no optical drive, no backlight (optional), large battery (better battery life than 3820).

 

No, you can't, not in US anyway. Then again, you can't buy 3820TG with 5650 in US, either. Apparently both company think the same about US market for a light powerful 13" without optical.

 

Uhh not really. The Z's build quality and used materials are WAY better than that of the Acer. And also a high QUALITY and high RESOLUTION display, which is also a part of the price. If you count those two things, it ain't really that much more expensive.

And just to name some more (own opinion);
- better keyboard
- better touchpad

 

^not really what? I was just pointing out some of the differences he missed. Screen and build quality were already covered.

 

I don't think everyone here is from the US...