Buy now or wait

It has been a long a difficult battle but i have finally made up my mind. Out of the:

Lenovo t60
Asus W3j
Sony SZ3

i have picked the wonderfully Sony SZ3, but i am now faced with another choice. Should i

A) buy the SZ3 now with the vista update

or

B) wait for the SZ4 with vista pre-loaded

Can anyone help me

 

Plantin,

I think most would agree to buy now, and have a stable operating system in XP. Vista is still quite problematic, and once the major kinks are worked out (they'll never be totally worked out), you can upgrade to Vista...For free!

 

Thanks for the advice. With so many problems with upgrading listed on this forum i was getting worried. Is there much difference in preformance between the uk spec SZ3xp and the SZ3vp?

 

Many of the problems you have seen revolve around the fact that Sony is still optimizing lots of its drivers for Vista ---- by the time Vista is pre-installed in SZs, I would imagine all of those kinks will be (hopefully!) ironed out. I agree that it's definitely worth getting a machine now with XP, and then using the upgrade option to do so once the new OS seems stable with your new machine.

 

I just think Vista is still so new, and there are a lot of unknowns. You can guarantee more issues will arise as we go through the next couple months (security issues, software compatability problems, etc).

If you can wait say 6 months or so, by then it might be worth buying a machine with Vista pre-installed. If you want something prior to that time though, I would go with XP, and give Microsoft/Sony time to work out the issues.

Not sure about the difference between the SZ3xp and the SZ3vp. What are the differences in specs?

 

Not any more, get online wherever you are with the VGN-SZ3VWP/X
Hop on the world-wide web and you're there, on one access point wherever you go

Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7400 (2.16 GHz and 667 MHz FSB) and Intel® Pro/Wireless 802.11a/b/g
Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (English version), Windows Vista™ Capable and Premium Ready*
120 GB (Serial ATA, 5400 rpm) hard disk drive
2 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM (2 x 1GB), maximum 2 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM
13.3" WXGA (1280 x 800) X-black LCD with LED technology
NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7400 with NVIDIA® TurboCache™ supporting 128 MB (NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology combines the size and bandwidth of video memory and dynamically available system memory for optimal system performance)
DVD±RW/±R DL/RAM drive
Built-in "Motion Eye" Digital Camera (30 frames per second, 0.37 Mega Pixels) with Motion Picture Function (max. resolution (pixels) VGA/640*480/raw data)
Finger print recognition, hard disk protection (G-Sensor HDD Shock Protection) and TCG Ver. 1.2 compliant Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
HSDPA ExpressCard 3.6 Mbps
UK QWERTY keyboard
Intel, Intel logo, Intel Inside, Intel Inside logo, Intel Centrino, Intel Centrino logo, Intel SpeedStep and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
* Not all Windows Vista™ features are available for use on all Windows Vista Capable PCs.


And

Not any more, get online wherever you are with the VGN-SZ3XWP/C
Hop on the world-wide web and you're there, on one access point wherever you go

Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7200 (2.00 GHz and 667 MHz FSB) and Intel® Pro/Wireless 802.11a/b/g
Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (English version), Windows Vista™ Capable and Premium Ready*
100 GB (Serial ATA, 5400 rpm) hard disk drive
2 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM (2 x 1GB), maximum 2 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM
13.3" WXGA (1280 x 800) X-black LCD with LED technology
NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7400 with NVIDIA® TurboCache™ supporting 128 MB (NVIDIA® TurboCache™ technology combines the size and bandwidth of video memory and dynamically available system memory for optimal system performance)
DVD±RW/±R DL/RAM drive
Built-in "Motion Eye" Digital Camera (30 frames per second, 0.37 Mega Pixels) with Motion Picture Function (max. resolution (pixels) VGA/640*480/raw data)
Finger print recognition, hard disk protection (G-Sensor HDD Shock Protection) and TCG Ver. 1.2 compliant Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
HSDPA ExpressCard 3.6 Mbps
UK QWERTY keyboard
Intel, Intel logo, Intel Inside, Intel Inside logo, Intel Centrino, Intel Centrino logo, Intel SpeedStep and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
* Not all Windows Vista™ features are available for use on all Windows Vista Capable PCs. All Windows Vista Capable PCs


This info is from the uk web site

 

I don't know what Sony's plans are regarding Centrino Pro in the SZ series, but it's close enough that you may want to wait for that release if waiting is a concern for you. It doesn't seem like the early SZ4-series will be much of an upgrade hardware-wise though, if at all.

Other than that, I tend to agree that the current Express Upgrade Program is an excellent opportunity to get in on Vista, but with the added bonus of flexibility in OS choices. You get a mature, stable OS in XP for now--and then you also get a free copy of Vista. Since you have XP now, you can wait as long as you want to install Vista (I'd wait until at least SP1 before doing so), and still have the option to go back to XP if you don't like Vista.

 

If you can wait until Santa Rosa, you should probably do that. You seem to be in the position to wait for the Vista installed SZ4xx, I would expect the Centrino Pro SZ5xx to be available in April or May. By that time, some of the more major bugs in the Vista operating system will be fixed as well, so it will be more stable.
If you cannot wait until Santa Rosa/Centrino Pro, then buy it now (before Jan 30), so that you have a garunteed stable operating system without bugs, plus the upgrade to Vista later on. Vista is somewhat of an unknown quantity until the bugs start getting reported.

 

Santa Rosa - Based SZxx seem to be revolutionary laptops. But How do you know for sure that Sony will release SZ5xx with Santa Rosa platform?

 

when the SZ4s come out will the SZ3s price be reduced?

 

The SZ3XXs will most likely be discontinued but you should then be able to find them cheaper on online outlets.

 

Dear Plantin

What did you finally decide to do? Similar worries here, but we are now on SZ5XxN and no Santa Rosa, yet You can still find SZ4XWN (Vista B) and even SZ3XWP (XP Pro) on dabs for less than £1.5k and these are the options I am contemplating at the moment. Would be interested to hear what you decided to do.

Seraph

 

Seraph,

Plantin's last post was 6 month ago. I don't think Plantin is a forum regular.
I decided to go SZ4XX with Vista business, made purchase in April. No problems yet.

 

i doubt you'll need the little extra power that santa rosa has, so the current core 2 duo in the sz3xx should be enough for you. its a great laptop

 

To clarify, Santa Rosa does not provide more processing power. It just provides a faster bus speed, and performance increase will be barely noticeable if even at all.