Can't decide! F series or EB series??

hey all

I cannot decide for the life of me to get the Vaio F series or the Vaio EB series. I have customized them both to $1500 because with the March Madness coupon I will get $200 off all orders over $1500.

It seems that for almost the exact same price I can get way better specs out of the F series, but the EB series is slightly more portable and has better battery life (which is an important factor to me, student). Actually I've heard that the F series actually doesn't have a good batt. life at all.

I know I don't necessarily need the power of the F series, but I feel like I'm getting ripped off paying the same price and getting lower specs. Also keep in mind in Canada we have no graphics card options, only what I have listed below (does the EB series have an HD screen?)

Here's the specs for comparison:

F Series ($1538.79):

Intel® Core™ Quad i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.80GH
16.4" VAIO Display (1600x900) with NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M GPU (512MB VRAM)
No Engraving
Keyboard Backlight
Standard Capacity Battery
Norton Internet Security™ 2009 (30 Day Trial)
256GB (256GBx1) Solid State Drive
Blu-ray Disc™ Read Only Drive
None
No Fresh Start™
Black
Microsoft® Works
Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium
6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
----

EB Series ($1528.00):

Intel® Core™ i7-620M processor (2.66GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.33GHz
15.5" VAIO Display (1366x768) featuring ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470 Graphics (512MB VRAM) <-- does this mean an HD screen?
Standard Capacity Battery
No Engraving
500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
DVD +/- R DL / DVD +/- RW / DVD-RAM Drive
Microsoft® Works
Norton Internet Security™ 2009 (30 Day Trial)
None
Gunmetal Black
None
Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1066
---

I guess I'm just looking for any input at all.

thanks!

 

I was interested in E for same reasons, more battery less size weight. Unfortunately E disappoints, in real life looks and feels cheap- like a toy for Harayuku teenagers,the worst is the display, absolutely substandard, the reviews say the same- poor display.
i guess the alternative might be F with i5 or CW which I believe have better displays.

 

EB does have an HD (1600x900) screen option in some countries. If Canada has no graphics card options, they might not have the HD screen option yet. But I don't know the truth.

Frankly, for the money you're willing to spend you should get the F series and don't look back. I don't see the point in maxing out the specs of the budget EB series when you can get the higher-end F series with comparable specs at the same price. Portability of 15 inch notebooks is overrated -- you gotta go down to 13 or 14 before you really start giving yourself a break IMO. Get the F, and enjoy.

 

I feel ripped off paying for a heavy laptop with a battery life sub-2 hours that I barely get any use out of. I've gone lower-spec ULV (6+ hour battery life and I carry it everywhere!) and love it

If you can afford it, go for the VAIO Z. The F is a bit of a tank.

 

Dam, this is what I was afraid of, the poor battery life. As a student, I need some solid battery life for classes. If you set it to power save mode for typing notes mostly, how much does the battery life increase?

 

I agree with Tex, if you're spending that much, get the F-series. Not to mention the SSD in your F configuration..
I would configure the F-series with nvidia GT 330M video card too for future flexibility if you ever want to do some gaming.

HD in ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5470 doesn't mean it comes with HD screen. I believe it is possible in the US to choose Full HD screen (1920x1080), but I am not sure in Canada. Full HD screen is way better than the 1366x768 screen.

 

do anyone have (tested) battery lives for these two models? Maybe at different power settings as well? battery is a huge factor for me.

 

get the F. its alot better