Help: Should I wait for the CZ ?

Here's my pondering problem:

- I need a 13.3" laptop. Battery life, over-all size & weight are most important to me (while traveling intercontinental), but I also need some good computing power in multimedia apps (ie. composing music, transcoding videos, mapping & GPS). I can live with the X3100 graphic which consumes less power than the NVidia.

- Sony Canada is holding about $2,000 for my credit (can't convert to cash or use it to purchase in US)

- From the very little info from the leaked news some months ago, the CZ seems to be the perfect choice, but it's now the 3rd week of July & there's still no news of the CZ.

- I've tried the FZ (the 160) for a few weeks, but returned, due to its somewhat bulky 15" size for my taste, while I like everything else about it.

- I can take the CR which already came out, but Sony Canada only sells the CR120 with T7100 CPU version & there's no custom-to-order feature (where I'd prefer at least T7300 CPU). What's a blooper.

- The SZ model sold in Canada is out-of-date & way over-priced now that the Canadian $ is almost the same as US $. Finger-print scanner, Blueteeth & G-shock detection are nice to have, but not important to me.

- I like the solid build of non-Santa-Rosa C-series a lot (C150, C190, C240, C250, C270), but that's the technology of last year and their max memory is only 2 GB.

- Right now I'm in need to get a laptop to work in mobile on a business project which should have to be completed by September, but I don't want to get an inferior laptop that I'll be stuck with for the next few years. And darn, it has to be a Sony.



Thanks for your advice.

 

Since you have 2 grand to spend, go with the Sony SZ. Its only 3 pounds, have exelent battery life, LED Display and only about and inch think, with upto 200gb hard disk, discrete graphics option and Intel Santa Rosa

 

santa rosa is pretty overrated. there really isn't that much difference between it and the older core 2 duo platform.

 

There's no announcement when the SZ6 would come to Canada. As for the SZ420 or SZ450 (which are sold in Canada), I'm not so sure where they are still comparable to the new SZ6 when it comes to battery life.

ejl, you're right. From many materials that I've read, there are hints that the Santa Rosa thing is a little over-hyped. But does the battery life make significant & practical difference between SZ4 & SZ6 now that the LED screen + CPU throttling come to account (while faster memory = more battery drain) ?

Moreover, the older SZs can't take more than 2 GBs when it come to expansion ... I wonder if I really NEED more than 2 GB when Windows XP & Vista (32-bit) will take only a notch more, up to somewhere between 3-4 GB Max ... Or should I just save some money towards buying the extended 3-year warranty instead ?

 

Not true, read this.

 

Thanks for the awesome tip ! That really helps tipping my decision. I'll go for the SZ4 instead & help Sony dumping their remaining SZ4 stock at this time. I guess I've been wasting my time waiting after all