Need help with a buying decision

Here’s my situation. My three-year-old Dell ATGD620 has slowed considerably, and I’ve recently begun to consider upgrading. As a photography enthusiast, my most intensive application is probably Photoshop, which I typically run alongside Lightroom. I use the same laptop for work, where I routinely keep a several applications running, including Adobe Acrobat with multiple documents. I want a light but fast laptop with good battery life. I had tentatively narrowed my choices to a soon-to-be released Asus UL30JT or Vaio Z-series machine. The Asus is in a different class from the Vaio (especially the display), of course, but would still boast an i5 mobile processor, switchable graphics, and 12-hour battery life—for around $1,000.

Then I saw a Vaio VGN-Z820G/B at Microcenter at a discounted price of $1500 (after a $50 Sony rebate). I bought it, but before I open it I want feedback on the purchase. I know that I could slog through a few more months and get a new Z with better specs—for several hundred dollars more—or get the new Asus in probably a month or so. So what do you think? Should I be thankful for getting a good deal on the Z820? Or will the improvements in the new series be significant enough (given what I use a laptop for) to justify the wait and the additional expense? Or should I still consider the cheaper Asus? Or should I be looking at a completely different machine? My finances aren’t unlimited, so please don’t bother recommending a $5,000 Lenovo. Thanks.

 

If design and built quality difference between UL30JT and vaio z is not the problem then since you are working with the photos, screen is the biggest advantage you have over the UL30JT.

GPU of UL30JT (310M) has better performance then vaio z GPU(9300M).

Battery last longer on UL30JT then on vaio z.

Also I think UL30JT will not have built in optical drive (I don't know if this is important to you).

 

Thanks. The built-in optical drive is not a big deal to me. How much better is the Asus's dedicated graphics card than the 9300M? What would be the actual performance differences?

 

Here is the link to 9300M

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9300M-GS.9452.0.html

And this is the link to 310M = 210M specification

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-G-210M.17638.0.html

There you have performance difference (benchmarks) and technical details.

New vaio Z (although it's not official yet) should have 330M=240M and this one is one class above 310M and 9300M:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-240M.17654.0.html

 

One more thing... all of the new laptops coming out with integrated Intel HD graphics will give nearly the same benchmark graphics performance as the 9300M GS in the older Z. So that might broaden your options.