Reasons *not* to get a SA3?

I've recently tossed out / about to toss out all the disparate machines I had at home for general entertainment duties (no games, stuff like streaming movies, couch use, etc) and am looking to replace with one type.

- 13-14" class is what I'm looking for
- Not huge weight - something that can be tossed around (figuratively speaking) with not much effort
- Decent runtime so I don't have to have it plugged in all the time
- Good onboard speakers, and if possible a clean onboard sound for headphone use
- Great screen for multimedia, for fairly close-in use (of course as befits a 13"-14" screen)
- 128Gb SSD - apart from OS + programs really everything else will be streamed so I don't need honkin' SSD - but I will need SSD. Can't ever go back to HDD
- No gaming, but an IGP or GPU able to stream everything up to Blu-Ray
- Blu-ray (read) drive
- SD slot
- Docking station (i.e. a slot-in station as opposed to a fumble-plug-in station like the Apples / Z's would be nice, equipped with Gigabit, HDMI & Audio (or USB)

SA3's with the VGP-PRS20's dotted around the place seems to fit my bill.
Good idea/ Bad idea? I will get just the one to try before I commit but is there some particularly deal-killing feature I should know about before I give one a try?

 

Speakers and Display jump out to me as a problem given your requirements.

 

Display - what sort of problems are you getting?

So tinny speakers eh? How bad would you say?

 

Speakers are quite bad, i'd say they are the worst thing on the SA (I have the SA2) but the display is great imo, not a Z screen but average to good for the 13" range.

The SA comes with a very good GPU anyways, good enough for gaming so will fit your requirements...

 

The screen is reviewed as average at best. Nobody other than ^ has called it "great" and if you are coming from Apple and especially a Z you will likely hate it.

@Dreamycreamy - you called the display both great and average. I'd argue those are mutually exclusive.

 

^ the screen is fine for me. i game on my SA, watch movies, write code, and surf the web, etc. and never had any problems with it yet. i'd say it's perfectly fine for everyday use, unless you want to watch movies with a couple of people on a 13" laptop (then the narrow viewing angles will hurt) or you want to do professional video editing and the like.

 

So the 1600*900 screen is still not so good?
I normally think a higher resolution screen has better display quality.
I am thinking between the SA and a Thnikpad T420s...I am currently a Thinkpad user...I love my Thinkpad but I want a better display...

 

There are so few 13"-14" screens that are not poor-or-fair it's easy to single them out: Sony Z1 or Z2 (900p or 1080p), MBP (great brightness, contrast, color, but low-ish resolution (1280X800, not so low for 13"), MBA 13 (1440X900, bright, decent color). I must be missing one, but I can't think of it. These all meet your other criteria except sound, which is easily cured by a $25-$50 investment in a good bluetooth or USB speaker system (Creative D-100 is awesome, Logitech Z305 attaches to the laptop screen). Oops - only the Z's come with a Blu ray drives. Apple won't allow one, even on their $3,000 MBP 17 - at least Steve wouldn't allow them!

If it was for me, I would get an excellent deal on a new/open box/refurb Z1 and get some decent speaker as mentioned above. If the one you get doesn't have a Blu ray DVD, you can pick up the Matsua that installs easily into the Z1. You can get 4 hrs watching movies, 5-6 on lighter use, 50% more with the extended battery.

 

When the fans ramp up on the SA it sounds like a couple of Chinooks's in bad weather.

I could never put up with such a racket. Awful.

 

An I correct in assuming you two are the only ones who actually own one?

Could you be more specific in terms of the narrow viewing angles? Horizontally or vertically?

Also speakers - how bad are we talking? Any relative examples you can draw to other notebooks you've had?

 

You might also want to consider the SE. While it's 15", it's pretty light at only 2kg. I think it has an FHD screen with IPS-like viewing angles, and is meant to be very good. Snag is, it has rubbish speakers. Battery life is only 4 hours, but 8 hours with the sheet battery.

 

Horizontally viewing angles are fine but vertically they really suck. You constantly have to adjust your screenangle forward or backward to avoid loss of contrast etc. The screen is good for normal office work. But don't try to watch dvds, blurays or do photo editing on it. Especially 'black' is awful on the SA -> Even with calibrating it is still grey. If you ever watch a horror movie on it you will see what I mean -> Looks as if somebody put a grey curtain over the dark scenes.

Speakers are fine to me but I don't use them that much. If you want good speakers the SA is definitely not your laptop. But honestly why do you need good integrated speakers? Use some decent head phones or some good external speakers if you really need them. The integrated ones are good enough for normale purposes but they are not in any way multimedia speakers.

Apart from these two things the machine is great. But I'd say it isn't fit for your needs. Go for the Z if you want a better screen in ~the same size or for the SE if you want a screen fit for multimedia but with 15'.

 

That's not too bad - but how much would a sheet battery add to get a decent runtime? The maximum I'd be considering for 'tossaroundability' would be 2Kgs. And if there's no audio upgrade over the SA, I'd probably take the SA.

Simple reason - if I've for example got one in the kitchen, I have an arm for a notebook - I need to to work standalone. Bluetooth speakers, etc - too cumbersome as I'd need to turn it off when not in use (e.g. when I'm playing a movie in my living room, I don't need the Sony desperately trying to reach the speaker in the kitchen).

The idea with the dock requirement is that I'll have the capability to stick a fewer number of laptops in different places on an as needed basis.

 

The only way I know to get reasonable sound quality out of a 13/14" class notebook is with external speakers or USB>DAC/headphone amp>headphones. While the onboard speakers may be ok for Skype and similar use, if you're watching a hi-def movie, even a 15" isn't going to give you much in the way of sound. There are a huge array of options including wireless setups for small external speakers (not home theater set-ups).

The best screens in the size class you're interested in are Z1/2 and a properly configured Z1 has a blu-ray. You may want to consider a used Z1 with a small set of external speakers for home entertainment.

 

this is an excerpt from NotebookCheck's review of VAIO SA:

i'd say the vertical viewing angles are worse, but even when i'm watching a movie, i only need to adjust the screen by moving it 1cm or 2cm back or forth. it does not bother me at all, but there are some people here who don't like the display. and i understand them, but like i said, i'm fine with it. it fulfills its job for me.

also, the speakers are nothing to brag about, but they're not bad either. the sound is perfectly clear when i'm watching a video without headphones. however, i love the sound the onboard sound chip produces when i'm listening to music *with* headphones.

 

In case it's not clear, I'm not interested in anyone regurgitating reviews. I can read them myself - and they're often out of context with each machine being reviewed based on each reviewer's "moving goalpost" point of reference. Thanks

Used is not in contention.

As an example, the HP Probooks have what I'd consider a perfectly usable pair of speakers for a machine of this class so I just want to know what yardstick these 'bad speaker' comments are being measured by. If it's similar to the Z2 for example then well... it's pretty much unusable. I'm usually going to be streaming stuff - online TV, etc so I just need something that doesn't sound too tinny and can throw out the sounds halfway across a room reasonably well.

I'd briefly thought about buying more of the Probook 6360b's or the 6460b's to fulfil this role, but both are beyond what I had in mind as an upper weight limit, the screen res on the 63 is too low for my liking and the HP docks are hardly low-profile. Fine for my programmers to pound away on, not great for home.

 

^Fair enough.

 

Ok, my very old Asus EEEPC 1000h has way better speakers than the SA if that helps you a bit more. The SA speakers are more like the Toshiba Portege R83x speakers (although those are actually worse). They are not very loud and on maximum volume you will get distortions very easily (although the newer drivers improved the overall sound quality a bit). I don't know the speakers of the HP probooks but I hope you get the picture.

 

Had some suggestions, but thought the better of it. Good luck with this.

 

D:

Jeez. Thanks.

So basically, a true tinfest... that's quite bad news.

Guess I'll have to think about this, and maybe see if a Sony Store somewhere has one out on display.