S-Series - cheap plastic cases?

I had pretty much decided on getting a S580, but wanted to see the 13.3" screen for myself. So a trip to BestBuy found they had an older model - the S270 - on display.

My conclusion is that the screen size was acceptable, but on looking closely at the 270 along side the other machines (including the Sony FS series), it struck me that the 270's case was - well - plastic and cheap looking/feeling compared to others. There was no titanim or magnesium casing or anything.

My question is - are all S Series cases like this? Is there an upgrade of sorts? When I shop online I see two version - one with a silver back and one with a black back - but can't ever seem to specify which one I want to buy.

Seems like too good (and $$) a machine to look and feel cheap. What gives? Are the newer models nicer?

Thanks.

 

yeah, I believe they all use the cheap casing, which is sad considering the price you pay for them. I am curious who else has as good screens as Sony. I have Fujitsu currently with CrystalClear, but I thought Sony display looks nicer.

:fujitsu:

you can read review here

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=109629

 

The case on the S series is a mixture of magnesium and plastic. The case bottom and the display lid are made of magnesium. The palmrest, the case sides (where the ports are located), and the display bezel are plastic. The magnesium parts may feel like plastic but they are thin magnesium. Inside of the case are stainless steel stiffeners to reduce case flex. There is no difference in the case build of the various colors.

 

Same with the FS series. It may feel like plastic, but it is not.

 

Yet, another reason why I am glad I didn't go for the Sony, but my friend has an S3xx series and I compared our two screens, man turned up on full brightness, mine was at least 20% brighter the picture was crisper, and the colors are more natural. However my friend's LCD doesn't suffer from the light lamps along the top of his LCD like mine does. I would send it in, but it really isn't a huge deal and I need my laptop everyday for school doing my papers. But I have read on another thread in the Asus forum that it may just be something that all W3V's have too bad because , when I look at it I know its there and get kinda annoyed that I paid so much for something and it has this problem, but with something this great there has to be something wrong, I am just glad it is not something drastic like a broken lcd. But I am just being picky here.

But the plastic on the Sony S series laptops seem strong, althogh flimsy-looking.

 

It is not plastic! The top lid anyway.

 

The S series has more metal components than the W3V. The W3V is a bit sturdier but is quite a bit heavier as well.

 

Perhaps Sony uses a thinner casing to keep the weight down. I know many manufacturers do that.

 

Of course, a carbon fiber casing like the one one the TX would grant the best of both worlds, but you've gotta hand it to Sony for providing what is the best 13" notebook on the market (in terms of performance and price) that still rounds out at a reasonable weight of just over 4 lbs. There's not a single other mainstream company that offers such a product.