S28GP (S260?) or IBM T42

Hi, I am from Hong Kong and I am very torn between these the Sony S28GP and the IBM T42.

The S28GP has 1.6 Dothian, 512mb ram, 9700 ATI Radeon, DVD burner and basically the same as all other Sony S.

And the IBM has similar stats with 1.7 Dothian, 512 mb ram, only 40gig HD and a lesser 9600 ATI Radeon. It also doesn't have a DVD burner and got some useless (at least to me) features like finger print security.

The prices of the machines are almost identical (differ by $8 HKD to be exact).

I love the look of the S and most of all, I love the screen and all the extra features; however, I do hear a lot of reliability issues with Sony laptops and on the other hand, I hear a lot of great things about the IBM laptop's quality and usability. Just be feeling the case, the plastic Sony and the magnesium IBM felt very differently. This will be my first laptop and therefore I am keen on getting the exact right unit. And currently, I am 50/50 between the beautiful Sony and the sturdy IBM.

Please give me some opinions. Thank you very much.

 

Buy the S. From what you have said, S clearly wins hands down feature wise. Your only concern is on quality, reliability, and probably service.

Now, I like the sturdy feeling of IBM or any pure metal laptop, too, but as an Mechanical Engineer I know that's pretty much the only real advantage of metal over plastic for laptop. Plastic has come of age and it really is much stronger than what common people "feel". Simply put, IBM is not that much more sturdy than Sony.

As far as reliability and service goes, you happens to live in the right place for Sony, my friend. As a person from Taiwan, I know there are people in Taiwan opt to import Sony from Hong Kong rather than Japan because it offers better value than Japanese import. Service is good and the price just can't be beaten.

Last but not the least, I am sure you have heard of the news of Lenovo taking over IBM. True, IBM says the quality and support are not going to suffer, but that really is up to Lenovo to decide. While IBM has a good track record and the effect of the take-over should not be immediately apparent, but remember that your IBM laptop's future lies with Lenovo, not IBM.