SZ-390 IS it PREMIUM or REGULAR?

SZ-390 is it Premium or regular......................I need to purchase a notebook and I still don't know the answer to this question. I contacted sony 4 times and they have note reponded. Any one know? Thanks.

 

i would suggest that you get the sony sz from portableone.com. they list the models that are premium and the ones that are not. they do not have the 390 listed though....i bet they would know if you emailed them.

 

I think its a regular version, else people can take advantage of the z390 and make a very cheap Premium version.

 

It depends on how you look at a cheap Premium...Hmmmmm.As we know the 390 is of customized build so you can pimp it up to were it cost you over 4000.00.This is were it gets very confusing.How in the heck can you not call that a Premium.Im sorry Sony does not consider that a Premium hahahaha.So ok you be the judge.You could buy the sz260 for around 1700-2000$ having that premium lable or customize a sz390 macking it out from 2300 over 4000$ and get the standerd.You guys got to be kidding me.Im so sick of hearing of Sonys stupid Premium lable there putting on there notebooks.If you own any sony notebook pc you payed more then the norm and getting the best

 

Uhh...Sony uses "Premium" to denote the use of a carbon fiber case.

A lighter and stronger carbon fiber case in an otherwise functionally similar notebook is in fact a 'premium' over the standard model...

Having taken my lighter [3.7 lbs] and stronger "Premium" SZ on about twenty flights over three separate continents so far this year I for one absolutely appreciate the truly premium features of my SZ Premium Notebook and its superiority [in terms of the premium features] over the standard SZ.

Res Ipsa Loquitor

 

It can happen to any notebook screen--unpluged be carefull.there are many sz PREMIUM users that have had there screens recked on flight due to the seat infront of them being pushed back inturn PREMIUM screen is broke.
Ive been using notebooks for 10 years and have never seen so many broken screen in compusa from sony in my life.when buying my sz I came close to that PREMIUM buy .My mind was changed after seeing 3 of the PREMIUM screen broken.compusa teck rep gave me a tour of a replacment due to being so thin and frame holding the screen intact.It,s kind of like compusa talked me out of the PREMIUM--example
http://www.pricegrabber.com/pur_discussions.php/product_id=16807567/id_type=masterid/pur_id=318745/


http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=75114

 

sony1 is right: anyone who can't see past Sony's bull is in denial.
Notebook computers should not cost thousands of dollars, it's ridiculous.

Likewise, if I were to stick a Prada tag on a Fruit of the Loom undershirt I bought at Macys, it would suddenly soar to hundreds of dollars in value.

 

As I started that thread here, my accident was a fluke. The premium carbon is incredibly strong, and prevented IMHO a worse disaster. I am glad I got the premium.

 

...maybe you're just a child of the modern era, where absolutely everything should be cheap as chips. But notebooks are high technology. Trying to cram everything you possibly can into rediculously small places. I don't mind that these things top over the price they do, for what they are.

Few years ago, a worthy lappy wasn't anywhere near this powerful for any price. And the good ones were 5k and more. A little time before that, you couldn't even get a resonable PC into a lappy at all!

...and a few years before that, I shelled out more than $7K for a top-of-the-line 166mhz pentium, with 128mb ram with a graphics card that could put out 16million colours at 1024x768!!!!

A bunch or so years before that, my mother brought a package deal into the house worth $5k for system and printer... a powerful 286dx, 40mb HD, 1MB of ram, 5.25" floppy's, tractor fed dot matrix printer, and new for the time were the 3.5" floppy's!... I don't think it was even MSDOS 4. But it certainly had 256 on screen colours. ...portable computers around this time were the exact same as the desktops, but they had a 4 inch screen and a handle!!


What we're getting these days is truly remarkable technology, and given all that we've come from, when my premium SZ arrives soon after spending $2.4k... with all that it does (freak'n powerful system in a truly light body)... why, I think she's a bargain.

 

Thkem you not getting Nuntiuslu point.If you telling the notebook world that the sony name does not cost you more you are wrong.Sony has not had a very good name for there notebooks as well as there customer service/care.The sony notebook screen has been there ace and have used it well through the years inturn galging the customer with a dream of sony profection for which the product has not had up till late.Example---if you go to circutcity or bestbuy and look for a tv you will notice that the sony brand cost you more.Are they better?????NO.Ask any rep and they will tell you the same pushing to to samsung.The same goes with notebooks.Dont get me wrong...Sony has steped up with the sz series=quailty so I took the buy.I did not buy into the old sony hype when it came to spending 350.00 more for a carbon fiber casing.Compusa talked me out of it and they get paid commesion.WHY IN THE HECK WOULD COMPUSA RECOMEND I GO WITH THE SO CALLED 330 STANDERD?????Ive metioned this a few times in the forum so here I go again.The premium screen case is very weak inturn causing screen fracture.compusa teck showed me three of them in for service.Does that sound like premium to you thekm.Sony says it is and there never wrong

 

My screen only cracked when it got bent into a U shape lol The outside carbon was just fine.

Maybe it's shoddy US versions - I don't know - but my laptop traveled nearly every week from April to the beginning of September (before the break). No issues. I have no hinge issues either which some seem to have. No scratches on the base from opening and closing the screen, either.

I have no idea what those people were doing to those laptops, but you really have to do something odd to break the screen. Normal use even schlepping around on a regular basis should not cause what you saw.

I've owned or used lots of laptops over the past 10 years - Dell, Compaq, Sony, JVC, Sharp - and the SZ is by far the best in quality, features, size, and performance. Is it more? Yes, but there are very few competitors who even come close to Sony on the SZ now. ASUS has a few models that are close in terms of features, but the Sony I feel is a bit better.

Sure, a Dell is cheaper, and so are other brands. And also, no one is saying to go buy a premium. The low end SZs are around $1500. Sony realizes not everyone is going to drop $3k on a laptop. Hell, Dell knows not everyone is going to buy an XPS (or whatever that $10k computer was).

But to dismiss the quality, lower weight, better screen on the premium, etc., is silly. To some it matters. To others, it does not and the standard one is just fine. There's room for both camps.

 

It is no surprise to me that people are handing in the carbon screens with cracks and whatever. Why?... because they're not made to be indestructible, they're made to be thin, light, and sexy. You can make it indestructible, but it would be just as heavy as the plastic/metal screens.

The plastics and the metals give, and flex. These will not break. And if the components can flex with the frame/body, then the lappy will be tougher.

But that's not what Sony is selling with the carbon bodies. They really are just selling thin, light and sexy.


Now, people apply their own ignorant thoughts to products. They're assuming that they are in fact indestructible... so... it could be said that the carbon versions are being put through harder situations because their owners do not understand what they've bought.

The same thing went down with the whole "I didn't get a carbon lappy because I cannot see the weave"... which is crap, and really shows that people know nothing about carbonfibre. Bidirectional woven carbon cloth is just a single product, an option. This cloth is much dearer pre-production than what sony have appeared to have used, which is layered raw carbon tow. It's still carbon, it's no more or less inferior, but it's just not what people expected.

Anyways, the summary of the above spiel is that most consumers are ignorant... with reason too I might add: you can't be expected to know everything about everything. But the real issue is that they still bring their ignorant misconceptions with them when they make purchasing decisions and how they interact with the products themselves... "sure, I'll just rest this heavy thing on my lappy, hell, it's carbon fiber!"... "sure, I'll just throw this into the back seat of the car, it's carbon fiber with hard drive G-shock protection"... I have a very low opinion of the greater consumer public


I know that Sony are selling thin, light and sexy with the carbon lappy. Mine will be here any day. I look after all my gear, I've only ever had one or two components (not systems, but little components) fail in my entire IT career... I know all about carbon (I build planes with it), and that they're trading up the indestructible plastic/metal combo to go lighter with the carbon... I know that carbon will crack when pushed too hard whereas metal and plastic will generally keep flexing (depends on the plastic and the metal of course).

...anyways, me and my thinner, lighter and sexier Vaio are going to get on just swell!



As for the cost of products... except in situations of monopolies and the like, something is worth exactly what you can sell it for. I don't understand people who own something, and whinge that it cost them too much. This is the age of the internet where research is easier than ever... if someone paid too much for something... it really is their own fault. And if they knew the prices, knew what they were getting into, bought it, and still complain about the price... well, they're an idiot because they paid that amount for a reason... whether or not that reason is tangible or not is up to their inner demons and ultimately their own fault.

..."but I wanted something that was really sexy (edgy and different), built well, with all the features, yadd yadda..."... or... "I'd get the cheapo RCA brand TV but all my friends will think I'm lame"... well... that's why Sony can charge more. duh.


...if you think all the gear is too expensive... it's really simple... don't buy it.


Sony's the top respected brand of mass consumer electronics, and as such, they get to put a higher tag on things, but believe that it wasn't a easy for them to get in that situation. They didn't just wake up one day and say "dang, lets overcharge for the same crappy products"... it just can't work that way. Consumer respect is a hard thing to earn. You can't become a premium brand overnight.

...but if you want to whinge about prices, go visit a boutique Bang & Olufsen store. Wow. They're amazing, but it's hard to say that the quality really justifies paying four to ten times the amount for something. The rolls-royce quality doesn't completely make up for the price of this gear... the customers are buying something else. They are buying the brand. Sony is just a mass consumer version of B&O. You'll never hear a B&O person complain about the price... they're very aware of what they purchased.

Daewoo and RCA would love to charge a brand premium too... but being able to charge it is a long road of making quality products and the fairy dust of marketing.


summary: Products are worth whatever they can be sold for, and they're sold on both tangible and intangible factors.

 

Exactly thekm. I didn't get my premium SZ thinking it was indestructible. $1k or $3k, a laptop can be damaged. Accidents happen - do we buy inexpensive cars because of it? No. Plenty of people shell out $50,000 for cars that are easily damaged.

So why the outrage about laptops?

 

Exactly FenderP.I did not get the 330 because it was 350.00 less I got the 330 beacause of the preme screen being so thin.heck the carbon fiber is wourth the extra bucs but come on sony beef up the screen a little.Ive been thinking about sticking the guts of my 330 into a carbon fiber casing inturn strong screen.hmmmm the frankensony sz-330 carbon premium model.maybe sony will come up with that one next year.

 

Adding any more weight, even in the interests of strength, would be bad... and they would lose sales as a result. The fact that the premium's come well under 4lbs is a big selling point when all the other ultraportables even remotely near the same spec are riding over 4lbs, some 5lbs.


The carbon fiber could make a much stronger laptop if the weight stayed the same, but the carbon in this case was used to make a comparable laptop that is much lighter. So, a 4.1lb carbon indestructible laptop, or a 3.75lb lightweight sexy thin beast?... throw in that the amount of carbon required for the first/heavier version increases, so that laptop is actually dearer again because of materials cost (there is a worldwide shortage on carbon fiber supply at the moment).


For people that really look after their nice gear:
Do you think they want a lappy that's super sexy and super light?... or something that is heavier and more robust because other people want to care a little less about theirs?...

 

hahahaha.Something about a super sexy lappy.The reg and preme a both very light.It,s not like you carring around a bowling ball with the reg in your back pack hahahah.you lost with the super sexy rif.Both notebooks are light,Thin and atractive for presentations on the go. reg 4.1 lbs..........preme 3.72 lbs wow what a diffrence.
the reg screen--more sure-not led..........preme screen more flex-led
the reg casing not carbon fiber.....preme carbon fiber to protect you from all of those damging drops,bangs into door frams,start bucs oops I hit the napken holder but please becarefull not to hit that thin preme screen.
Im going to make this simple for you to understand thekm---be carefull.Your looking at your notebook screen right now.put your fingers where you open you screen at top of screen frame,,,thumb on inside of screen frame and index on outside of screen frame with a normal snug hold.pressing back and fourth .you will notice that your preme screen frame has alot of flex/give to it.This is not good for you LED.Its a snap together...You can see were the joint comes together with flex present.
This is a very big proublem for life of the led as the compusa teck explaind to me showing screens that were repaleced on the preme models.If the led was placed in a thin carbon fiber mold inserted from the side sealed tight you would have no preasure points when opening.
Cheers

 

"preme carbon fiber to protect you from all of those damging drops,bangs into door frams,start bucs oops I hit the napken holder but please becarefull not to hit that thin preme screen..."

...it apparently sucks to be your lappy, my equpment doesn't get this abuse.


As for the rest of it, if normal operation meant someone was trying to flex the screen as I'm working, you'd almost have a point.

Premium models: thinner, lighter, better screen, dearer.
Not: heavier, thicker, not as good a backlight, cheaper.



...but it's good that you're happy with saving the money. Means you're a happy customer, which is most important.

 

hahaha I saved a whopping 350.00 spending 2158,00 not including paying uncle sam. Im very happy investing in my product choice.I got lucky going to compusa getting the facts before I threw away that extra 350.00 bucs for nothing.no egg shells for me anymore.I understand myself being a teck junkie for over 15 years always spending to get the best yet sometimes the fact of the best can be blured.Kind of like Vinyl siding will last for ever or the Ipaq 6315 is the best pda ever made and not forgetting The Plasma Tv. when first sold the consumer was sold it to last for at least 60,000 hours of viewing yet 95% died at 30,000 hours .Oh my god!!!! The consumers really believed that yet the makers of the product knew it did not rain true.It,s the same for Pc notebooks as well.I own 4 notebooks,6 PDA's,a few widscreen tv's one of them being a plasma hahaha learning the hard way on some.Lets call it the live and learn experance going that extra mile before I throw money down the drain
good luck Thekm on your investment.
Many Cheers

 

whatever rolls your socks up and down. lighter and thinner lappys roll my socks up and down, and luck isn't a factor

thanks for the well wishes.

 

lucks always a factor it seems when buying this gear
welcome to the forums