Should I buy a Vaio SA now or wait?

Hey everyone,

I was looking at the Vaio SA line from sony and I read somewhere they're doing a mild refresh of the CPUs. Should I wait for this refresh or just buy a CTO SA now?

Also, does the discount at the education store ever end or does it go for the whole year?

Thanks

 

In Europe the education discount always counts when you're ordering on their websites. The coupon code changes from time to time but it's always there.

The SA is getting a mild refresh and price drop in the next few weeks. In the Netherlands prices are already dropping by around €100 on the SA and SB CTO's.

I'd just wait it out for a week or two, see what happens!

 

OMG price drop, I just got my SA though!

I'd say buy it now with the discount price...

Whats the refresh?

 

^
Updated faster and more energy efficient CPUs. So basically faster CPU and longer battery life. Plus new softwares.

 

Ohh, now I want to return my SA and just buy it again, better laptop for less money

EDIT: How much more battery life do you know? And this isn't the Ivy Bridge is it?

EDIT: What software? I've no idea what that means... :S

 

Are you sure the prices arent gonna go up after they refresh? I think its going down right now because of the refresh. Im so tempted to get one right now, but i also want to see what CPUs they're gonna put in. I dont think its Ivy Bridge, its expecting a March 2012 release from what i read.

I was wondering about the US education store discount. Any one with experience with this?

 

^
i5 2410m replaced with i5 2430M
i7 2620M replaced with i7 2640M
i3 2310M replaced with i2 2330M

Battery life is 30 mins extra.

New software includes updated Vaio utilities, Trend Micro AV instead of McAfee, TrackID, MediaGo etc.

Also depending on region HDD capacity now goes upto 750GB (5400rpm)

 

Can you upgrade the MediaGo yourself?

Because if the battery life is only an extra 30mins and you can update the MediaGo then i'm not that bothered. I'm happy with my 500gb hdd. Thanks for all the info

 

Anyone know with experience on the Education discount or sony discounts in general? because if its gonna end then im just going to order the SA? Thanks for the help!

 

Ask Sony for a price adjustment, say you're within the 30 days and it'd be a pain to ship back in your laptop for nothing.

Won't be Ivy Bridge, Intel always does the same thing, Tick & Tock. First release the chips in January (ship Feb, appear in laptops in March, etc), then second release around July, companies release laptops with new chips ~September, happened last year and it's happnening again now. It's jut newer Sandy Bridge chips.

I'm not sure I believe that extra 30 min battery life at all... it's still the same architecture and quite possibly the same chip just clocked faster too. As for the performance gain, IF you can use the chips correctly, you will see a maximum of 5-10% boost, but for 99% of the populace, you won't even feel the difference as they're all fast processors

 

i just saw the SA in the microsoft store for $1069.99 with the student discount but it has a DVD drive instead of a blu-ray drive. Should I go for this one instead? Is the blu-ray drive really that necessary?

 

Only you can answer if the BD drive is necessary.

 

Check out the new models on the UK Vaio website:

S Series : VAIO & computing : Models : Sony

More specifically, the VPCSE1L1E with a 1080p screen...hope that isn't a typo!

EDIT: My bad, didn't realise that's a 15" model.

 

Does Sony usually drop their prices even more after they refresh a line? Anyone know from past experience? Thanks.