Sony Vaio VGN-FW490 or FW378DH

Hi

I am in the process of deciding which laptop PC to purchase. I had decided on a Dell Studio XPS 16, but then received a suggestion on this site that a vaio FW series could fit my needs. I dropped in on a Sony Style store and they have the FW378 DH in stock. I also called the online Sony store and they suggested the FW490.

The differences in the two PC's were:
1) the processors: The FW378 came with a P8600 at 2.40GHZ, and the FW490 with the P8800 at 2.66GHZ.

2) the FW378 has an ATI Mobility HD3650 graphics card while the FW490 has an ATI4570 graphics card.

3) the FW378 has a read/write blu-ray drive and the FW490 has a read only blu-ray drive.

4) Software: the FW378 comes with VAIO® Movie Story,VAIO® MusicBox Mood, and VAIO® Media plus, while the FW390 comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0, and Adobe Premier Elements and Microsoft Works.

I was able to try out the FW378 in the store. I was somewhat unimpressed with the sound quality, but that is not a critical factor. The FW390 would be delivered in Late July, while the FW378 is in stock a the store. Would you suggest that the differences in the FW490 make it worth waiting. Bith units are almost identically priced.

Thanks for your help.

 

Are you sure the FW 490 graphics card is a ATI 4570? I thought they were the ATI 4650 with 1gig video ram which I believe is much more powerful than the 3650.

 

On the Canadian Sony site it shows up as the ATI 4570. There is no upgrade option to the ATI 4650.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=397112

Just a few threads down.

 

I just checked sonystyle.ca FW 490 CTO and it says

"ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD4570 graphics card with 1G VRAM-great for games and movies"

The 4570 is not 1g vram but only 512mb vram.

 

Exactly. As I confirmed in my earlier post, the Canadian Sony site has incorrect information regarding the video card option for the FW 490. Although my original order indicated "4570 with 1GB VRam", I can confirm that I received the laptop today and the card is indeed the 4650.

 

This is probably a dumb question, but can I assume that the video card is "discrete", i.e not part of the motherboard?

 

it is discrete 1gig vram.

 

Thanks. Can I assume that you believe that choosing the FW490 is the preferable route, as compared the FW378DH?

My real conundrem is the Dell XPS 16 compared to the Sony. I have not been able to find reviews of the FW490, but have found several reviews of the Dell XPS 16. I've seen the FW378 at the Sony store, but have never seen the Dell. Price differences are not a major issue here.

 

No brainer: FW490 over the FW378. (This is the one thing that puzzles me about Sony -- it leaves these earlier models out there with their earlier pricing schemes.)

I have not seen the Dell XPS 16 but I have seen the 13 and the 15. Unless it has an RGB LED screen, then the Sony FW screen alone, even the Eco, is the deal-maker. Every Dell laptop I have ever seen in the retail market has a bluish cast to everything, especially noticeable on the whites. Reviewers have even commented on this on Dell's own sales Websites.

I believe you can see Dells in Best Buy Canada stores, BTW, for a look at their screens. For me, it's not so much whether my laptop has leather and a cool look, but what it feels like to actually _look_ at its screen and use it.

 

Thanks. You've made my decison much easier. One other question; I was unable to find any information about their built-in web cam. Is it of decent quality?

 

Have the FW 285 - web cam works very well, nice quality. Assuming thye've done soem minor upgrades with the newer models but works well. Use it weekly for chatting with family.

 

Thanks.
I ordered the FW 490 a few hours ago. Thanks to the forum members who answered my numerous questions.

 

Congrats man, I hope you are happy with it! I hope to soon purchase one as well after also reading the comments on the FW490

 

Hi
I just received an email that the FW490 was shipped yesterday. They provided a Fedex tracking number, and it looks like it will arrive on Monday! That's about a week earlier than I expected, given the information received when I ordered on July 7. It looks like it will be a long weekend!

 

Well first of all Dell can KMA.
Do to the fact that the 1080p Screen is top heavy.
When you put it in your lap it becomes a balancing act that just did not work for me if the 16 is like this you will hate it.
This I know for a fact on the new Studio 1550.
I ordered a Studio 1550 loaded and I hated it for $1600.00.
When I opened the note book the Intel sticker and the Vista sticker were crooked, call me picky yes I and for that kind of money I should be it bothered me so much I pulled them off.
The book had no status indicators and the blue ray player software was just like hmmm?

After all the phone calls to Dell I'm done.
Customer service has something to be said for.
I went to the Sony store and played around with Sony Vaio VGN-FW490 and it is just a great piece and for the money well the choice is yours.
It's not rocket science do the numbers.

Customization Details

* No additional Photo Editing Software
* 16.4" widescreen with XBRITE-FullHD™ LCD technology (1920x1080)
* Quickbooks Simple Start 2009
* 320GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]
* No Fresh Start
* Microsoft® Works
* Standard Capacity Battery
* Norton Internet Security (30 Day Trial)
* WLAN (802.11a/b/g/n) with integrated Bluetooth® technology
* ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD4650 graphics card with 1GB vRAM-great for games and movies
* No Engraving
* Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8800 (2.66GHz)
* No additional Video Editing Software
* Blu-ray Disc™ playback/burning [Reg. Price $180.00]
* Black
* Microsoft® Windows Vista® Ultimate 64-bit
* 4GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 2GBx2)

 

Funny you should mention the stickers on Dell's Sudio being crooked. How about sometimes completely inaccurate?

I was once in a Staples and the stickers did not match the configuration of the machine indicated in the device manager! Later, I went to Best Buy and, lo and behold, the configuration that had been stickered on the Staples machines was the configuration being sold at Best Buy. So, Dell's factories didn't keep things straight!

Yes, Sony, yes, yes, yes. (With apologies to Molly Bloom...)