Thinking about an SZ3VWP - good or bad choice?

I'm considering purchasing the Sony Vaio SZ3VWP/X. For sale here in the UK for a handsome price of £1,699.00. Slightly over my budget of £1500, but it SEEMS to be very good value as it comes with an added 2 years of warranty cover. I'm looking for a system that will be easily portable and allow me to run progs like Photoshop and possibly some video editing ones also.

I saw an SZ4 in a Sony shop today and it looked amazing. The carbon fibre look was really nice, and it felt very solid. Is the SZ3 of the same quality? I have not seen one in person.

I know the SZ3 is probably on it's way out soon so I wondered if this is still a wise purchase? Anyone had experience with this model? Any others I should consider within this price range? I know Santa Rosa etc. is round the corner, but I'm not too fussed about that. Plus I need a laptop soon. Full spec below...

- Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology with Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor T7400 (2.16 GHz and 667 MHz FSB) and Intel® Pro/Wireless 802.11a/b/g
- Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2 (English version), Windows Vista™ Capable and Premium Ready
- 120 GB (Serial ATA, 5400 rpm) hard disk drive[/LIST]
- 2GB DDR2-533 SDRAM (2 x 1GB), maximum 2 GB DDR2-533 SDRAM
- 13.3" WXGA (1280 x 800) X-black LCD with LED technology
- NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7400 with NVIDIA® TurboCache™ supporting 128 MB
- DVD±RW/±R DL/RAM drive
- Built-in "Motion Eye" Digital Camera
- Finger print recognition, hard disk protection
- HSDPA ExpressCard 3.6 Mbps

 

Should be the same as the equivalent SZ4 (the only different with the SZ4 models I think is I think sometimes more HD space in some configs and Vista).

I think it's an excellent choice - I currently have an SZ460, and the premium models are definitely worth it - the carbon fibre lid is very sturdy, and more importantly, the LED-backlit screens are beautiful. I am actually selling mine, but only because I've found I just am not using it, and it's too nice a machine to not actually make use of it.

If you do a lot of work on the road, also check out the extended battery.... I'm able to squeeze out well over 5 hours of battery life with it.

 

How much battery life did you get with the regular (non-extended) battery?

And how much extra weight does it add? The weight with regular battery is 3.7 lbs. (I think). How much does it weigh with the extended battery?

Also, does the extended battery "stick out" of the laptop?

 

Haven't actually done full battery testing with the regular battery, so I can't tell you the equivalent times. Sony at least claims the extended battery gives you 1.5 times the battery life of the regular battery, so that might give some indication.

In terms of weight, I know it adds more weight, but I haven't weighed it so I can't tell for sure; it doesn't seem to be a noticeable difference though.

The extended battery does stick out more; moreover, it is also curved (if you look at a photo of it you can see this). This has the effect essentially of raising it, which I've actually found to be a pretty good thing, whether using it on a desk or on my lap. But it could be annoying, so it's probably worth keeping in mind. I think the tradeoff is worth it for the extra battery life though.

 

hej bananadude:

sz3vwp is the same hardware as sz4vwn...both have the 2.16 processor core2 duo, 2 gb ram video card... etc. ...the only differences are the operating system...xpsp2 in sz3v and vista business in sz4v! and harddrive 120 in sz3v and 160 in sz4v; c) the bios allows the video to use larger ram so that it becomes 335 (sz4) vs. 256 (sz3) or something like that...you could always flash the bios from sz4 to give you that gain..(i was going to do that if I got the sz3!

so no big difference except for price and some pain if you wish to have vista. The advantage of pre-installed vista as opposed to getting sz3 and then upgrade is the "@£@!!! drivers you have to reinstall.

good deal for sz3vwp ...i was going to get it but because I had to ship out of UK to another EU country...they added an additional fee so it made it cheaper for me to buy the sz4

hope that helps...

 

SZ4xx has better/faster optical drive...