I'm looking to buy a new laptop soon and came across the Sony Vaio line. The two that really caught my eyes were the Vaio Z and Vaio SB. The battery life, processor, and battery life look great but is the battery life really around 7.5 hours? I know that laptop battery lives are generally exagerated on the websites but what would be a realistic battery life for the SB? I also noticed that to get the the graphics upgrade on the SB (im in the US btw) I have to additionally purchase and i7 processor which I don't really want. I would prefer the i5 because I think it would be adequate for what I need and be better for battery life.
The Vaio Z on the other hand i'm looking at purchasing used (I know they have been dicontinued until the supposed upgrade) which is an i5 model. I would be getting it off of craigslist for $1385 dollars (would try to talk the guy down to $1000) but i'm a little aprehensive about putting that much money out for a used laptop (even if he says it comes with a full warranty). The kinds of things i'd use the laptops for are listed as follows:
- School/College work
- Programming
- Watching videos (quality of this is not hugely important to me)
- Some gaming (Pretty much all steam games and things like Just Cause 2 and COD: Black Ops)
Thanks in advanced for the help![]()
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Well the SB is pretty much better in everyway except screen quality, build quality/looks (debatable), and weight/size. So if those three things are important to you then get the Z. There's also the fact that the Z comes standard with SSD's and it's an upgrade option for the SB.
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The Z gets like 6 hours battery life in real world usage with the standard battery, not 7.5 hours.
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It doesn't get 6 hours. My extended will get close to that, the regular Z battery max for me is around 4.5 hrs
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My regular is like 3.5 hours with wifi on and stamina mode..the SB would last a little longer
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this is a tough call.. it's basically..
smaller, better screen, lighter, better construction/materials (supposedly, as this is sony's flagship)
vs
sandy bridge processor, faster gpu, option for 13 hour battery life
... if it were me, i would wait until the new vaio z comes out so that prices for the current vaio z fall more
i'm going to guess that on normal usage, the vaio z is roughly 3.5 hours, while the sb is 5 hours
this really is a tough call, i think i would have to go with the Z on this one, though, but only after it drops in price after the new one is announced, i'd also opt for the extended battery if possible -
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That's a good idea too..I was gonna wait for the ZA also (I'm assuming that's the name) but then the Z got discontinued so early and I was afraid all the new ones would be out of stock soon and I didn't want a refurb. You can stl get new ones from places like buy.com..
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i'll keep it in my signature for good luck, maybe it will come! -
Well I get 6 hours with optimum settings such as low-mid brightness, no sound and no WiFi. (Perfect settings in a lecture theater/writing up reports!)
One thing about the SB is that it's not made in Japan if you care about it.
Vaio SB or Z?
Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by Dekabal, Mar 7, 2011.