Vaio SB or Z?

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

 

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.

 

The Z gets like 6 hours battery life in real world usage with the standard battery, not 7.5 hours.

 

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

 

My regular is like 3.5 hours with wifi on and stamina mode..the SB would last a little longer

 

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

 

Remember there should be no "q" in the 2720m in your signature there.

 

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..

 

damn it, are you serious? no quad core for the z? i thought sandy bridge was bringing quad core to high-performance laptops

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.