Where to buy s360?

After a month of studying and reading forums and reviews, I've finally decided to buy the Sony s360, YAY. Does anyone know a good place to buy it from with reliable service and decent pricing? Thx

 

It's probably going to be hard to find em now. The new model is the S480 which is basically the same thing. The video card on the S480 is less powerful then on the S360.

If you check out the S480 on say SonyStyle and you still want the S360.

Check out wholesale sites like TigerDirect

 

I went to a local CompUSA store and they had a few new S360s left. they were selling it for $1,700 with $100 mail in rebate. So you might want to try Compusa

 

Really? Cuz i checked compusa.com and all their s360's were sold out. I dono, maybe they have a few left only at their store. I've been trying to find some at smaller online retailers but most are very expensive.

 

mysngoterased, i'm curious why you chose the s360 over the newer s460...

I mean, other than the s360's faster (but older) video card, the s460 is better in every way. the s460 has better and newer technology like DDR2 and PCI Express. you could eventually upgrade the s460's video card later on if you want, but with the s360 you're stuck with it.

 

If your dead set on getting an S Series. I would just get the S460, (S460z) is right in every way.

Your going to end up paying more for the older model anyway, seeing as the same technology will be cheaper in newer models.

 

Well, it's not just the graphics card. The 460 tends to get really hot (at least from my experience) and the 360 has a lot more battery life, which i thought was very important. However, you are right about the newer technology.

 

Every Sonoma based thin and light notebook will be dealing with heat issues. Undervolting and aggressive power management will make the newer technology run fine. You'll be lucky to find a refurb or a "risky" unit on EBAY at this point and I'm finding that any available S360's are selling too close to the price of the S460 to make it justifiable. If you want major battery life I'd go down to a 10.6" 753 Pentium based system like the Sony T series or the Fujitsu P7000 series. You'll get 5-8 hrs of battery life and plenty of power in a 3 lb. package. Otherwise....you are going to be dealing with the same issues from any of the quality manufactureres of 12-14" 4-5 lb. systems.

 

Thanks for all the input everyone, but I decided to go for the s360 and purchased one online today. So far, I'm relatively happy with my decision.

 

S360 is tagged $1099.99 at the Sony Store at the Seattle Premium Oullet.

 

Really? Oh well, the best I could find was a 1600 dollar tax and shipping free s270. So far, I'm extremely pleased with the performance. Even ran BF2 with 512 ram. Once upgraded to 1.5 gigs, it was playable at the highest resolution and settings.

 

Try the Sony Store,

They have a few left, granted they are open models or demos but they are discounted. I picked up my 360 for 2100 (cdn) 300 less than the 460, with a discount on the extended warranty. Granted this was on a open demo with one scratch on the cover (very minor), but after owning the 460 and 360 it is totally worth it. I definetly agree that the 360 represents the pinnacle of the machine and the 460 is atrocious compared to it.

Granted the 460 has the new chipset, faster hd, and dvd-rw. but ...

It is hot, not mildly warm, but hot, the 360 is easily 50% (if not more) cooler, were not talking a few degrees, i've had both on my lap and the difference is enormus (also used a s260 and its the same as the 360 - cool). Also battery life is terrible. Surfing on both machines is uncomparable, i managed to drain the 460 in 1.3 hrs while the 360 easily lasts over 3.5 - 4, 5hrs on conservative settings. The power brick is huge in the 460 compared with the 360 and the 460 only has 32 mb dedicated video vs the 360's dedicated 64.

So i completely agree, go for ther 360, avoid the 460, especially if your doing allot of on the go work. The battery life and heat issues made me run back to return it, sorry to say but the 460 is a bit of a lemon.

Best of luck

 

mysngoterased:
Yes, it's true. And I just found out there's a $100 mail-in rebate avaliable for S360 & S360P on Sony's website valid till the end of this month, which if you count it in, the price for S360 is now offically $999.99!!


singero:
it's nice to hear some opinions from someone who actually owns S460 and S360 at the same time, and did you mention you had a S260 before? Dude, you sure got lots of cash to burn!

 

Where on the Sony site is this discount? I can't even find the s360 to purchase...

 

(Sigh...) ok, here's the direct link:
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INT...uters-cpu_GreatDeals-pr_p_NotebookRebates_cpu
You want me to give you driving directions to the outlet stores too?

 

Ok. After looked closely at the rebate form, the last sentence says "the offer is not valid on refurbished units". I phoned up the outlet store and asked, and yes, those S360s they have are all refurbished ones. So the rebates are thrown out the window now. But at $1099.99, the price is still a bargain!

 

jesus christ...

buy a new one, don't get a refurbished one please

 

What I see w/ refurbished units are:
1. much much cheaper
2. someone already tested it and picked out all the bugs, send it back, and sony had repaired it.
3. still has sony worranty

So, why the hell not?

Btw, I just looked up your post history. So you got your S460 for $1650 + $200 rebate from CompUSA just last month? Since then you've posted numbers of replies on various topics that are debating why S360 is better than S460.

I can understand that you are still overwhelmed in that I-just-got-a-fresh-new-laptop feel and are trying to defend your choice of investment whenever you heard a negative response about it. But just cool down for a sec, take a deep breath, swallow your pride and let's face the reality.

Sonoma and new specs? PCI Express so what? When is the last time you heard of someone upgrading graphic cards in their laptop? For a 10 lb 17" monster laptop there may be cards available on the market that you can just buy and swap, but not for the Sony S-series. Never! Both the Radeon 9700 in S360 and the NVidia card in S460 are Sony custom-made just so they can squeeze into that tiny casing. There's no other cards on the market that can upgrade Sony's S-series, and there never will be! This is true for almost all laptops. Other than occasionally swap in a bigger ram or hdd, a laptop is pretty much a finished product with no room for changes what so ever!

So if you can't upgrade it, then who cares whether it's AGP or PCI Express? Let's just just compare raw power, and Radeon 9700 wins, that's it. Add this to the other tried-and-true advantages of S360, such as longer battery life, lighter weight, less heat, and less expensive, it's a no brainer that S360 is a better machine!

And by your defense that Sonoma is 10% faster than Centrino, take the price of S360 now which is $1100, and your price of S460 which was $1450, that's more than 30% expensive-er! Would you pay 30% more money for a meer 10% performance increase? I know I wouldn't!!

 

good debate fullarmor. I just wish I could've bought s360. sick feeling in my stomach after reading this thread but whats done is done. I have to stick with my 460.

 

Is there any disadvantage to getting a 260 rather than a 360? How do they differ?

 

Those guys who got a S360 are just so lucky....
It is so hard to find a brand new s360 now in stores.
And those refurbished items--who the hell knows if they were dropped or maybe someone just pour some milk onto the keyboard...I mean,if it is dropped and Sony take it back then replaced the harddrive and it runs again but what if some chips or screws got loose but no problems show up when the laptop is being refurbished??

 

Wao. That's a heck of a deal at the seattle outlet. Anyways, I got my s270p at www.euclidcomputers.com. It came with a internal dvd burner, which the s360 doesn't offer. Anyways, if you can't buy from the seattle outlet, but have your heart set on the s360 like I did, try for the s270. BTW, the s270 comes with different graphics cards. MAKE SURE that the one you get is the 9700 MR, not the 9200 one.

 

fularmor,

"...such as longer battery life, lighter weight, less heat..."

i get 3 hrs +/- 10 mins on my s460 at the "vaio optimal" setting. how long do you think the s360 lasts on standard battery? maybe 3 hrs +/- 15 mins? on the issue of weight, how much lighter? one gram, one pound? in terms of price, you say the s360 is cheaper, which is true, but the price you quoted for the s360 is of a refurbished/used one compared to a new s460... was that fair? and you know what else? the s360 gets damn hot also

do you know what "refurbished" means? it doesn't neccessarily mean that it was a returned item, it also means that it was a leased item (could be for 1, 2 or 3 years). the s360 didn't come out too long ago so if it could have been on leased for a year. that means somebody used it for a year already! and when you use something you don't own, you treat it with less care. so after a year of lease, Sony or whoever takes back that laptop and supposedly/magically turn it into new condition and sell it as reburbished.

you accused me of being partial to the s460, well, at least i own it. do you own either the s360 or 460? i bet you read a lot of reviews online though, huh

if you read all of my posts, one in particular, i explicitly stated that the s460 and s360 are pretty on par with each other. i said that it bothered me that people like you who never own both or either of them scare off potential buyers from buying the s460 just based on your readings from online reviews.

no puns intended. good day

 

There is brand new S360s in Compusa near the Garden state plaza,priced at 1600 after rebate.But I finally went for S460 at 1550...Can't resist the DVD-RW and the 5k4 rpm harddrive. And I say when the fan is on,it sounds somewhat annoying especially the high pitched tome .But the fan remains idle most of the time and the heat at the lower right corner is acceptable (actually it is lower than my 12'1 lenovo laptop which gets warm at both sides).
However the S460 looks cheaper than its price,the keys under the touchpad are made of plastic rather than metal,the Wireless switch looks even worse and the front panel of the DVD RW drive feels like not securely fixed.
I love it but I decide to sell it after a year to get the next generation S-type.