anybody dare compare quality of sz to fe?

Ok. I'm really needing a new computer to replace my current dell desktop, running on 256 ram, and I was looking at the sz, along with asus's w3j and v6j.

One thing making me hesitant on buying the sz is previous experience with the FE(I use my dad's laptop now and then). Needless to say, it's overall exterior design is very appeasing, but I was extremely disappointed in it's build quality. The latch system was horrible, and the lid doesn't close tightly. The left touchpad button is shaky and not level with the right one. Both the battery and optical drive are loose. Optical drive was also violently loud when starting up. In edition to the build quality, there was a load of bloatware. got errors within 10 minutes of logging on. Configuring, security center warnings and popups and whatnot, failed vaio update. Along with that, I was also disappointed with the design of the buttons and touchpad. Neither of them were well integrated into the overall design and they were very stiff.
After fixing it up a bit, the system ran smoothly. Very satisfactory, but there was really nothing I could do about the build quality. I'm pretty sure that not all the FE had uneven touchpad buttons, and loose drives and batteries and etc. but it was dissatisfactory either way.

I was wondering if similar problems were present in the sz premium. I can take care of the software, but I want to make sure it's pretty solidly built, without any loose or shaky parts.
Also, do all the models have a external antenna and fingerprint reader? And are they removable(the antenna) if I don't like it sticking out of my laptop?

 

Which FE was this?

 

it would be the 670. FE670G

 

Most SZ's have a wobbly battery. The dvd drive is also pretty flimsy and makes a loud noise on startup. It does have a lot of bloatware. There are customizable SZ's that do not have fingerprint. Only certain models have the EDGE. The touchpad and buttons are not the best I've used but are decent. The lid has no latch.

 

I really like the SZ's touchpad and buttons --- very responsive.. especially compared to the touchpad/buttons on my FJ270 that I eventually ended up gettnig a refund on.

Unfortunately, my SZ shipped with a shoddy keyboard -- it wasn't very firmly attached to the computer itself. I'm currently sending it back in for repair on this one item. Assuming it gets fixed (and up to spec with other SZs I've used), I'd be tempted to say that I'll be extremely happy with the SZ build --- more so than I was with the FJ270 (which also, like the OP mentioned, looked great from the outside but suffered from several build problems that I was less than happy with).