good 13" alternative to the Z?

is there such a thing? I am sure Z owners here, and ppl thinking about buying one have considered other laptops.

With the new year I am gonna need to buy a laptop, I can't wait for a price drop anymore. Unless I find one in the used market I can't drop 1300+ on a laptop.

I am looking for a 13" which is cheaper than the Z with these features:


- weighs less than 4lbs
- good screen, possibly 16:9
- good computing power
- DVD-rom

I looked at the X300 but lenovo screens never get good reviews, also it has the low voltage coreduo.

Maybe the SZ, but it weighs more and the screen is not as good. is the SZ screen better than others though?

HP and Mac are not an option.

any suggestions?

 

Why not consider the SR? IMO, it is better and cheaper than the SZ.

 

The Dell E4300 may be a consideration if graphics power isn't important to you. I don't know about its screen, though.

 

Screen on the E4300 isn't that great. I was strongly considering the E4300 or a VAIO, and it's just a no contest, VAIO screens are so much better.

Supposedly there are many other issues with it, there's a big thread about it in the Latitude section.

 

yeah, I forgot to mention the e4300. I followed that thread for a while. Many horror stories. I'd like to have a dedicated graphic card. Also the price that dell is asking for the e4300 is ridiculous, the base model with 1GB of ram cost as much as the z520. Dell must be of out its mind.

 

In that case, I'd say just get the SR. Mine (129E/B) has an amazing screen and it's a bit over 4 lbs, but not too heavy at all.

 

If I have to consider something that "heavy" then I might think about the U330 then.

 

If you get the Toshiba screen it's very good, with higher contrast rates than the Z.

Sony SR would be my suggestion. It can come with a Toshiba display too, might be the same as the one on the SZ.

But I would prefer a netbook like the Samsung NC10 for on the road and a cheap desktop or 15" laptop for at home. That's what I did.

 

You can get some crazy deals for SZ now, when they are going out of stock.

IMO SZ is better than SR, if you dont look at the fact that SR have "centrino 2" inside. I am talking about the carbon version of SZ.

 

I'd say SR... however, at your desired weight (which was also one of my research factors in looking for a laptop) I found nothing at least at your desired pricepoint. That 4 lbs seems to be the barrier between affordable and expensive. I'd also assume 16:9 screens right now demand a premium, so you're better off looking for a 16:10.

If you can live without the DVD-ROM (well, mine's usually off on my Z in battery mode to save power), Lenovo's X200 is probably ideal (though I think it lacks GPU, but if you're not gaming, the X4500 is more than enough).

However, if you must have everything, the SR is the way to go. Just be aware it's 4.5 lbs.

 

I believe it's slightly lighter. Notebookjournal has measured the SR to be 1.890,00 grams. = 4.17 lbs.

http://www.notebookjournal.de/tests/inspection/sony-vaio-vgn-sr19xn-659

 

if price is a factor, you can't beat the dell xps 1330 when combined with a dell coupon


- weighs less than 4lbs
- widescreen (you can get LED as an option)
- good computing (lots of CPUs to build from)
- DVD-rom (doesn't every laptop have this now?)

 

are there any other laptops that are 13" with a 16:9 screen?

I'd really want the Z but I am not sure if it's worth spending so much on a piece of technology that loses its value so quickly.

 

Sony is the only one making 13.1" 16:9.

Personally I prefer 16:10 over 16:9 because all webpages look better with it.

 

Isnt SZ under 4lb? Its 1.79 kilos which is ?

 

I never trust the manuf weight specs. But after this talk I am steering toward the SR or the M1330. The SZ is cool as well but it's older and has no HDMI. It seems also that DDR3 vs DDR2 is not a huge difference right now.

 

Just make sure you get the integrated video option on the M1330. You want to stay away from the Nvidia 8400M.

 

rachuk, I checked that samsung out. It doesn't look bad, but it's a bit thick. I guess I will wait until January and see what's around. I just read a bunch of bad things about the m1330. I think I really need to decide if I need a dedicated graphic card, or if I should consider also the U330, it has switchable graphics and it is in the weight range of the others. too bad that a lighter laptop with decent capabilities is such a huge gap in price.

so
- u330
- sr
- sz

 

look at the lenovo U330 is a decent notebook for the price.

Also the Asus F6 is not that bad.

 

let's add that to the list as well. But it looks thicker and with the battery sticking out. I wonder if the specs include that. But to me a good cooling system is very important. My F3F was impossible to keep on my lap for too long.
As soon as you step down from the Z there's a lot of competitive stuff. What a mess. Well, I have some time to sort things out.

 

I bought both a M1330 and SR for my g/f and we returned the Dell due to defects right out of the box such as:

no sound, always thought it had headphones plugged in
desktop would magically disappear (happens on her mom's dell lappy as well)
LED screen had strange backlighting where i saw vertical striping

We kept the SR and haven't had any issues; i also subsequently bought a Z

 

at this date there is nothing better than the Z. fortunately I have one

 

thanks, that was really helpful

 

Maybe that post wasn't helpful, but at the moment it's somewhat true. Any current alternative to the Z will be a compromise. The SR & U330 would probably be the best compromises at the moment. Now, if you can wait, something as good if not better may be announced at CES next month. Of course you may have to wait a few months until it's released, reviewed & tested by members of this board.

 

I know that it is true, but that wasn't a very constructive comment like yours

but all the possible competitors just fell apart. the e4300 is a joke, the x300 is not bad, but as far as power is nowhere close, and the screen is just OK.

 

hmm... let me think about that..

 

I'm happy with the SR, because the Z was too much and I didn't want to deal with nVidia in the future. The Z higher resolution on small screen means small text, which I'm not too fond of. Dell's Latitude cost way too much, XPS is heavier and clunky, and I dislike Lenovo for my past experience with them when I had a subpar LCD screen compared to my old Dell 600m. SR is fine so far for everything I do; haven't had time to run any games on it just to push it and see if it breaks. It's light enough, 4lbs, too. I might get a Z-class in the future, because I think I would like something completely silent. But that's 3+ years from now for me.

 

umm afaik
the Z is a little louder than the SR