sony f11 vs f12

Hi. I'm deciding whether to get an F11 or an F12. One has a better screen resolution while the other has turbo boost and is cheaper. Is there really a huge difference between 1600x900 and 1920x1080? If there were two laptops, exactly the same, except for the screen resolution, one was 1600X900 and the other was 1920x1080, how much more would you be willing to spend for the 1920x1080 laptop? Pros and cons of both models from people with first hand experience?

Would you get a f11 (1600X900) for $850 or a f12 (1920x1080) for $1,110?

Here are links to the two laptops where you can read the specs.


http://www.sonystyle.ca/webapp/wcs/...d=20153&langId=200&LBomId=8198552921666067651

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...mId=8198552921666199715&IRTrack=CategorySpot2

 

hmm maybe the multitouch pad...

 

The F12 allows for a higher resolution screen and an option for a better GPU for only $15.60 more. The Nvidia 310m is pretty much entry level performance and for these prices, you might as well expect a decent mid-range graphics processor.

 

there's a $200 discount for the F11. Let's say you're not much of a gamer. Which laptop would you choose to buy? You could even recommend a better model for roughly the same price.

 

Well, in my case, I would not even consider the F series. if I did not need the screen real estate to do graphics work coupled with the performance of a good GPU, I would actually look into the CW series with a 310m for a good price.

Since my F series purchase at the beginning of the year and taking an active part in the F owners thread, I've seen a few owners who've purchased this laptop mostly out of wanting the biggest and the best for a great price. This is fine and all but many were unaware of the consequences of owning an F series especially if their reason for using it was for casual use.

The most common complaint seems to come from jumping from a core2duo to an i7 quad core. They're expecting it to be quiet all the time and the comparison and expectation between the two is unrealistic and unfair. It can be very fan noisy for extended periods especially when the laptop's hardware is taxed by certain software programs.

The other is battery life. The F requires you to be plugged in for the most part because it has high power requirements. It gets 2-3 hrs at best with some configurations possibly turned off..(wifi, bluetooth etc)

The CW is a good laptop. It has a strong enough processor. It is lighter and easier to carry around and it should give better battery charge since the power requirements are less than the F series.

 

thanks. the thing is I'm looking for a laptop with a screen size of at least 15.5" with good resolution because I plan on watching movies and tv shows on it. As good as the CW looks, I don't think 14" is big enough. also battery life isn't that a high of a priority for me. if the fan is really noisy for extended periods of time and is truly unbearable, then I will definitely start looking at different models. Is it really that bad? are there other problems with the F series? i pretty much just want a reliable, high performance, relatively quiet laptop with a good screen.

 

You could always hook it up to an external monitor, the 14 inch is much more portable than the F since ur not a gamer.

 

The fan being noisy on the F is not a 'problem' It is a normal condition from having a powerful quad core processor. The F is not really meant for watching movies only. The features available are truly designed for multimedia creation.

Just like the previous poster said, hook it up to an LCD monitor. With the money you save, you could buy a smaller widescreen HDTV. They're dirt cheap now anyway and it's small and slim enough to be portable around the house. Besides, if you're travelling, it's better to go smaller. While the F is a slim laptop, you'll be carrying a heavy adapter the size of a brick.

I hope i'm not straying you off the F series if you have your heart set out on it. It is an amazing laptop and performs well in everything I throw at it. Check all of them out in the store. The E series is another one to look at if you want a big screen and it seems to have a good following from what i've read in the E owners thread. They however are built with colorful glossy casings. There is a matte gunmetal black version though which I think looks much nicer and less 'out there'.

 

Thanks for a good explaination on what F is designed for. Actually, I have PS3 and it has a blu ray drive - so I wouldn't need a laptop to watch a blu ray movie. I plan to use a laptop for mostly school work and project with 3-D rendering software. The graphic card seems out of date, and this laptop sounds like an entertainment book. It's probably great for a business college student who doesn't need some crazy 3-D softwares to work on.

 

Actually the F series with the GT330M processor unclocked performs extremely well in AutoCAD and 3ds Max. These are two programs that I run constantly with this notebook.

Also get 8gb of ram and nothing lower than a 7200rpm hardrive.

I had a 3d rendering that took slightly less than 8 hrs in 3ds max. I rendered the same image in my Vaio FW490 with an SSD drive, 8gb ram, and 3.06ghz extreme core2 duo. That took 15+hrs at only 80%. I stopped it before completion. It would have taken approximately 20+ hours to finish that rendering in the FW series.

One thing to note is that the FW had the 1gb Ati HD4650 GPU which performs slightly better than the 330M

EDIT: the same rendering would have taken 3.5hrs in a destop outfiitted with an Nvidia Quadro card.