x-black display and photo editing

Hi,

i had decided on a new FE21B, was just about to purchase for 820gbp and thought i'd have a quick swizz by and double check.

I now have a problem.

X-Black vs X-Black II or whatever.

I mainly will use the laptop for photo editing / processing in the field, and wifi internet at home (i am a freelance photographer).

I am concerned by what i read that the display on the FE21B is not going to be good enough. Display, cpu, ram are my 3 main priorities.

So, how bad is the first generation x-black compared to the newer version. My problem again being that i'm stretched to getting the FE21B and another 100gbp for the H model may well be out of reach.

cheers

 

Well ive seen both the x-black and x-black with double lamp and can says its definately brighter. My best advice would be to go into a store (Dixons or PCWorld is your best bet) and compare them both.

Only you can tell if the difference is worth the money to you and you may not think that its worth it. Seeing as how you are a photographer i think colour qulaity is important and i think you should save up for it.

You havent mentioned your budget or where you plan on buying from? Mabye we can find you a cheaper online store?

Finally, I dont know how much you want a core duo, but if you would rather have a better screen/ slower CPU then the x-black with double lamp can be found on other models like the FS or FJ. They will have the pentium M probably at 1.7GHz.

If you go to a store, make sure you know which laptops have the double lamp screen (x-black logo with one red strip) by going to the sony website. They have the different logos for x-black for their laptops so its easy to tell which ones have it and which ones dont.

 

hi,

thanks for the reply..

i was going for the dual core because i thought that would give me the better performance. But tbh that's about as much thought as i'd given it.

If a Pentium M 1.7 would suffice then that might be an option. It's just soo hard to know without being able to carry out extended tests on them.

1 gig ram is a must though and dedicated gfx helps with having more ram for processing.

Believe it or not my original budget was 650gbp which has risen but can't really go higher and i need to replace a very old PIII 500mhz dell asap.

The screen is very important as it must be good enough in all lighting situations and angles and be fully hardware callibratable.(if that's a real word LOL).
the FE21B i was looking at was here

further comments much appreciated.

ps..what do you think on the dual core vs pentium M.Pentium M seems to be scoffed at now the dual core is here but is that just snobbery and is the cheaper PM still a good bet ?

cheers

 

Talisman, I posted yesterday with a problem of quality of my Vaio FE21B display.

I wanna change it cos the difference between them is too much. If you see directly front or aside you get nice quality, but if you change height view It appears shadows when you uses a photo. With text I didn't get that, but with photos is so bad. Otherwise, if you are in front of the laptop and you go up, you can't see the photo, you will only see bright and no colours.

 

thanks for that oscar,

are you thinking of going with another vaio with the x-black double lamp display ?

Have you tried one ?

 

You are right, dual core is a lot better than single core and if you multitask a lot i.e. have more than one program running at one time then this is the processor for you. I would suggest going with dual core over pentium M anyday but thats not to say the PM cannot be used. I think the PM should suffice for what you are going to do, its no pushover processor but the core duo will future proof your purchase.

I wouldnt recommned going for a laptop with less than 1GB nowadays and you are only partialy correct when you say a dedicated GPU will leave you more RAM. The cheaper dedicated GPU's use system as well as their own dedicated memory. For example the Nvidia Go7400 is advertised as 256MB but it has only 64MB dedicated and uses 192MB of system memory. Watch out for this technology - its called Turbocache by Nvidia and Hypermemory by ATI.

I was stuck when deciding between the laptop i have just ordered (will be here on monday woo!) or the sony FE21H. Although sony make the best screen you really are paying a premium for this. My best advice and this helped when i was stuck deciding, is to go into a shop and see for yourself. I strongly suggest ASUS because they are a quality brand. Go into your local Micro Anvika and ask to see some ASUS laptops and compare the screen to the Sony.

Seeing the latops in person is the best way.

About the dual core vs pentium m, as i said before the dual core is better. The 1.66 core duo is equal in performace to a 1.73PM for single threaded apps but is ALOT better when having lots of programs open. If you cant stretch your budget having to go with a pentium m may be your only option.

 

Well, I sold several Vaio FE and all had great displays.

I called to my laptop's provider and maybe have problems if I change cos I bought it 10 days ago, but I sent a mail 3 days after buying and 1 day after receiving the laptop . Yesterday I compared with a FE21M of a customer and It was a great difference.

If I could change, there are two laptos which like me:

Asus A6J-Q009H (60€ more than my FE21B) has X1600 512mb, BT 2.0, webcam 1.3mb, integrated microphone, 1 usb more, DVI output.

Vaio FE-21M (150€ more) has GF7600, bt 2.0, webcam 0.37mb, 160gb (but with 4200rpm ...)

It's difficult to choose between them cos Vaio 21M has a great apparience and nice keyboard taste, but Asus has better components and 1 year more of warranty (further as less price).

 

thanks ,

big help..

god this is tough as i'll not be changing it for a good few years so i need to get it right.

i'll let you know what i decide.


cheers...........

 

me again..

how would you rate a lenovo 3000 n100 dual core. Only got 512 meg ram but i can get another 512 from crucial for 30 quid.

 

I tried it but I don't like Lenovo appearance. As well as it hasn't High bright display (I think it's very important if you're going to use Photoediting)

So if you want to use some 3D program you'll need a display with good performance.

For example, 3DMark 2003 benchmark results in both are:

Lenovo 3000 N100 - 1450 points
Vaio FE-21B - 4040 points