Dell 700m or Sony Vaio S460

K

Kite

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I'm heading into university this year and decided a laptop would be nice for in class, working outside and some light gaming during the spare time. After some researching I've come up with the Dell 700m and Sony Vaio S460, and can't really decide which way to go.

I really like the Sony one but the price and heat generated is keeping me away from it. For Dell the battery power and the video card is bothering me. Which one would you recommend?

Sony Vaio S460 Review
Dell 700m Review

Sony Vaio here (in Canada) is around $2900 plus tax, for Dell $2000 plus tax. I love to get 700m from US, fully loaded with $750 coupon but Canada doesn't have that deal. :(
 
well out of the 2 I would say the sony if your wanting to do some gaming,,,,but its hard to deny the 700m with the 8cell batt,,, but gaming would be kinda on the low side.

I just got the sony s360 from a trade, so far im in love, perfect balance of everything, and can still game on it,, and the screen is so perfect and brite....

I say budget, get the dell

if u can afford the sony go for it....u can always undervolt the cpu, etc to reduce heat..
 
Kite said:
I love to get 700m from US, fully loaded with $750 coupon but Canada doesn't have that deal. :(
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Wow! That sucks! I went with the 700m because of the $750 off deal. Not good for new 3d games, but with the money saved I can get a better video card for my desktop. Even without the discount, I don't think the Sony's video card justifies the price difference. A GeForce Go 6200 still sucks when it comes to the latest 3d games.

You need to find a friend in the USA, or perhaps you could order it with the US price by using a mail forwarding service?
 
I do have relatives in the US who I can use to order and mail thru but Canada custom are strict and often end up paying hefty duty and tax.
 
BladeVenom said:
Wow! That sucks! I went with the 700m because of the $750 off deal. Not good for new 3d games, but with the money saved I can get a better video card for my desktop. Even without the discount, I don't think the Sony's video card justifies the price difference. A GeForce Go 6200 still sucks when it comes to the latest 3d games.

You need to find a friend in the USA, or perhaps you could order it with the US price by using a mail forwarding service?
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Actually I find on my S360 the 6200 does just great.. I can play HL2 at 1280X800 with med details and WoW at 1280X800 with just about everything maxxed out.

I think its a stretch to say it "sucks" since its pretty much the top of the line for 3D in 3-4lb notebooks..

Obviously you get more power in higher mobile GPU's but then your carrying around a much heavier laptop.
 
You'd probably get the best support from Dell if you needed it. Dunno about Sony.
 
BladeVenom said:
How does Battlefield 2 play on it?
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The Battlefield 2 Demo runs liquid smooth on my S460 @ 1024x768, low-mid details and no AA/AF. The S360 is probably a better gaming machine though, since it uses the radeon 9700 with better memory bandwidth.. people with their S360's get around 3300 in 3dmark03 vs. the 2700 I get with my S460.
The demo models in stores now don't have such a crappy display login (with that stupid flash desktop background that would slow it down) so you might try burning a few demos to disk and try them that way. (Office depot had no problem letting me do that when I bought mine)
 
Just a note on Sony Support, I had a problem with the screen on my S260 I called them and explained everything they had a box at my door the next day via DHL i shipped it out and had it back in 3 days everything was fixed.
 
Menelmarar said:
You'd probably get the best support from Dell if you needed it. Dunno about Sony.
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never had a single issue with Sony Support when it came to repairs/warranty support.. they are prompt and answer the phone relatively fast and never make you jump through hoops doing annoying troubleshooting to approve repairs/service..

Though..much like Dell. if your calling them for tech support for software issues/hardware issues your going to get frustrated..
 
win32asmguy said:
The Battlefield 2 Demo runs liquid smooth on my S460 @ 1024x768, low-mid details and no AA/AF. The S360 is probably a better gaming machine though, since it uses the radeon 9700 with better memory bandwidth.. people with their S360's get around 3300 in 3dmark03 vs. the 2700 I get with my S460.
The demo models in stores now don't have such a crappy display login (with that stupid flash desktop background that would slow it down) so you might try burning a few demos to disk and try them that way. (Office depot had no problem letting me do that when I bought mine)
Click to expand...

bf2 at crap settings runs good on any system lol
 
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