Vaio vs Dell vs HP Pavillion

[sudhix]

Hello

Im looking to buy a laptop for 40k (streachable by few k)
Primary use is s/w development, movies and music. No gaming at all.
320GB hdd will be ok, 4GB ram is a must, Gfx card not needed.

Im confused which to buy,
Sony E series based i3 laptops ?
Dell Inspiron i3 or i5 ?
Dell Studio i5 ?
HP Dv4 or DV6 ?

Are AMD based Turion X2 better than i3 ? Are the latest Phenom based laptops launched in India ?

Please help

Thanks

[jain_pranav]

I recently purchased sony "E" series laptop & trust me itz amazing.
Pretty good battery life.
Overall its a true VFM..

U can also try dell's inspiron 15r series..U'l gt a core i5 1 in arnd 41-42k..

[neerajvohra]

If you can add few more bucks to ur budget go for sony vpceb16en ..or for 37-38k sony vpceb14en..I have both the laptops and E series rocks as said above..specially the battery backup and offcourse they includes gfx card..difference with i3 or i5 and ram. check out these models @sony website.

If you're looking for style and comfort..go for Sony...rest all are same i.e. dell or HP.

[pushkar]

If music is quite important to you, don't ever go for Inspiron. Its speakers are the worst I have seen in a laptop. I have an Inspiron 14 and its speakers suck even more than my father's 8 year old Compaq laptop or my Nokia Xpressmusic phone. Even my EP 630 earphones, which sound quite good on my Nokia 5700, sound bad on it, so I guess the sound card is also at fault.

Since you don't need dedicated graphics, you could get a Dell Vostro laptop (they are business class laptops), like this or this. Vostro has stuff like HDMI port, eSATA port, 7200-rpm hard disk drive, 9-cell battery option which budget laptops meant for home users, like Inspiron, (sometimes) don't. (Maybe the new Inspiron series have eSATA ports, I haven't kept up with laptop specs for a while). Moreover, Inspiron doesn't have Live Chat support option on Dell's website; only Latitude, OptiPlex, Dell Precision, and Vostro series laptops have that option.

[sudhix]

Hello

Thanks for the replies. Base on the feedback and also taking to my friends, I have zeroed in on Vaio E series.

http://www.sony.co.in/product/vpcea22en
http://www.sony.co.in/product/vpceb24en

These have i3 350M cpu as opposed to 330M in Vaio vpceb14en

Whats the primary difference between i3 and i5 CPU's in terms of performance.
As said earlier, my primary usage will be S/w development (S60, android [Having used these, they are very resource hungry apps] ), C programming on Ubuntu and movies and music.

Will i5 cpu be an advantage, Im willing to strech my budget. Also will Vaio customise my the above said products to i5 ?

@neerajvohra : I couldnt find vpceb16en, Can u pls share a link if possible.
@pushkar : Have used Latitude laptops at work. Feedback from all collegues is very bad. from hardware stability and reliability.


Thanks

-Sudhix

[gagan007]

Even I have Latitude at work. Strangely no issues so far.
In this forum and elsewhere I have always spoken in favor of Dell laptops because they are VFM. I have seen my friends crying those who have HP Pavillion (or Compaq) laptops. Vaio are good, but they costs higher than their counterparts with same config under Dell.

[ThinK GeeK]

Dell™ Inspiron 15R Laptop (T540505IN8)


Intel® Core™ i5-450M Processor (2.4GHz, 4Threads, turbo boost up to 2.66Ghz, 3M cache)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit (English)
4GB (2 X 2 GB) 2 DIMM DDR3 1333Mhz
320GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
15.6 Widescreen HD WLED Glossy Display with TrueLife™ (1366x768)
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470 - 1GB (India)

price 42900 inr

[gagan007]

wow the above config sounds awesome...and the price too

[sudhix]

Hi

Yippee Got my Vaio EB series today
VPCEB1AGG : E Series : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony India

Review:

Looks : gorgeous.
Keyboard : perfect
Screen : awessome
Mousepad : average, matte finish, not super sensitive. I will use a wireless mouse anyway, so wont matter.
Build quality : Impeccable. Except the wireless switch which is a bit flimsy.
usage : Super fast.
Vaio gate utility on top is a bit irritating, prefer disabling it. Mcafee Internet security, MS Office 07 trial, Adobe Elements,Roxio DVD burning utility, Web cam software provided.
OS : Win 7 PRO 64 bit.
Vaio update: provides good update list. Will perform the update today.

Hardware :
CPU : Core i5 520M
HDD : Toshiba 320GB
Optical : Optirac DVD burner
Card reader : Roxio
Graphics : Intel HD 128MB
Wireless : Intel Wifi and Foxconn bluetooth
Ethernet : Marvell
Audio : Realtek HD audio

Laptop pics :
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1290/17062010044.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9756/17062010043.jpg

Recovery utility provided which says it will create 4 DVD's in case of format. Yet to create it. So i guess i can restore the laptop to factory settings with them.

Bundle :
Charger with two types of plugs
WinXP SP3 PRO CD.

Thanks for all the help which resulted in this purchase. Love the laptop

-Sudhix

[neerajvohra]

Originally Posted by sudhix

Hi

Yippee Got my Vaio EB series today
VPCEB1AGG : E Series : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony India

Review:

Looks : gorgeous.
Keyboard : perfect
Screen : awessome
Mousepad : average, matte finish, not super sensitive. I will use a wireless mouse anyway, so wont matter.
Build quality : Impeccable. Except the wireless switch which is a bit flimsy.
usage : Super fast.
Vaio gate utility on top is a bit irritating, prefer disabling it. Mcafee Internet security, MS Office 07 trial, Adobe Elements,Roxio DVD burning utility, Web cam software provided.
OS : Win 7 PRO 64 bit.
Vaio update: provides good update list. Will perform the update today.

Hardware :
CPU : Core i5 520M
HDD : Toshiba 320GB
Optical : Optirac DVD burner
Card reader : Roxio
Graphics : Intel HD 128MB
Wireless : Intel Wifi and Foxconn bluetooth
Ethernet : Marvell
Audio : Realtek HD audio

Laptop pics :
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1290/17062010044.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9756/17062010043.jpg

Recovery utility provided which says it will create 4 DVD's in case of format. Yet to create it. So i guess i can restore the laptop to factory settings with them.

Bundle :
Charger with two types of plugs
WinXP SP3 PRO CD.

Thanks for all the help which resulted in this purchase. Love the laptop

-Sudhix

Congrats...recovery utility is also installed in a hidden partition of ur hdd and it occupies 14gb..u will get the same default stuff whenever u recover from tht...except the customization etc.

[emansiri01]

HP Pavilion DV6-2162NR 15.6-Inch Black Laptop--Up to 4.25 Hours of Battery Life



Sony VAIO VGN-NW310F/B 15.5-Inch Laptop



Dell D600 Laptop 1.6ghz 40gb DVD/CDRW B Grade Includes Genuine XP Professional restore cd!



Compare Prices and Read Consumer Reviews.

[hansaria]

hey @sudhix: how much did u buy your laptop for?
ans also i have to buy a laptop. my budget is 40-45k. and am getting the vaio VPCEA25F. the config is
Intel® Core™ i3-350M Processor 2.26GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5145 Graphics
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM *2
and am getting this for 45k. how is it?? please help me on this.. thanks!