sony vaio z1wa or dell 600m?

[icewraith]

i'm looking into buying either the sony vaio z1wa or the dell 600m. anyone have any good/bad experiences with either of those two laptops (or suggestions on similarly equipped laptops)?

i am planning on using it for college in conjunction with a desktop. all my heavy video and picture editing and graphics will be done on my desktop, so i'm not too worried about having too good of a graphics card on my laptop or the firewire port that the dell lacks. however, i do wish to be able to watch DVDs and other digital video on there, and not have it be choppy or anything.

also, i was wondering if anyone knows whether or not the sony vaio's bluetooth works with non-sony products. i read on a forum somewhere that the sony's bluetooth works perfectly with sony clie, but has major problems with non-sony products, such as the ipaq pocket pc that i have.

any input would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

[techfreak]

Did you read the Sony Z1AP review here on Designtechnica? Its basically the same laptop minus the Bluetooth. I think the Z1WA would be a killer choice.

BTW does it have gigabit ethernet in it?

[icewraith]

i did read the review for the z1ap, which is one of the reasons why i am kind of leaning towards the z1wa. however, i am concerned with two main things, the bluetooth compatibility and the graphics card. for bluetooth i just want to be able to sync with my PDA (i have a pocketPC, not a sony clie, so sony does guarantee compatibility). for graphics, i am wondering if the 16MB ati mobility radeon card (on the z1wa) is good enough for watching movies and doing digital photo slideshows (and maybe some light games). the dell 600m has a choice between 32MB and 64MB graphics cards, but i dont plan on playing games much on the laptop so if 16MB is enough then i'm fine with going with that.

as for gigabit ethernet, i dont really know what that is but the dell 600m does say "10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN: RJ-45 connector" for its ethernet connection, and the vaio z1wa says "RJ-45 Ethernet"

[M Ignacio]

Have you looked into the Gateway 200xl? I advise you to check it out.

[techfreak]

Originally posted by icewraith
as for gigabit ethernet, i dont really know what that is but the dell 600m does say "10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN: RJ-45 connector" for its ethernet connection, and the vaio z1wa says "RJ-45 Ethernet"

That means the Dell has Gigabit ethernet, the 1000 is what you want in that figure.

[Ioman]

Originally posted by M Ignacio
Have you looked into the Gateway 200xl? I advise you to check it out.

This is what I currently have and its the best laptop I have ever owned, I recommend you check out the review here on Designtechnica. I would say the Gateway 200XL is first and the Sony a close second.

[icewraith]

thanks for the suggestion. that laptop looks really nice. do any of you know how good the "Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics 2" is? (in comparison to ati mobility radeon either 16MB or 64MB)

also, how is the battery life on the gateway 200?

[Ioman]

Originally posted by icewraith
thanks for the suggestion. that laptop looks really nice. do any of you know how good the "Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics 2" is? (in comparison to ati mobility radeon either 16MB or 64MB)

also, how is the battery life on the gateway 200?

Well the 64MB card would be better and if you get the 200XL you NEED to get the extended battery pack. Check out the benchmarks (performance tab) of the 200XL review to see how it does.

[icewraith]

is the integrated intel graphics card better or worse than the sony z1's 16mb ati mobility radeon card? i dont really plan on playing games much on the laptop, but i do want to be able to watch DVDs and do digital photo viewing without the laptop slowing down a lot or something.

as for the battery power on the gateway, approx how much can battery life can you get out of it, with and without the extended battery? and does the extended battery add considerable weight or take up a lot space or anything?

[Ioman]

Originally posted by icewraith
is the integrated intel graphics card better or worse than the sony z1's 16mb ati mobility radeon card? i dont really plan on playing games much on the laptop, but i do want to be able to watch DVDs and do digital photo viewing without the laptop slowing down a lot or something.

as for the battery power on the gateway, approx how much can battery life can you get out of it, with and without the extended battery? and does the extended battery add considerable weight or take up a lot space or anything?

They are about the same, check out the benchmarks here: http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review488_perf2440.html

The extra battery pack is not that much heavier.

[ScottW3]

I have a Dell 600m and am pretty pleased with it. I got the 64 MB graphics card and have no problem with games or movies (but that was probably obvious). I use it in college as a secondary machine. The price is what hooked me in the end. Also, I really like the integrated smart card reader. I use the otanium suite software and the reader for security (Just feels cool to pull a smart card out of the slot and have your laptop automatically lock down). Hope I've been of help.

[icewraith]

hey scottw3,

are there any small quirks that you've experienced with your 600m? such as problems with the touchpad, heat bulidup, build quality, or anything that you might have found a little annoying at first but were able to just get used to it eventually. and how's the battery life?

[ScottW3]

icewraith, heat buildup is certainly not a problem. My last laptop was a vprmatrix, and compared to that, this is like ice. I originally got the system with a 5400 rpm drive because dell said they didn't make a faster one for this system. But i spoke with tech support and maybe embellished the truth a bit once i got the system and they sent me out a new hard drive (7200 rpm!). Anyway, after it was installed, i did notice the heat buildup a litter greater after the system was on for a while (>1 hr), but its nothing that is even annoying, just slightly warm. One big problem I had that I think is just limited to my specific system is that the keyboard was installed misproperly and the part just above the touchpad would rub against the screen when it was closed. So I would have a line accross the middle of my screen that wouldn't come off. Dell replaced the LCD screen three times because once i got it back it would happen again. They finally listened to me when i said something wasn't seated properly and was rubbing. So they replaced the keyboard and i havn't had the problem since. That actually brings up something else. Their tech support isn't the best. I've seen worse, but the first time i sent it in the tech told me the lcd would be replaced. I got it back with a note from the repair place saying i shouldn't press down on the lid and that he just cleaned the screen (which didn't do anything). I had a little chat with them, and they fixed it the next time. Battery life is decent for a Pentium M and good for a pentium 4. I get about 3.5 hours. Thats a rough estimate because i usually keep it plugged in and never let the battery run completly down. If you have any other questions, let me know. I'd be more than happy to answer them.

[icewraith]

scottw3, thanks for your input.

does anyone out there actually own a sony z1 and can give me some input like scottw3 did?

also, if i had a choice between buying the laptop online versus buying it at a retailer (frys probably), which would be a better choice? (assuming no price difference)