Sony Vaio E-Series or Dell Studio 17?

I've customized both of these to similar specs, and the Dell comes out at £100 more than the Vaio. I'm leaning towards the Vaio at the moment, because of the price and I think I prefer the looks. I just wanted to make sure what people thought before I take out the wallet.

Here is the Dell:



And the Vaio:



The laptop won't be a replacement for the desktop, just a way to work away from my room, with some light gaming. I'm not sure on how the battery life or weight compares between them, but those are quite important factors as well. Thanks for any advice!

EDIT: Just remembered that with Quidco, I can get 15% off the Dell, which takes it below the Vaio in price.

The dell seems to be offering more, DVD RW, bigger hd, not sure if the vaio has as it isn't stated but the dell has a webcam too, even the ram has .1mhz more advantage
from personal and other people's experiences, vaio is a good brand (obviously it's a sony!) but customer service ain't all that up to scratch. i'm not sure about dell though as never had one but the dell seems like your best bet imho. also, to confuse u further if I can check out the samsung r580!

It doesn't say on the screen capture, but the DVD is a DVD-RW, and it does have a webcame (though a pathetic 0.3 megapixels). HDD space doesn't bother me because it's not replacing my desktop, I won't be storing anything on it.

The Samsung looks nice, but the resolution is a lot smaller than the other two (1366x768 compared to 1920x1080), which is a shame.

I recommend the dell. The Dell has a superb 1080p screen, the backlit keyboard is superb and the 1GB ATI 5650 is no slouch. It’ll do more then light gaming, and the Dell has a much larger HDD.

I have pretty much the same Studio 17 as you’ve spec’d. I have a blu ray drive and a i5 540M processor however even dirt 2 played at 1920 x 1080 at averages of 32fps… That’s will high details and 2 x MSAA, heck even Batman Arkham played at an average of 35fps using benchmarks at 1600 x 900 with 2 x AA.

I know the Sony is a good brand, but I don’t think you’ll be getting as much with the Sony.

Search around on here, me and some other posted about the Dell Studio 17 as I’ve only just recently purchased mine. Fantastic laptop with excellent performance for such a mid range system…

Oh battery life using the none upgraded battery in mine is good if you turn off features.

Backlit keyboard, full display brightness and playing games using battery will see it drain quickly.

However for internet usage using the battery it'll last up to 2 and half hours. Me, I can't get mine to last more then an hour as I'm greedy and use the features... Nah, I've got a power socket.. lol

The Dell is heavy BTW, but its going to be, its got a lot of kit and a large screen. Its not too bad but consider that a 17.3" screen is going to increase the size and the weight of the machine..

iv-tecman said:

I recommend the dell. The Dell has a superb 1080p screen, the backlit keyboard is superb and the 1GB ATI 5650 is no slouch. It’ll do more then light gaming, and the Dell has a much larger HDD.

I have pretty much the same Studio 17 as you’ve spec’d. I have a blu ray drive and a i5 540M processor however even dirt 2 played at 1920 x 1080 at averages of 32fps… That’s will high details and 2 x MSAA, heck even Batman Arkham played at an average of 35fps using benchmarks at 1600 x 900 with 2 x AA.

I know the Sony is a good brand, but I don’t think you’ll be getting as much with the Sony.

Search around on here, me and some other posted about the Dell Studio 17 as I’ve only just recently purchased mine. Fantastic laptop with excellent performance for such a mid range system…

Click to expand...

The Sony has almost exactly the same specs though, so it should perform the same. I've heard from friends that Dell isn't the most reliable brand, i've generally heard better things about Sony so I'm going with the Vaio .Thanks for the input anyway.

I had a Sony Vaio why back in the Pentium 2 days.... Was a solid built laptop with shocking performance and bloated Windows 95 installation....

I ripped the O/S off and installed without all the rubbish sony threw on it... Sony didn't provide a standard Win 95 installation CD so I had to find one..

But, it was well built and lasted a while..

I swapped it for a Dell D600, the Dell was way better IMO at the time.. It was less bloated ran really well and lasted for 7 - 8 years. Sadly it died a few months back reason I ended up with another laptop recently..

I got the Dell Studio 17 after looking at quite a few, the Dell with Discounts was comparable price as others..

I'd heard the Dell had a few issues with fan noise levels but to be honest mine has been fine.... The O/S wasn't too bloated but I still re-installed using a supplied Win 7 install CD, and so far its been pretty good.

the performance is blistering... Best performance I've ever had from a laptop.. Normally laptops for me never get anywhere near my desktop, but this Dell studio 17 has get very close, in fact I'm using my laptop more then ever...

time will tell if its reliable. But Sony is a good brand, have fun with your purchase.

I just ordered a similar spec from PC specialists after much reading here and a suggestion to look there. Hasn't arived yet. For the price cos its not a big hitter brand the spec is a little better and there is more choice of options. I don't know much about reliability and service but service so far has been good, thats the risk I guess. Also the screen is a 16.4 which was good cos I just couldn't decide between the heavy 17 better for gaming or the 15. In the range I found generally the spec was favourable to the other brands for the price, just a thought.