Notebook Advice

K1LLSW1TCH · 3 Sep 2011 at 11:59

Hey, within the next couple of months I'll be buying a new laptop to replace my 2007 MacBook which has been abused on a daily basis. There's a few reasons for the upgrade, firstly I'd like to have something a little beefier than my current laptop, secondly this thing is starting to fall apart and thirdly I just want a new toy to play with!

I'm open to any manufacturer though I am leaning more towards Sony, specifically the S series and the C series. Mainly I'll be using it for browsing, music and word processing but I wouldn't mind being able to play a few games on it too, nothing like Crysis, just the latest Call of Duty game, Fallout 3/New Vegas and a little bit of Football Manager. My budget is going to be around £750-£800 and very high up my list of priorities is build quality, styling is also quite high on my list which is totally subjective but I've had a look on Dell's website and the XPS line in particular look very cheap and nasty in my opinion. which has put me off them though I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

I understand I'll get more bang for my buck if I decide to not go down the premium brand route, though build quality is a must, it has to feel good, be well built and look good. Screen size isn't hugely important for me, I'm quite happy with a 13 inch screen so hopefully that will broaden my choice given my budget, also hard drive space isn't a deal breaker either. I'm quite a neat freak so my devices are normally kept quite empty, plus I don't have a huge catalogue of music and I watch all of my movies on my PS3/Blu-Ray Player. So far I've been looking at the two following:

Sony Vaio C Series 14" (VPCCA2C5EX)

Intel® CoreTM i5-2410M 2.30GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
35.5 cm LCD, 1600x900 + webcam
AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6630M 1GB
320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
4 GB 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM

£779.00 inc. VAT

Sony Vaio S Series 13.3" (VPCSB2C5E)

Intel® CoreTM i5-2410M 2.30GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
33.7 cm LCD, 1366x768 + webcam
AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6470M 512MB
320 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
6 GB 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM

£778.99 inc. VAT

It seems to me that the C Series has a better screen and a better graphics card, but less RAM, but I do prefer the styling of the S Series. I'm not that clued up when it comes to notebooks and I wouldn't know where to start looking really so I wouldn't mind a little help in making my decision. I won't be buying for a couple of months but I don't imagine much will change in terms of choices between now and then. Basically it has to look nice, feel well made and fit my needs, any ideas?

will13 · 3 Sep 2011 at 14:43

Dunno if its exacly helpful but my XPS L501x felt and looked realy well made, what makes you think there nasty looking??

K1LLSW1TCH · 3 Sep 2011 at 15:01

will13 said:
Dunno if its exacly helpful but my XPS L501x felt and looked realy well made, what makes you think there nasty looking??

They just look like they're made from really low quality plastic, they look pretty chunky too! I'm only going off the pictures on the website though.

will13 · 3 Sep 2011 at 17:02

Mine was mostly made from metal (well aluminum), even the keyboard felt metal

K1LLSW1TCH · 4 Sep 2011 at 13:28

will13 said:
Mine was mostly made from metal (well aluminum), even the keyboard felt metal

Looking at the XPS on the Dell site it's hard for me to tell whether it's mainly made of aluminium or plastic which is made to look like aluminium. If it's the latter then that's a really big no-no for me as personally I find aluminium-look plastic to be quite tacky. The hinges also look ridiculously oversized and that's not really something I like, I know I'm quite picky.

will13 · 4 Sep 2011 at 14:28

K1LLSW1TCH said:
Looking at the XPS on the Dell site it's hard for me to tell whether it's mainly made of aluminium or plastic which is made to look like aluminium. If it's the latter then that's a really big no-no for me as personally I find aluminium-look plastic to be quite tacky. The hinges also look ridiculously oversized and that's not really something I like, I know I'm quite picky.

Lol the hinges were 1 of the things I didn't like about mine, didn't look very solid too me

K1LLSW1TCH · 4 Sep 2011 at 14:51

will13 said:
Lol the hinges were 1 of the things I didn't like about mine, didn't look very solid too me

Are they quite solid or are they flimsy/creaky? I'm more than likely going to get the C series Vaio now, just trying to figure out if the HD6630M will be any good at playing games.

will13 · 4 Sep 2011 at 14:59

K1LLSW1TCH said:
Are they quite solid or are they flimsy/creaky? I'm more than likely going to get the C series Vaio now, just trying to figure out if the HD6630M will be any good at playing games.

It seemed solid enough for few month i had mine, only thing i found annoying was using it in bed, the GT435 chucked out a lot of heat

, also just search for benchmarks on that ATi

K1LLSW1TCH · 4 Sep 2011 at 15:33

will13 said:
It seemed solid enough for few month i had mine, only thing i found annoying was using it in bed, the GT435 chucked out a lot of heat , also just search for benchmarks on that ATi

I might check out the Dell outlet, I hear you can send them back if you're not happy with the quality so there's nothing to lose.

deusexlumina · 4 Sep 2011 at 21:08

Personally i'd go for the C series. Better screen +better gfx for the same money.

K1LLSW1TCH · 5 Sep 2011 at 10:31

I fancy boys said:
Personally i'd go for the C series. Better screen +better gfx for the same money.

That's the one I'm leaning more towards now, plus I like the colour choices, especially the green and the orange. I've been weighing up a Dell, but after looking at them for the past few days if I'm spending £700-£800 I don't want something which I think looks cheap and nasty, and that's what I think of the Dell's that I've seen.