Asus W3V vs. Sony Vaio S480?

[SyK]

I'm looking for a new laptop, and have basically managed to cut my shortlist down to these 2 options...

Asus W3V - 1.86GHz Sonoma, 512MB, 100GB, 14.1" WXGA ( More HDD, Better Video (?), Larger screen )

Sony Vaio S480 - 2.0GHz Sonoma, 512MB, 60GB, 13.3" WXGA ( Smaller, Faster CPU, Better quality screen (?) )

Has anybody had a similar problem or checked these out? Would really love somewhere to go take a look at them both before I buy in the city tomorrow, but really struggling to find anywhere, so any info and opinions would be very much appreciated. Really tough to decide without a hands-on when they're so close.

[beeker]

I went with the W3V myself. I was looking at that range from Sony though, but you gotta realise, the Asus is around $2800 and the Sony is around $3500 (RRP pricing)

That is a huge difference in price. Here's some other extras you need to consider if it is important to you or not

Asus= Gig LAN, 2 year global warranty, X600 (although it is only 64Mb), Logitech wireless mouse, bag, IR

Sony= SATA, 1 year warranty, nVidia 6200 (although it is 128Mb, double check this as it might be part of your system memory)

Screen wise, I think they are both about the same quality. I wished they continued with the S360 video chipset. Had the Sony kept the X600 and dropped the price by $600.00, I'd have gone the Sony

So for me, although I did like the smaller size of the Sony, it was not worth the extra cost, for less features.

Hope it helps

[SyK]

Originally Posted by beeker

I went with the W3V myself. I was looking at that range from Sony though, but you gotta realise, the Asus is around $2800 and the Sony is around $3500 (RRP pricing)

That is a huge difference in price. Here's some other extras you need to consider if it is important to you or not

Asus= Gig LAN, 2 year global warranty, X600 (although it is only 64Mb), Logitech wireless mouse, bag, IR

Sony= SATA, 1 year warranty, nVidia 6200 (although it is 128Mb, double check this as it might be part of your system memory)

Screen wise, I think they are both about the same quality. I wished they continued with the S360 video chipset. Had the Sony kept the X600 and dropped the price by $600.00, I'd have gone the Sony

So for me, although I did like the smaller size of the Sony, it was not worth the extra cost, for less features.

Hope it helps

I've given up, price wasn't too much of an issue but as you said, there's not a lot of difference, and 6200 vs X600 = same-same-but-different as far as I could find.
So it was really just down to screen and keyboard... and couldn't find anywhere to check them out. So I've just put in an order for the W3V, hopefully it's as good as it sounds, if not I'll just find a home for it and pick up a new 16:9 carbon TX Vaio in Japan at the end of the year.

Anybody got any handy tips about the W3V for when I pick it up and join the club?

[Tanus]

Where did you order your w3v from? I'm about to place an order myself

[SyK]

Originally Posted by Tanus

Where did you order your w3v from? I'm about to place an order myself

I just got it from a local computer place, as I'm financing it and the guy gave me a pretty good deal and organised all the finance and everything for me. Can give you the guy's number if you like and you're in Melbourne, he's very helpful, but if you want to buy online or you're paying cash, I usually recommend Nintek, as a lot of OCAU people seem to lately. And they seem to have it in stock and it's slightly cheaper with free delivery, so might be a good way to go.

[ Edit: Ahh. Perhaps not so cheap, now that I look at the actual model they had, but they might price-match if you ask nicely and their service is usually awesome. ]

[beeker]

Originally Posted by SyK

So I've just put in an order for the W3V, hopefully it's as good as it sounds, if not I'll just find a home for it and pick up a new 16:9 carbon TX Vaio in Japan at the end of the year.

Anybody got any handy tips about the W3V for when I pick it up and join the club?

Best of luck and hope it will be as good to you as mine has to me. Well, if you had that choice, I don't know why you were looking at the W3V and the S48. There are so many nicer notebooks available overseas compared to here...

Battery calibration is a good thing to get done. Check the ASUS forums. They are also a good source of information

[SyK]

Originally Posted by beeker

Best of luck and hope it will be as good to you as mine has to me. Well, if you had that choice, I don't know why you were looking at the W3V and the S48. There are so many nicer notebooks available overseas compared to here...
Battery calibration is a good thing to get done. Check the ASUS forums. They are also a good source of information

I know! So annoying, but unfortunately can't get over there 'till the end of the year, and need this fairly desperately for the next 3 weeks or so, so I was stuck.

In any case, went and picked it up over the weekend, and it's awesome so far!

A few niggly little things, but getting settled in very nicely, might chuck up some more info about first sort of experiences with it after I've been using it properly for work during the week, since a lot of people seem to be interested in this model.

[Pazu]

Originally Posted by beeker

Sony= SATA, 1 year warranty, nVidia 6200 (although it is 128Mb, double check this as it might be part of your system memory)

The 6200 on the Sony is TurboCache (TC), which means it is part of the system memory. The Asus is a much better value for money.

[beeker]

Originally Posted by Pazu

The 6200 on the Sony is TurboCache (TC), which means it is part of the system memory. The Asus is a much better value for money.

Just as an aside, does anyone know how much faster or slower the 6200 is compared to the x600?

Syk, let us know what niggles you have after the week, I'm sure some of us would have come across them. Think I've listed my rant somewhere here already, but overall, I'm very happy with mine

[SyK]

Originally Posted by beeker

Just as an aside, does anyone know how much faster or slower the 6200 is compared to the x600?

Syk, let us know what niggles you have after the week, I'm sure some of us would have come across them. Think I've listed my rant somewhere here already, but overall, I'm very happy with mine

Just a quick note to say I haven't forgotten about this, not that there's not a glut of reviews of them already around, but figured I should at least put some sort of comments up, unfortunately I've been rather flat-out... but on the other hand, that means I've been using the thing pretty much non-stop for the last couple of weeks, and am pretty comfortable with it!

But ya, niggles - slash - minor "if-I-have-to-bitch" comments for now though?

- The "shortcut keys"... are shit. Basically. I mean they're all "software", so while the little logo that pops up is very pretty, I'd imagine they're very much XP-only, work with bugger-all programs, feel cheap, and...

- No 'hardware' volume control!!!
This is almost my biggest issue... I hate when they do this so it gets its own comment, what could it cost to put a volume dial on the side? And yet it's only got the same 'software' keys, and a handy habit of forgetting where it's set/if it's muted, leading to annoying startup noises in all sorts of places you want quiet unless you sit there holding the volume-down key for the whole boot. Small, ya, but annoying.

- The whole "hibernate" thing. I'd imagine it's more an XP problem, or drivers I haven't updated yet or something, but it just doesn't work. End up deleting the file and needing a clean boot every time.

In all seriousness though, I guess that's just a good pointer to how awesome the machine really is! Only little issues like that, I guess it depends on which way you look at it, either tragic that it's so close to perfection but not there, or awesome that it's only got tiny little niggles and is so nice to use. Personally I'm leaning toward awesome.

Will get some more... constructive? Notes down when I have a bit more time.

Seriously though, any of you guys found an easy way to use the 'multimedia' keys with say winamp and make it hibernate properly? Such tiddly things yet they'd make me a very happy camper indeed at this point.

[beeker]

Originally Posted by SyK

- The whole "hibernate" thing. I'd imagine it's more an XP problem, or drivers I haven't updated yet or something, but it just doesn't work. End up deleting the file and needing a clean boot every time.

Seriously though, any of you guys found an easy way to use the 'multimedia' keys with say winamp and make it hibernate properly? Such tiddly things yet they'd make me a very happy camper indeed at this point.

The hibernate one should be easy to fix. A lot of people have experienced this, and it is more than just Asus notebooks. If you go into the properties of the Ethernet adaptor and uncheck the "Allow computer to turn off device..." or something like that, hibernate will work. If you updated the driver from the Mircosoft Update site, it automatically turns it on, and stuffs up the hibernate or sleep function.

As for the multimedia keys, you can try the hcontrol software. It apparently works for itunes or winamp, but I have not tried it as yet.

http://power4gear.bk-kicks.com/hcontrol.htm is the link

(Note: for some reason, it would not allow me to download using Firefox. Had to use IE)

Hope this helps

[SyK]

Originally Posted by beeker

...

Hope this helps

Sweet! Certainly does, thanks heaps!

Probably should've googled a bit more before I started bitching, hey?
Has certainly fixed those, though. I'm going to fiddle with the hControl thing a bit more, but it works for now and hibernate = it's probably never getting turned off again. Such a small but handy thing to have.

[beeker]

No worries, glad it helped.

Has anyone seen or heard of the Sony S4XP? I heard some mutterings about it having a 6400 instead of a 6200. I'm sure the price will be high...