New Laptop

[slick1o1]

I am in the market for a new laptop.

I was considering the two new refurbs that showed up at my local Bestbuy.

The Sony S series 13P or the Sony Vaio E 14P

The main difference is that the S series has the Nvidia graphics, the E series has just the intel 4000.

I am on the move quite often so portability matters somewhat. I plan on using it for a lot of excel spreadsheets, movies(HD), and DJ-ing. and of course the internet browsing,etc.

The price difference is about ~40 dollars between these two, or roughly $120 for a core i3 E series.


Do you think I should spend the extra 40bucks for the S series? Or even go lower for a core i3?

Thanks

 

[Kueller]

I've got the S 15 and like it quite a bit, aside from the whole "running windows 8" part. One minor thing you should check out in person (since you mention movies and DJing) is the speaker quality/volume. The speakers on my S 15 do not get very loud, and they do not in any way make up for the lack of volume with superior quality.

The S 13P seems better built than the E series with its magnesium chassis/carbon fiber lid. The E 14P is also over 40% heavier than the base S 13P. Combined with the fact the S series support external sheet batteries (double your battery life), I think the S 13P is definitely the better choice for someone on the move. I purchased a sheet battery for my S 15, and now most of the time I don't bother taking my power brick with me when I leave the house. I can easily get 8hrs of legitimate mixed computing, maybe 10hrs if I keep the brightness down.

 

[slick1o1]

How much bigger is the S15 than the 13P?

Do you think a core i3 would handle what I want to do? Or should I go i5?

And will the 1600x900 make a difference in resolution for HD movies vs the 1368x768 resolution?

 

[Kueller]

How much bigger is the S15 than the 13P?

Do you think a core i3 would handle what I want to do? Or should I go i5?

And will the 1600x900 make a difference in resolution for HD movies vs the 1368x768 resolution?

The S15 is not what I would call compact, though it is fairly light. It's a 15.5" screen with a fair amount of bezel.
S 15: 14.97" x 10.06" x 0.94" 4.4lbs
E 14: 13.55" x 9.6" x 1.0"-1.39" 5.3lbs
S 13P: 13.04" x 8.85" x 0.94" 3.7lbs

i3 should plenty of power.

1600x900 won't matter much for movies tbh, but it will allow you to see a good deal more information on your spreadsheets.

What might matter for movies is the fact that the S15 comes with an IPS display (1920x1080) standard. IPS provides better colors and much better viewing angles than your usual TN panels in the 13P/14P.

Edit: Have you considered the T430s? Can be found for $799 at the Lenovo B&N store (register and login to see lower pricing). 14", 1600x900, 4lbs, 13.50" x 9.05" x 0.83" - 1.02"
It fills the gap between the S13 and S15 better than the E series.