Best <1500$ 15.6-incher out there?

[Raswan]

In order of importance:

1) Screen quality
2) weight/thinness/styling

To be used for at least 3 years of word processing, websurfing, nothing remotely cpu- or gpu-intensive. He wants something that is lightweight, looks good, and with an excellent screen. Ideas?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The Samsung Series 9 15" and the Vizio 15" ultrabook are the two bet options. Both have very good displays but the Vizio is 1080p while the Samsung is only 1600x900. The Vizio is also cheaper.

 

[DarthRevan]

I'm on the same boat here, looking for a laptop.
The best I could find is HP's DV6T (or 7T if you want a 17"), they are quite customizable, and you can add 1920x1080 screen on both, and with $1500 you can add a gt650m, which seems to be a really nice card.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/hom...gh+Performance

 

[ther00kie16]

Sony S series hands down.
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...=S_SB_SERIES_PAGE#/s15specificationTabContent

4.4lb (lighter than many 14"), gorgeous screen, optical drive.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/deepsearch_v3.asp?scriteria=sony+15.5+640m&FilterCatID=

$1259 with i7 quad and a blu-ray drive is quite a deal.
Dell's XPS 15z (no ivy bridge refresh yet) is about the same price but 1.1lb heavier, no quad, slower gpu, no blu ray.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Here is the link to the Vizio I mentioned earlier

Vizio 15"

http://store.vizio.com/ct15a2.html#techspecs

15.6" 1920x1080 IPS LED display
Anodized aluminum unibody chassis
Core i7 3517u
4gb DDR3
256gb SSD
Zero bloatware
5.5 hours of battery life
3.96lbs
0.68" thick

 

[Raswan]

The Samsung Series 9 15" and the Vizio 15" ultrabook are the two bet options. Both have very good displays but the Vizio is 1080p while the Samsung is only 1600x900. The Vizio is also cheaper.

I'm a fan of the Samsungs, but frankly at 1399$ I'm going to want either a 1080p screen OR something larger than the 128 in there OR a quad-core cpu. I don't need all of them, but one would convince me they spent as much time thinking about performance as styling. As of right now, the 15.6 would have too many compromises.

As for the Vizio, I can respect that they've made huge gains in the LCD business, but I don't trust them yet. Whereas that samsung would include mostly in-house components, too many times I've seen Vizios that put out cheap stuff that burns someone.

So it doesn't appear that I just hate everything, anyone have an Acer or Asus or HP or Dell to recommend?

 

[Raswan]

Sony S series hands down.
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/st...=S_SB_SERIES_PAGE#/s15specificationTabContent

4.4lb (lighter than many 14"), gorgeous screen, optical drive.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/deepsearc...m&amp;FilterCatID=

$1259 with i7 quad and a blu-ray drive is quite a deal.
Dell's XPS 15z (no ivy bridge refresh yet) is about the same price but 1.1lb heavier, no quad, slower gpu, no blu ray.

This is the kind of price/performance I'm looking for, and it looks like a quality machine. But Sony sucks balls, and since they are a multi-billion dollar corporation and the only way I can speak to them is with my money, I'll look for this machine by a different manufacturer. Thanks for the link, though, because that will be my benchmark as I continue to look.

 

[Xecuter]

This is the kind of price/performance I'm looking for, and it looks like a quality machine. But Sony sucks balls, and since they are a multi-billion dollar corporation and the only way I can speak to them is with my money, I'll look for this machine by a different manufacturer. Thanks for the link, though, because that will be my benchmark as I continue to look.

Not sure if I agree with you on this one - I've had nothing but great experiences with Sony laptops. Any company you buy from is going to be a big, big company - you should be looking for the product, not focusing on (my words) "how big and evil" a company might be.

The only reason I wouldn't buy Sony is you are paying more money than you otherwise might spend on other manufacturers for similar specs; but what you get by buying a Sony is a really nice computer.

/2cents

 

[Raswan]

Not sure if I agree with you on this one - I've had nothing but great experiences with Sony laptops. Any company you buy from is going to be a big, big company - you should be looking for the product, not focusing on (my words) "how big and evil" a company might be.

The only reason I wouldn't buy Sony is you are paying more money than you otherwise might spend on other manufacturers for similar specs; but what you get by buying a Sony is a really nice computer.

/2cents

I'm sure the build quality is fine. I'm saying (all the while realizing it sounds completely irrelevant to someone who doesn't care about the company from which they buy or thinks Sony is vanilla) that I don't like the way Sony operates, and if I can find similar performance somewhere else for the same price, I'll go that route.

Also, in customizing that rig anyway, they don't let you add an ssd without first adding a quad-core cpu (wtf?), but to add that you need to add the 2GB video card (wtfff?) That jacks the price up by about 400$, all of it completely unnecessary. Looking for something with a 256GB ssd (I'll settle for 128 if I have to) and a 1080p display, without paying extra for discrete graphics that will never get used. If it comes with a dual-core 1-5xxxx, or a quad-core i-7xxx, I'll decide if it's worth extra. It seems, though, that they (not just Sony, but most places I've been looking at) assume anyone who wants decent hard drive performance must also want an overclocked i-7 and a 2GB video card.

 

[Phynaz]

Check out the Dell XPS 15z, with the display upgrade.

 

[Raswan]

Check out the Dell XPS 15z, with the display upgrade.

Thanks for the hint. I had messed with Dell a little, but hadn't seen this one yet:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dncww12&model_id=xps-15z&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19

I'm assuming that's the one you are talking about? 1599$ is a little higher than I wanted, but it should be fine. Best place to get it just Dell's website, or is there another place I can get it cheaper?

 

[Raswan]

Shit, why don't I just get something like this, then:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...goryID.44066900/categoryID.58842400/list.true

For 999$ instead of 1599$, swap the HDD out for an ssd, sell the hdd for 50$ or whatever, sell the free xbox for whatever I can get, and essentially reducing the price of the ssd to ~100$, give or take?

 

[ther00kie16]

It's SB as opposed to IB, no quad core, no blu ray, display isn't IPS. >1lb heavier than the Sony.

You'll be sorely disappointed if you really compare anything else to the Sony.
For one, you won't find something as light with the power (quad core) & optical.
No other comparable laptop has an IPS screen.

If you can add a SSD to the Dell, why can't you add your own to the Sony?

 

[Phynaz]

Shit, why don't I just get something like this, then:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...goryID.44066900/categoryID.58842400/list.true

For 999$ instead of 1599$, swap the HDD out for an ssd, sell the hdd for 50$ or whatever, sell the free xbox for whatever I can get, and essentially reducing the price of the ssd to ~100$, give or take?

Well, you don't get the 1080P display, which is really a gorgeous display.

Take a look at the education store to see what Dell wants for the build. Also, check the price daily for a week or two, Dell plays all kinds of pricing games.

One look at Techbargains came up with a $100 off code - 932N$0ZCCHWZB9. Combine that with student discount, and then call then and talk to a person to place the order and negotiate another $50 and free shipping.

 

[Phynaz]

It's SB as opposed to IB, no quad core, no blu ray, display isn't IPS. >1lb heavier than the Sony.

You'll be sorely disappointed if you really compare anything else to the Sony.
For one, you won't find something as light with the power (quad core) & optical.
No other comparable laptop has an IPS screen.

If you can add a SSD to the Dell, why can't you add your own to the Sony?

He said he doesn't want a Sony.

And don't get hung up on the IPS display. While I don't know if the 15z is IPS, it a great display. Just look at the reviews on it. I just did a quick comparison on Anandtech bench, and the 15z display beats every Sony display in their database. And I don't even know it it's the upgraded display they were comparing.

Here's a review on the 15z upgraded display
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6249&review=dell+xps+15z

Actually now that I look, they have new XPS 15 out too. Looks like it comes with the upgraded display by default. I guess it depends on if he wants the thinness of the z.

 

[uclabachelor]

I'm a fan of the Samsungs, but frankly at 1399$ I'm going to want either a 1080p screen OR something larger than the 128 in there OR a quad-core cpu. I don't need all of them, but one would convince me they spent as much time thinking about performance as styling. As of right now, the 15.6 would have too many compromises.

As for the Vizio, I can respect that they've made huge gains in the LCD business, but I don't trust them yet. Whereas that samsung would include mostly in-house components, too many times I've seen Vizios that put out cheap stuff that burns someone.

So it doesn't appear that I just hate everything, anyone have an Acer or Asus or HP or Dell to recommend?

I have personally demo'd both at a Microsoft store and here are my impressions.

The Samsung 15" screen viewing angle is bad - almost as bad as TN panel bad. I don't understand why their 13" screen is an IPS panel while their 15" screen is a POS panel. The keyboard and trackpad is perfect however.

The Vizio is an IPS panel and while the 15" wasn't available for demo at the time, the 14" screen was beautiful, as good as or better than the Samsung 13". The 15" is also IPS but in full HD.

The aesthetics and build on the Vizio is terrible though. All of the 14" Vizio demo models had trackpad build issues. The mouse buttons were deformed to the point where the gap around the trackpad was very obvious. Battery life isn't TOO spectacular either, rated at 5.5 hours.

So there you have it. You'll be trading off screen quality for a better screen, less battery life, cheaper build quality, and better pricing.

 

[ther00kie16]

He said he doesn't want a Sony.

And don't get hung up on the IPS display. While I don't know if the 15z is IPS, it a great display. Just look at the reviews on it. I just did a quick comparison on Anandtech bench, and the 15z display beats every Sony display in their database. And I don't even know it it's the upgraded display they were comparing.

Here's a review on the 15z upgraded display
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6249&review=dell+xps+15z

Actually now that I look, they have new XPS 15 out too. Looks like it comes with the upgraded display by default. I guess it depends on if he wants the thinness of the z.

15z isn't IPS. I don't know where you saw it's better than Sony as Anandtech was remarking how all other displays should be like Sony's (although it was the z2 but se was very good too).

And any company is a big, big company with horror stories of customer service. Sony is actually better than most and makes innovative products, unlike companies like Dell.

 

[nikola1970]

check this:

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15-l521x/pd?oc=n00x1519&model_id=xps-15-l521x&ref=tnt1422_name

 

[Raswan]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Decided I didn't want to mess with buying the ssd separate (the build is for a friend, and while it would save a little, he's got money and I don't want to fuck with it). He also doesn't care about the xbox, which makes my life easier. I liked the XPS 15z a lot, but it was running closer to 2k than I wanted with the configuration. Thanks for the impressions bachelor. I've never gotten hands-on time with either the samsung or the vizio, so it's nice to know. I'm just not going for the Sony. If they offered it for 500$, I wouldn't get it. End of story.

As of right now, my best bet is a dv6tqe from HP.

Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor 3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM Processor (2.3 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache)
Graphics card NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB GDDR3 memory [HDMI, VGA]
Memory 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Office software Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
Hard drive 160GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module)
Hard Drive Acceleration Cache NO mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache
Security software No additional security software
Primary battery 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - Up to 6.0 hours of battery life +++
Display 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
Primary optical drive FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
Personalization HP TrueVision HD Webcam
Networking 802.11b/g/n WLAN
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard

1225$ out the door, 1080p LED display, quad-core i7-3610QM, 8GB RAM (1333), 160GB SSD (going to pair with 1.5TB external), and a discrete GPU that I'm assuming they add in because of the display, which is nice but not completely necessary. Best value I've been able to find, without compromising a bunch or spending way more than I want. Final thoughts before I hit the order button? Anyone know where they source the SSD from? Is it likely to be a samsung? OCZ? Intel?

 

[Phynaz]

The SSD in my HP Elitebook is an Intel.

That said, the HP display is terrible. Is a great display still the number one priority for you?

 

[Raswan]

The SSD in my HP Elitebook is an Intel.

That said, the HP display is terrible. Is a great display still the number one priority for you?

Yeah, ended up going with the Lenovo Y580. The FHD screen got pretty decent reviews, and it was at a price point (1100$ after a military discount) that he felt the best about.

Given that it was between a Dell Inspiron and the Lenovo, I had absolutely no qualms about pushing him toward the Lenovo.