Lenovo T430 or Sony S 15.5"
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Lenovo T430 or Sony S 15.5"I'm stuck between these two laptops. Does anyone have any experiences with either of these two laptops?
My main uses will be Programming, Listening to music, LITTLE/NO gaming (occasional Guild Wars 2), Watching HD movies, Surf the net, Word/etc usage. Nothing too heavy.
The sony dominates in specs, but it lacks in battery life(3-4hours surfing the net mid brightness). The Lenovo is built better & has 10+hours surfing the net, max brightness etc.
I'm going to study Computer Science at uni this September. How much battery life do I even need for lectures etc? Is 4 hours~ enough?
I'll be carrying this laptop around a lot as it's a 10-15 minute walk from my accommodation to the campus so the Sony being lighter helps.
The Sony weighs 2kg & .94"
The Thinkpad weighs 2.38kg & 1.17"
Specs of the laptops:
Sony S 15.5" - £1200
Processor: i7-3520M, 2.9GHz with Boost to 3.60 Ghz (4 MB Cache)
Hard drive: 640 GB Serial ATA (7200 rpm)
Memory: 12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Optical Drive: DVD disc drive
Display: 39.5cm LCD, 1920x1080+webcam
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE
Battery: 6 cell 49wh - 3-4~ hours
Backlight keyboard
Bluetooth® 4.0
Lenovo T430 14" - £1157
Processor: i5-3360M, 2.8GHz with boost to 3.5 Ghz (3M Cache)
Hard drive: 500 GB (7200 rpm)
Memory: 8 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (2 DIMM)
Optical Drive: DVD Recordable
Display: 14.0 HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000
Battery: 9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 70++ - 10+ hours
Backlight Keyboard
Bluetooth 4.0
Fingerprint Reader
720p HD Camera
Which one should I buy? -
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Re: Lenovo T430 or Sony S 15.5"The laptops you've picked is a serious overkill for your needs..........I do quite a lot of computer science modules, it doesn't need that much power at all.......nor does any of the other things you are planning on doing. Even the little gaming shouldn't require much.(Original post by ron20)
I'm stuck between these two laptops. Does anyone have any experiences with either of these two laptops?
My main uses will be Programming, Listening to music, LITTLE/NO gaming (occasional Guild Wars 2), Watching HD movies, Surf the net, Word/etc usage. Nothing too heavy.
The sony dominates in specs, but it lacks in battery life(3-4hours surfing the net mid brightness). The Lenovo is built better & has 10+hours surfing the net, max brightness etc.
I'm going to study Computer Science at uni this September. How much battery life do I even need for lectures etc? Is 4 hours~ enough?
I'll be carrying this laptop around a lot as it's a 10-15 minute walk from my accommodation to the campus so the Sony being lighter helps.
The Sony weighs 2kg & .94"
The Thinkpad weighs 2.38kg & 1.17"
Specs of the laptops:
Sony S 15.5" - £1200
Processor: i7-3520M, 2.9GHz with Boost to 3.60 Ghz (4 MB Cache)
Hard drive: 640 GB Serial ATA (7200 rpm)
Memory: 12 GB 1333 MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Optical Drive: DVD disc drive
Display: 39.5cm LCD, 1920x1080+webcam
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M LE
Battery: 6 cell 49wh - 3-4~ hours
Backlight keyboard
Bluetooth® 4.0
Lenovo T430 14" - £1157
Processor: i5-3360M, 2.8GHz with boost to 3.5 Ghz (3M Cache)
Hard drive: 500 GB (7200 rpm)
Memory: 8 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (2 DIMM)
Optical Drive: DVD Recordable
Display: 14.0 HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000
Battery: 9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 70++ - 10+ hours
Backlight Keyboard
Bluetooth 4.0
Fingerprint Reader
720p HD Camera
Which one should I buy?
Also 4 hours is more than enough to be honest, at most lectures will last 2 hours, of which it's mainly the lecturer showing how to do programming, or maths, etc in your other modules. You'll also have lab sessions where you should have a dedicated computer science building full of computers for use.
Both seem like too much power, you'll barely use 4gb or the full cores of the processor.....currently Lenovo are seen as the leading reliable maker currently, Sony is a step or so down. -
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Re: Lenovo T430 or Sony S 15.5"Yeah I know. I've been using the same old Pentium 4 PC for 8~ years now.. First computer/laptop I'm buying in that time. I agree with it being overkill..What specs/laptops would you reccomend?(Original post by Iqbal007)
The laptops you've picked is a serious overkill for your needs..........I do quite a lot of computer science modules, it doesn't need that much power at all.......nor does any of the other things you are planning on doing. Even the little gaming shouldn't require much.
Also 4 hours is more than enough to be honest, at most lectures will last 2 hours, of which it's mainly the lecturer showing how to do programming, or maths, etc in your other modules. You'll also have lab sessions where you should have a dedicated computer science building full of computers for use.
Both seem like too much power, you'll barely use 4gb or the full cores of the processor.....currently Lenovo are seen as the leading reliable maker currently, Sony is a step or so down. -
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Re: Lenovo T430 or Sony S 15.5"I had the same thing until 3 months ago, makes a huge difference.(Original post by ron20)
Yeah I know. I've been using the same old Pentium 4 PC for 8~ years now.. First computer/laptop I'm buying in that time. I agree with it being overkill..What specs/laptops would you reccomend?
Well to be fair most of your task is easily done with an i3 and 4gb of ram....just the on-line gaming bit, think you may need a basic dedicated graphics card.
I recall someone buying an i7 Asus in red for £530, only issue was the battery which was 3 and a half hours as I recall, size should be around 2.5kg. -
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Re: Lenovo T430 or Sony S 15.5"Both are certainly in the top bracket of windows laptops. But as Iqbal has said, the specs you've chosen are seriously overkill for your needs. All you need is an i5, 4GB RAM and integrated graphics. Here is a mini essay on both
Firstly, with the Sony S15 you can get the price down to £750. This is via the education store, using the base configuration and deselecting McAfee Security Essentials (-£23) and Adobe Creation (-£39). You don't need those last two programs - it's sneaky by Sony pre-selecting them for you. Regarding the battery, you can purchase a discreet "slice" battery which connects on the bottom of the laptop and gives you double the battery life.
Thinkpads are renown for excellent build quality and are the most reliable laptops around (macbooks inc
). If you want a laptop that will last through university, then a thinkpad should be your first port of call... if you have the money! The T430 is probably your best bet for portability whilst maintaining everyday usability. I would advise a spec on the lines of; an i5 3xxx, 4GB RAM, HD 4000 graphics and 320GB 5400RPM HDD. I would then buy and fit an SSD yourself since it's a lot cheaper - there are guides on Lenovo's website showing you how to do this. SSD's make your computer significantly faster in everyday tasks compared to traditional HDDs - you can boot up in <20s! The 6 cell will give you around 4-5hrs during moderate use whilst the 9 cell around 8-9 hrs. Note, the 9 cell sticks out at the back of the laptop and adds a little more weight.
If weight is an issue, then the T430s is an option although its around £100 more expensive. Essentially it's a T430 but slimmer and lot lighter.
Like I've said, both laptops are very good. The Sony has a far superior display. It uses IPS technology so you'll have superb viewing angles and it's also Full HD resolution. The T430's display is comparably quite poor. It's still better than budget £500 laptops, but I would expect a lot better than an average TN panel if paying £1000. Granted, the resolution is still pretty good.
Where the T430 excels is build quality. It's literally solid as a rock and will definitely last through the scuffs and scrapes of university. The Sony's lid is rather flexible. It's actually designed to be like that since it's so thin, thus making it more durable, but it doesn't fill you with confidence if you accidently dropped the laptop!
I would probably sway towards T430(s) if you don't mind an average display. For university, you need a solid laptop that will last you through 3-4 years. The thinkpad will certainly do that. Hope that helps!
Btw, Lenovo normally have sales quite often on their website. Worth waiting a week or two for the next one...
). If you want a laptop that will last through university, then a thinkpad should be your first port of call... if you have the money! The T430 is probably your best bet for portability whilst maintaining everyday usability. I would advise a spec on the lines of; an i5 3xxx, 4GB RAM, HD 4000 graphics and 320GB 5400RPM HDD. I would then buy and fit an SSD yourself since it's a lot cheaper - there are guides on Lenovo's website showing you how to do this. SSD's make your computer significantly faster in everyday tasks compared to traditional HDDs - you can boot up in <20s! The 6 cell will give you around 4-5hrs during moderate use whilst the 9 cell around 8-9 hrs. Note, the 9 cell sticks out at the back of the laptop and adds a little more weight. 
