Acer Aspire 5672WLMi vs. Sony VAIO FE550G

[blkmagic]

Hi All,

First of all, let me just say that the posts here are very informative. Definitely a good bunch of people here!

After much research, I have narrowed my choice of laptop between the Sony VAIO FE550G Notebook and Aspire 5672WLMi Notebook. I plan to make the purchase at COMPUSA, so please keep their configuration in mind when replying.

I'm not really asking for feature comparison between the 2 laptops. As Acer obviously have the upper hand with Bluetooth, 2GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and the ATI x1400. And I plan to do a fresh install of XP Pro so the difference in OS & Blogware is negligible. Gaming performance is not a deciding factor, nor is battery life of particular importance to me. I played w/ both and it does seem like Sony is a little more solid. Less flex on the palm rest and the back of the LCD.

The opinion I'm seeking is which laptop provides a better ownership experience. In terms of ergonomics, display quality and ease of long term readability, build quality/reliability, customer support, warranty (especially Dead Pixel policy), & that hard to gauge "X" factor.

Oh, and if anyone with some inside knowledge knows when the $150 rebate will be offered at COMPUSA again, I'd really appreciate it.

[BOFH1971]

Hi blkmagic

I have had the acer for 3 days now, it is unlikely that there will be many long term useage reviews as the laptop is quite new, only released in February,

Here in the uk, the Acer beats the equivalent sony, on price/performance

In fact for pure bang for buck, the acer outstripped all other laptops available to me (I spent 5 hours searching the web for deals)

Luckily I have so far no dead pixels, however I am finding that dead pixels are more and more of a rare occurrence, due to advanced in lcd technology.

I can't remember what the current lcd generation is, but buying new screens (17" TFT) where I work, I am finding that only the very cheapest lcd's have occasional dead pixel issues.

The acer Aspire 5672 is an amazing machine, and has convinced me to move away from my lovely stable/ugradeable desktop to a laptop.

I am just hoping that my X1400 is in fact in an MXM (Pci-Express for laptops) socket and that both it and the CPU are upgradeable at a later date.

The only thing I have against the acer system itself is the quality of the speakers which are dire, in comparison to my sons' Rock laptop which has 5.1 built in. But headphones sound fine, and I am sure I can stretch to some decent 2.1 speakers to plug in at home.

The other thing that is lacking isnt about the system, but the paltry 1 year warranty, these days, with quality systems you can expect a minimum of 2 years on components, while retail processors get you 3 years, and hard disks up to 5.

But all in all, its a great choice for my first laptop, It plays Half life 2 beautifully, Just 2 years ago I would have to pay £2500 for a decent gaming laptop.

p.s. This one was £1176 including delivery in the UK.

All the best with your choice.
BOFH

[Cubicegg]

i notice the acer 5672wlmi comes with a sata raid drive, can you install more than one drive in this machine? i.e. run 2 together on raid 1?

thanks

[BOFH1971]

the motherboard definitely supports raid however I dont know if there is physically enough room for a second drive, the machines are pretty thin

[mobilewannabe]

the motherboard definitely supports raid however I dont know if there is physically enough room for a second drive, the machines are pretty thin


The answer is no.

[BOFH1971]

well only No for the time being but slimmer hdd's and perpendicular technology might well change that (hopefully :) )