Sony VAIO SZ: Best Screen - Standard or Premium?

I'm planning to order a Sony VAIO SZ on Jan. 17th, but I'm not sure which one to get -- Standard or Premium. My simple goal is to buy the SZ model with the best picture quality (brightness, contrast, colors, etc.)

http://products.sel.sony.com/Compute.../sz_intro.html


The SZ Premium's "razor-thin" LCD screen helps to reduce its overall size, weight and battery drain. But I'm not convinced its LED backlight produces a picture as good as the SZ Standard's LCD screen (CCFL)

http://www.mobilityguru.com/2005/12/..._t/page14.html

http://www.club-vaio.sony-europe.com...story_tx_3.jsp


My guess is that:

* SZ Premium's LED-based picture quality is similar to Sony's TX-Series (i.e. VGN-TX670)

* SZ Standard's CCFL-based picture quality is similar to Sony's S-Series (i.e. VGN-S580)


... any thoughts?

Originally, I thought this thread would be limited to a "CCFL vs LED" debate. CCFL (potentially) has better brightness, LED (potentially) has better colors, etc. But since posting my original message, it appears to me that durability greatly factors into the equation, too. In theory, LED backlights should last much longer than CCFL backlights. But with the new Sony's, there may be a catch...

The main reason Sony used an LED backlight was to help reduce the overall size, weight and battery drain. Carbon fiber also helps to reduce the overall size and weight, too. But with the TX series (which also happens to use carbon fiber and an LED backlight), there have been several reports of cracks within the screen's glass. While carbon fiber is indeed much stronger than magnesium alloy, the TX series has a rather noticeable amount of flex. This is especially true with its 11.1 inch "razor thin" screen. If you read the 3rd link in my original post, you'll see that Sony tried to address this by making the screen's glass more flexible. But although the TX's carbon fiber has "bend but don't break" properties, the same cannot be said about the TX's glass.

So now comes the Sony SZ Premium series, which also uses carbon fiber, an LED backlight and a "razor-thin" screen. The main difference is that the SZ's screen size is larger -- 13.3" instead of 11.1". FYI, it's unclear to me if Sony has attempted to make the SZ Premium's glass more flexible and/or crack resistant than the TX's. But assuming they are the same, then my guess is that the SZ Premium's glass would be even more susceptible to cracks than the TX's (due to the SZ's larger surface area). And needless to say, a single crack would not be a good thing.

So now, I think only time can tell how the SZ Premium's screen (SZ150, SZ160, SZ170, SZ180) will compare to the SZ Standard's screen (SZ110, SZ120, SZ140), both in terms of quality and durability.