CR420E/T C2D 2.10/3GB/250/DVDRW/VHP-WB

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CR420E/T C2D 2.10/3GB/250/DVDRW/VHP-WB

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this, and the comfy keyboard action was really a big attraction to me for writing and coding.

Pro: Plenty of RAM (3GB) right out of the box.

Pro: Fast. I'm no connoisseur but it handles GIMP filter operations like a seasoned blackjack dealer deals a hand. Nice and fast really. I'm at the Ubuntu 8 logon screen about as fast as any Windows XP I've ever had.

Pro: That built in SD card reader! It's so cool to not have to fumble with a cable and card reader.. it is just like a tiny little floppy drive. Just pop the SD out of the camera and right into the computer.

Con: Glossy screen.. unfortunately this is becoming quite common issue.. If I wasn't using this at home, in low light conditions, this sad surprise would have been a return or re-sell worthy issue. Matte is where it's at, as far as I'm concerned.

Con: The speaker just doesn't put out loud enough. External speakers or headphones are necessary for movie-watching without absolute silence and concentration. It's one of many reasons I would only recommend this as a home laptop.

So-so: Battery life is just so-so, I usually get about 3 hours. A "high capacity" battery may be ordered separately. Again I would only recommend this for home use, so run it off the wall and this is a non-issue.

CR420E/T C2D 2.10/3GB/250/DVDRW/VHP-WB

...

this, and the comfy keyboard action was really a big attraction to me for writing and coding.



Pro: Plenty of RAM (3GB) right out of the box.



Pro: Fast. I'm no connoisseur but it handles GIMP filter operations like a seasoned blackjack dealer deals a hand. Nice and fast really. I'm at the Ubuntu 8 logon screen about as fast as any Windows XP I've ever had.



Pro: That built in SD card reader! It's so cool to not have to fumble with a cable and card reader.. it is just like a tiny little floppy drive. Just pop the SD out of the camera and right into the computer.



Con: Glossy screen.. unfortunately this is becoming quite common issue.. If I wasn't using this at home, in low light conditions, this sad surprise would have been a return or re-sell worthy issue. Matte is where it's at, as far as I'm concerned.



Con: The speaker just doesn't put out loud enough. External speakers or headphones are necessary for movie-watching without absolute silence and concentration. It's one of many reasons I would only recommend this as a home laptop.



So-so: Battery life is just so-so, I usually get about 3 hours. A "high capacity" battery may be ordered separately. Again I would only recommend this for home use, so run it off the wall and this is a non-issue.

CR420E/T C2D 2.10/3GB/250/DVDRW/VHP-WB

...

this, and the comfy keyboard action was really a big attraction to me for writing and coding.





Pro: Plenty of RAM (3GB) right out of the box.





Pro: Fast. I'm no connoisseur but it handles GIMP filter operations like a seasoned blackjack dealer deals a hand. Nice and fast really. I'm at the Ubuntu 8 logon screen about as fast as any Windows XP I've ever had.





Pro: That built in SD card reader! It's so cool to not have to fumble with a cable and card reader.. it is just like a tiny little floppy drive. Just pop the SD out of the camera and right into the computer.





Con: Glossy screen.. unfortunately this is becoming quite common issue.. If I wasn't using this at home, in low light conditions, this sad surprise would have been a return or re-sell worthy issue. Matte is where it's at, as far as I'm concerned.





Con: The speaker just doesn't put out loud enough. External speakers or headphones are necessary for movie-watching without absolute silence and concentration. It's one of many reasons I would only recommend this as a home laptop.





So-so: Battery life is just so-so, I usually get about 3 hours. A "high capacity" battery may be ordered separately. Again I would only recommend this for home use, so run it off the wall and this is a non-issue.

CR420E/T C2D 2.10/3GB/250/DVDRW/VHP-WB

...

(pretty sure both stereo -a2dp),battery life, optical drive, speakers, touchpad, and overall quality of build. The HP performs well in all aspects. Note, I say "performs" instead of compare to differentiate my real world experience versus marketing specs. I do think the Sony is prettier. Note: I got the blue case b/c it uses a silver keyboard I preferred, most if not all these Vaio's have black keys. The Pavilion has black keys also.

Overall, I think a case could be made for choosing the Sony over the much cheaper Pavilion, however, for my station in life and value of a dollar, I chose the Pavilion dv2810us.

Things (of note) I did while I possessed both aforementioned laptops...
connected both wirelessly and wired to my home network (and ultimately Comcast broadband), signed in wirelesly at coffee house to web surf, downloaded and installed updates to Vista, streamed audio/video from Windows Media Server, installed VMWare Server GSX and then multiple OS's within -very slow to start on both laptops(slower than my previous Lifebook S Pentium M 1.6Gz w/ 2MB RAM running XP home).

I contacted both vendor's customer service departments about "downgrading" to XP Pro from the Vista Premium and it turns out to be not so easy. In the case of HP, while they highly recommend against downgrading the Web Chat HP guy said he could point me to some of the drivers on the web... but could not say if all the XP - flavored drivers were available. I didn't get into a discussion with Sony as much but got the same indication.

Hope this helps someone.

PS I like the Sony battery adapter more, it plugs into the laptop from the back with an "L" shape, the HP plugs from the side and sticks out approx 2". Also the Vaio has what I consider and annoying light emanating from under the touchpad -I dislike stray light-sources like that and not sure if it has a reason for it.