Expert: Bobbert - 2/24/2011

Question
Hello. I am about to purchase a new laptop. I thought I had come to the decision to buy the Sony Vaio VPCEB46FDBJ system from Best Buy at $849.99. That was until today when I got a flyer from staples advertising the Acer AS7745G-3053 on sale for $799.99. Now I know the major differences between the two (i.e. bigger screen on the Acer, more memory, different graphics cards, etc.) however there is one thing that I know little about and that is the processors. The Acer has an Intel i5 430M and the Sony has an Intel i5 480M. I can't see there being a huge difference between the two, but I really don't know. Would you be able to give me a little advice as to which one you would recommend. I'm not sure of Sony's or Acer's track record, so I'm mostly concerned with performance and reliability. I won't be really using the computer for gaming, more for multimedia like downloading music and movies and watching them, minor photo editing and internet stuff.

Thank you

Geoff

Answer
Generally speaking you won't see a difference between those two processors, so I wouldn't be concerned there. That said, Sony has a much better reliability record than Acer, as well as much better customer service on average. I would pick Sony based on that. I would, however, suggest that you look at Dell or HP (you can purchase direct, online, www.dell.com or www.hp.com) as you may be able to realize a similar system with a still better warranty (Dell and HP are consistently the best in the business in terms of warranty and customer support).

-bob