As far as I can tell, the Compaqs at Staples and Circuit City are the same (just different model numbers). I'm personally torn between the Compaq at Staples and the Sony at BBY. I know the CC is $50 less than Staples, but to me, $350 OTD is better than $450 OTD with a $150 rebate, especially since a Staples BF would allow me to stay home for an extra 2-3 hours compared to CC.

The fact that the Sony has an SD card reader is a plus, and the Sony is just really nice looking compared to the Compaq. Of course, I don't know if the integrated reader is worth an extra $50 and an earlier start to my camping trip.

Agree completely that the card reader, in and of itself isn't worth the extra money. As you said though, Compaq is sketchy (from what I've heard - never actually owned one myself). I've had a Toshiba for about 2 years (the BF special at CC in 2005) and it has held up well thus far. I think it's going to come down to what's available in the Staples ad beyond the first page. I'll probably be up anyway and will likely try BBY, but if I get there and it's apparent that I'm out of the running for the laptop, I'll settle for the compaq.

I've never owned a sony product (Except their walkman and minidisc players long time ago) until I got a BX series Sony Laptop.

I have nothing to say but good words when it comes to their service. They overnight the laptop both ways, and repair is always prompt and fast. One major plus is that they actually perform diagnostic on everything on your laptop, and they replace/fix little things, i.e. tighten loose lcd top, replace broken keyboards, pointers, etc when you don't even specify them.

Although I've sent my laptop in about 3 times, 1 time for major repair, all three times I have had flawless service, and every time, my laptop has come back nearly perfect. In fact, last time I had a major repair, they only not ended up replacing the motherboard (which was the problem), but the lcd screen and also part of the casing. I guess they wanted to be on the safe side, and i don't mind because my laptop looked a lot newer after repair than before.

I haven't dealt with Compaq, HP or Dell but I have dealt with Gateway before, and I think Sony is a notch above these companies, at least in terms of service/repair.

also to note, i have had to deal with them on getting my warranty period adjusted through my receipt (this is from last Sony BX trade-in deal), and both times the CS was very understanding and gave me no problems at all.

I probably would never buy other Sony products because they're overpriced, but when it comes to Vaio products, I know I can buy with confidence of knowing that my product will be well covered for the duration of the warranty.

bluelighter said:Although I've sent my laptop in about 3 times, 1 time for major repair, all three times I have had flawless service, and every time, my laptop has come back nearly perfect. In fact, last time I had a major repair, they only not ended up replacing the motherboard (which was the problem), but the lcd screen and also part of the casing. I guess they wanted to be on the safe side, and i don't mind because my laptop looked a lot newer after repair than before.

The very fact that you've had to send your laptop in 3 times for repair, one of them being major says to me you shouldn't ever buy another Sony again. Sure their customer support may be better than HP, but I can tell you that I've had 3 HP laptops over the past 7 years and I've only had to send 1 in for a minor repair (the touchpad stopped working properly). Now, I'm not saying HP is better than Sony, as I've personally had good experience with Sony as well. But I am saying that if I had to send one of my laptops in 3 times for repairs, I'd start looking for other manufacturers.

The Sony laptop is without a doubt better that the AMD based Toshiba.

The Sony laptop has...

1. Better screen
2. Better, slightly faster CPU which runs MUCH cooler.
3. Better battery life, again due to the cooler CPU and more efficent Santa Rosa chipset.
4. Faster 3D graphics with the new X3100 IGP (8 pixel pipelines vs 4 on the AMD based unit plus AMD based laptops with IGPs suffer from higher latency on the shared memory due to the IGP having an extra step of going throught the hypertransport bus to reach the shared RAM. But if you dont run 3D games it wont matter.
5. Sony laptop is slimmer.

The Toshiba looks like a fine laptop...its just not as good as the Sony....no way...

onion said:The Sony laptop is without a doubt better that the AMD based Toshiba.

The Sony laptop has...

1. Better screen
2. Better, slightly faster CPU which runs MUCH cooler.
3. Better battery life, again due to the cooler CPU and more efficent Santa Rosa chipset.
4. Faster 3D graphics with the new X3100 IGP (8 pixel pipelines vs 4 on the AMD based unit plus AMD based laptops with IGPs suffer from higher latency on the shared memory due to the IGP having an extra step of going throught the hypertransport bus to reach the shared RAM. But if you dont run 3D games it wont matter.
5. Sony laptop is slimmer.

The Toshiba looks like a fine laptop...its just not as good as the Sony....no way...

Looks like the only thing going for Toshiba is its built-in webcam

Actually, a good place for my money was Office Depot (or Staples, or OfficeMax -- whichever has the most likely things you're interested in in their ads). The lines were not as ridiculous at OD as at BBuy (forget: HDTVs, Laptops, MP3 Players -- unless you are willing to show up at midnight the night before). CCity was similar, I'm told, but a little better.

I got to OD at 6:15 (they opened at 7) having walked into BBuy (opened at 6, i got there at 4am, with lines ca. 1/4 mile long) and found everything even vaguely interesting already sold, even >$1000 LCD TVs). BBuy was a total waste o'time, unless you get a bunch of friends together and play cards from midnight on with a card table and folding chairs...

OD, otoh, for 45 min wait, had exactly the right deal i was looking for (32" for <$600, which was my goal) and I also got a digital camera for my mother which was a very good deal that I had not been looking for, and 3 UPSes at a ridiculously cheap price.

My US$.02, and worth every penny.

Question...I have a Toshiba laptop now...and I have had it for about 4 yrs....and I am getting a new laptop for christmas(YAY)....should I go with the sony?...I was going to get a Dell....help!

Ruger said:Couldn't get the Staples link to work...404 error.

Of the other three, the Tosihba @ CC...although none of them meet my needs. I need more performance than any of these models provide. Chances are they all use slow PC-4200 RAM, the HDD are likely 4200 RPM drives, 5400 at best.

The Sony's hard drive is 5400, though the ram is only PC-4200