Sony Vaio AR270 vs AR290 - compare? whats differnce?

[fishquail]

The sony website is not very clear on comparing the difference between the Sony Vaio AR270 which is 2,700 vs the AR290 which is 2,999.
Anywone know what improvements the 290 has over the 270?

Is the 290 worth the extra $300 bucks?

thanks!

 

[lostandwandering]

Looking at the Sony's website, the only difference between the two is that the AR270 (the one with BluRay) has a faster processor and it is actually cheeper than the AR290. So to put it simply, no the AR290 is not worth the extra money. IMO, I wouldn't buy a laptop from Sony. They tend to be overpriced and there support is so-so. HP offers similar laptops with HD-DVD for less.

 

[fishquail]

That dosnt seem right. The 290 has to be better in some way.

I'm a videographer.
Ive heard that this laptop works great for video editing, and HD-DVD dosnt record - only plays. Blu ray will record up to 50GBs. Great for backup of video projects, and using the drive to capture HD video direct to disk.
I only wish that apple intel Power books had blu Ray drives and id go with them. My luck -Ill buy this and then a month later Apple will release new power books.

 

[lostandwandering]

I might have found the difference. The 290 has a 200 gig 5400 rpm HDD while the 270 only has a 160gig 4200 rpm drive. Is that the only difference? As far as I can tell. Is it worth it? maybe. It depends on how important file access time is to you. The 5400 rpm drive will be better than the other one, a 7200 rpm drive would be best.

For a better comparison of the two look at these specs:
AR270

AR290

 

[fishquail]

I went ahead and bought the 290. Its awesome. Im happy.