Conflicted between a few choices!!

[joonyupp]

Hello, I'm going to be attending college next year and I wanted to buy myself a new laptop and narrowed it down to about 2 choices so far.
I'm conflicted between the Sony S Series and the Samsung 7 Series. Yes, I do know that the Sony is more of a mobility and the Samsung is more performance based...but idk which is better for college...
I personally really like the design of the Sony S series and the weight/battery life are very appealing. BUT, The Samsung is in a similar price range yet the CPU index is about 1.6x that of the Sony...sacrificing lightness..

Here are the specs! Help me decide which one to buy please!

Sony S series 13.3" (VPCSA490X CTO)
-Intel® Core™ i5-2540M processor (2.60GHz / 3.30GHz with Turbo Boost) CPU Index: 3862
-13.3" LED backlit display (1600x900)
- AMD Radeon™ HD 6630M (1GB) hybrid graphics with Intel® Wireless Display technology
-500GB (7200rpm) hard drive
-4GB (4GB fixed onboard + 1 open SDRAM slot) DDR3-SDRAM-1333 (its cheaper to buy another 4GB one or 8GB one than configure with it)
-CD/DVD player / burner
- Internal lithium polymer battery (4400mAh)
Weight: 3.65 lbs

Samsung Series 7 15.6" (NP700Z5A-S0AUS)
- Intel® Core™ i7-2675QM Processor 2.20 GHz CPU INDEX: 6377
-15.6" 1600 x 900
- AMD Radeon™ HD6750M [1GB (GDDR5)] (PowerXpress) Graphics
-1TB Hard drive (does not state rpm)
-DVD +/-RW Super Multi Dual Layer (S-ATA)
-Weight:5.04 lbs

I'm not a hardcore gamer but I would like to be able to run games such as battlefield bad company etc. I personally do not know much about Graphics cards so please help! Which of these are more suitable? Should I sacrifice the weight and get the Samsung? But keep in mind I will be constantly bringing this laptop around with me and such! I'm going to be an physics/engineering student so I will be running some programs as well, but mainly a lot of web browsing and watching movies. If there is an alternative laptop please feel free to suggest! I personally do not like Dell and HP. Thank You!

[Schmitty]

Don't pay any attention to the CPU differences - you WON'T notice the difference in day-to-day performance unless you are planning on using it for a lot of video encoding.

I would definitely recommend the sony S over the series 7 because you aren't going to want to drag a big 15.6" laptop to class and take notes on it all the time. This will lead you to not use your laptop in class much, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a laptop in college. If you plan on doing a lot of gaming, though, the GPu int he series 7 is quite a lot better.

[joonyupp]

I dont mind if I can't play on high settings for the games on the Sony but will it cause any lags? how different are the graphics cards between the two?

[Redpop200]

The radeo hd 6750m is a slightly better than the other one but not by much.

What is the cost of these?

[joonyupp]

When I configure the Sony to my specs it comes to $1129.49 but then I get student discount so it'd be $1073.49

The Samsung 7 series costs $1249.99 oh i forgot to mention that this one already has 8GB of memory in it

[joonyupp]

Oh also I have a choice between the 15.5" and the 13.3" for Sony as well... the 15.5" is 4.4lbs... should I just stick to the smaller 13.3"? or if I want the 15.5" should I just go for the Samsung?

[Redpop200]

I'm gamer biased, so I would suggest checking out Sager NP6110 for ~800

Portable size, 11.6 screen ;(not 1080p) and 3.97 lbs comes with a gt 650m which is better then those video cards, although still won't run current games on ultra.

Or kick it up to sager 9130 but that's a 15.6 screen and 7 lbs with a gtx 670m which is much better for gaming for ~1100

[nyau1991]

Speak as a college student myself, portability will be a huge factor. Personally, the Samsung 7 seems to be a great fit for your needs. The HD 6790m is much better than the one on Sony. The 15'' screen is also ideal size range for portability. Hopefully, you don;t find 5lb too heavy since you will probably be carrying other stuff as well.

[Schmitty]

Speak as a college student myself, portability will be a huge factor. Personally, the Samsung 7 seems to be a great fit for your needs. The HD 6790m is much better than the one on Sony. The 15'' screen is also ideal size range for portability. Hopefully, you don;t find 5lb too heavy since you will probably be carrying other stuff as well.

I think I speak for most people when i say that a 15" screen is NOT the IDEAL size range for portability..

[joonyupp]

Is there a huge difference between the HD 6630 and the HD 6750 that is worth making the weight sacrifice? What kinds of games would i be able to run on the samsung that i cant on the sony?