13.3" Notebooks

[Josh7289]

Hi all,

I'm going to college in the fall and I want a notebook. 13.3" is the ideal screen size for me, but I also need something that can play games, so I need one with a video card. There are so many different brands and models, however, that I really don't know where to start if I simply want to go through each of the options and pick the best one for me, so what I am asking you to do here is please list all of the different notebooks that you know of that have a 13.3" screen and a dedicated video card. You don't have to tell me every single one, but please just list what you know.

So far, I know of the Sony VAIO SZ series and the upcoming Dell XPS M1330. Between the two, the Dell has the better video card, so I would get that, but I want to know what other options exist.

Thanks so much!

 

[Brainonska511]

XPS 1330 appears to be one of the top seeds for best 13.3" notebooks. The Asus W7s (also uses the 8400M GS; if you go with this, buy a 2GB stick of RAM so you'll have a total of 2.5GB of RAM, as a 512MB stick is soldered into place under the keyboard) is also an option, but it doesn't have the best battery-life. As far as which of the three, Sony, Dell, or Asus, you should buy, I'd wait a few days as the Dell notebook is supposed to be released this week (?), so you should see reviews popping up very soon after. I don't think the SZ would be a good choice at the moment since you desire to play games.

 

[Josh7289]

The XPS M1330 is reportedly going to be released on July 10, with an official announcement on June 26. It definitely looks very interesting for a Dell design, and it has the specs to boot. It seems the 8400M GS is the fastest video card in any 13.3" notebooks right now. Have you seen any others?

Oh, but that Asus W7S only has an 8400M G, which looks a whole lot worse than the 8400M GS: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8400M.html

And I assume you say the SZ is not a good choice for gaming because it only has a Go 7400 video card, right?

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Josh7289
The XPS M1330 is reportedly going to be released on July 10, with an official announcement on June 26. It definitely looks very interesting for a Dell design, and it has the specs to boot. It seems the 8400M GS is the fastest video card in any 13.3" notebooks right now. Have you seen any others?

Oh, but that Asus W7S only has an 8400M G, which looks a whole lot worse than the 8400M GS: http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8400M.html

And I assume you say the SZ is not a good choice for gaming because it only has a Go 7400 video card, right?

Oh. Sorry about that. I thought there were only 2 grades of 8400M cards, GS and GT. Either way, the 8400M G would still perform better than the 7400Go, but the XPS M1330 would still beat it out. I haven't heard about any others and I wouldn't hesitate to say that most companies won't bother with dedicated cards in the 13.3" notebook market, as that market seems to be pretty small to begin with and adding dedicated cards can mean a redesign of the chassis and further changes.

 

[Josh7289]

Alright, right now it definitely looks like I'm going to be getting an M1330. If anyone else knows of any other 13.3" notebooks with dedicated video cards, please reply here.

Thanks for all the help!