Sony and Toshiba are two of the larger laptop manufacturers.
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When shopping for a new laptop, consumers find Sony and Toshiba are two of the prevalent distributors on the market. Understanding the similarities and differences between Sony and Toshiba helps purchasers make informed decisions when buying a laptop. Many comparable laptop brands offered by each company have differences in design including readily available and upgradable features, price and service.
Brands
Sony differentiates its Vaio brand laptops with character codes, such as the "EB" or "F" series. This makes it more difficult to easily identify a specific model or its features than it does with Toshiba laptops. Toshiba brands appeal to different features and needs of users, such as the Satellite, which is meant for everyday jobs like email and office work, or the Qosmio, which has 3D graphics and powerful processing for gaming and entertainment purposes.
Features
Both Toshiba and Sony offer pre-designed laptops with different screen sizes, 3D graphics, Blu-ray players, RAM and hard drive space. Due to Sony's commitments to research and development, their laptop models offer the latest technological advancements. Both Sony and Toshiba allow a customer to customize or upgrade a laptop to suit his needs when purchasing, including upgrading memory, adding even more storage space or installing a touch screen. They also allow buyers to customize the look of the laptop, such as color schemes, textured finishes and backlit keyboards.
Price
When comparing models with similar features, Toshiba generally has cheaper laptop prices than Sony. Toshiba has a smaller market presence, so they price their laptops cheaper to encourage buyers to purchase Toshiba models. Laptops lose value quickly, as the next cutting-edge model is never far behind the current one. Still, refurbished Toshiba models tend to cost less than comparable Sony versions as prices on the whole decline.
Customer Service
Both Sony and Toshiba laptops have a well-developed history in the quality of their laptops, but neither of the brands are accident free. Sony's size and presence as a company gives them more experience when it comes to servicing laptops. Both companies have 800 numbers, live chat and email support dedicated to laptop computers available 24 hours per day. Both Sony's and Toshiba's websites allow owners to select a specific laptop models and view every help thread on the message forums that pertain to the specific model.
References
Photo Credits
- David McNew/Getty Images News/Getty Images
