[Joe Ross]

That Sony is big, heavy, and has poor battery life.

The Acer is lighter, which is good, but isn't much better in the battery life department.

A lot of times, people new to buying laptops try to buy them the same as buying desktops. They look at processor speed, ram, and display, and often ignore the fact that the faster processors and bigger displays make the laptops less portable (where portability is a function of size, weight, and battery life). Maybe that is what you want, I don't know.

If you want laptops with good specs, and are also more portable, look at the Dell Inspiron 600m or the IBM Thinkpad R series. I think you should be able to get one in your price range if you sacrifice a few of the other specs.

Also, remember that laptops break much more often then desktops, and you can't fix them yourself. So, make sure you can afford a warranty for as long as you want to be able to use the laptop, or make sure you can afford a new laptop the month after the warranty runs out.