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slight32

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2014
58
1
I'm about to buy an 11" Air, but thought I'd take a look at other options, just to make sure I was getting the right machine. The Vaio Pro 11 or 13 seem the obvious alternative, so I went to play with them today. Perhaps it's just me, maybe I know too little about these things, or possibly I'm unable to appreciate a good thing when I see it, but the Vaio pro just felt....well, wrong. It's too light and insubstantial. The screen hinge felt as if it would last a matter of months in my clumsy hands and even the keyboard on the 13" felt a bit small, this may be a matter of perception though, due to the black on black of the keys against the frame. I know it's a good machine, and in Turkey is exactly the same price as the 11" Air (the 11" Vaio is a bit cheaper), but holding the two side by side, the Air feels as though it would last longer.

The screen resolution is nice, a better range of ports on the 11" is nice, a touch screen is nice, but it's just not as nice all round. How about that, an old design with a much lower resolution, non-touch screen, and an OS I've never used before has won me over.

Am I the only one?
 

2IS

macrumors 68030
Jan 9, 2011
2,938
433
Seems you're downplaying it's benefits and exaggerating it's deficiencies, while doing the opposite for the MBA. You have a bias towards the Air, which is fine but both machines have their pros and cons. The Vaio has a better screen and last I checked, can be optioned out to be quite a bit more powerful than the Air. These aren't exactly insignificant items. If their strengths and weaknesses were reversed, I have no doubt the build quality would be downplayed and the better specs of the MBA would be all the rave in this post.
 

tillsbury

macrumors 68000
Dec 24, 2007
1,513
454
Aren't these discontinued? I saw them in the local Sony shop in NZ with up to 40% off. Almost worth it at that sort of price, but as OP says they are ridiculously off-balance. They can't be optioned up, have only 4Gb RAM and 128Gb SSD.
 

slight32

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2014
58
1
Seems you're downplaying it's benefits and exaggerating it's deficiencies, while doing the opposite for the MBA. You have a bias towards the Air, which is fine but both machines have their pros and cons. The Vaio has a better screen and last I checked, can be optioned out to be quite a bit more powerful than the Air. These aren't exactly insignificant items. If their strengths and weaknesses were reversed, I have no doubt the build quality would be downplayed and the better specs of the MBA would be all the rave in this post.

I do have a bias toward the Air, but only because I've decided it's the better choice for me. I've never owned anything from Apple before though, so there's no bias from that point of view. What I've said is merely my opinion, it's not a review. I looked at both with exactly the same specs; i5/4gb/128gb, so it was only the screen, build quality and weight I compared, but the with those specs the Air would win with having slightly better graphics (by a tiny amount). I'm not bothered with high res on such a small panel, I'll plug into an 1080p display if I need more.

Depends if you want OSX or Windows would be a good start

I've never used OSX other than in an old G5 for a few weeks. I use W8 in a Surface RT and Vista on my XPS 13, so I don't really have much of a preference.

The Vaio Pro is not the ovious alternative to a macbook air.

No? Why not and what would you think is then?
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,152
18,916
The Vaio ... last I checked, can be optioned out to be quite a bit more powerful than the Air.

How that? Max configuration I could find was i7-4500U/HD 4400/8GB DDR3/512Gb SSD and costs $ 2,299.99 at Sony store

13" MacBook Air with i7-4650U/HD5000/8GB RAM/512GB SSD costs $1,749.00 at Apple. This is with faster CPU/GPU/storage.

As far as I see it, MBA wins in all aspects but screen and seems also to be slightly heavier.
 

abta1

macrumors 6502
Jul 5, 2010
334
11
Paris, France
There are lots of laptops out there with better specs than macbooks, that's a fact but having worked with Windows, Linux and OSX, for my out of work usage, OSX is my favourite.

Secondly, although other manufacturers have started building laptops with aluminium cases, I still find the finish and build quality of macbooks to be second to none. This is why I stick with macbooks, previously MBPs and currently a MBA.
 

RightMACatU

macrumors 65816
Jul 12, 2012
1,423
1,132
192.168.1.1
There are lots of laptops out there with better specs than macbooks, that's a fact but having worked with Windows, Linux and OSX, for my out of work usage, OSX is my favourite.

That!

I've managed to convert my parents from Windows to OS X without a glitch... they get it, they have less issues which in turn simplifies MY life :D
 

PinkyMacGodess

Suspended
Mar 7, 2007
10,271
6,226
Midwest America.
But why the MBA 13" over the MBP 13"?

They seem so close, but the performance is what would seal the deal for me.

Yeah, the Air is probably lighter, yes, and thinner, yes, and has that 'Gee Wow' effect on people sometimes (It did on me the first time I saw one), but when the rubber hits the road, so to speak, I'd choose the MPB hands down over the Air...

Unless the Air battery can last the flight from LAX to SYD. Then we might talk Air...

I guess I have a hard time seeing the market for the Air, especially as the MBP gets thinner and lighter. Nothing personal...

EDIT: Oh, but you said 11". Well, the MBP doesn't come in 11". But...
 

slight32

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 31, 2014
58
1
But why the MBA 13" over the MBP 13"?

They seem so close, but the performance is what would seal the deal for me.

Yeah, the Air is probably lighter, yes, and thinner, yes, and has that 'Gee Wow' effect on people sometimes (It did on me the first time I saw one), but when the rubber hits the road, so to speak, I'd choose the MPB hands down over the Air...

Unless the Air battery can last the flight from LAX to SYD. Then we might talk Air...

I guess I have a hard time seeing the market for the Air, especially as the MBP gets thinner and lighter. Nothing personal...

EDIT: Oh, but you said 11". Well, the MBP doesn't come in 11". But...

Whether the 13" or 11" Air, the answer is the same, cost. The 11" i5/4gb/128gb Air is 2,499TL the cheapest MBP is 3,499TL (divide by 2.18 for $). When considering my usage the extra isn't worth spending. I will hook up to a display in my office and at home and unless I decide to take video editing to a higher level than just sticking clips of my kids together, the MBP would be a vanity purchase.
 

2IS

macrumors 68030
Jan 9, 2011
2,938
433
How that? Max configuration I could find was i7-4500U/HD 4400/8GB DDR3/512Gb SSD and costs $ 2,299.99 at Sony store

13" MacBook Air with i7-4650U/HD5000/8GB RAM/512GB SSD costs $1,749.00 at Apple. This is with faster CPU/GPU/storage.

As far as I see it, MBA wins in all aspects but screen and seems also to be slightly heavier.

They used to have an option for a dGPU (I believe it was actually external) that may be a thing of the past now, not sure. It's been a while since I have looked at them.
 

JoEw

macrumors 68000
Nov 29, 2009
1,583
1,291
I know this isn't a huge factor to most but having Thunderbolt gives you a really great options as far as ports go, I bought myself a nice Thunderbolt dock for my MBA when I am at home and I can't imagine having a laptop without it.
 

m98custom1212

macrumors 6502
Jul 20, 2013
287
1
Toledo, Ohio
I know this isn't a huge factor to most but having Thunderbolt gives you a really great options as far as ports go, I bought myself a nice Thunderbolt dock for my MBA when I am at home and I can't imagine having a laptop without it.

Thunderbolt isn't an apple thing shortly you will see labtops with thunderbolt ports on them. Desktop are coming with motherboards that thunderbolt.

Basically Mini display port is thunderbolt
 
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