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MacBook Air vs. Samsung Series 9
- Thread starter w00t951
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http://www.cnet.com/laptops/sony-vaio-x505-series/4505-3121_7-30886049.html
Wedge design check
stereo speakers check
ULV check
10" screen check
no DVD check
no ethernet/modem check
dongle for ethernet check
around 2 pounds check
...
Put in the track pad and you have a macbook air in 2003.
Please stop with the stupid "everyone copies apple" everyone copies everyone .
Did you happen to read my "non-astronomical price" part? $3000 for an ultrabook is pretty astronomical in my book.
$3000 adjusted for inflation for 2003-2008 is $3500. The Air retailed for $1800 in 2008, roughly half of the Vaio. It had an 13 inch screen, not a 10 inch screen. It had good battery life, as opposed to the three hours CNET said the Vaio had. It used a better processor line (What would now be i3 as opposed to Pentium). And it did this at half the price. So, yes, Apple revolutionized this category, and obviously people started copying Apple, not Sony. If they copied Sony, the ultrabook market would have come in 2004-5. But it just started really coming in 2011-13. Maybe Apple did copy the bare characteristics of this Sony, but they drastically changed it as well, more than I can say for most Windows Ultrabooks today.
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Oh BS, thats simple tech moving on, nothing to do with apple but all the hardware companys that actually manufacture .
And the first macbook air with SSD costed just as much : 3000$ , its battery life was also 3/4 hours .
Its again (like with all tech) a simple fact of the cheap avaible tech moving on and becoming avaible for mass production and lowering prices . Sony had simular laptop with simular prices in 2007/2008 .
Why do some always want there favorite brand t be "the best" "the first" blah blah blah
I agree with the rest of your comment other than the first part. Maybe putting in an SSD would bring the price up to $3000, but the Vaio only came with a 20 GB HDD. And I know that the technology evolved (blah blah blah) but Apple clearly did it better than Sony, and that is why ultrabooks came into prominence after the Air, not the Vaio. I have already conceded that the Air was not the first, but it was certainly the best when it came out. Now is less certain, but it is my OPINION that it is still the best for what it offers.
I previously owned a Samsung Series 9 laptop (Core i5, 1.8GHz). Its trackpad was nowhere near as good as Apple's; the screen was good but the standard 1366x768 resolution (yuck!); the build quality was average with a lot of flex in the screen especially.
I now own a 2012 MacBook Air (Core i5, 1.8GHz), after selling the Samsung. What a difference! The trackpad is wonderful; build quality is excellent (as expected) with almost no flex in the screen or body of the computer. Having 1440x900 resolution on a 13" screen (same as my 1st gen MacBook Pro 15") is nice.
What really amazed me is how much smoother the Air runs. It's all about the OS. Windows 7 felt slow and clunky on nearly identical hardware.
One thing that amused me was Samsung's backup application for Windows. It said, "When Windows has a problem, you can restore..." Heh, they know Windows will blow up!
The Samsung's screen blows the Air's away. There's no debating that. Ultimately the reason I went with the Air is the touchpad. No other company has come close to matching Apple here. As for your comments about the OS, it's great that Microsoft offers easy ways to recover. I wish Apple's was as straightforward and fast. Win 8 on my Air is the best OS+laptop experience I've ever had. Quality OS with quality hardware. Hard to beat it.
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You are still mixing up the reasons, ultrabook didnt become popular because of apple and the macbook iar, they became popular because they are very light very wel crafted/usable laptops.
Tech moved on and made it something that most people could appreciate at a reasonable price. Apple was certainly among the first and one of the better no question about that. But others had been doind simular things before and are still doing it now .
seems to me that you might be equating "existed" with "popular" a bit too much...
i don't think you're wrong when you say Apple didn't make them popular in the sense that Apple didn't generate the demand, but just like what the iPad did to the stagnent tablet industry, the MBA found the market and took it to the next level.
The market is there because that is the inevitable direction computing has been going for the past 20 years: Smaller AND faster with almost equal importance on both.
Just anecdotally I can tell you that I am definitely of the mind that the more compact the better - but i thought the first gen MBAs were a huge waste of money. But now, other than someone who specifically wants retina, i'd be hard pressed to come up with a reason why your typical student or professional who is not doing processor-demanding applications shouldn't think long and hard about getting one. Full circle in just a few years.
Well, pedromartins does have a point, this is rather pointless. This comparison is like me comparing a dell Inspiron(or whatever windows laptop from 2010) from 2010 and having a 2012 Macbook Air and going on a windows forums claiming the mac is "better". In a Mac forum I'm pretty sure the majority of use, including me, will say the macbook air is better.
Given that Samsung makes the Air screen, and the Air's screen is higher resolution, how does the Series 9 screen "blow away" the Air's screen?
Those comments about the OS weren't mine -- they were Samsung's. They were the ones who put "When you need to restore..." not "If you need to restore..."
Besides, I have an Apples-to-Apples comparison: I have the same model Dell computer at work as I do at home. The work computer runs Windows 7 Professional. The home computer runs Mac OS X 10.7.5. How come a large video compression job slows Windows down to the point of unusability, but the same application running on Mac OS X runs it just fine. (Reference: FFMPEG)
I'm glad you're doing well with Windows 8. Interesting how there are two separate copies of Internet Explorer installed on your computer, and that they don't share Favorites. Pretty weird, huh? Are you getting along fine without a Start button? C'mon. I'm not the only person to say Windows 8 is a usability nightmare.
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Not really in both cases it wasnt apple but simly tech that moved on. For tablets as for ultraportable tech has gotten to that point those products in its shape are possible. before this was simply impossible at any reasonable price.
The First where underpowered (lets not forget slow CPU and 4200 rpm HDD in the affordable version) so it was for a very limited public. Now they are more then capable for almost anyone.
Of course there is a very limited weight difference between the air and pro (700gr fr simular screen size)
come on - that's spectacularly optimistic. perhaps for the ultraportables, but you can't tell me that the iPad didn't bring the kiss of life back to the tablet industry.
Let me turn the question around, do you think that without apple there never would had been something as the tablet form we now know?
the Samsung S9 rocks, but...
so, yesterday I was having a few spare minutes to try the Samsung S9. I get to test most other brands more common in the corporate environment, including Macs (99% of the models out there).
I am not doing a review here, so, to put it simply, the S9 hardware is simply beautiful. Feels great, looks great, feels light, great screen, great touchpad.
Now, I simply love the Macbook touchpad (using one right now), but it doesn't take anything away from another great one. On my right I have a Lenovo yoga 13 (not a bad machine), but how bad its touchpad sucks is beyond belief...and I used to be a huge Thinkpad fan (also tested almost a hundred of those...).
Which touchpad is better depends on the user. Personally, as long as it works and feels great, I don't care that much, and I will switch from time to time, just for the fun of it. To all those who need to underline how superior the Apple touchpad is, I say, go for it. This IS an apple fanboy forum. Where else would you be almost entitled to such an opinion?
To the OP, thank you for posting your feedback on the S9. i was interested in reading how other people felt about that product. Funny thing, google brought me to this mac forum first...so the moment I opened this thread, I sat back and enjoyed the hate. This is simply how it's going to be. Yes, I get you really like Macs too, but no, don't post this on CultofMac either. Really.
so, yesterday I was having a few spare minutes to try the Samsung S9. I get to test most other brands more common in the corporate environment, including Macs (99% of the models out there).
I am not doing a review here, so, to put it simply, the S9 hardware is simply beautiful. Feels great, looks great, feels light, great screen, great touchpad.
Now, I simply love the Macbook touchpad (using one right now), but it doesn't take anything away from another great one. On my right I have a Lenovo yoga 13 (not a bad machine), but how bad its touchpad sucks is beyond belief...and I used to be a huge Thinkpad fan (also tested almost a hundred of those...).
Which touchpad is better depends on the user. Personally, as long as it works and feels great, I don't care that much, and I will switch from time to time, just for the fun of it. To all those who need to underline how superior the Apple touchpad is, I say, go for it. This IS an apple fanboy forum. Where else would you be almost entitled to such an opinion?
To the OP, thank you for posting your feedback on the S9. i was interested in reading how other people felt about that product. Funny thing, google brought me to this mac forum first...so the moment I opened this thread, I sat back and enjoyed the hate. This is simply how it's going to be. Yes, I get you really like Macs too, but no, don't post this on CultofMac either. Really.
Apples and Oranges
The OP is correct in his original post...read it carefully....it's not an opinion it's simple fact....if you can live with MS the S 9 has its advantages.
Sorry guys, you are comparing APPLs and oranges IMHO. I left the "dark side" 6 years ago for the OS. I have seen some very interesting hardware and software features on PCs that are better than Macs, but they are simply features. Historically Apple is rarely first with ANYTHING, yes I said that. Smart phones, tablets, mp3 players, computers, somebody else made them first. Apples claim to fame is they were the first one to make the correctly...yep, I'm a fanboy at 62.
The OP is correct in his original post...read it carefully....it's not an opinion it's simple fact....if you can live with MS the S 9 has its advantages.
Sorry guys, you are comparing APPLs and oranges IMHO. I left the "dark side" 6 years ago for the OS. I have seen some very interesting hardware and software features on PCs that are better than Macs, but they are simply features. Historically Apple is rarely first with ANYTHING, yes I said that. Smart phones, tablets, mp3 players, computers, somebody else made them first. Apples claim to fame is they were the first one to make the correctly...yep, I'm a fanboy at 62.
obviously i can't say that for sure, no. But i think it's likely that they would have kept plugging away at the touch-screen laptop model that hadn't been working longer than they did.
i personally would prefer a touchscreen laptop but what do i know?
the iPhone may have done a lot for smart phones but i believe it was heading that direction anyway. and as smartphones are getting screens larger and larger i imagine tablets would be inevitable.
Samsung makes some of the MBA's screens, the other is LG.
The Series 9 has a higher resolution screen than the MBA, the Series 9 has a 1080p screen while the MBA has a 1440x900 screen.
doesn't matter in the slightest, the samsung series 9 has a better display and weighs less.... that alone sets the bar higher in terms of what we should expect from apple as consumers, because it's possible - apple can make the macbook air much better, and that's really the only point.
You do realize that a lot of the good stuff on Apple laptops are made by Samsung (displays, SSDs)?
Very interesting. In YOUR opinion the 9 is more beautiful. Your conjecture is that more people want the 9 than an Air.
Personally I still find the aesthetics of the MBA better than the Samsung.
Of all the folks in my IT department (including consultants), every single person who has purchased an ultrabook has chosen an Air. So my conjecture is that the MBA is still more desirable than Samsung's offering.
As we all know, opinions are like....
Personally I still find the aesthetics of the MBA better than the Samsung.
Of all the folks in my IT department (including consultants), every single person who has purchased an ultrabook has chosen an Air. So my conjecture is that the MBA is still more desirable than Samsung's offering.
As we all know, opinions are like....
I'm referring to the design of the MBA and their products (mac pro, imac, iphone 5, etc) – the styling, attention to detail, shape, aesthetics, product look and feel, which are very good at. Much better than Samsuck. That's my point. Not the individual parts. As in Gestalt. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
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