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Sony Vaio FZ vs MBP

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kylep6190

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 4, 2007
67
0
Hey I am checking out laptops, and I came across the Vaio FZ. I am going to be a college student next year and I will be doing a little gaming, website design, music and watching movies, and a little bit of photoshop stuff (just messing around for websites). I am not a PC or a Mac person. I have used OS X before and like it, I have used Vista before and like it, so OS is not really an issue for me, both have there ups and downs. So here are the specs:

Vaio FZ
- 2.2 GHZ C2D
- 160GB SATA 5400rpm HD
- DVD R/RW burner/player
- 2GB Ram
- NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GT
- Extended battery
- 15.4" X-BRITE Hi-Color monitor (reviews say this is amazing)
Cost: $1400

MBP
Bottom of the line, all stock (2.2 processor, 2GB, 120GB HD etc.)
Cost: $1800

So what exactly makes the MBP worth $400 more? Remember that OS doesn't matter, but price does although I will be using my computer a lot and can afford both since my budget is $2000, and extra $400 i my pocket would be amazing going into college. And the Vaio FZ is very comparable in style and size. Why should I pay more for the MBP? A macbook is out of the question, too small and can't play games.

Oh and also I am running XP on my home computer now, but all of the computers at school have Vista and a lot of my friends have macs that I use all the time.
 
funny....

i own a vaio fz which i am going to return to costco today. nothing wrong with it, i am just going to buy a macbook.

the xbrite-eco screen is wonderful.

in terms of looks, the vaio spanks the mbp in my opinion.

bottom line is if you don't care about the OS (god knows how you can get along with vista), the vaio fz is an excellent top notch laptop.
 
the graphics card on the MBP is better. Other than that, if you don't care about the OS, I'd say get the Vaio. (personally, I can't see saying that you don't care about the OS. OS is nearly the whole ballgame IMO. But if you really don't care, then the Vaio would be a great choice)
 
kylep6190 said:
Hey I am checking out laptops, and I came across the Vaio FZ. I am going to be a college student next year and I will be doing a little gaming, website design, music and watching movies, and a little bit of photoshop stuff (just messing around for websites). I am not a PC or a Mac person. I have used OS X before and like it, I have used Vista before and like it, so OS is not really an issue for me, both have there ups and downs. So here are the specs:

Vaio FZ
- 2.2 GHZ C2D
- 160GB SATA 5400rpm HD
- DVD R/RW burner/player
- 2GB Ram
- NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GT
- Extended battery
- 15.4" X-BRITE Hi-Color monitor (reviews say this is amazing)
Cost: $1400

MBP
Bottom of the line, all stock (2.2 processor, 2GB, 120GB HD etc.)
Cost: $1800

So what exactly makes the MBP worth $400 more? Remember that OS doesn't matter, but price does although I will be using my computer a lot and can afford both since my budget is $2000, and extra $400 i my pocket would be amazing going into college. And the Vaio FZ is very comparable in style and size. Why should I pay more for the MBP? A macbook is out of the question, too small and can't play games.

Oh and also I am running XP on my home computer now, but all of the computers at school have Vista and a lot of my friends have macs that I use all the time.
Click to expand...

Hi,
I just checked Sony´s lineup. There is a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21Z model available that costs 1600 Euro. Usually that translates to 1600 USD. That model comes with blu-ray, 8600 GS and 300 gig HDD, CPU and Ram as in your config. If my projections are correct I´d shell out the 200 $ and get the higher-spec model. It offers hdmi out as well so you should be able to use it as a source for hd movies when hooked up to an appropriate tv. edit: for what it´s worth it´s a blue ray recorder built in.
take care,
ceres
 
it's not really that I don't care about OS, I just don't really have a preference, I like both equally, so it wouldn't make much since for me to spend an extra couple hundred dollars for the MBP. Plus I might just make it into a hackintosh :)
 
As someone else already said, you sound like you already sold yourself to the fact of buying the Sony laptop. If you want the best, then you'll spend the extra and buy the Macbook Pro. Look at cnet.com. The Macbook Pro is an 8.2 and the Song Vaio FZ is a 7.9 on a more PC focused site.

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/apple-macbook-pro-2007/4505-3121_7-32465635.html?tag=prod.txt.1

"Compared to other recent 15-inch media-friendly laptops, the MacBook Pro performs well, beating the HP Pavilion dv6500t and the Sony VAIO FZ180 in CNET Labs' Multitasking and iTunes encoding tests. It was also faster than last year's MacBook Pro, although the margins were not very significant, reinforcing our view that Intel's revamped Centrino Duo platform, while valuable, hasn't translated into significantly better performance. Compared with the recently updated non-Pro MacBook, the Pro gives us a decent boost in performance, but unless you need the Pro's vastly superior video abilities, you might be able to save a few bucks and go with the 13-inch model.

The new Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card, however, was a vast improvement over the ATI Mobility Radeon x1600 featured on last year's models. Running Quake 4 at 1,024x768, with antialiasing turned on, we got 65 frames per second from the updated Pro, while only 42.1 frames per second from the 2006 MacBook Pro.

Perhaps the biggest improvement in the revamped MacBook Pro is in battery life. Thanks to the LED-backlit display (and partially to Intel's energy-efficient Centrino Pro platform), we got an impressive 3 hours and 35 minutes with our DVD battery drain test--that's 36 minutes more than the non-LED version of the MacBook Pro. Bear in mind the DVD battery drain test is especially grueling, so you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and typical office use. "

Low and behold, the top rated laptop and the editor's choice on a more PC centered website is the Macbook Pro. Besides that though, the Vaio doesn't have a sudden motion sensor if your drop your laptop (parks the harddrive) the backlit keyboard (not sure on this one), maglock, and a lower screen resolution 1280x800 compared to 1440x900 on the Macbook Pro with the same size screen. I'm not sure if the Sony Vaio has an LED backlit screen as well. That said, I don't want to change your mind, but I did want to lay down some of the facts.
 
I really am not sold on the Vaio, in fact it is the other way around. I love th MBP, but I just needed to justify spending an extra $200 (after warranties are added) and getting a 80GB smaller HD. But there is still something telling me it is worth it.Maybe it is all of the little things the MBP has and the cosmetic looks. Maybe it is the sleak design of OS X and never having actually owned a Mac although I have used plenty. Basically it all comes down to the MBP seems like it is all around more reliable, and OS X is more secure. Just wish it didn't cost so damn much.

But I am going to wait until the MBPs are updated and Vista SP1 comes out, and make my decision from there I suppose...although it will most likely still be a MBP at the top of my list, as well as many other top websites.
 
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