***Sony Vaio Z*** Stone-cold killer! It's going to be Apple Vs Sony for Arrandale imo

[macjunk(ie)]

Now that the new has worn off of the Sony Vaio Z, I wonder if anybody is still saying that it's a "Stone-cold killer!" -- for anybody but the folks who own them, that is? (That's a joke, by the way. I don't want to offend any Vaio Z owners.)

If you look around the PC forums discussing Sony...you will find that the laptop goes stone-cold on the owner while playing youtube HD videos and sometimes...just for the heck of it

 

[Jobsian]

Having posed the question, I feel a duty to revisit this thread and say that personally speaking, Apple's notebooks, both the 13" MBP and the new MBAs despite no arrandale beat the Vaio Z for overall user experience imo.

Don't get me wrong, if for whatever reason you need those kind of killer specs while mobile then the Z is king over every other manufacturer, but I don't and having used both, I'm happier with Apple. I personally found the difference in trackpad makes quite an enormous difference, Apple's make other notebook trackpads seem incredibly cheap and beta.

It also was quite a heat monster while for example the new MBAs are surprisingly cool and quiet.

Still, Vaio and Apple make the best notebooks overall imo (the Vaio X is also nice but too underpowered). Dell might be a dark horse with their impending XPS refresh though.

 

[aloshka]

Having posed the question, I feel a duty to revisit this thread and say that personally speaking, Apple's notebooks, both the 13" MBP and the new MBAs despite no arrandale beat the Vaio Z for overall user experience imo.

Don't get me wrong, if for whatever reason you need those kind of killer specs while mobile then the Z is king over every other manufacturer, but I don't and having used both, I'm happier with Apple. I personally found the difference in trackpad makes quite an enormous difference, Apple's make other notebook trackpads seem incredibly cheap and beta.

It also was quite a heat monster while for example the new MBAs are surprisingly cool and quiet.

Still, Vaio and Apple make the best notebooks overall imo (the Vaio X is also nice but too underpowered). Dell might be a dark horse with their impending XPS refresh though.

I very much agree with you. I've used macbook pro's, and sony vaio z for a long long time. Had to drop the z because the trackpad was not good (compared to apple), and I could not connect an external monitor because the z was capped at 1080p for external resolutions. I have a 30" with my mac now, and will never look back. Recently I found a new sweet spot. A mac pro 6-core westmere, and a macbook air 13 for travel.

 

[gwsat]

Before the recent update of the MBA, the Vaio Z was a far more powerful ultra lightweight. Now, though, that has changed. I need a computer that will run Windows 7 and a number of apps in Fusion's Unity mode, as well as a bunch of OS X apps at the same time. Fusion is a resource hog, especially in Unity mode. Heretofore, the conventional wisdom was that a minimum of 6GB of RAM, preferably 8, were required for the purpose. I have discovered, though that my 13 inch 2.13Ghz 4GB of RAM MBA handles Fusion in Unity mode, several Windows apps, and several more OS X apps as well as my 17 inch Santa Rosa MBP with 6GB of RAM ever did. The secret is clearly the MBA's 256GB of flash memory. Although I now have page outs with the MBA that I didn't experience with the MBP, they don't seem to slow anything down because flash memory is so much faster than are conventional hard drives.

I am also delighted by the new MBA's glass trackpad and 1440 X 900 display. I was also pleased to discover that its screen is dramatically less susceptible to reflections than are screens of stock MBPs and all iPads, which have glass in front of the screen. In this connection, reflections from my iPad have aways made me crazy.

 

[JoeG4]

It's been about six months since I purchased my Vaio F.

Looking back on this thread I'm not really sure what to say - life with Windows 7 has been.. okay! I'd love to have OS X on my laptop, but at the cost of switching to a 13" laptop.. no ***** thanks.

The 13" Vaio Z has something that the MBA and MBP might never have - a 1080p screen. That would be a 13" I'd use!

 

[Reelknead1]

Personal preference i guess is the only thing i can say. Some people buy Hondas some people buy BMWs. Honda drivers, even if they can afford a BMW never seem to understand why someone would pay that much for a car that goes from point a to point b. It just comes down to what you want out of your trip between a and b i guess.

 

[dark knight]

aside from the tech specs, i do think its funny that sony are showing off their "milled from one piece of aluminium" chassis.

also, i know apple did not invent that style of keyboard but the vaio owes so much to the MBP in looks.

i too would be happy to see a few MBP upgrades along these lines but you have to strike a balance between price and performance, just maxing out a laptop and cranking up the price surely isnt going to be a big seller for the masses.

though, why merge the MB's with the Pro's then. Keep the pro's high end and pricey and the MB's more middle of the road and cheaper. Bizarre.

 

[Jobsian]

Great to read people's insights here, these are potentially expensive purchases for folks reading.

Before the recent update of the MBA, the Vaio Z was a far more powerful ultra lightweight. Now, though, that has changed. I need a computer that will run Windows 7 and a number of apps in Fusion's Unity mode, as well as a bunch of OS X apps at the same time. Fusion is a resource hog, especially in Unity mode. Heretofore, the conventional wisdom was that a minimum of 6GB of RAM, preferably 8, were required for the purpose. I have discovered, though that my 13 inch 2.13Ghz 4GB of RAM MBA handles Fusion in Unity mode, several Windows apps, and several more OS X apps as well as my 17 inch Santa Rosa MBP with 6GB of RAM ever did. The secret is clearly the MBA's 256GB of flash memory. Although I now have page outs with the MBA that I didn't experience with the MBP, they don't seem to slow anything down because flash memory is so much faster than are conventional hard drives.

I am also delighted by the new MBA's glass trackpad and 1440 X 900 display. I was also pleased to discover that its screen is dramatically less susceptible to reflections than are screens of stock MBPs and all iPads, which have glass in front of the screen. In this connection, reflections from my iPad have aways made me crazy.

It's great hearing the MBA worked for you after all, I remember well your posts stating the potential benefits of 8GB ram and me suddenly not feeling content with just the 4. Maybe next time

 

[gwsat]

Great to read people's insights here, these are potentially expensive purchases for folks reading.

It's great hearing the MBA worked for you after all, I remember well your posts stating the potential benefits of 8GB ram and me suddenly not feeling content with just the 4. Maybe next time

As noted in my post that you quoted, my 13 inch 2.13Ghz 4GB of RAM MBA handles Windows apps running in Fusion's Unity mode simultaneously with a bunch of OS X apps just as well as my MBP with 6GB of RAM did. I am now satisfied that flash storage is a game changer. I would not hesitate to recommend one of the new 4GB MBAs to anyone who has been afraid to run Fusion in unity mode on any machine with less than 6GB of RAM.

Over a 24 hour period my swap file will increase from 256MB to 1GB and I may have as many as a half million Page Outs. With flash storage, though, the size of the swap file and the number of Page Outs has no detrimental effect on my MBA's performance. Zero, zip, nada. I am beginning to believe now that even a 2GB MBA might be able to handle Windows in Fusion because the speedy flash storage would take up the slack created by the shortage of RAM. It is a new day, indeed.