Apple vs Sony- Then?

20 October 2011, 10.30am

One of the few thousands question that I always ask myself, is it necessary to buy a powerful laptop? I mean, a laptop that can do everything such as playing DOTA, CS without lag, battery that can lasts up to 10hrs straight with a single charge and most importantly, size. Well, I'm planning to get a new laptop soon, but I have this dilemma, yes, dilemma. Dilemma? Come on Aizat, explain why?

I've been using apple laptop since form 3 till now. To be honest, I love it so much! I took an oath with someone that I won't change my laptop choice except apple. No other laptop can beat apple in terms of its design and speed. No other laptops in the market can be compared with apple, period! But recently, there were few laptops that I found, running on windows that are so powerful and eye catching till it makes me to change my decision to not buying a mac. One of it is the new sony vaio z. Gosh, I don't know how to explain further but it's just so cool and powerful! However, in-spite of all its powerful-ness and its aesthetic design, there are pros and cons for both laptops. The sony vaio z and apple macbook air are my two favourite laptops that I wish to own one of it one day. Hereby, I'll do a quick comparison on both of the laptops:

• Intel® Core™ i7-2620M Processor 2.70 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.40 GHz
• Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit
• 13.1 inch wide (Full HD: 1920x1080) TFT colour display (VAIO Display Premium, LED backlight, Adobe RGB 96% coverage)
• Absolute power in only 16.65 mm and 1.165 kg body
• Power Media Dock™ to enhance productivity and connectivity: AMD Radeon™ HD 6650M, Blu-ray Disc™ Drive with DVD SuperMulti, and more ports.
• SSD in RAID 0: (256 GB (128 GB x 2; Serial ATA)) for Quick Boot and quick operation

source- Sony Malaysia

Display: 13.3", 1440 x 900 LED backlit display. Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated graphics. Mini DisplayPort and Thunderbolt.

Battery: 50 watt-hour Lithium Ion rechargeable, not user replaceable. Comes with 45W MagSafe power adapter. Claimed runtime: up to 7 hours. Claimed standby: 30 days.

Performance: 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-2557M ULV CPU is standard (2 cores, 4 threads, Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz). 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 ULV is an optional upgrade. 4 gigs DDR3, 1333Mhz RAM (not upgradable, soldered onto motherboard).

Drives: 128 gig or 256 gig SSD drive. No internal optical drive.

Size: 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.11-0.68 inches. Weight:2.96 pounds.

Camera: FaceTime video chat camera.

Audio: Built in stereo speakers, mic and 3.5mm stereo headphone jack.

Networking: Integrated dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.

Software: Mac OS X Lion 10.7. Mac Mail, Safari web browser, iLife suite including iMovie, iDVD, Garage Band and iPhoto, FaceTime video chat app and more.

Expansion and Ports: 1 SD card slot. Two USB 2.0 ports, 3.5mm headphone jack and combined Thunderbolt/mini DisplayPort.

source- Mobile Tech Review

Well well, it seems that sony vaio z has higher processor speed, higher resolution screen and bigger storage space than MBA. The battery life on both laptops are fairly the same, 7hrs on a single charge. The design also looks fairly well, but I prefer the MBA with its solid aluminium unibody enclosure. However, the graphics in Sony can only be fully utilised if an additional media dock is purchased, then another $$$ goes to waste. Sony is popular for its somehow overpriced optional items. Remarkably, Sony Z is lighter than the MBA. Again however, the sound quality on the vaio z is crappy based on the reviews I've read. So crappy that even the reviewers mentioned that the quality of the sound is the same as the quality of the sound, 20 years back. When compared to MBA, it's way way way way better!

The price? Well,

Sony vaio z- Starts at RM8999, plus the media dongle and all, will be RM 10k

Apple MBA- High end 13 inch at RM4999

Wow! the sony vaio z, again it's overpriced! too overpriced!

I've been asking few of my friends whether should I change to Windows from Mac. All of them said NO!, stick to a mac. Besides, windows 8 is coming, so might as well I wait for it. So guys! Help me out in making decisions okay? Really need a good laptop for my university life.

My decision

75% MBA vs 25% Sony vaio z

What is urs? :)