[Michel_80]

Hi,

I am currently looking to buy a laptop. What I like about the Mac laptops is everything except low battery life. So I also looking out for the PC side of things.

What do you guys think of this laptop? Looks quite nice but it remains to be seen what it can be capable off.

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/...t5_master.html

it looks like it got a 10.6 screen, intergrated dvd/cdrw and weighs 1.4kg only.

[wallinbl]

Originally posted by Michel_80:
I am currently looking to buy a laptop. What I like about the Mac laptops is everything except low battery life. So I also looking out for the PC side of things.

Mac laptops have excellent battery life. When Apple says 5 hours, you really get 5 hours. When Dell says 5 hours, you get 3.

[Michel_80]

So you can get 5h life out of the 12incher? Still kind of low for a laptop. It is a bit dissapointing that some PC laptops can get 10h (with the exchangeable bay). If it werent for that I would have already have bought the PB.

Anyway, it is not about that, this thread is about the Sony Laptop.

[dencamp]

I'm not able to read the page, so I'm going to use the highly subjective "looks" barometer. I think that the computer looks like an early mock-up for the ibook. I hate computers that throw gadgets and buttons all over the keyboard and around the screen and I think that the sony ends up looking like it is trying to be too many things.

[Michel_80]

I have to agree that including the camera is a bit over the top. Typical japanese laptop is you ask me

[Kenstee]

As it doesn't run the MAC OS it's not really a competitor to the 12" or any other Apple laptop.

BTW, the posts are right about the "short" battery life of the 12". I get 3 1/2 hour max on a battery that has been conditioned and takes a 100% charge with the PB in power saving mode. Life is considerably less if running iTunes inthe background. Moral? Get a spare battery.

[iWrite]

First of all, it's running Windows so remember that you're going to be part of a mass anonymous population also running an OS that leaves a lot to be desired -- truly, after working on Mac OS X, going to Windows XP is very difficult. It's like driving a European roadster and then going to a Japanese car: Looks the same but the experience is completely different. Go drive a new turbo Saab convertible and then drive a Nissan and see what I mean.

Besides that, your choice of computer isn't available in the United States:

http://www.gizmodo.net/

Scroll down on that page and read about it.

You'll have to settle for the current in-country Centrino offering and it's silver with a black keyboard. It's okay, but nothing to write home about.

If you want a great experience then you'd have to buy a Mac. Which, secretly you want to do otherwise you wouldn't be posting at a Mac site.

[cambro]

Originally posted by Michel_80:
So you can get 5h life out of the 12incher? Still kind of low for a laptop. It is a bit dissapointing that some PC laptops can get 10h (with the exchangeable bay). If it werent for that I would have already have bought the PB.

Quoting 10 hours with an "exchangeable bay" is cheating. I can get 10 hours of battery life on my TiGhz if I use an "exchangeable bay" i.e., extra battery!!

Many resellers offer free extra batteries with a purchase so there you go!

[PoisonTooth]

Originally posted by Kenstee:
As it doesn't run the MAC OS it's not really a competitor to the 12" or any other Apple laptop.

Yes, it most certainly is a competitor.

It's a computer isn't it? It's used to run software -- in many cases the same apps -- to perform the same tasks as any other consumer-targeted computer.

[PoisonTooth]

Originally posted by cambro:
Quoting 10 hours with an "exchangeable bay" is cheating. I can get 10 hours of battery life on my TiGhz if I use an "exchangeable bay" i.e., extra battery!!

Many resellers offer free extra batteries with a purchase so there you go!

I get 7 hours out of a single battery on my T40.

[urrl5201]

Hmmm...Everywhere I go I basically plug mine in anyway. Battery contests make me yawn.

The link looks like it's in japanese. Is is plastic or metallic? Cute. Anything less than 12" to me is too small. My eyes are not 20/20 anymore and I don't need to ruin them more by squinting at a mini 10" screen.

[fisherKing]

my roommate has the sony vaio pcg-662r;
12" screen, great specs...and a second battery that attaches to the rear bottom (and so serves as a "coolpad")

9 hours battery life (combined w/the internal)

great screen, small size, fast...weighs a ton

but it's still a pc.

about $2200...

i'd rather have a powerbook

[waxcrash]

Originally posted by wallinbl:
Mac laptops have excellent battery life. When Apple says 5 hours, you really get 5 hours.

Cough, Cough. You've been sipping too much Apple Kool-Aid. When Apple says 5 hours, that is with the power management settings on, the screen brightness set to the lowest setting, and minimal use of the CD drive. Nobody really works in those conditions. In reality, you see about 2 - 2.5 hours of battery life.

[wallinbl]

Originally posted by waxcrash:
Cough, Cough. You've been sipping too much Apple Kool-Aid. When Apple says 5 hours, that is with the power management settings on, the screen brightness set to the lowest setting, and minimal use of the CD drive. Nobody really works in those conditions. In reality, you see about 2 - 2.5 hours of battery life.

I don't use the CD drive when working. I use it when entertaining myself or installing software. I don't like for the screen to be bright in the first place.

My Dell has never gone more than 2:15 on battery, CD or not.

[Toyin]

I don't speak japanese but these are my observation

1. Aesthetically it doesn't hold a candle to the 12" PB
2. The 12" PB has a superdrive option.
3. 12" PB has a slot loading drive
4. 12" PB has integrated wireless networking, this laptop looks like it needs an external card.
5. You can't run OSX.
6. The 12" PB has fullsized Firewire port, 2 USB ports, Video out port, Audio in port, and headphones. I can't tell what the Vaio has.

If these things don't bother you than get the Vaio.

[wallinbl]

Originally posted by Toyin:
2. The 12" PB has a superdrive option.
3. 12" PB has a slot loading drive

The small Sonys don't even have an optical drive in the main unit. They are usually located in the docking station.

[geekwagon]

Originally posted by wallinbl:
The small Sonys don't even have an optical drive in the main unit. They are usually located in the docking station.

This one does have a tray loading drive though. Pretty surprising, the first one I have seen this small with an optical drive built in.

EDIT: looks like you can get a remote and surround sound processor too for home theatre use. This thing would be pretty cool if you wanted a ultra-small laptop that runs windows. Sony often doesn't bring their more "full featured" models to the US though, they don't feel that packing a lot of features into a small space is important to the American consumer.

[jaxxe]

Originally posted by urrl5201:
Hmmm...Everywhere I go I basically plug mine in anyway. Battery contests make me yawn.

The link looks like it's in japanese. Is is plastic or metallic? Cute. Anything less than 12" to me is too small. My eyes are not 20/20 anymore and I don't need to ruin them more by squinting at a mini 10" screen.

It's got a magnesium body.

[wallinbl]

Originally posted by geekwagon:
Sony often doesn't bring their more "full featured" models to the US though, they don't feel that packing a lot of features into a small space is important to the American consumer.

It's not. All electronics manufacturers know this. The good cell phones are in Europe/Asia. The good everything are over there. Americans won't pay the premium (unless it is a television).

[iWrite]

My Titanium gets about 50 hours to a charge...

On AC adapter...



Seriously, though, I purposely took my system off of AC power this morning to test the battery out and I just got 4 hours and 10 minutes.

On ONE charge.

That's pretty great. I have my AC and battery power set to "Reduced" under Energy Saver in System Prefs.

I wouldn't trade my Titanium for ANYTHING.

It's awesome.

[Michel_80]

Yeah, I have to agree that I would never buy this laptop because its not business like , like the apples


The battery life issue, on the 12 incher, in order to swap out the batteries, how long will that take. I mean, I read somewhere that the 12 incher doesn't support hot-swapping (in sleep) so I assume you have to power down. So how long from powering down to being back up and working?

[ilben77]

Asking people what they think of a pc laptop on this board will rarely get you an objective and unbiased answer.
I'm one of these so called switchers and let me share some of my thoughts with you...

I bought an 12" pb about 2 months ago. and yes its a beautiful machine. Apple laptops are probably the best looking machines out there.

5 hours of battery life, don't believe this cause its just marketing crap. I rarely ge more than 2,5/3 hours!!! under normal working conditions.

Now on to OSX, again it's beautiful and looks very slick. yes an excellent design, very stable, though i did had to reboot twice over the last two months because of a total crash. Don't let anyone fool you every OS CAN crash. (I've seen $800.000 IRIX machines crash in the middle of a job). But this is the best os apple has made so far. os9 and before where terribly unstable and did crash a lot and they didn't had any kind of memory management and no real multitasking.
But now on to the major problem I have with the 12"PB running OSX...Boy is it sluggish. I mean sometimes it's really slow. A lot times just out of nowhere when you click something, to open a folder or a app or whatever, the coloured "beachball" starts spinning and spinning and spinning....well you get the point. ( yes i do have it maxed out with memory.)
My 3 years!!! old AMD Athlon 1200MHZ pc with less memory running WinXPpro is much snappier and overal fatser.

The 12"PB machine as whole...? It's very nicely designed, but it seriously lacks in perfomance. Would I buy it again.... (after some thinking) I probably would buy one of the pc laptops with an Intel Centrino processor, which cost less, have higher resolution, and are much faster.

By the way Microsoft did get it right with WinXP. It doesn't look as good as OSX but is also very stable.( I used towork with NT for years which was also stable) I sometimes read the most stupid remarks people write about WinXP. Written by people who don't know what they are really talking about and just blindly shout because they are biased. Ignorance is bliss.
In the end there is nothing you can do on anyone of the platforms that you can not do on the other. (exept play Battlefield1942 but thats another story)

hope this helps you a bit with your choice

[ilben77]

By the way I think the vaio model mentioned does look nice, probably the people who say that it sucks would drool if there was an Apple logo on the same machine instead of Sony.

[Kenstee]

how long will that take. I mean, I read somewhere that the 12 incher doesn't support hot-swapping (in sleep) so I assume you have to power down. So how long from powering down to being back up and working? [/B]

About 3 minutes. Shut down - Swap- Start Up. Really not a big deal.

[S|ntax]

Originally posted by Kenstee:
About 3 minutes. Shut down - Swap- Start Up. Really not a big deal.

actually that is a very big deal to me. swapping out the battery in my tibook takes 15 seconds. going from 15 seconds to 3 minutes is a huge deal. i hope they fix that in the next revision.

[Kenstee]

But now on to the major problem I have with the 12"PB running OSX...Boy is it sluggish. I mean sometimes it's really slow. A lot times just out of nowhere when you click something, to open a folder or a app or whatever, the coloured "beachball" starts spinning and spinning and spinning....well you get the point. ( yes i do have it maxed out with memory.)

FWIW, I think you've got some problems or issues with your machine or system software. I've got the 12" maxed out like yours. I never encountered the "spinning and spinning and spinning" problem you described opening a folder or app.

Have you repaired permissions? Run the disk repair utility? Also, you may want download a utility called "MacJanitor" to run periodically. It performs routine maintanence on the OS X Unix-based system.

[The Ginger Rat]

Totally anecdotal, but Sony Vaios have a rep for beauty but rather poor quality (more so on the desktop end), and they are pricey against comparable Windows laptops. Have they improved recently?

The Centrinos are really worth considering if you have no preference for PCs or Macs. For me, I would not consider them simply because I have a very distinct preference for Macs, but that is just me.

I do think the advent of the Centrinos will spur improvement to the Mac lappies. Honest competition is good.

[Raidiant]

It looks cute to me, personally an onboard camera would have more use then a superdrive at 1x. This might not be a goo desktop at all, but is probably designed highly for mobility an portable use, judging from its small screen I'd think this is more for the business type, then the multimedia junkiel\.

[Kenstee]

Originally posted by S|ntax:
actually that is a very big deal to me. swapping out the battery in my tibook takes 15 seconds. going from 15 seconds to 3 minutes is a huge deal. i hope they fix that in the next revision.

To do that they need a big enough internal battery. I don't think there was room in it in the 12". Perhaps they'll figure it out. Then again perhaps they won't. Just one of the compromises for the small size.

[Michel_80]

Well at this moment I am considering these laptops:

Ibook 900 (12 or 14) = cheap, apple so I can try it (never worked on osx)
12PB = Nice, expensive looking, not too expensive

Sony Z1 = The best looking laptop I have ever seen, amazing screen but battery life is not as good as others (prolly the same as 12incher PB)
Sony aftersales lacks badly (I have a sony laptop currently)

Toshiba Tecra M1 = Sweet everything except large size

IBM t40 = Amazing but expensive, XGA screen is really bad. SXGA models are £2k.

So there, I am still deciding.

[ilben77]

thank you for that advice, I will check out "MacJanitor"
It's not that the coloured beachball spins every time i click something. but only sometimes, though does feels like its increasing.

But in general I'm still a bit dissapointed with the sluggish feel of OSX on the 12"PB, I do have friends also with the 12"pb who experience this in the same way.

[The Placid Casual]

For various reasons...

I will not use Microsoft. I will not use Linux.

If a machine doesn't run Mac OS 9 or X, it is not in the game. Certainly not a 'competitor' for my cash.

Unless some creative licenesing occurs, Sony won't be bringing out a competitor for the 12" anytime soon...

Peace,

Marc

(P.S. I really think all this threat of jumping to Windows is by people who have not been exposed to it's hatefullness recently... and also have no money bound up in legit Mac software such as Photoshop, Illustrator et al.)

[Raidiant]

judging with my minimal japanese knowledge, this thing has a built in video phone, japanese 3D GPS technology ( CG rendering of buildings), bluetooth, position pinpoint system.

The combuter also has a airport extreme like function, not G but it supports both A and B

The phone function requires a extra card for internet functionality everywhere.

The controls of the camera is on the side of the screen, and judging by the writing it would seem this computer is targeted for wealthy females.

The computer also features very ibookish lights that shine through the plastics.

It has ridiculously alot of features for such a small notebook, but I think ti won't be released to americans cause the japanese like to keep th best to themselves and they may be right that americans have not interest in super small technologies.

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by ilben77:
thank you for that advice, I will check out "MacJanitor"
It's not that the coloured beachball spins every time i click something. but only sometimes, though does feels like its increasing.

But in general I'm still a bit dissapointed with the sluggish feel of OSX on the 12"PB, I do have friends also with the 12"pb who experience this in the same way.

Hmmm, no complaints here... I was actually impressed by the speed even after 'downgrading' from a dual 867!!

I would definately give MJ a try. Although, the same functions can also be accomplished in the terminal...

[Raidiant]

Repeated message

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by ilben77:
thank you for that advice, I will check out "MacJanitor"
It's not that the coloured beachball spins every time i click something. but only sometimes, though does feels like its increasing.

But in general I'm still a bit dissapointed with the sluggish feel of OSX on the 12"PB, I do have friends also with the 12"pb who experience this in the same way.

Not sure if you've got the same 12" I've got but X absolutely flies on mine. What exactly is running sluggish on yours?

[itai195]

Just some general observations about Centrino, because some people here have mentioned it and because I've been looking a lot at Centrino laptops the last few days...

Centrino itself isn't a processor -- in order to be a Centrino laptop a machine has to have a Pentium M processor, use the Intel 855 motherboard chipset, and use Intel's 802.11b wifi card. In general, you probably do not want to purchase a pure Centrino laptop, because wifi cards that support 802.11g (and there are some that support a in addition to b and g) are cheap enough.

That said, there's a somewhat annoying trend going on with Centrino laptops. Prices for machines with high resolution screens have actually gone UP. If you want an IBM T40 (14.1" screen) with anything above 1024x768 resolution, you have to get a model that costs well over $2000. Not to mention that a lot of Centrino machines are using pretty subpar graphics chips. It's hard to find a decent one that even uses a Radeon 7500 or 9000. I don't know what's happened to the PC laptop world, but they seem to be going backwards.

Usually I hate Dell, but if you're still shopping, Michel_80, check out the Dell Latitude D600. The line is completely redesigned, and offers decent graphics and high resolution as well as a Pentium M for a reasonable price. It's about the size of a 14" iBook, weighs as much as a 15" TiBook, and you can configure a machine that's both cheaper and significantly faster than a 12" PowerBook. There's also a 10% off coupon floating around on the web... Main downside is the somewhat disappointing battery life for a "Centrino" system (~ 4 hours).

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by itai195:
Just some general observations about Centrino, because some people here have mentioned it and because I've been looking a lot at Centrino laptops the last few days...

Centrino itself isn't a processor -- in order to be a Centrino laptop a machine has to have a Pentium M processor, use the Intel 855 motherboard chipset, and use Intel's 802.11b wifi card. In general, you probably do not want to purchase a pure Centrino laptop, because wifi cards that support 802.11g (and there are some that support a in addition to b and g) are cheap enough.

That said, there's a somewhat annoying trend going on with Centrino laptops. Prices for machines with high resolution screens have actually gone UP. If you want an IBM T40 (14.1" screen) with anything above 1024x768 resolution, you have to get a model that costs well over $2000. Not to mention that a lot of Centrino machines are using pretty subpar graphics chips. It's hard to find a decent one that even uses a Radeon 7500 or 9000. I don't know what's happened to the PC laptop world, but they seem to be going backwards.

Usually I hate Dell, but if you're still shopping, Michel_80, check out the Dell Latitude D600. The line is completely redesigned, and offers decent graphics and high resolution as well as a Pentium M for a reasonable price. It's about the size of a 14" iBook, weighs as much as a 15" TiBook, and you can configure a machine that's both cheaper and significantly faster than a 12" PowerBook. There's also a 10% off coupon floating around on the web... Main downside is the somewhat disappointing battery life for a "Centrino" system (~ 4 hours).

Faster! You forget the one main handicap...

[itai195]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
Faster! You forget the one main handicap...

Well yeah, but that isn't always a hard and fast rule. I love OS X and my PowerMac will be my main machine, but personally I'm considering a Wintel laptop because I want to do some Windows-specific development tasks. If the OS and, to some extent, form factor don't factor in your buying decision as much as performance, battery life, price, having modular drive bays, etc then it's hard to justify a Mac laptop. The 12" iBook is still competitive, but if you want more performance for under $2k, the 12" powerbook is disappointing. The 15" and 17" PowerBooks are great if you're willing to spend that much.

[anti-sleep]

Originally posted by wallinbl:
I don't use the CD drive when working. I use it when entertaining myself

[flahdah]

i dont think thats designed to be a pb12" competitor, the pc world probably isnt too worried about competing with the 2% market share of apple.

that sony is smaller, lighter, and has a camera built into it. (its also uglier).

the sony vaio z1 is a pretty cool pc laptop, check it out.

[The Ginger Rat]

itai195:

Yes, thanks for the clarification, I forgot that Centrino is very much a specific Intel model line. I guess the general class is Pentium-M laptops?

[itai195]

Originally posted by The Ginger Rat:
itai195:

Yes, thanks for the clarification, I forgot that Centrino is very much a specific Intel model line. I guess the general class is Pentium-M laptops?

Pretty much, yes. Although every Pentium-M laptop I've seen can be configured as a "Centrino" machine (and thus get one of those Centrino stickers on it). The main consequence of this is that they'll also tend to use one of the Intel 855 motherboard chipsets and they'll have built in antennae for wifi, as Apple's laptops do. Essentially, Centrino leads PC makers to make their laptops more energy efficient, wireless, powerful, and smaller. Some mainstream PC makers are finally building notebooks that mimic the Titanium PowerBook's form factor and features -- they're thin and light but full featured. This makes those of us who thought Apple hit the nail on the head with the TiBook's design feel smart

[mosch]

Originally posted by Michel_80:

The battery life issue, on the 12 incher, in order to swap out the batteries, how long will that take. I mean, I read somewhere that the 12 incher doesn't support hot-swapping (in sleep) so I assume you have to power down. So how long from powering down to being back up and working?

Well, I was about to reply to your message and tell you that you were misinformed, but for some reason I decided to redo my test on this, and I discovered that you're 100% right. While the powerbook appears to go back into sleep mode (the light on the latch goes back on), it doesn't wake properly after a battery sweep.

That being said, I timed a powerdown, swap, powerup, and I was able to do it in a bit under 2:30.

[mosch]

Originally posted by ilben77:
Asking people what they think of a pc laptop on this board will rarely get you an objective and unbiased answer.
I'm one of these so called switchers and let me share some of my thoughts with you...

No offense, but I have to think that there's something wrong with your computer. I also have a PB12, and I don't experience random lockups, and it's not due to lack of use (I probably use it for 4 or 5 hours a day).

As far as battery life goes, if I'm using wireless, I get about 3 hours, if I turn that off, I get about 4.

As for how I feel about the PB12, I broke my first one and I immediately replaced it with another one. I have no regrets. (And no, I'm not a mac-only user.)

If you want a convenient, portable OS X machine, the PB12 is clutch. If you want to run XP, then get a centrino. That's the biggest difference, after all.

[Michel_80]

Originally posted by itai195:
Just some general observations about Centrino, because some people here have mentioned it and because I've been looking a lot at Centrino laptops the last few days...

Centrino itself isn't a processor -- in order to be a Centrino laptop a machine has to have a Pentium M processor, use the Intel 855 motherboard chipset, and use Intel's 802.11b wifi card. In general, you probably do not want to purchase a pure Centrino laptop, because wifi cards that support 802.11g (and there are some that support a in addition to b and g) are cheap enough.

That said, there's a somewhat annoying trend going on with Centrino laptops. Prices for machines with high resolution screens have actually gone UP. If you want an IBM T40 (14.1" screen) with anything above 1024x768 resolution, you have to get a model that costs well over $2000. Not to mention that a lot of Centrino machines are using pretty subpar graphics chips. It's hard to find a decent one that even uses a Radeon 7500 or 9000. I don't know what's happened to the PC laptop world, but they seem to be going backwards.

Usually I hate Dell, but if you're still shopping, Michel_80, check out the Dell Latitude D600. The line is completely redesigned, and offers decent graphics and high resolution as well as a Pentium M for a reasonable price. It's about the size of a 14" iBook, weighs as much as a 15" TiBook, and you can configure a machine that's both cheaper and significantly faster than a 12" PowerBook. There's also a 10% off coupon floating around on the web... Main downside is the somewhat disappointing battery life for a "Centrino" system (~ 4 hours).

All the centrinos I have looked at got a Radeon 7500 with at leats 32mb (except the Sony offcourse). I don't like Dells, because they have that Compal/Quanta feel about their laptops. IBM, Toshiba and Sony make their own.

[iWrite]

IF you're going to buy a PC/Wintel laptrap -- I mean laptop -- then consider the Acer Centrino 800 series.

Seriously, that thing is VERY nice. Have you seen it? The ergonomic keyboard is smoking.

As far as any other system, you HAVE to consider customer support. The truth is that Dell has the computer industry's worst ratings from customers. That reason alone is why I'd never buy a Dell -- EVER.

I've had to call Sony tech support about various things for corporate issues and I think that Sony must have modeled their support after Apple's support because they're almost identical in the way they do business. Best of all, you actually DO speak to someone versus "telehell" with any other company, Dell and HP/Compaq included.

Sony also has the most included software (other than Apple) that I've seen.

Stability with XP? It's totally dependent on the third-party apps you're using. Don't count on it. Seriously, I was using a Sony Vaio PCG-GRZ660 for a while and it started out okay and then it crapped out. It was crashing CONSTANTLY.

Trust me, it's not as stable as you think. There are a lot of problems.

[wallinbl]

Originally posted by iWrite:
As far as any other system, you HAVE to consider customer support. The truth is that Dell has the computer industry's worst ratings from customers. That reason alone is why I'd never buy a Dell -- EVER.

Man, I feel for everyone else. Dell must heap all of their good customer service on me. I have ordered over 100 computers (servers and desktops) from Dell. I have never had problems with service. I send them an email, and there is a tech onsite the next day (same day for servers) with replacement parts in hand.

[BigDaddy]

As far as any other system, you HAVE to consider customer support. The truth is that Dell has the computer industry's worst ratings from customers. That reason alone is why I'd never buy a Dell -- EVER.
There are a lot of problems.



You can hate Dell if you want but your an idiot.

PC Magazine
15th Annual Reader's Choice Award for Service and Reliability

August 2002

Eleven-time winner of the Reader's Choice Award for Service and Reliability for desktops. Second-time winner for servers (second time servers were part of this survey)

[StiZeven]

Ugh. I still can't believe that there are still SO many Mac Zealots out there who simply can not accept the fact that many people like and use XP and that there ARE some notebooks out there that are nicer and perform better that out precious PowerBooks. No, we aren't talking about the 'well, it's fast enough for me' or the 'well, OS X is everything I'll ever need' syndrome. If that's the case, then great for you. But if that’s not the case for others, spare us the sycophant Mac evangelism and biasness.

I use both Macs and PCs. I am just one of those people who see the good and bad in both and call it like it is. I love my Mini PowerBook, but it does NOT blow this little VAIO away (regardless of which OS you prefer). For once I'd like to read something like, 'Wow, that's a nice PC notebook. If I was a PC user, I'd get one as it's very impressive'. Instead, you read ridiculous comments about hardware most don't even know about. The reasoning behind it all is embarrassing and speaks volumes. If that VAIO had the Apple Logo on it, we'd all be drooling.

Since I have the privilege to enjoy and use both XP and X, if or when this new Sony Notebook comes to the States, I will most likely get it. Why? Well, it's designed beautifully (Sony is not afraid to place status lights and buttons on their machines, tastefully), it has a very powerful and efficient processor, it's got a gorgeous wide screen SXGA display, holds up to a GB of DDR Ram, a built in CDR/DVD, built in wireless and Bluetooth, built in webcam, and is an astounding 3 pounds. To wrap it all up nicely, and if their claims are true, it has great battery life as well. Yeah, what a REAL piece of ****!

And please, many may hate Dell, but their customer service is the best I've ever experienced. Even if you speak to a complete moron who doesn't know what he's doing, the end result will be a service man coming out to your house to fix or replace a part, or having a new part FedEx'd out to you. Whether it's a noisy fan, a new HD or an LCD display, if you're covered it'll get replaced - QUICKLY. Apple's support is not only expensive, but it lacks onsite service and make you pull teeth to get a part sent out to you. Usually, they'll make you lug it into a service center, or mail it back to them and wait for it (with no guarantee of how long).

Also, I've been running XP since its release and OS X for about 1.5 years now. Guess what? My XP machines (3 in total) has gotten TWO BSOD in that stretch of time. Each were due to hardware conflicts. As for my Macs, I've gotten more rainbow death balls and kernel panics in both my iMac and PowerBook (Ti) in only one year. So, as far as stability goes, it's all relative and your mileage may vary. It's been my experience that users who don't really know what they are doing will screw up their PCs. But, I've had great experiences and won't speak for anyone else with inane blanketed comments, so I'd appreciate the same respect in return.