Sony TX770 vs. TX850 (or Pentium-M vs. Core Solo)

All,

I just purchased a Sony Vaio TX770P/B. I used to have a 650, and I'm a big fan of everything that Sony's done with this line of ultraportable. Of course, I always have an eye out, and I've been looking at the TX850P/B. I like the fingerprint reader, but I can live with out. However, I'm wondering about its Core Solo 1.2GHz vs. the P-M 1.3GHz in the 770. AFAIK, Core Solo is what they're calling Pentium-M these days. I know the bus is faster (667MHz vs. 500MHz). In addition, the 850 has a slightly newer Intel GMA chipset (950).

So, having listed all of the above, I'd like you to weigh in with your expertise. Do you think a noticeable performance increase would be had with the two models? I'm hardly a PC gamer, and I use it mostly for other tasks (work, weather station monitoring, Internet, music organization, emulation, etc.).

This is the question that will always be in our minds. We wait and salivate, or we give in and go for the now.

 

I hardly think there will be much difference in either notebooks. The core solo performs similar to pentium-m although the core solo runs at slightly faster fsb so it should be a weenie bit faster clock for clock. Since the pentium-m is 100mhz faster they will be more or less identical in performance.

Saying this the core solo offers a much better upgrade path for core duo/core 2 duo. I certainly wouldn't consider changing what you have now for TX850p/b. I'm assume you're thinking about upgrading? Then its a definite nope.

 

Yeah, it's the eternal upgrade issue that I deal with. I turn over devices a lot faster than the time required to get familiar and get the most out of the device.

One review of the TX850P/B stated that they did a slightly better job of keeping the LED light from having such a strong prescence at the bottom of the screen. I liked that and the idea of the fingerprint reader, but I wish that in lieu of removing the Cingular card that they could have added a CF port or something similar. So, in a sense, you lose something with the 850 that you had with the 750 (even though I'll never use it though it can help when selling the unit).

Thanks for your insight on this.

 

I totally feel your pain on always wanting the latest and greatest and when you have a TX7XX series and see the new refresh having a Core Solo with better battery life, bettery performence, you get a bit frustrated.

But I wouldn't upgrade if I were you, the performence difference it not worth it at all, its an incremental upgrade.

And if you keep worrying about your stuff getting obselete, then you'll never enjoy anything at all.

Its best for you to enjoy your TX770P until Sony or another company releases even cooler ultraportable designs in the near future, sometime in mid 07 I think.

For the things you do, you will see little if any difference between the TX7XX and TX8XX. Good luck