Can sony match the Macbook AIR with their next TZ?

Well?

Mac is larger screen but lighter and thinner.. hrm.

Will Sony drop the optical drive? hrm

 

Why would anyone want to compete with the MBA? So it can fit in a manila envelope whilst lacking so many ports and functionality? No thanks.

The closest Sony got to it was the 10.4" X505 back in late 2003, very rare, and discontinued in mid 2004. And even that had more ports than this.

Besides, the TZ is 11.1", the MPA is 13.3", a noticeable size difference.

Keep the TZ the way it is, its still very thin but yet fits a DVD drive or the option for a second 2.5" hard drive, very impressive.

Getting a notebook that thin and cutting out so much is just not practical, its not worth it.

 

Yeah, go check the Apple section to see the discussions on it. But I don't think Sony has to worry about the MBA threatening it's business...

 

god i hope not.

sony would also have to drop the built in WWAN, ethernet port, 100G harddrive, a couple USB ports, and user replaceable battery.

price to replace mackbook air battery = $129 + loss of laptop for a few days.

macbook air = worthless.

 

I agree with all the above but my opinion is that Sony need to get more inventive like the people over at Apple. Did you see that touchpad features? the Tz is way better than MBA because its a real nice balance between features and weight. And who said the MBA is lighter than the TZ? Tz is 2.7 lb standard. The MBA is 3lb.

 

and also, when the dude was opening and closing the MBA lid, it look stirdy, my Tz is of carbon fiber, but i feel so scared when i open it so im always delicate when opening the lid.

 

I like my TZ that I can just pick it up and go without worrying a DVD drive, charger and USB port. I can change the battery anytime I want.
MBA hasn't started shipping yet. I'm wondering how apple deals with cpu heat.
Oh yea, and Apple gets special design CPU from Intel.

 

Mac Air is a piece of crap. After so much buzzing, I will not even consider, since the SZ is the same screen, has more ports/dvd/better video and in the same footprint. Thickness is not THAT essential beyond a certain level

 

TZ is a much better machine. Power savings, Battery options, DVD drive, screen resolution, wi fi, bluetooth, expresscard slot, USB, GIG ethernet, Firewire...

Lets face it.. the MBA is just a shiny gizmo.. not an ultra portable,

 

Sony is than better that apple

 

TZ > Apple Macbook Air

I'm sorry apple fan boys but Macbook Air is not match against TZ.

My 1.2 Ghz, 48 SSD, 160 GB HDD is one of the best ULTRA PORTABLE Laptop ever. My TZ feels much faster than my 1 year old SZ360.

 

It's an interesting and actually much better looking laptop when you see it in the video.

It's physically too large for me and despite it's impressive thinness it's still a relatively large foot print compared to the TZ. The TZ is already a pretty thin laptop. I'm not sure I'd actually want a laptop thinner than the TZ?

I don't really consider it a strict ultraportable laptop but rather Apple have created a niche notebook that fits in between the sub and ultra category. For many I can see it providing an ideal solution as a very portable laptop that's a bit more useable because of it's slightly bigger size.

We should all welcome new and diverse laptop designs even if it's not for you.

 

This thread is inherently biased as it's in the Sony section, but it does appear a lot of Apple fans are disappointed with it from the 2+ hours I've read in their section. I saw two TZ owners in the Macbook Air thread who liked it and wanted to get one (one was an EX TZ owner though). So I guess some people DO want to get one, even after having the TZ. Despite the majority opinion, different strokes for different folks.

Personally, I applaud Apple for coming out with a thin as hell notebook, but they should have made the screen size 12 inches at the very most IMHO. Definitely not in the same class as the TZ as far as I am concerned so there is no comparison. Sony should not feel threatened to make their next TZ "thinner"; 1 inch is plenty thin for me. As you get thinner and thinner the rewards get less and less.

 

The next TZ will be using Montevina processors which will be lower power and have more cache and FSB than the MB Air. Plus it might have larger SSD drives and definitely intels X4500 graphics .

 

I really wish that Sony made a reincarnation of the X505 w/ widescreen display and a touchpad. It is a really attractive notebook in my opinion....

 

tz is still lighter...

 

And the new Apple has a too large footprint to be truely called ultra portable (12 inches screen is max IMO), and because batteries have a much shorter life span than the machine itself, the non-replaceable battery is a severe drawback (must send the machine to Apple for replacement!).

The TZ is much better: Large enough (and very good!) screen and keyboard, lighter and has replaceable battery. And is a beautiful machine! IMO, the colors of the base and keyboard of the new Apple are very ugly.

The image of being "the world thinnest" (just a silly gimmic) notebook is next to worthless: For most purposes this feature is not so important, in fact, the less weight and smaller footprint of the TZ are far more important.

So the very title of this thread is IMO meaningless: There is no need for Sony to match the new Apple product.

 

egads no touchpad! The eraserhead was my favourite feature of the X505 and C1 series!

A new X505/C1 would be wonderful, though. I love my T250 but it still feels big.

 

I watched the keynote video and oooo'ed and ahhhh'ed when I saw the "Air". But when the presentation was done I couldn't figure out why you would want that over the 13" Macbook. I mean seriously the Air appears pretty amazing as far as design goes, but thin is not as important as portable and functional. They designed the entire thing around how possibly rediculously thin they could make it. Thickness is not what makes or breaks the notebook, there are at least 10 factors to consider! Battery, storage, heat/power, connectivity, weight, footprint, speed, storage, wireless, keyboard... I feel they hit about 50%. Gotta admit though, the thickness and the remote optical drive is pretty cool.

heheh it reminds me of a milano cookie. Mmmmm. cookie.

 

yet another fart coming from Apple
Buzz Buzz Buzz and then a fart...
It is a trend now...

 

the thinness is what sony needs to match, I agree though, if apple were going to limit the peripherals so much, they should have made it 10"-12", the other 13" notebooks are much more powerful

 

they already did ricardo, with the X505

Also there is a G series not sold in the US WITH a CDrom that is 0.15" fatter than the current Apple fart

http://www.dynamism.com/g2/specs.shtml

 

I'm sure our TZ's would be thinner if we didn't have a optical drive, but we do and I think it's well worth having that for a few extra tenth's of a inch. I'm still trying to figure out who the air will appeal to. Could be a failure for them imho.

 

zkaudio, I cannot see the point: Why "need" Sony TZ match the thinness? (In my opinion one of the worst design features of small notebooks is the thickness and "clumsiness" - but the TZ is elegant and thin enough IMO. So why engage in a "world competition" where the "best" is the thinnest?

I think Apple here is carrying out an idiotic PR gimmic, and that this "thinnest gimmic" reveals that they really have not so much essential to contribute with. And the machine is otherwise just as big as MacBook, and it is heavier than the TZ. It is not in the same league as the TZ.

 

Don't forget the TZ crams a whole slew of ports and slots:

TZ's 2GB removable RAM vs. MacBook Air's on-board RAM
Expresscard slot vs. ...
SD/Memory Stick Card Reader vs. ...
Stereo Speakers vs. Mono Speaker
Wireless WAN (EV-DO) vs. ...
Ethernet port vs. ...
Firewire port vs. ...
Bulkier VGA port vs. mini-DVI
Modem jack vs. ...
2 USB ports vs. 1 USB port
Microphone input jack vs. ...

They add up and do take quite a bit of space.

 

ditch apple

 

As someone who was anxiously awaiting the MBA announcement, I would have to say, I am TOTALLY disappointed. No optical drive I can live with but they should have at least bundled it at the $3000 level. This is vintage Apple. Even LG bundles a sweet-looking drive with their A or C series subnotes. And who the EFF wants ONE USB port? And no Ethernet? Also, no Penryn but a shrunken Merom (specially done for Apple by Intel) I will have to agree with |SONY| *gasp* that the SZ is a much better buy. Buy it with a 9300 Penryn and stick in a SSD or even 7K200 and you are golden.

The TZ still wins. I still may get the MBA next month--not because it's a good buy but because I'm thinking of switching to Leopard.

 

MBA sacrifices WAY TOO much for the portability and thinness. Only 1 USB port? When you have no built-in Ethernet port and no built-in optical drive? What the hell? OK, give me 3 USB ports, then maybe I can still think about it. 1 USB port is simply NOT enough, especially for MBA which requires USB portssss* for external Ethernet adapter and external optical drive. An USB Hub is absolute a must for MBA owners. At the end, you lose portability when you carry all the stuff you might need with you. Both TZ and SZ blow MBA away IMHO. For about the same price, a TZ/SZ gives you two built-in USB ports for ALL USB devices, except* Ethernet port and optical drive, which you already have as built-in. TZ can last longer than 5 hours on battery, and it's smaller. SZ, no bigger but a little bit thicker, has hybrid graphic system, which can last more than 4 hours in stamina mode when doing the same tasks a MBA can do, and you can play some decent games in speed mode if you want to.
And oh yeah, MBA doesn't even have stereo speakers...

Though, the good things about MBA:
Backlit keyboard
large multi-touch trackpad

 

Trouble with the MBA is that it isn't particularly small but rather thin. It will still take up the same space in my laptop bag or briefcase horizontally and vertically.

It really just smacks of a marketing angle. It's allows Apple to claim one particular unique aspect of it's notebook. Bottom line is the TZ is a substantially smaller footprint.

Apart from consumers urge to have the latest and flashest Apple design, rationally a Macbook would be just as portable, offer more features, is more powerful and way cheaper.

 

Yeah, sigh, the keyboard IS sweet.

 

wrightc23 wrote:

"It really just smacks of a marketing angle. It's allows Apple to claim one particular unique aspect of it's notebook."


I really agree. This is what I earlier meant by my expression "just a gimmick", with much more drawbacks than advantages.

 

When is expected this to happen? Around January 2009?

 

I think we will see flying cars before a redesigned tz series

 

I don't think Jayayess was refering to a new model T. Just that sooner or later, Sony must replace this two years old Napa chipset and probably will do it when Montevina (other ultraportables like Asus or Fujitsu has already Santa Rosa) will be available.

 

Actually the flying car has been around for a while

http://www.bornrich.org/entry/last-sky-commuter-prototype-in-existence-reaches-ebay/

They've just sold it on ebay for 150K


As for th next TZ, all kids can hope that they will see anything beyond incremental updates . Montevina -> big no, since Intel haven't even announced anything in the ULV range that uses it

 

What about the SU9300 or U3300?

 

U3300 is single core. Don't even mention it. The SU9300 and SU9400 were 'leaked' although I doubt we will see them by the end of the year. It took them a year to catch up with the U7600/U7700 after the release of the Core2Duo . With Intel's financial results, I doubt we will see them before Q1 2008.

I also want to see an official roadmap from intel.

'Intel declined to comment on unannounced products and could only reveal is that the launch of Montevina is currently scheduled for the first half of 2008'

 

Jack is right,

All the new ultraportables has upgraded the chipset, including this new Mac (what a disaster for Apple). It will be very weird if Sony continues using the current GMA950 in the next refresh of the TZ. Intel will announce soon the Montevina ULV hopefully. But for sure, we will have to wait untill Q4 2008 or Q1 2009 having ultraportables with this.
Actually, I'm oriented on the Asus ultraportable, can't wait so much. Just a little worried for the battery life.

 

Nehalem for notebooks is supposed to be coming in Q2 of 2009, so I doubt Intel will wait so long to release low power Montevina's.

 

Core 2 Duo was released on July 13, 2006
Core 2 Duo ULV were released April 5, 2007

See what I am talking about?

I also doubt the 800MHZ FSB jump into the ULVs, while the current penryn's are 800Mhz and it would be a stretch for the ULVs to skip the 667Mhz mark.

 

I'm a mac fanboi but am not impressed with the mba at all.

would rather get the VAIO TZ (if not for that god awful os known as windows vista)

 

man those apple fanboys are defending that mba to death its fun to go over there and debate with them about their beloved mba i guess to each their own

 

I just went through the process of deciding between TZ and Air, and I have to mention I really wanted to get Air as I wanted the ability to run Mac OS. In the end I dropped $2k on TZ yesterday:

http://slavior.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/sony-vaio-tz-versus-apple-macbook-air/

 

I have a tz and while I love it, I would buy another in a second if a new tz came out with an upgraded graphics chip.

While the air is nice, its just too big to replace the tz.

 

So,

who is going to be first to try OSX on the TZ?.. would this be the best of both worlds?

I will be trying it on my T26C within the next week or so.. but would love to know if anyone else has tried it. Unbuntu works great on my T26C.

Any thoughts?

 

Excellent post. Thank you.

 

What do you think of the TZ compared to your Fujitsu?

 

If the mac is a pc and the macos is a bsd unix, what is my incentive to buy an overpriced ugly pc with an OS that is not compatible with 93% of all business users?

 

It feels like a natural upgrade - the screen is a touch bigger and brighter, though the brightness could be related to Fujitsu's age. My power management is still a bit wonky as the Sony power manager crashes on startup so I have to sort that out, but that's really the only thing not quite right after the XP downgrade - and boy was it worth it to downgrade, the TZ feels so much snappier! Things I will miss from Fujitsu are the 3 USB ports and the S-Video port. On the plus side encoding music and occasional video will be a lot quicker with the new TZ!

I know some of you will think I'm crazy but even in the end I found my Fujitsu's ULV Pentium M plenty fast for most tasks I was doing, except once a day it would have a bit of a stutter when I overloaded it with open applications, and I did a lot of stuff with it: from Win32 and PHP development, to music, Photoshop, heavy duty Excel work, etc. I am very frugal as to what goes on it though, things like Opera keep RAM from filling up too quickly and with apps like ObjectDock and SlickRun I can disable most of the Windows clutter and fully use that tiny screen. Still, I am looking forward to my new Core 2 Duo existance!

PS. Thanks UnrealFire!

 

I was waiting for apple to launch it Utlra portable but i was disappointed in mba so i got a sony TZ today.

Lol at monospeaker and 3 hour battery life