Carbon fiber in Sony TZ150...

Right now, I'm torn between TZ150 and Toshiba R500. TZ looks so much better, but it's such a slowpoke compared to R500, and R500 is even lighter and bigger, to boot! What might tip the scale is the chassis.

R500 looks and feels pretty flimsy. TZ, not so much. But still, I'm not sure.

Now, I understand that carbon fiber means it's an alloy of carbon fiber and plastic. So, in the case of TZ, how much is actually carbon and how much is plastic? I read here in the Asus review that cheaper "carbon fiber" alloys are actually no stronger than plastic. Something of a misleading ad, really.

Second, how much does carbon cover TZ150? The lid feels carbon, but the edge of the lid feels plastic, and what about the body? The body, to me, feels like plastic too. So is carbon fiber TZ in reality only the lid?

 

Oh, I might add that I've been mostly a Toshiba guy. Have had two Toshis and had uniformly good experiences with both, but my current one is getting on years and I need an update.

Then I saw the TZ at a sony style store. Wow. Damn the cost, but that was one purty notebook. It was such a visually striking notebook, that I feel this urge to get one.

But. Thinking over this, I can't get a notebook just cos it look purty, even if it's a knockout like TZ. Performance-wise, TZ's get much room for improvement, especially considering that Sony wants $2500 for it (including 2 RAM upgrade). What might tip the scale is the roadworthiness-- if TZ can take the rigors of travel much better than R500, in such measures as accidentally dropping it, spilling beer/coffee over it, forgetting I've got my precious notebook in the backpack and flinging it over when dead tired, etc., etc.

 

You mean TZ90 with 2GB and SSD is slow compared to R500?

I don't believe this. Show me the number please.

 

No. I mean TZ150n/b, which is offered in the US. TZ90 is Japan only, I think.

TZ150 is 1Gig + 4200 rpm HD, which I plan on upgrading to 2 gig ram. I've played around with it, and it is interminably sloooooow with Vista. I don't plan on putting in XP, because: a) I don't have XP discs; b) I've read too many horror stories here of people clean installing and somehow botching it, resulting in the BSD...

 

Ok I get it. Yes that would be slow under Vista.

I plan on installing XP.

 

Import a TZ90 or G. The TZ90 is basically a customisable TZ.

You can look at the G here:

http://vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/G2/spec_ownermade.html
http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Style-a/Product/G/index.html
English: http://www.sony.com.au/vaio/category.jsp?id=34349

You can't purchase the G in America, but you can import it and get VAIO Overseas Service for 1 year, or stick with 3 years Japan-only warranty and ship it back when you need a repair.

 

bump?

Anyone know about tz's chassis?