Dammit, i waited, but looks like im going switch to Mac

Unless theres any word on a new ~13" chassis from Sony coming soon??

i just looked at this breakdown of the new 13" macbook pro and the sheer engineering behind it is amazing! Looks bulletproofing

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-13-Inch-Unibody/814/2


I like the Z series but at over £1500....

 

Macbook Pro 13" is a good deal at the moment. The battery life of it is probably better than the Sony Z.

Sony Z starts around £1,100 (Or maybe lower, I did not search for very long)

Sony Z has some benefits on a hardware level: 1600 x 900 option and 500 grams lighter and a much smaller footprint (about 15%).

Then there is the OS X vs. Windows debate. I don't mind either, except for Apple's antialiasing that looks blurry. So Mac OS X is a no go for me.
(Windows Cleartype vs. OS X)

 

Don't forget you can buy an extended battery for the Z which will give it superior battery life and it will still be about 1lb less than the MB. The Z has also got built in HDMI which most people still prefer and it has got built in mobile broadband. You can also get a blu-ray drive as well.

The 13" MBP is a bit on the heavy side for a 13". I would like the weight to come down to about 4.2lbs preferably 4.0lbs and then Apple to address the lack of 3G capabilities. Also, the non removable battery is not ideal for people that do not live near an Apple store. However, if i wanted one this would not put me of.

The unibody design might be a bit tougher than what was used before but AL still has more of a tendency to dent when dropped compared to carbon fibre.
Still, the pricing is VERY competitive for those in the UK. Not checked anywhere else. The Z is a bit pricey. Hopefully, Sony will do something about the pricing and the video card as well.

Edited to add:
The new 13" MBP has a 58w battery, the same as the Z. Macs tend to be a bit more power efficent but Sony has also got very good power management. Also, i do think the 4500HD GPU is a bit more power efficent in real life usage.
Apple claimed 8 hrs for the 17" MBP with an 80w battery, some people get about 5-6 in real life usage.
I look forward to reading some pro and user reviews for the 13-15 (73w) versions, i know battery life will be good, but it is just a question of how good.

 

I'd go for the Sony, in my experiences with them, you pay for what you get, but that terrible blur on safari is most disturbing, i've worked with some apples, there different but i would prefer the good o'l pc at the end of the day

 

Keep in mind that the blur is all across the OS, not just in Safari.

How Apple can get away with it still puzzles me...

 

For switchers I can see how it is a problem. But I have never had a problem with AA.

 

I previously had the choice of the macbook or the Z, obviously at the time the Z was better (IMO)

If I was making that decision now, it would be the macbook pro!


Cost wasn't an issue since it's a company purchased laptop (I only got it signed off for my trip to India 2 days prior - The Vaio TX is now my girlfriends "bebo" laptop )

That being said, I do love my Z and I honestly can't say one bad thing about it, and that's the god's honest truth! It's flawless IMO. But I can't tell you why you shouldn't go for the mac too... they're both awesome!

 

- Myth: Antialiasing on the Mac screen makes it look bad. It's not just the OS, it's also the inferior screen.

- Myth: Macs are not more power efficient.

- Myth: The aluminium case looks super-durable. I'd like hear you repeat that after your first real drop. An SZ or Z can easily survive a slept fall from above head height into a hard wood surface with some cosmetic damage. An MBP will not survive in an operational capacity, and a UBMBP will look like crud if it is still operational.

- Connectivity. You dont necessarily need to take out a contract to use the inbuilt 3G on the Z. Get a PAYG card from T-Mobile, etc. It'll work provided you aren't hammering it on a daily basis. The Macbooks also have significantly poorer wireless pickup.

e.g. large room with wireless AP at far edge -> structural wall -> corridor -> structural wall -> Apple having problems connecting -> structural wall -> far end of another large room -> SZ/Z/TZ/TT with "low signal"

- Myth: Battery life. A standard Z will match the 13MBP in equivalent super-ekeing mode if my results with the current battery-integrated 17MBP and Air are to go by - and still be replaceable, as well as be lighter.

The Z is not perfect, but I'd choose it in a heartbeat over the MB/P if I had a choice. Well I do have a choice, it's just that I have to have one or both since the Z won't run OS X - and I choose both.

And besides, they've got rid of one of the best 'design detail points' of the unibodies - the battery compartment release mechanism.

 

If i go for the MBP i'll probably install XP on it too, alongside OSX, so the OS isnt a huge issue

 

The screenshot I posted earlier is not influenced by screen quality. It's not a photograph of a display.

I've had two MBA's with high quality screens, and Apple's AA still looked blurry. When I ran Windows on the MBA letters looked fine. So I know for sure it was not the screen.

I agree that an inferior screen, like the one on the first gen Alu MBs, makes it worse.

 

I always love the fact that people qualify 'x gen' on an Apple with something that after a while is acknowledged to suck by even the fanboiest, as though if it was a temporary blip - not just a continuous stream of different (). It stands to reason of course, but there's something about a pretty face that drags down many people's reasoning capability.

With the clearly even if you're almost blind inferior MB screens it is pretty apparent. With the nice and bright Air screens, I would think the continued inferiority to Sony may be less apparent. Stick Vista on an Air, run it alongside a SZ/Z - and stack the two machines on each other with overlapping screens and look closely. It's gonna be pretty darned obvious. It'll be interesting to see what screen they've chosen for the MBP13 - I'm presuming it's not changed over the MB, especially as they can still hide it behind the Glare-o-matic glass.

 

Early reviews seem to suggest otherwise.

 

The new MBP 13" definetely uses new and better screens. They're now comparable to MBA quality. Lots of info and pictures can be found on the forums of Macrumors.

 

i would hope the mb pro 13" new screens would not be compareable to mba qaulity. the mba has horrible vertical viewing angles.

 

There are several screens used in MBA, maybe you saw a bad one.

One of the screens the 13" MBP is using is 9C9F, which is also used in MBA.

So expect similar quality.

 

Whatever screen I had in the Rev's A and B were clearly worse than the SZ and/or the Z, attendant video hardware and OS X issues aside. Come to think of it, both of my Rev.A's had very minor blemishes (never seen on a Sony to date) in the screen behind the TFT as well - but with all the other issues with the pile of ****'s I kept forgetting to point it out to the Geniuses.

Anyway, if it's the same as the Air then no longer highly mediocre - which would translate as "the best!!!! OMGkittens!!!!!" for the Apple crowd then. If you're not discerning, it shouldn't leave more than a slight doubt even if you compare both Z and MBP.