Justifying a premium notebook: Z vs. Eee!

I've been a loyal Vaio owner for the past eight years -- a Z505 from 2000-2004, and an S170 from 2004 to now. I really really like the new Z, and I'm really tempted to buy one.

But here's the thing -- all I really do with my machine is surf the web, watch movies, run MS Office... and that's about it. My current machine does all that just fine, and if I were looking to replace it, a $4-500 Eee or Aspire One would do all that just fine, too. The geek in me wants the Z, which is the newest, latest, coolest laptop, but the responsible side of me says it's overkill for what I need & I should just save the money.

So here's the question: what do you guys do with your laptops? Does anyone actually need/use the processing power in a high-end laptop like the Z, or for 90% of you is it a question of "hey -- it looks really cool, it's got an awesome screen, so what if I mostly just browse the web, I want it and can afford it!"...??

 

wow sony vaio lasted you 4 years? hope the new ones last me that long!

if you can afford the Z, get it. sony has been that good to you to last that long. i love VAIO's aside from minor issues such as lack of good amount of USB ports, ect... but with small size comes sacrifice I guess.

by the way, T Man? are you a radio talk show host?

 

The Geek in me is what wants things made by companies like Asus, like the EEE. The responsible side of me knows brands like sony are the PC version of apple - paying a premium for sub par quality hardware.

 

I'm thinking the only times I might honestly use the power of my Z will be Photoshopping (which I do quite a lot of) and video editing (which I only very rarely do). The 'awesome screen' comes in very useful for those, too. Oh, maybe encoding divxs and authoring DVDs... but my HDD is going to be the bottleneck most of the time. But who knows what I'll be doing in a couple of years. If I get the virtualisation bug, I might need to use all that RAM, for instance...

... or maybe I'm just coming up with excuses?

 

Actually my first Vaio lasted 6-7 years(!!!!) -- I gave it to a friend after I was done with it. All it needed was a new battery & new hard-drive along the way!

I'm not a talk show host -- I guess there's one out there with the same name?

 

The poll question should say "If you're looking at buying a high-end notebook like the Z, why wouldn't you consider something a lot cheaper instead" ... it got cut off :-(

 

LOL. Somewhat true about sony. I have to admit, I was a dell fan a couple eyars back...but wow, after DEAL BREAKER issues that shouldn't be there and them not fixing them even after year complaints, NO THANK YOU.

So far Sony has been great to me as far as laptop quality and reliability. My roommate always had issues with his HP...random reboots, blue screen every other day even after formating, ect... who knows could be isolated issue, but so far im happy with sony.

Oh and the "wow thats a really nice laptop" comments are a + too That's the jock in me.

 

my justification is that the closer i can get to the perfect computer (size, power, style), the longer i will keep it and not have to upgrade.

i really like my current setup, it's been bullet proof... and it's lasted over three years, but had i tweaked a couple things here or there, i probably could have held on to it longer. now i'll probably be buying it's replacement in the next week or so.

 

I have faced this situation as well. I have an expensive Vaio TZ and yet mostly do tasks on it like web browsing and Microsoft Office that an Asus EEE could perfectly handle. I could even have gotten a desktop with the spare money to compliment the EEE. I may do that in the future.

But I may instead get a Vaio Z as my next notebook and at first would probably do the things I did on my TZ. But I would eventually try out things I couldn't on my TZ, like do some gaming, hook it up to my HDTV, store lots of media on its much larger hard drive, I would make the most out of it, not let its capabilities go to waste especially when its the price of several EEEs and I am a poor student.

 

I think you've already answered you're own question. You don't need the Z series to surf the web, check your email, and type up the occasional Word doc.

And it looks like, based on the lengthy thread, the Z series has a pretty noisy fan. So for me, it's not the holy grail of ultra portables.


But to answer your question: I work on my laptop and do a lot of Java programming. I always welcome more power, but I can get along just fine without it.

 

Save the money and use it to buy gas and a yummylicious meal! Or just go party!
The EEE will do all you need and a bit more.

 

I actually will probably only use the Z for email, internet, work, etc.

The problem is for work I get excel files that are huge (running over 50 or 60 thousand rows and atleast 30 columns out and multiple tabs). The formulas, macros, and programming crap that I have to do in order to create these spreadsheets needs a fast computer in order to process everything in a normal amount of time. I need portability and I need power.

I figure the Z is probably the best choice and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

 

Come on guys you can't compare these two. The EEE is quite a toy, the Z is a desktop replacement in such a small chassis.

 

+1. The two are not comparable. If you only need to browse the web, play SD films, etc... a EEPC is more than enough, as long as you don't mind the short battery life. But if you need power to edit pictures, video (especially HD or AVCHD), watch DVDs or Blu-rays, then the Z is unavoidable.

I guess a better comparison would be between the EEPC and the TZ. Personally, I wouldn't buy a EEEPC today, as I wouldn't live without the integrated DVD, the great battery life, the fantastic screen, the great keyboard of the TZ.

 

what i am having doubts justifying is the VAIO Z vs the Lenovo Ideapad U330

it has a 13.3"screen, switchable graphics (ATI) comes with 3 gig ram, 2.26 processor and you can get it for less than US$1000 (applying coupons)

what else do we need?

 

I was going to buy a cheaper Centrino 2 laptop and an EEEPC but after thinking long and hard about it I ordered the Z. I have been using an Asus W5A which is getting a bit old now and earlier in the year I bought the early 701 EEEPC 4G.

I took the EEEPC to Florida with me this year, its size was great except I ended up also taking an external 2.5" drive, USB sticks and external DVD writer (slimline laptop), in other words I might as well have just taken the W5 and not bothered with the EEEPC. Since that vacation the EEEPC hasn't seen daylight. Whilst using the EEEPC I stuggled with email and its small keyboard, the 7" screen was just too small, reading email became a chore and web pages needed continual scrolling. Looking at photos didn't even happen with t he EEEPC and I usually backup my camcorder footage but with no firewire that was impossible.

I know the EEEPC type netbooks have moved on with 9" and 10" screens and disks in the 80-120GB region but even the new Atom CPU is barely better than the 900MHz Celeron, every time I see one in a store I have to look and fiddle with them but then I remind myself they are toys and I really want a *real* notebook.

IMHO EEEPCs and the likes are fantastic gadgets but the money is better spent buying a decent notebook.

 

Hell, I'm just impatient An Eee is too slow. Also, I realized that all my Eee usage scenarios are already covered by my iPod Touch - browse the web a bit, watch a few videos, etc. That keyboard is too cramped for real word processing, and the screen is too small to do any real note taking or editing. I guess I'm too used to my oversized monitor at home.

I need a laptop that's a true computer - can burn DVDs, edit movies, work with 3D graphics, etc. Also wanted it to be wrapped up in a small package. Basically, I wanted to be able to take most of my desktop with me when I went somewhere. The Z succeeds in that respect. If the LG P300 was available here, I would've probably had that by now

 

Hey TMan, haven't seen you in a while, guess we were all happily using our S170...haha. Frankly, I still have both S170 and Z505 and in a very similar situation as you are. My conclusion is just keep using both till they actually die...and then buy a SR -- I am not going to buy a laptop with nVidia in it since I already have a FZ with the uncofirmed-but-most-likely defective 8400GT in it.

 

For a lappy with specs similar to the Z, is the fan noise inevitable? Far as i know, all Sony ultraportables in the past (including the SZ) have had noisy fans.

 

same here, have had a sz660 which is awesome but just purchases a u330, and in the process of selling my SZ for the same price.

why get the Z when you can something similar in size being only .9" thick, 4.2 pounds, same power with hybrid graphics, etc for 1K cheaper?

 

i ordered the Z cause i couldnt really wait for the U330, plus, i think that the build quality of the Z is hopefully far superior than the U330. Plus i get Blu-ray + hdmi + better design + lighter laptop

 

From my own perspective, the portability would be nice as hell, but there's something to be said about having a nice big monitor and proper keyboard and mouse, whether you want to get some work done or just want to play.

If you have all that docked to your small laptop like the Z, well you save a bit of money (maybe $300-400 on a PC with similar specs to the Z) and a bit of space, but the Z is quite a bit more expensive.

I move a lot because of my job, so I only have a proper notebook (an M1330 right now) but I miss a desktop's power and ease of use. When possible I end up buying a desktop and selling it when I move again. This is probably what I'll end up doing in the near future as well, with an Aspire One or EEE 9" and a desktop with a 20" monitor.

 

Skyshade, I can't believe you remember me -- lol. Yeah, that's pretty much it, I was on these forums obsessively when deciding on the S170 four years ago, and have been quietly using it since!

I guess the real question is what tangible benefit would I get with something new, like the Z, relative to the S170 that's still reliably chugging away. The slightly higher screen res would be nice, as would the lighter weight & better battery life... but whether that's worth the price of a new machine is another question. An SSD would be nice too, since I'm always worried about the reliability of laptop hard-drives, though those are still too expensive. Integrated 3G wireless would also be nice, but the data plans are also still pretty expensive.

 

It really depends on your priorities. If you don't do graphics intensive 3d apps and some travelling, then I think the Z is a waste of money. Save some money and buy a thin and light notebook that has integrated graphics... better battery life, less parts to fail (GPU cooling and especially with this NVIDIA fiasco going on).

Or take your priority elsewhere. Instead of buying notebooks, buy a digital camera, and go out on a weekend vacation.

 

For me, purchasing a Z pretty much boils down to nothing other than pampering myself -- while all the features are nice, I just don't need the full features of Z right now -- so it is really hard to justify when I need to pay for the Pampers for my daughter...

 

I've went for the SZ (worried it would "expire" on me)
Reason for that:
I want my laptop to last, one in the way of "office software" and audio.
SonicStage loads that much faster on the SZ comopared to the three year old Medion.
Also, if I want to play the occasional game I need the extra power.

Then I "rediscovered" a hobby, photography, that takes power.

Next point:
A small screen is no substitute for a decent screen.
My SZ's screen is just that much better (pixel size) compared to my old screen.
If I want a little screen I've got my Blackberry (Pearl 8120).
Then:
My (upgraded) 1GB 1,6GHz Centrino Medion had problems on one PowerPoint presentation due to the amount of animations (for school in England, they like it that way ) thus more power would have been good.

Then there is the most crucial aspect:
I don't own (nerver had, maybe never will) own a desktop. Nobody in my family does. My SZ is laptop number 5, Of which only the first failed sofar.

(PS: "Office" is a very broad area, and the Eee is way to weak for some aspects)