SZ640 vs. MBP

Between these two laptops, what do you suggest. Please don't be biast. In terms of QUALITY, BUILT, what is better? Aside from the OS X vs. Vista.

If you had a choice, what would you take?

 

If I had a lot of Apple products, the MBP. Considering I don't and I really like being able to right click with one button, the SZ640.

 

I'm deciding between the two currently before I go to college in the fall.
Initially, I was set on the MBP, but I have the feeling it's going to be a little too big for me to carry around campus. The SZ has the power of the MBP in a sleek, portable carbon fiber chassis with a gorgeous 13.3" screen (compared to the issues being brought up with the MBP screen), and it runs a lot cooler (people are actually being burned by the MBP after putting it on their lap).

In terms of build quality, I'd say the VAIO is superior. It is made of better materials (carbon fiber/magnesium alloy vs. aluminum for the MBP--many people are reporting the aluminum is warping due to the intense heat of the machine; there is also a design flaw with the case that does not allow it to close evenly). The Sony is built in Japan while the MBP is built in a sweatshop in China that was recently in the news (Foxconn).

However, the attention to detail, the after-sales support, and OS X for the MBP have me second guessing myself...
Opinions from someone who's owned both of some iteration of these machines would be great.

 

Sorry nanaki but I own a mbp and I have to say this has one button and it can do 2 finger scrolling which is the best thing I've ever used and I prefer it over an external optical mouse too and I love the 2 finger and click makes it a right click works perfectly as well. I wished the sony vaio tz we ordered could do 2 finger scrolling its so conveniant, especially web browsing..

Well you said has nothing to do with osx or vista but personally I love osx you dont have to defragment, worry about spyware, viruses and download whatever the hell you want without worrying about trojan as well. Os looks cleaner and more fun and has more eye candy and love the dock.

And not to mention the nvidia 8600m gt 256mb ram vs. the geforce 7400 128mb, the clear winner 8600m and on the mbp you can dual boot or use parallels for windows and these new 15" mbp santa rosa have backlit screens as well and its very beautiful and clear. Also 4gb ram is supported under osx and I run parallel for desktop and it runs fasssstt!! =D

The macbook pro I have has no yellow tint issue whatsoever and I believe its due to just a small amount or handful amount of people with this issue. The screen looks great and looks like your looking at hd quality!! especially glossy is great!! And the carbon fiber vs. aluminum thing, I actually prefer the aluminum because it feels great when your palm rests on it and I've owned powerbooks and mbp for years and no warping whatsoever, honestly never really heard this problem of warping. Only people complaining about their lid is warped when it was brand new but that's just nit pick and a handful of people as well.

Also the carbon fiber is very nice and I cant wait to get my sony vaio tz, but my cousin who's into carbon fiber also a previous owner of the sony vaio tx and his buddies as well warned me that if the laptop gets pretty hot and I live in houston texas and it gets about 100 degrees here, that carbon fiber does not expand or warp instead it will shatter. And I'm just very scared of this too for my new sony vaio tz and will handle it with extreme caution at all times.

Also I did order the sony vaio tz for ultraportability... if apple came out with a 11" subnotebook i'm there!!

 

Please dont tell me you have fallen for those PC vs MAC commercials. The fact is, there are spyware, viruses for the MAC. Its just more prominent on Windows as hackers know there are alot more users using Windows, hence more will be infected by the virus, trojan, worm, etc. At the end of the day, MACs have viruses and trojans just like Windows.

As for looks, thats personal opinion.

Please check your facts before hand. The SZ6xx series have the Geforce 8400 video cards. Its not suppose to have a powerful graphics card like the MBP, simply because its a 13.3" notebook. No 13.3" notebooks use the 8600/2600 AT ALL!

The thing the SZ has that the MBP doesnt is a hybrid graphical system: Having the ability to switch between 2 cards to increase battery life, or speed. In this case, the SZ has the new Intel X3100 for battery life, and the 8400 for speed.

Sony have a repuation for producing notebooks with quality screens. The SZ has 13.3" Backlighting LED goodness.

Carbon Fiber is stronger, but lighter material than Aluminum, so it can protect the SZ against everyday bumps without the additional weight that the Aluminium would have gained if used in the same situation.

It will combust, and explode right in front of your face.

SZ is power and portability


OMG, just wasted my time on this thread. Were comparing apples and oranges here. LOLZ!!!

 

LOL

I take that response as you having decided on the SZ, DTX.

 

Vaio-Boi

I have about 4 lappies at home for the time being: an old Acer Travelmate, a fairly old Powerbook G4, a well-travelled Sony SZ1 and an Asus W7S. At the office, I have a Dell latitude. Each have their own plus points and each have their own flaws.

While I cannot give you a definite response on the new MBP vs SZ640, all I can say is that my experience with both Apple notebook and Sony Vaio have been positive, in terms of looks, build quality and performance. Apple wins hands down for its service, availability of accessories and cool factor. The SZ just screams class however. Both are nightmare to repair yrself in case anything goes wrong, so service might be important.

That said, once the SZ6 is officially released here in malaysia, I am getting one. I need a Windows based machine that is light and sturdy enough to accompany me on my travels and yet not limited in performance as most small form factor notebooks.

Hope that helps.

 

Not yet, im now looking at Samsungs Q45, Fujitsu S6410, LGs Z1 and F9S-A1 as alternatives to the SZ6 and M1330.

 

DTX

When considering Samsung and LG lappies bear in mind it is quite uncommon. Where I am, the two brands are better known for their LCD tvs and cellphones. Every single vendor and their dog carry their LCD tvs and cellphones. Not so for the lappies. The availability of service for the lappies is quite poor here. Is it any better where you are?

The XPS 1330 on the other hand.....8 weeks (at least) to get a new laptop is not what something I would like to endure. Until such time Dell improves on its delivery, I am setting my sights on the SZ (unless someone here tells me its absolutely crap).

 

I do agree that for 13" the 8400 nvidia is pretty good. But saying that I'm following the mac vs. pc commercials... please~ I love macs but that commercial is annoying and I hate them and i'm just giving you my opinion on my own experience and alot other people I know personally. I've been a pc user for 15+ years and a mac user for 5+ years and I have to say its very very hard to go back to pc. The only reason i'm going to the sony vaio tz is because of its ultraportability and that apple doesnt have an osx based 11" mbp. And as for viruses, please tell me what virus or spyware are there that are known to attack macs? Using macs for 5 + years I've never encountered a trojan, virus, spyware or any of those bad things you see on windows. Even my cousin who's a programmer who's only used macs for his server for its dependability and virus free that used macs since the apple II's never seen a virus or spyware or whatever the windows stuff gets. apple's security updates are just near impossible to break and underneath osx is basically unix based system. There are no viruses or trojans or spyware on the osx. I think I heard that there was one minor trojan on the osx but doesnt really do anything but infects your files of just having a trojan and only affects through aim/ichat if you decided to accept it. but as a normal person using osx you'll probably 100% never see a virus and 99.999999% never see a trojan unless you decide to accept through aim/ichat a complete random file that a complete stranger sends you and then only you will get that one trojan and its not even a virus that does absolutely nothing.

Also for the battery saving hybrid mode.. it seems kinda useless in my opinion and having an extra integrated graphics chipset seems like a waste, I guess its a cool function for people needing a bit more battery life.. but how much battery life will that really save? I mean some 13" integrated graphics chipsets have roughly 4-5 hour battery life and my 15" mbp lasts a good 5 hours with the led backlight set to the lowest setting as well and it has a nvidia 8600m gt card.

To me the 13" is kind of crippled because its not a real ultraportability like the 11" tz's and its still bulky to carry around. Because honestly I dont see much a difference between the 13" vs. 15" and having carried around both seems pretty much the same amount of hassle and if I were to choose I'd just go with a 15" and i'm not saying the mbp but other 15" laptops from sony and asus or other companies because its not that much heavier or bigger and you get alot more out of it. If you want real ultraportability I'd just go with an 11" or even a 10" from panasonic or asus or any other companies.

Maybe this thread should really be the 15" mbp vs. Sony VAIO FZ190 now that's a more even comparison or 13" dell m1330 vs. sony vaio sz640

 

Really? Well, your own mileage may vary, I suppose.

My wife has a MacBook Pro, and I have a 13" ultraportable. The MBP is a very sweet machine, and it has a ton of excellent features. However, "ultra" portability is NOT one of them. I'd much rather tote around my 3.7 lb 13" ultraportable than the 15" MBP. Heck, even when I had a 14" thin and light laptop that weighed in right at 5 lbs, I noticed a huge difference when I switched to the <4lb ultraportable. Trust me, when you are lugging your laptop around long airport terminals and on walks between travel destinations, your shoulder will easily be able to distinguish between a <4 lbs SZ and the >5 lbs MBP. At least mine always did.

The difference with a sub 4 lb ultraportable is, to me, HUGE. And although the 11" LCD "super" ultraportables like the TZ are less then 3lbs, I find both the screen and keyboard too small for my comfort.

So although I am very impressed with the MBP, my #1 criterion for a laptop is weight. And the 3.7 lb SZ is perfect for me. Others may not mind a 5.4 lb laptop, but I didn't like it.

 

Well I guess it matters on what you prefer but for me if I were going to carry it around airport to airport I'd just get an ultraportable because other than webbrowsing and the amazing battery life and watching a movie I wouldnt be doing heavy gaming or anything graphics intensive. The keyboard looks pretty much a fullsize maybe a bit smaller but long as I can type with both my hands on the keyboard shouldnt really matter. And as to the 11" if you can watch a portable dvd player with a 7-10" screen, in my opinion 11" is big enough for everything else. Even the macbook with its aging gma 950 is more than good enough to watch hd movies and do everything else fast and good enough for light gaming. I ran world of warcraft maybe at half the eye candy but still ran around 30fps and played a bit of call of duty 2 and still ran fine. But I prefer something really small and that 1.7 extra lbs from the 13" to the 15" doesnt really make too much a difference and the dimension wise isnt a big difference either. And yes the 13" macbook is heavier than a dell m1330 or the vaio sz. And going from a 15" to the 17" that extra 1.5lbs isnt much a difference but the total of 6.9-7.whatever lbs is huge and the dimension size its hard to pack a 17" into a backpack. But the 15 and 13 inch seems the same to me when I stuff it in my backpack with the little extra laptop section in my backpack made for a 13" my 15" still slips right in.

But I guess weight isnt too much a big deal for me because when I stuff a laptop in my backpack I dont notice that 1.7lbs difference while straped to my back but I just want to save some room in my backpack for other things to fit and with dimension wise is what i'm after. And between the 13" and 15" dimension doesnt seem very different, but a 17" certainly is huge.

 

there is the same diference between a 15.4" and 17" than a 13.1" and 15.4"... only same weight diference and only 2" more between them. you can say that between a 14.1" and 15.4" the diference is not that big.

OSX has viruses, troyans, spyware, worms, etc... not in the same scale of a pc, but yes is same **** (why this?? pc is more commercial and alot more users use pc). Get a nice antivirus and problem solve...

why u want to buy a mac and run windows on it??

why u want an 8600GT on a mac?? to play only the small cuantity of games that had been release?? most of them old games with, with some exeptions... if u want to play yust get a pc...

 

Seriously, I don't understand his mentality...

Buy a Macbook Pro and overlook the hardware faults/size because OS X is so much better! Oh yeah, once you get it immediately drop $300 for Vista Business and $80 for Parallels so you can run Windows (and actually utilize the graphics card, which is the only advantage the MBP has over the SZ).

Or, if you want portability you should go with a dog slow ultraportable that will cost you considerably more and be much less practical for those of us who want to use a laptop as our main machine.

 

In terms of weight, 1 or 2 pounds can be surprisingly a big difference if you're a small person. This is especially true if you're carrying other things (eg. textbooks) as well as the notebook. The difference in weight of a SZ650 (3.95lb) to a MacBook Pro (5.4lb) is significant when you're carrying other things. I'm 5'6", 130lb, and when I was going to University, I carried a Fujitsu S6010 (13.3", ~4.25lb), and I would hate to have to carry textbooks along with my notebook. One textbook is somewhat bearable, but I hated having to carry two. Remember, things like AC adapter, sleeve, backpack, etc all add up on top of the weight of the notebook, and the 1-2 pounds can make the difference.

That said, and as mentioned in an earlier post, comparing the SZ and MacBook Pro isn't a fair comparison (overall terms, not just weight), since they're different class machines.

 

what is this virus and trojan and spyware on the osx talk?!?! I never seen a virus,trojan,spyware and I think you are not an osx user or have even used osx, maybe just seen it but dont really understand as to why the windows using very very old outdated bios system compared to the efi system~ its pretty much 100% you'll never see any of that, I go around apple forums all 5 or 6 of them and never have I came up to any thread or even seen where it saids help! I have a virus! trojan! spyware! never even heard anyone speak of viruses either or spyware at all~ Even if I google the virus + osx I dont find anything only one article saying there could be a trojan/virus or there is that one trojan/virus but it doesnt even do anything I believe its called OSX/Leap-A, its just there and only way to get infected with OSX/Leap-A is if you accept the trojan/virus itself via aim/ichat from a total stranger and initiate and open it manually~ and its not the same **** just ask anyone who used osx or even linux.

Also I never have to worry about defragmenting, which is a pain~ and I dont need some kind of an anti virus program running in the background taking up alot of the cpu power already, and I've always downloaded without fear anything I wanted. One funny story is that my little brother is a dell user and he told me to download a certain program for him for it to work with a certain game on his dell. So I downloaded it and burned it on a disc and gave it to him and once he opened the program~ Bamm his anti virus came up saying you have a virus and me all I did was just erase it and nothing happened, I even tried opening it just saids cannot open or something and that was that =/

Oh and try stuffing a 17" laptop in your backpack as to a 15" laptop there's a huge difference. But try a 13" laptop and a 15" laptop, not much a difference. sometimes the 17" wont even fit in the backpack because its too long in dimension wise, and I carry around alot of textbooks so that 1.7lbs dont really make too big of a difference.

and when I get my sony vaio tz I think i'm going to install linux on it as well, and will be using vista if I need it for school.

 

Also I use osx for everything, downloading,movie playback, webbrowsing(much better experience how webbrowsing should be, 2 finger scroll is awesome), encoding whatever, projects you work on, viewing pictures everything is so nsync and so easy to access all together. I love the dashboard, I love ilife 07 now 08, I love iphoto, iweb is a breeze to make a webpage and make it look so professional, any blogs you want is nice too, burning program, newsgroups via unison is nice, mail is so easy to setup and so handy as well. Everything just lays on your dock and just click and your there with a nice icon pic. I use windows via parallels or bootcamp to play one little game "partypoker" with parrallels running on osx that I play and that's all, but then I have a xbox 360 for that so I never really use bootcamp. Maybe to play that one shooter..

 

Vassoom,

You are right. I wholeheartedly agree with you. 3.7 lbs with full-sized keyboards is probably the ideal size/weight ratio for me. You pay out the nose for it, but for some reason, that 2 lbs or even 1.3 pounds from a traditional 14" notebook is a big difference when you're lugging it around. It has nothing to do with how strong one is or how picky one is. I think that for daily travel, a 3.7 lb notebook is key! Your body seems to operate on percentages rather than absolute weight reduction. If the 14.1 widescreens weigh 5.3 lbs and the Sony weighs 3.7 lbs, then that 1.5 lb weight reduction is about 25% difference. My body senses that (flamesuit on). I've wondered if the m1330 is really going to be for me b/c it is heavier than the 3.7 lb Sony, hehe.

 

did you hear about the m1330 reviews, I hear its terrible...

 

I think we need to wait until the M1330 has been fully shipped out before we make any real judgments. If it lives up to expectations, I'll be very happy for Dell.

When a notebook manufacturer attempts to tailor an offering for different market segments, it only makes it better for the end-user.

 

well I saw on engadget about the review because they got their hands on it and cnet.com not very reliable imo...

 

I can only assume that the large amount of delays are due to them attempting to address all the concerns of potential customers. I'll hold my judgement until they have a full launch.

 

I want my sony vaio tz!! sony please ramp it up!!!

 

hmm.. I was just curious about the 5"6 130lbs thing, I'm only 5"8 155lbs and not huge a difference from you but still can carry around a qosmio 17" and with like 3 class worth text books and i'm still fine all day =/

 

Well, I personally don't think it even matters that much what height/weight you are. I'm 6'3", 185 lbs, and I easily noticed the difference between a 5.4 lb "thin and light" and a 3.7 lb "ultraportable".

Look at it this way: the difference between carrying around a 3.7 lb item and a 5.4 lb item is almost a 50% increase in weight.

 

If height/weight didnt matter much, I dont know why Brewt brought up about him being small in the first place. Also my buddy is 6"2 and 245lbs and he carries a 17" powerbook around like its nothing. but then again maybe its because he can bench his own weight =/