Vaio P vs. Vaio Y

Could someone compare the two.. the P is more expensive, but due to its size, I think 2GB ram is as far as it goes... is that ok?

also, does the P have any special GIS or mapping programs?

 

The P has some major problems:
The screen is too short. Even if running at 100 DPI and everything becoming artificially tiny as a result, there are quite a few programs (and installers!) that just won't work, and will place buttons below the bottom. And with a readable DPI setting, you'll run into the problem a lot.
Then there's the non-standard aspect. In chronological order, 5:4, 4:3, 16:10 and 16:9 have been the common aspect ratios for computer displays. The 25:12 of the P's screen matches nothing else. In practice, it means that full screen programs will run in 1024x768 with big black borders on the side (unless you find an odd program that can handle 1366x768 16:9 resolution, but chances are slim).
Then there's battery life, which at ~3 hours without doing any video isn't too great. Sure, you can get the extended battery that doubles the capacity, but then it isn't an ultra-portable anymore, so what's the point?
Oh, and did I mention that the P is slow? It is.

I'd much rather buy a second-hand UX than a P. IMHO, the only reason to get a P is the design -- if you're of the lacquered purses persuasion and own more than two dozen shoes, it might just be the thing.

The Y, on the other hand, is an OK netbook+. It's designed to be a Macbook Air competitor, and I guess it does OK for that. Just treat it as what it is -- a slightly beefed up netbook, which can't do the same as its bigger brethren like the Z. But with its larger display[*], it's going to be much more usable than the P.

[*]: Still 768 pixels high, but without the need to yank up the DPI to actually see anything, you're going to run into the cut-off-dialogue-boxes less often.

 

I think the P is a perfectly legit, extremely mobile, light-computing gadget. It is small and light enough to always carry around. It is the smallest pc on the market that I can actually use productively when I have to do some work, while waiting at the dentist for example.

Due to its weight and size I can always carry it around without worrying too much about whether I would actually need it or not. It is always in my bag and when I need to compose a letter, check something on the web etc. it is always there.

As a full-fledged notebook it sucks, I agree, but as a mobile computing gadget is rocks imo! Oh and unfortunately I have never tried the Y, so I have no info on that.

 

ahhh, how about the Y vs the EA? The LCD cracked on my EB.. and I'm wondering if I should even bother with sonys

 

The EA is a much bigger computer than the Y; the two can't really be compared.

If you want a light-weight Sony, you might want to take a look at the X series. It's faster than the Y, smaller, same resolution, much longer battery life, weighs half, but costs somewhat more.

(Stay clear of the W series, which is just a standard netbook with 20% higher price because of the Sony logo.)

 

The X has an Atom in it does it not? The i3 in the Y beats out the Atom in terms of performance, but the X does get better battery life.

The X is also a lot more money than the Y is. The Y I have is built pretty sturdy, the screen has a little flex when I push down on it though. Battery life is a decent 5 hours with basic use, wifi off and screen on low.

 

This is what Wikipedia says for the X:

The choice of the slower Intel Atom CPU, rather than a Core 2 chip, arguably places the device in the netbook class, however its pricing at over $1000, and other hardware aspects, such as the high resolution screen, price of over $1,000/£1,000, Windows 7 on all models, and SSD usage suggest that it is a full notebook.

Small size isn't that importnant to me...I had the EB, which was fine...

BTW, do all Sonys have fragile LCD's?

 

What makes the EB LCD fragile?

 

I'm not sure. I'm just assuming because it cracked from corner to corner after it fell like 2 feet.

 

I think you are confusing the Y with the W. The W is the netbook. The Y is a notebook.

The Y will blow the P away in performance. The Y has an Intel Core-i series processor while the P has an Atom. The P is fanless and gets pretty warm. The P also has Intel GMA500 integrated graphics, which for all intents and purposes are the worst graphics money can buy... even worse than the GMA950 (though the only reason they're worse is because Intel's drivers for the GMA500 are atrocious and the GMA950 has highly optimized drivers). The Y has Intel GMA-HD graphics which are on par with the ATI Radeon HD4200.

There are many more ways the Y is FAR superior to the P, but I'm not going to list them all. The list would be pages, as far as I'm concerned.

 

Look again, I said "netbook+". I.e. the step between a netbook and a laptop. Much like the Macbook Air.

 

does anyone reccomend the solid state hard drive?

 

Remember that the i3/i5 ultra-low voltage mobile are a lot slower than the normal i3/i5 CPUs. The 1.2 GHz i5-430UM in the Y isn't much faster than the 2 GHz Atom Z550 in the X. Yes, you get two cores, but you lose the turbo boost speed by using both of them.
The only reason I see to pick the i5-540UM over the Z550 is if you want to run native 64-bit apps under a 64-bit OS, or need to run virtual machines.

What makes the X faster for most "netbook+" use is the SSD. For most people, disk would be the bottleneck. (Unless you compile apps under Linux or play games, in which case both the X and the Y are Wrong Machines.)

 

The Y, like the MacBook Air, is a notebook. Netbook+ is by definition the X, or the Asus EeePC 1215PN. The Y maybe small, like the MBA, but there is a clearcut market term for that form factor... Sub-Notebook. When someone is asking about the difference in an Atom equipped netbook and an i3/i5 equipped Y, calling it a netbook+ is confusing.

Anything with a Core 2 Duo or Core-i series processor should never be referred to as a netbook or netbook+. It's demeaning.

And you are wrong about the speed difference in the ULV core-i/C2D. There is a huge difference between those and ANY Atom, dual core or not. Battery life is also much better under the ULV core-i/C2D.

 

The difference in performance between the X and Y is pretty big. Application launches are fast on the X because of the SSD, but otherwise it feels like a netbook. HD videos were choppy when I played with it and there was a lot of lag when starting or navigating a video. It was also sluggish with Flash heavy web sites and simple photo edits. And it maxes out at 2GB RAM.

I didn't think the X was suitable as a general purpose computer, which is why I got the Y instead. The Y feels like a regular notebook. I also have a VAIO F which is essentially my home desktop machine, and the only time I notice the difference in performance between the Y and F is when transcoding videos. I have SSDs in both. If you get the ATI graphics option, you can even play most games reasonably well on the Y.

Basically, the Y is powerful enough to be someone's primary computer whereas the X is a secondary machine for traveling. The P falls somewhere in between a smart phone and a netbook. It's like a super-PDA for people who want something more than an Android/iPhone but small enough to carry around anywhere.