Will Sony make a notebook to compete with the Macbook Air?

I've heard the R600 screen is terrible... I hope you will tell us if it's true when you buy it

 

'Terrible' is a loose term unless it's definitely quantified through actual experience in a manner that can be readily confirmed. For example, I can safely say that my Apple reliability experience has been 'Terrible'.

However in most cases like this I prefer 'appropriate'. For example, the Dell XPS 16 and the 13/15 Macbook "Pro" screen are 'appropriate' for use in basements with no windows.

With no lighting.

And with a hood over your head.



I didn't find the R500 screen too objectionable last year, and the transreflective nature of the R600's scceen should suit my frequently outdoors / back-lit use. Relying on maximum runtime as I usually do, the actually portable machines in my 'fleet' rarely get cranked beyond 20% brightness so colour representations are not as critical as, well, just legibility. If the R600 can deliver the same legibility with no backlighting, I'd be pretty darned happy.

As ever however, if I have problems with it or if it proves unusable, I will certainly dribble a long and continuous rant.

 

What about the Asus U2? That is pretty comparable to the TT(except for the fact you can get in leather, or with bambo). There is also the LG that is 10.6in the P100(?). Then there is the Panasonic R series, which is also 10.6in. The older Lenovo U110, which has the same cpu as the air but the older x3100 like the first gen of Air's in an 11in device(with an external dvd burner included in the price). Heck there is event the Sony Vaio G3, 12in laptop. It is super light, just as small as the TT, and has the same specs as the current(not the new one that coming with 8gb of ram support). Plus all of these devices are more functional than the MBA for the fact that they have more ports, weigh less, and/or have more options. The MBA is my opinion is kind of a gimmick, as it only has one usb port, and really nothing else. Now if it had two usb ports, WWAN, or an express card slot(in the same thickness and size) then that be another story.

 

I'm not arguing semantics, just saying that you were direct with your bitter medicine. A tasty cure > nasty cure > none at all. Thanks for sharing your findings by the way, there are few on this forum that contribute as much from first hand experience.

 

When i saw the 13" MBP i was doubtful if even Apple would in the near coming future continue to sell the MBA. In my opinion i would like them to sell something like the TT. Something smaller, lighter, fully featured and with better battery life. If it gets dropped i would imagine other companies would soon follow dropping their super thin notebooks.

It is possible to remove the dvd drive from the 13" MBP and bring the weight down a bit. It is not great at all that the 13” MBP has better battery life than the MBA.

However, I don't think that Sony should alter the existing line up just in terms of thinness. If they add a super thin notebook may be..but it is not something that i am dying to see.
The current notebooks are not exactly bricks.

What exactly can the 9400M do that the 4500HD cannot except a bit more gaming? I've not looked into it so that is a question. How good is the 9400M at 3D rendering? It is no gaming machine. I would rather take the low running temps and battery life, which is what the emphasis of this laptop should be about.

The 1.86ghz is faster than the 1.6ghz SU9600 that is in the TT. But the SU9600 demands less power 10w/17w and again this is in my opinion perfect for an ultraportable. Most people won't be able to tell the difference between a 1.6/1.86ghz processor. I think I saw some benchmarks for the 1.4/1.6 LV some time ago and in terms of performance they were pretty close.

Also, on the topic of ram. The MBA is restricted to 2GB so if you need to run Windows this is not great. I have owned five Macs and with 2GB of ram in MacOSX and i am not a power user i sometimes got beachballs which forced me to upgrade to 4GB of ram. To me this was a must and it did improve my overall experience.
You see some owners complaining about the 2GB of ram restriction on Mac forums.

The 8GB of ram will help in the TT's case when it comes to photo editing and video work.

If thinness is your thing and you don't mind the restrictions of the MBA then indeed do go for it.

The TT is a business ultraportable where the emphasis is on form factor, connectivity and battery life.

 

I dunno - I think the TT could do with going on a diet back to TZ levels (given that the TT is if anything, worse put together than the TZ, it's never been clear to me why the TT ate the pies).

There's also the bigger element with Apple gear - and I don't have my Apple hater hat on but just a realists hat on - that a bigger percentage of Apple buyers simply do not know what they're buying. People could care less about what a T9200 or an X3100 are. Stick an IGP'd machine in front of them and pretty soon they're going to start complaining that the iApps - especially in terms of video - they've cranked up don't run properly. A technologically aware user would be cognisant of the fact that laptops like the Air and the TT are adjunct computers once you get to more demanding aspects of everyday or entertainment computing - but most other users would wonder why they can't use this machine for everything, especially if it was the only one they could afford to buy.

I understand this to a good degree - my policy of sorts has always been that the technologically dumber the user, the more powerful a machine you should furnish them with within reason. Outfitting a rank beginner with lowest-end kit is a mistake often made in Windows-land which negatively affects the user's experience - with Apple, they're careful not to let that happen. Which is why you'll never see a truly entry-level (in the then-comparable Windows sense) Apple. The common impression that OS X is snappier (beyond Vista's at times excessive doughnutting) also relies on the same disparity when comparing. If there's one thing that I can give props to Apple for, it's that now more than ever, they know their core customers better than possibly any other manufacturer and they leverage this heavily.

Why was the longer running IGP on the Rev.A dumped? Why wasn't it replaced with the 4500MHD? The shortfall in runtime with the B is a direct result of the 9400M. There are of course economies of scale involved, but ultimately it's because Apple thinks it's best to provide a consistent user experience across the board even if it means a small runtime hit - because Apple themselves know that the vast number of users of their laptops simply flits from desk to desk, PSU in tow, most of the time - even with the Air.

Sony obviously has a different approach, and suits those who know what they're buying better. But I must say I have concerns about the dropped balls of the post-SZ/TZ refresh.

 

That is very well said, and I think Apple went with the 9400 for the sake of being different and saying we have something better in our specs vs the competition. I personally would have like to seen a nvidia or ati gpu that has the same power as the intel 4500hd, but with a little more performance. Conversely the intel 4500hd with the same power usage, but a little more in the performance department.
Other than the complained size on the TT vs the TZ, what else did sony drop the ball on for these devices successors you mentioned?

 

Some PC users on the other hand also don't know what they're buying. On a lot of Mac forums people will protest about this that and the other so are aware about specs etc. Some will of course try and justify some funny things. It does happen with PC's owners as well but may be a bit less because of the bigger market share etc.

I thought i would really like the design of the AIR but i was disappointed. To me it looks ok but nothing special. I also don't like the two tone direction bezel/keyboard Apple have taken. It is not understated at all. I had a pre unibody MBP and to me that was a design classic. I really liked the PB 12's design.

I think one of the best looking notebooks right now is the Dell Adamo. The TT i think is cute as well. The Samsung x360 is not bad either. Asus used to make some good looking notebooks but not so much anymore.

A perfect Apple notebook for me would have 3G built in and not that edge to edge glossy display and be under 4.2lbs with a dvd drive. Apple is almost there but not quite.

 

Forums, yes. These are people with a vested interest in registering to make their opinions known, or a vested interest in participating in a community of like-minded enthusiasts (a signal reason of why some of the most rabid of the rabid Apple fanbois hang out in forumland).

However while some forum denizens may play a small part in shaping or helping to fix the products of manufacturers, it's a fact that the enthusiast element do not shape the product design / engineering decisions as a whole, except in niche cases such as gaming machines - and neither is the forum population representative of the general computer-buying public as a whole. I am of course aware that there are many Windows users who have no idea what they're buying as well. But what I am saying is that taken as a percentage of the whole, that type of user is likely to be more prevalent* among Apple owners.

It may have been a design classic, but the silver keyboard was one of the dumbest functional decisions taken. The reason? When the backlight is on and the unit is in a low-ambient-light environment, the low-level backlit key legends take on the same effective luminescence as the keys themselves - which means that under many circumstances, legends are all but invisible. And that was of course presuming that the backlight was working: On many generations of the MBP the backlight would not come on automatically in pitch black.

Ever since I got my first MBP back in '06, I have been moaning that the keys should be black - although many people I told this to couldn't understand why.

I think so as well, but unfortunately I don't think Dell has done enough to make it a clear overall stylistic leap over the Air. I may rant on that later in the appropriate subforum.

*Anyone demanding proof of this will be set on fire, shot with a thousand arrows and kicked over a cliff