tz vs the new mini-notebooks

I was reading the Dell mini-notebook. Technically for around under $600, this would be better or at last compairable to my TZ150N? My TZ only comes with a Lowpower core 2 1.06Ghz, 2GB ram, Vista Business,1366x768 screen resolution.

And the Dell with the 8in screen (1024x600),1gb, Atom 1.6Ghz,WinXP,16GB SSD drive.

I got my unit at a good deal for around $1400. But for 1/2 the price, the Dell comes in pretty good looking.

 

The 1.06ghz Core 2 Duo will be noticeably faster than a 1.6ghz Atom, despite its higher clock speed. The real benefit the Atom has is lower power consumption but the battery life in these netbooks is actually worse because they use lower capacity and quality batteries to achieve their low prices.

Both are good for their prices. You pay more for the Sony but get a better quality display with higher resolution, more storage, more ports, built in DVD drive and better battery life.

 

I got some face time with the TZ at a sony store a month ago, and what a sleek machine it is. By far superior to the netbooks, but it caters to a different market due to its price and higher quality parts as Rahul has said. I wish I could afford a TZ, but the cheaper netbooks do get the job done. Sounds like you got a great deal and the new TT model should be an even more AWESOME piece.

 

i had a acer aspire one and a sony tz I like them both but there was no question I prefered the Sony TZ. From its looks to its performance the Acer could not compare. Depends on your needs and each serves a niche. I like the Acer because i could tinker around with it and try new things. The TZ from its performance in a small package to its batterlife and flexibility.

 

If I am reading the OP correct I agree with him. I am typing on my very nice Sony but there are some very good looking notebooks coming that make Sony look very overpriced. I have been reading about the MSI Wind, HP 2133, Asus Eepc, and a host of other nice machines. The TZ may look nicer but it won't do anything more than those other machines. Fashion electronics cost more but if a budget is part of your buying decision Sony won't win. PS3 vs Xbox360 or Walkman vs iPod or Samsung LCD vs Sony LCD. Sony prices suck mostly but they make some good looking stuff. It will be interesting to see how well they do with our US tightening economy.

 

Depending on your needs a fancy VAIO may seem excessive and unnecessary compared to the netbooks out there, but you still get what you pay for.

 

I forgot about the dvd. I guess it would even out. If I could just get my notebook to load up Vista quicker than the 5mins, I would be more happy with it. I wonder if all I really need to do is stick in a decent SSD drive... I just can't figure out paying $$ for one of those yet.

 

Like said before, the Core 2 Duo ULV CPU is much faster than the Atom.

The screen on the TZ is one of the best screens ever, way higher contrast and resolution than netbook.

Batterylife of the TZ is superior.

TZ weighs 1,19kg including 6 cell battery. Asus 1000h and MSI Wind weigh more including 6 cell.

 

thats a sin even comparing a TZ with a netbook

 

@ Starstreak: If you are having issues with booting up Vista, you may want to consider XP or even stripping some of the Vista startup/services/installation down using the nlite(or vlite i believe for vista) or simply going through the admin services and startup area. I believe you can upgrade the 1.8" hdd to a 5400rpm which would be cheaper than a ssd. my couple cents..

 

all- I guess you are right. Good deal. Just that with all these "cheap" notebooks, most people just go "meh" must be one of those cheap ones. Time moves on.

gengerald- I had Sony make me a XP dvd restore. Bummer part is the dvd doesn't boot. It just gets stuck at a black screen on startup.

I don't mind Vista. I just hate how slow the harddrive/cpu makes starting up take so long. Bear in mind, I'm used to my Asus G1. If I could get the whole thing to load up in about 2 minutes with everything I got running, then I would be happy. I'm pretty sure its the harddive that's the main bottleneck. I'm just figuring if I stick in another harddrive, I was gonna go SSD route, but that after reading all the tz posts about that, still not sure what kind of harddrive is in my unit. If I need one of those ZF connectors or what. Seems the tz went through a few styling changes on the inside.

 

cheap notebooks cannot be a person's first laptop. It can be a second laptop for some car navigation, or maybe some easy work at the local pub.

 

I've been using TZ as my only computer for a year and before TZ, I had a TX. I didn't even have a desktop. (Well... I used to have one 3 years ago.)
It will be a night mare if I have one of those mini- notebook (netbook) as my only computer. I must have a desktop or I don't need a computer.

 

You'd be surprised. There were quite a few folks over at the eeeuser.com forums using their EEE netbooks as their primary computer. I was also told that author Charles Stross uses a tiny Kohjinsha subnote for writing novels!

Guess it all depends on what your computing needs are.

 

One thing I noticed about Vista is that it gets faster over time. It may take a few weeks for the hard drive to be indexed and organized so that it is working correctly, depending on how often you leave your laptop on.

Vista, unlike XP, re-arranges the data on your hard drive in the order of how often it is accessed, moving the more frequently used data to the fastest part of the drive. A faster hard drive could make a huge difference as well.

You may want to use the ReadyBoost feature of Vista. I use 4gb MS Duo Pro (Sandisk Ultra) for ReadyBoost and it speeds things up a lot. Vista does a lot of maintenance during the time your machine is idle.

The "Search" feature in Vista is always cataloging and isn't the most efficient so I leave my laptop on (sometimes overnight) to allow processes to happen. Since the processor will slow down if it gets too hot, I leave my notebook running on a notebook cooler, it is just better for the equipment to run cool.

If anyone can explain this better please chime in. I am no computer expert but I have been using and reading about Vista since the beginning and I love it now. SP1 is a must!

 

In a way the same here ;-)
Hated Vista on my mothers computer, on my SZ I quite like it.

You get used to it, and on a fst computer with SP1 its fast

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And about someone mentioning you can't compare a netbook with a TZ.
True - also look at the build, carbon fibre versus plastic.

Then - your operating system, an old Asus was quite fast, 666MHz Pentium 3 and 12GB HDD (laptop) & 256MB RAM (about 7 years ago) - but it was running ME - Linux on my Medion is a bit slow too...
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And there is a lot one can do to optimize a laptop. Get rid of Adobe at startup - or Roxio peer to peer, what the hell do I need that for???? (Roxio came with my BlackBerry)
Else theres quicktime loading, realplayer - getting rid of them speeds things up too.

By the way: How can my SZ "grow processes"??? (Doubt its a virus, Kaspersky scanned my whole system & external drives in about 16 hours )

 

I wish I couold've gotten the carbon fiber looking finish. Mine is the gold cover. Can't tell is the CF version under it.

I had this notebook for a few months. Its dog slow for startup. While I LOVE Sony for putting in a % battery counter, I hate how it tell me after charging to 100% that the next day when I turn it on, its down to 95% or less after boot.
Oh, I use a 2GB readyboost already. I have 2GB ram. I tried a 4gb b4 for a a few weeks, but made no difference so I stuck in the 2gb.

 

About your 95%
There is a battery drain issue oon yome laptops, but my SZ7 does something peculiar.

Shutdown on AC, boot up on battery 5% used
shutdown on battery, boot up on battery, about 1-2% used...

How do you explain that????