Anyone have a Vaio laptop?

nitzmoff

I'm looking to purchase a small, light-as-it-can-be pc laptop that has enough umph to still play some current games (not Crysis and the like, but not just Nethack either). This would be for working on the Caltrain, so batt life is important.

A few of my friends have Vaios and really like them, but other than their comments I know little about them.

Would anyone care to share their experiences if they have one or perhaps recommend something better?

Thanks very much.

Joshua Stubbles

I bought a small one about 4yrs ago? Somewhere around there. In hindsight, I hated it. Underpowered, overpriced and has a lot of proprietary crap to deal with.
I haven't looked at them since though, so they may have improved since then.

hawken

macbook air with bootcamp?

5hr battery life!

Neo_God

I got one two years ago, and it was nice, but yeah, they come loaded with so much crap on them, and upon deleting it, I ended up fucking my wireless some how, so I had to send it back to them to pretty much reinstall all of their crap.

Though they are sexy laptops, haha

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macbook air with bootcamp?

5hr battery life!

[/ QUOTE ]

I actually use a macbook pro with bootcamp on it now, and it runs pretty damn amazing.

Joshua Stubbles

The macbook air is hawt, but it's price is absurd for it's specs.

$1800 gets you:
- 1.6ghz
- 2gb ram
- 80gb PATA hdd (4200rpm!?)

It's pretty sad, really. That's far to low end a PC to spend that much money on, regardless of how small and light it is.
The $3100 version has an extra 200mhz on the CPU and a 64GB solid state drive. While that's nifty, it's nearly double the price. It's highway robbery

Michael Knubben

Don't forget to mention that the Macbook Air has no cd/dvd-drive. Understandable, given its dimensions, but something to consider when you're not going to be near a computer whose optical drive you can use. Also, I love how they're touting it as a feature, much like the Shuffle's lack of a screen. Taking spinning to the next level!

sonic

I just bought a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop (it is the small business series) that has:

-1.8ghz Core2Duo
-2gb RAM
-160gb HDD
-8600GT
-15.4" LCD
-5 hrs battery life

All for about $740 after tax+shipping. It plays TF2 on highest settings, Crysis on medium, Guild Wars/WoW on highest. It is ridiculously sturdy and theres no crapware installed. It is solid black and has a few tasteful blue LEDs (not like those new HPs that glow blue in every possible spot). It is THE best deal you can get.

hawken

Theres certainly a lot of laptops out there that have a plethora of junk under the trunk but they are heavy. My old HP weighed in at 6kgs! 7 if you carry the charger.

If you are looking for a light-weight yet powerful laptop, the vaio is a great machine, but as many people say it has far too many buttons and widget doo-dahs bells and whistles both hardware and pre-installed, that a macbook air just seems to be the simple choice compared.

If I were about to splash some cash on a laptop not already having one, I'd go with the air, or a mackbook. Currently I have a 12" powerbook g4, and while it doesn't run windows or games, it does fit in my bag without me knowing and has a long battery life. I just wish I was more clued up to it when it first came out - because 2/3 or even 4 years ago if I could have illustrated, webshited, bloged and modeled without any pain induced whatsoever on this is a sturdy little powerhouse I would have flipped out.

The macbook air is a companion laptop really. You'll need something else and a fast wireless connection to get the most out of it.

thnom

I got a Dell XPS M1330 - You can get them as cheap as £700. They weigh very little (I forget what they say it weighs) but they can have a lot of power. Mine is 4gig, decent graphics card and its light. I think its just 2kg. 13" screen - nice. Great machine..

okkun

I have a Vaio, lasted a year. Now it shuts down after about 5 minutes unless I keep it elevated off the table. Nice big screen though.

nitzmoff

Thanks very much for the input guys.

I checked out the Vostros and while they are indeed an awesome value, the 6lb + weight is a turnoff for me. It is possible that this is a case of wanted to have my cake and eat it too, but I'll still try for something lighter.

The Air is an interesting choice, would love the portability of it all, but I'm not sure I'm ready to take the mac plunge. Running boot camp is not a fix all from what I understand as plenty of games still won't run when using it- but correct me if that's totally wrong.

I'll keep looking.

sonic

The problems with the Air:

-no DVD drive
-no user replaceable battery (have to have apple install a new one for you)
-very slow 1.8" 4200 rpm hard drive (same as iPod)
-no ethernet port
-only 1 usb port
-can't upgrade RAM

but hey at least it can fit inside an envelope

hawken

http://gizmodo.com/348769/macbook-air-tear-down-sexy-on-the-inside-too

-external DVD drive
-battery can be got at, who replaces their laptop battery anyway?
-4200 is not slow. 5400 is only marginally faster, any higher generates too much heat.
-usb ethernet dongle
-1 is a bit wimpy
-it ships with 2gb ram, do you really need more?

Newsweek
- "When I slip it in the sleeve of my backpack where my six-pound MacBook Pro usually travels, the pocket still looks empty"
- "diminutive dimensions pretty much evaporate the eternal quandary of whether or not to take your computer along with you."

TomDunne

[ QUOTE ]
http://gizmodo.com/348769/macbook-air-tear-down-sexy-on-the-inside-too

-external DVD drive

[/ QUOTE ]

Costs extra, something else to keep track of.

[ QUOTE ]
-4200 is not slow. 5400 is only marginally faster, any higher generates too much heat.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's slower than 4200rpm? Anywho, my MB Pro has the 7200 drive, no heat probs.

[ QUOTE ]
-usb ethernet dongle

[/ QUOTE ]

Costs extra, something else to keep track of.

[ QUOTE ]
-it ships with 2gb ram, do you really need more?

[/ QUOTE ]

Depends, doesn't it? I do a lot of After Effects work on mine, and it eats 85% of my 2GB on nearly anything I do.

MB Air is neat and all, but you can get the 15" Pro for just $200 more. Rather than ask who needs optical media/faster HDD/ethernet, I ask who needs a laptop that weighs under 5lbs? It's not like the 15" Pros are bulky.

TomDunne

[ QUOTE ]
The Air is an interesting choice, would love the portability of it all, but I'm not sure I'm ready to take the mac plunge. Running boot camp is not a fix all from what I understand as plenty of games still won't run when using it- but correct me if that's totally wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

I went all Apple a while back since my office is almost 100% Mac and things have been fine so far. On my MB Pro, I currently have UT3, HL2/TF2/Portal, LotR:BfME2 and Planescape:Torment (oldskool!) installed and running fine.

The only tricky one was UT3. My MB Pro is a year old and Apple doesn't update the Windows drivers, so UT wouldn't run at all. ATI doesn't support the card because it's integrated into the Mac, but I was able to install some Omega drivers and things work fine. I figure if an older MB Pro with a Radeon can run UT3, the new ones with the Nvidia 8600s would handle anything you throw at it that isn't named Crysis.

hawken

HL2 is still one of my favorite games, and the only reason I use boot camp

hawken

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
http://gizmodo.com/348769/macbook-air-tear-down-sexy-on-the-inside-too

-external DVD drive

[/ QUOTE ]

Costs extra, something else to keep track of.

[ QUOTE ]
-4200 is not slow. 5400 is only marginally faster, any higher generates too much heat.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's slower than 4200rpm? Anywho, my MB Pro has the 7200 drive, no heat probs.

[ QUOTE ]
-usb ethernet dongle

[/ QUOTE ]

Costs extra, something else to keep track of.

[ QUOTE ]
-it ships with 2gb ram, do you really need more?

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

Please take note I was only correcting "no DVD drive" etc to reflect the truth.

7200 is way too hot for such a thin machine

nitzmoff

As an update, I'm looking at a Vaio SZ that is rather beefy and only 3.9 lbs. The only thing holding me back right now is the expected bloatware Vaios ship with and Vista (most of the games I play are older anyway, like NWN). I'd also rather not plunk down another 300 for XP.

We'll see though.

sonic

You can get an OEM copy of XP for $89.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis...;name=Microsoft

Or just take the OEM sticker from one of your old machines (it is a little Windows sticker) and it will have a license on it. Use that key and download or borrow the actual CD.

TomDunne

[ QUOTE ]
Please take note I was only correcting "no DVD drive" etc to reflect the truth.

7200 is way too hot for such a thin machine

[/ QUOTE ]

Gotcha. Your point about 7200rpm for the Air makes sense, I thought you meant laptops in general. There's always the 64gb SS drive, if you want speed and have the cash

Cody

Too each their own.

nitzmoff- your thread got jacked son! Haha. My two cents is a Lenovo Thinkpad [NOT the 3000 series] my friend has one and it runs great. Very solid and inexpensive. He is a hardware programmer, and says the R61 Thinkpad is one of the best laptops on the market right now. I'm getting one in a few weeks, because I liked his so much.

super_villain

I'm agreeing with cody. I was laptop shopping for the wife, and the ibm lenovo laptops pack a lot of power for a reasonable cost, and the are very reliable. Don't know what the average weight is for them though.

nitzmoff

Cody-

Which model do you mean. As far as I know, thinkpads are not anything close to gaming/graphic apps laptops. All the ones I've seen have only the on board cards as graphics options.

SHEPEIRO

ive just bought a pretty fast laptop from MSI- full of features (4g ram, dual core, 8600 gt, 250g etc).

its beautifull on the iinside, the outside is more plasticy ps3, which makes me worry about build quality.

hawken

What the IBM thinkpads lack in graphics they certainly make up for durability. Those fuckers are the range rover of laptops

sonic

True, but why would you have a durable laptop that doesn't perform the tasks you bought it for? Kind of silly.

Honestly, I am a student and I carry a Vostro all day long. It doesn't bother me one bit. I'd rather spend $700 for a powerhouse that is durable and have a little bit of weight than $1500 for a slimline and flimsy version of the same thing. There is also a 14" Vostro that is smaller and lighter. It is about the same price.

I will second though that for office work, Thinkpads are the shit.

hawken

yes I wouldn't recommend any windows machine

Xaltar

Whatever you do don't get anything Sony when it comes to PC, they suck balls. Overpriced, shit specs and way too much proprietary crap (both software and hardware). The Dell mentioned somwhere above is a good buy, I have sold a few of them to various clients and they are all very happy with them. Also take a look at Asus, they do some very nice gaming laptops as well as a very solid business line with good battery life. Do your research and make sure whatever you buy has good customer support. Try google for a few tech forums and post your requrements and questions there. The guys here mostly can only tell you whats what by experience. Good luck.

Neo_God

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yes I wouldn't recommend any windows machine

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jesus, as much as I am windows PC fanboy, I agree, I am totally content with with my macbook pro with windows, serisously, it's a solid machine, and the new ones have the full version of Bootcamp, I am only running on the beta (did the trick with setting the mac's time back to allow me to still run it, what a sorry loop hole), and it runs everything great, in fact I may even turn that into my desktop by just hooking up all my shit to it.