Dilemma: Macbook AIR vs Sony TZ150N

J

Justinkoko

Gawd
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Aug 28, 2002
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I'm in the market for the ultraportables and I narrowed down the candidates to Air and TZ.

The laptop will be used primarily for school work. Taking notes in class, doing word/excel, web browsing, and occasional gaming.

When it comes to mobility, TZ beats Air hands down. 11.3 footprint vs 13.3. 2.7lb vs 3lb.
But I really like the design of Air and how it uses aluminum instead of cheap plastic.
Also Air seems to be more "gameable" with intel X3100 whereas with TZ it's pretty much impossible (Intel 950GMA).

Is a couple hundred bucks premium worth it? What would you get in this situation?

As a side note I can get TZ brand new for $1500 and Air brand new for $1750. I have to cough up $250 more to get Air.
 
If you like OSX, get the airbook, For a winbox, get the Sony.

Personally I would wait for a while, as who knows what the MBA's next revision will bring.
 
Have you considered the Eee? It's more portable than either of those and will suit you fine for schoolwork. You can forget about gaming with any of those laptops also, they won't be able to run anything newer than 2003-ish decently.
 
Truth be told, the difference between the X3100 and the GMA950 is pretty minimal. Actually, I've heard from some Macbook users that the 950 may perform better than the X3100 in OS X rendering. All that is besides the point, because you will be unable to play any recent games with either chipset. If you're looking to play recent games, buy something bigger; if you're looking to play older games, either chipset will work fine.

Though a Thinkpad X300 would be pretty sweet, if you're worried about $250 from the Sony to the Mac, the X300 will be out of your budget (~$3000). On the other hand, the Thinkpad X61s, which is on sale for the next week or two (by, like, $350), gets you a Core 2 Duo, the same X3100 chipset, and battery life about the same as the TZ (claimed ~7hrs) with the 8-cell battery. It's also a nice balance in footprint between the Vaio and the Macbook at 12.1". The Thinkpad design language is controversial, but I like it, and you certainly don't have to worry about cheapness with the build. Finally, you get the industry's best laptop keyboard, compared to the flimsy, weak-feeling individual-key-style Macbook and TZ keyboards.

Set up the way I'd configure it (1.8GHz low-voltage C2D, 120gb, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth, 8-cell battery, Vista Business), an X61s goes for $1450 direct from Lenovo.

Then I'd add another gig or two of RAM and buy an external DVD burner, which shouldn't come out to more than $100 total. I'd also want to upgrade the warranty, but neither the Sony nor the Macbook comes with more than a standard 1-year warranty, so it's not really a disadvantage.

So performance-wise, the X61s at least on a par with the other two, but in most specifications it's better. Price-wise, you're also in the green--with free shipping, the Thinkpad ($1450) is imperceptibly cheaper than your quoted Vaio price ($1500) and significantly cheaper than the Air ($1750). I'd also note that, probably in anticipation of the X300's release, the sale has been extended for a few more days and prices on upgrades have gone down, so now may be a good time to act.

How are you getting a Vaio TZ for $1450, by the way?
 
j-dawg said:
Truth be told, the difference between the X3100 and the GMA950 is pretty minimal. Actually, I've heard from some Macbook users that the 950 may perform better than the X3100 in OS X rendering. All that is besides the point, because you will be unable to play any recent games with either chipset. If you're looking to play recent games, buy something bigger; if you're looking to play older games, either chipset will work fine.

Though a Thinkpad X300 would be pretty sweet, if you're worried about $250 from the Sony to the Mac, the X300 will be out of your budget (~$3000). On the other hand, the Thinkpad X61s, which is on sale for the next week or two (by, like, $350), gets you a Core 2 Duo, the same X3100 chipset, and battery life about the same as the TZ (claimed ~7hrs) with the 8-cell battery. It's also a nice balance in footprint between the Vaio and the Macbook at 12.1". The Thinkpad design language is controversial, but I like it, and you certainly don't have to worry about cheapness with the build. Finally, you get the industry's best laptop keyboard, compared to the flimsy, weak-feeling individual-key-style Macbook and TZ keyboards.

Set up the way I'd configure it (1.8GHz low-voltage C2D, 120gb, 1GB RAM, Bluetooth, 8-cell battery, Vista Business), an X61s goes for $1450 direct from Lenovo.

Then I'd add another gig or two of RAM and buy an external DVD burner, which shouldn't come out to more than $100 total. I'd also want to upgrade the warranty, but neither the Sony nor the Macbook comes with more than a standard 1-year warranty, so it's not really a disadvantage.

So performance-wise, the X61s at least on a par with the other two, but in most specifications it's better. Price-wise, you're also in the green--with free shipping, the Thinkpad ($1450) is imperceptibly cheaper than your quoted Vaio price ($1500) and significantly cheaper than the Air ($1750). I'd also note that, probably in anticipation of the X300's release, the sale has been extended for a few more days and prices on upgrades have gone down, so now may be a good time to act.

How are you getting a Vaio TZ for $1450, by the way?
Click to expand...

$1500. I have a deal with some "guy" :D

Are you certain any recent games like Team Fortress 2/Guild Wars/ WarHammer 40k won't run well on X3100? I was under an impression that the difference between X3100 and 950GMA was actually pretty huge. 2.1 vs 3.5 in Vista Gaming Index. If the gaming performance is on par with TZ, I'm definitely going with Sony's route. Can anyone confirm or refute this?
 
The Vista index depends on more than just the graphics chipset, I think. I've seen the Thinkpad X60 get a 3.1 on gaming graphics with a GMA950 and the X61 get a 3.4 with the X3100.

TF2 isn't that new. It's based on HL2. You shouldn't have trouble. Same goes for Guild Wars; MMOs also tend not to be as focused on graphics as FPSes, so you're in luck there too. I dunno much about the Warhammer game so I can't really tell you anything.

The 2.1 vs 3.5 may be a result of the Vaio TZ's fairly pathetic selection of processors. Personally, if I were choosing between the TZ and the Macbook Air, I'd go for the TZ, but I'd still buy a Thinkpad over either. Sony's overpricing things doesn't make them better. Buy a TZ through your secret spies, sell it, and buy an X61 or X61s is my advice to you.

Then again, that's my advice to most people, but since you're already in the market for an ultraportable, it may actually be applicable here.
 
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