New Laptop - Help Me Decide - MacBook Pros vs. Sony Vaio
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desiibond
Keymaster
VPCEB16FG : E Series : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony IndiaKeane 16 said:A 15" notebook that isn't a MacBook Pro is a strict no for me unfortunately because of the size and weight.
weight: 2.7 kg (including the supplied battery)
dimension: 14.56"(W) x 1.22"(H) x 9.77"(D)
macbook pro 15 with core i5:
Weight: 5.6 pounds (2.54 kg)
Height:
0.95 inch (2.41 cm)
Width:
14.35 inches (36.4 cm)
Depth:
9.82 inches (24.9 cm)
When you are getting a laptop with better specs overall, 3x warranty and a stunningly beautiful display at similar weight and just just slightly thicker at 1/3rd the price of macbook pro, WHY NOT
I got the 13" mac yday... and it is smooth.
Styx,
In the thread you linked, you'd see my xbench results under the username "Agnel"
This is seriously a good buy.. and I just can't believe how good the build quality can be.
I mean.. none of the other laptops.. Dell, HP, Lenovo... can even be compared with this in terms of build quality.
For the level of multitasking which 70-80% of the normal users, this lappy is the best for budget.
And I agree with Superczar, every bit of it
Styx,
In the thread you linked, you'd see my xbench results under the username "Agnel"
This is seriously a good buy.. and I just can't believe how good the build quality can be.
I mean.. none of the other laptops.. Dell, HP, Lenovo... can even be compared with this in terms of build quality.
For the level of multitasking which 70-80% of the normal users, this lappy is the best for budget.
And I agree with Superczar
, every bit of it 
superczar
Keymaster
Oxymoron?
Read the sentence above what you quoted
Till I switched to the MBP, I'd pick a lappy (Dell/HP/Compaq/Lenovo/whatever) , use it for a few months, get sick of it for some reason or the other, sell it off on TE or to a friend, and get another.. (and losing money in each cycle)
Friggin vicious cycle , I tell you!
Till, of course, I got the MBP
desiibond said:VPCEB16FG : E Series : VAIO Laptop & Computer : Sony India
weight: 2.7 kg (including the supplied battery)
dimension: 14.56"(W) x 1.22"(H) x 9.77"(D)
macbook pro 15 with core i5:
Weight: 5.6 pounds (2.54 kg)
Height:
0.95 inch (2.41 cm)
Width:
14.35 inches (36.4 cm)
Depth:
9.82 inches (24.9 cm)
When you are getting a laptop with better specs overall, 3x warranty and a stunningly beautiful display at similar weight and just just slightly thicker at 1/3rd the price of macbook pro, WHY NOT
Thing is, if I relax that criteria (build quality, weight), there's about 20 laptops on Newegg which are even better deals than the Sony.
But I have to say, you've confused me again.
... because a part of me is also kinda scared (*cough*pussy*cough*) of moving away from Windows since I've been using Windows for nearly 15 years now.Keane 16 said:
That isn't really much intensive at all unless you're running flash videos in any of those 50 windows. OS X with 4GB RAM can handle that kind of usage pretty well.
Keane 16 said:
That Macrumors thread i linked in my earlier post shows 320M scoring 4750 in 3DMark which is pretty good for an integrated graphics chipset so unless your gaming requirements dramatically change over the years 320M will serve you just fine.
Keane 16 said:
It sure does but do you really NEED that extra performance? Even the previous gen MacBook pros will suffice the need of 80% users but they fail to understand this simple fact and fall into the ghz myth, benchmarks and whatnot. So i'm going to reiterate it again, specs aren't everything when you're considering buying a Mac unless you really need it for using heavy duty pro tools. The C2D 13" MacBook Pro will last you over 3+ years easily and still fetch you a decent amount if you decide to sell it, whereas resale value of even a higher spec'd windows notebook would be much lower.
McAgnel said:I got the 13" mac yday... and it is smooth.
Styx,
In the thread you linked, you'd see my xbench results under the username "Agnel"
This is seriously a good buy.. and I just can't believe how good the build quality can be.
I mean.. none of the other laptops.. Dell, HP, Lenovo... can even be compared with this in terms of build quality.
For the level of multitasking which 70-80% of the normal users, this lappy is the best for budget.
And I agree with Superczar
Cool! i din't notice that before and congrats on your purchase! You've made a very sensible decision.
Do you really think the C2D MacBook Pro will be able to handle games three years from now? Say, even FIFA 2012? I realize that I don't need the power of a 330M and an i5 right now, but I want something that doesn't just work three years from now - I want something that works well. Which is why I'm not considering the C2D and 320M 13"er.Styx said:
Am I wrong? :huh:
Last 3 years iteration of FIFA haven't had much improvement in terms of graphics and gameplay compared to their console versions.
The 330M will easily be able to handle FIFA 10 and unless they decide to finally bring the console versions of FIFA to the PC, it will be able to handle FIFA 2014 too.(I'd suggest trying out PES, if you haven't).
If you're gonna be playing a lot of games i.e. the latest new games etc, you'll have to play them at low-medium settings. The 330M won't be able to handle games more than 1-2 years, unless you play them at reso's of 800*600 or 1024*768, and the minimum settings possible.
My current laptop's GTX260M manages to play all the current games at medium to high at Full HD.. but by the end of this year I'm pretty sure I'll be playing the games at a much lower reso(720p to maintain the aspect ratio) at medium settings.
Also about the SSD, one reason why I think its not that great a buy is the MBP doesn't have two HDD slots. If you're satisfied with 128GB, then by all means go ahead, but the 15" MBP I configured doesn't have a SSD(need space.. got the 500gb 7200rpm instead). Also, do get the higher reso screen, its worth it.
The 330M will easily be able to handle FIFA 10 and unless they decide to finally bring the console versions of FIFA to the PC, it will be able to handle FIFA 2014 too
.(I'd suggest trying out PES, if you haven't).If you're gonna be playing a lot of games i.e. the latest new games etc, you'll have to play them at low-medium settings. The 330M won't be able to handle games more than 1-2 years, unless you play them at reso's of 800*600 or 1024*768, and the minimum settings possible.
My current laptop's GTX260M manages to play all the current games at medium to high at Full HD.. but by the end of this year I'm pretty sure I'll be playing the games at a much lower reso(720p to maintain the aspect ratio) at medium settings.
Also about the SSD, one reason why I think its not that great a buy is the MBP doesn't have two HDD slots. If you're satisfied with 128GB, then by all means go ahead, but the 15" MBP I configured doesn't have a SSD(need space.. got the 500gb 7200rpm instead). Also, do get the higher reso screen, its worth it.
Thanks Styx.
@16,
Another suggestion about gaming.
If you're really into gaming, you might want to save a little bit by avoiding the 15" MBP and invest that money in say PS3. You'd get a good device and also it would play Blu-ray for about $250.
I'm sure when you want to shell out $50 for the DVD, you'll be able to put in extra hours
To be honest with you, those extra bit of usage of CPU would be very important only if someone is trying to run some reports/server on the machine, which would take 15 hours or 20 hours (may be even editing, rendering work). In that case, this extra processing power would save about 2-4 hours overall which is too good.
But again, lot of other factors come into picture.
1. Resale value of the i5 laptop > resale of C2D
2. Graphics - you gotta decide exactly which one you need.
3. Ofcourse money - initial buy
Good luck.
@16,
Another suggestion about gaming.
If you're really into gaming, you might want to save a little bit by avoiding the 15" MBP and invest that money in say PS3. You'd get a good device and also it would play Blu-ray for about $250.
I'm sure when you want to shell out $50 for the DVD, you'll be able to put in extra hours
To be honest with you, those extra bit of usage of CPU would be very important only if someone is trying to run some reports/server on the machine, which would take 15 hours or 20 hours (may be even editing, rendering work). In that case, this extra processing power would save about 2-4 hours overall which is too good.
But again, lot of other factors come into picture.
1. Resale value of the i5 laptop > resale of C2D
2. Graphics - you gotta decide exactly which one you need.
3. Ofcourse money - initial buy
Good luck.
Have heard the console idea a few times before. Just won't work because I don't have an HDTV in college.McAgnel said:Thanks Styx.
@16,
Another suggestion about gaming.
If you're really into gaming, you might want to save a little bit by avoiding the 15" MBP and invest that money in say PS3. You'd get a good device and also it would play Blu-ray for about $250.
I'm sure when you want to shell out $50 for the DVD, you'll be able to put in extra hours
To be honest with you, those extra bit of usage of CPU would be very important only if someone is trying to run some reports/server on the machine, which would take 15 hours or 20 hours (may be even editing, rendering work). In that case, this extra processing power would save about 2-4 hours overall which is too good.
But again, lot of other factors come into picture.
1. Resale value of the i5 laptop > resale of C2D
2. Graphics - you gotta decide exactly which one you need.
3. Ofcourse money - initial buy
Good luck.
And like I said, if the 13"ers had either an i5 or a 330M, I'd have already ordered one. The whole problem is that Apple effed me over.
desiibond
Keymaster
Keane 16 said:Thing is, if I relax that criteria (build quality, weight), there's about 20 laptops on Newegg which are even better deals than the Sony.
But I have to say, you've confused me again.
I do understand the dilemma. There are other models but in reliability and support, Sony is one of the best and they are infact better reliability than Apple, only behind ASUS and Toshiba. And the usage of better quality material is one reason why brands like Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo always have higher price than competition.
Who makes the most reliable laptops? | Crave - CNET
As you can see here, after 3yrs only 16.8% of Sony laptops are failing (17.4% for Apple and more than 25% for HP).
Not to forget that for just 55k INR, you are getting a Sony laptop with better performance and also with 3 yr warranty. Even if you consider gaming, the HD5650 on Vaio is dx11 compliant and is better in performance than older GT330M on macbooks.
as I said earlier, if you are that much concerned about gaming, you can get a Vaio + PS3 or Vaio + xbox 360 for the price of 1 macbook pro and you have a lot lot better gaming h/w. so, what is the need to spend more than double the amount just for aluminium casing and cute looking OS?
coming to OS part, windows 7 is the most stable windows OS and so you can remove the factor of stability when compared to snow leopard. They are both neck-to-neck in features and performance. And of course, you can game a lot more on win7.
Keane 16 said:
Well, as Superfrag pointed out, even the 330M will feel insufficient after 1-2 years if you want to play latest games at decent settings.
The thing is that a 13" MBP without costing a lot is lighter, compact and hence easier to lug around while being a more than decent all-round performer.
So you'll have to make up your mind and decide if you want an extremely portable Mac with exceptional battery life and good performance or you want something which is not so portable but surely has more horsepower.
Good luck.
hyperknight
Contributor
I say, for portability as well as gaming, go for the Alienware M11x
if you can afford it that is....
if you can afford it that is....
The 15 inch MBP seems to be having heating problems.
Just cancelled my 15" i5 order - too hot? - Mac Forums
Some guys are canceling their orders. :S
Just cancelled my 15" i5 order - too hot? - Mac Forums
Some guys are canceling their orders. :S
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