For two years I owned an Apple MacBook Pro which was nothing but trouble. I eventually replaced it two months ago with a Sony VAIO Z. In this article I shall compare the two notebooks.
Before I start, I should note that the MacBook Pro was a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo 2008 refresh model costing £1300 when new, with a 4GB RAM and 7200 RPM hard drive upgrade. The VAIO Z is a custom build from the Sony Style Store, the VAIO Z V series missing the DVD drive and with a regular hard drive instead of the quad SSD of its more expensive X series brethren. On top of this model I added a £30 (since increased to £50) upgrade to from 2.4 GHz to 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 processor and the £50 (since increased to £70) 1920×1080 pixel screen instead of the standard 1600×900. This brought the smaller VAIO to £1400, an increase of £100.
I’ll break the comparison between the two up into categories:
Display
I opted for the £50 upgrade to the 1920×1080 (Full HD) display on the 13.1″ VAIO Z, and while the gamut is admittedly much better than the 15″ MacBook Pro (on par with or maybe even slightly better than my HP LP2475w monitor you see it with to the left), the full HD resolution is just too much for a 13.1″ screen. By comparison, the 2 inches larger MacBook Pro only had a 1440×900 screen, and that felt a high pixel density at the time! The DPI settings in Windows 7 do alleviate the problem somewhat, but setting a higher DPI comes with its own toll – incompatibility with some software, Dreamweaver CS4 to call one out. As you can see from the screenshot, for most of Dreamweaver’s interface, the DPI settings have no effect (they should make UI elements and text bigger) but in the properties bar at the bottom the larger size causes some of the options to be cut off the screen. Other programs have smaller issues such as pixellated icons and UI elements.
Performance
The 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5-520M processor in the VAIO definitely is a slight boost over the 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo of the MacBook, but that’s to be expected, two years have passed since the MacBook was brought out. To be honest, it’s difficult to compare performance as the MacBook was running Snow Leopard and the VAIO of course is running Windows 7, so the operating system probably has more of an influence on perceived performance than the processor.
The slightly quicker 7200 RPM drive in the MacBook helped the snappiness no end, so I’m quite sure an upgrade from the 5400 RPM drive to an SSD would help the VAIO no end.
Both laptops were fitted with 4GB RAM, which never seemed enough in the MacBook and seems to be even more of a burden on Windows 7. With Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Firefox open, the machine slows to a crawl. The VAIO Z has a clever little switch to swap between the Intel integrated graphics (okay for web browsing) and the onboard NVIDIA GT 330M 1GB graphics, and an ‘Auto’ position that switches to the integrated graphics when on battery power. It’s with some trepidation that I bought another laptop with NVIDIA graphics, since it’s their fault my MacBook died, but whatever. They’ve probably fixed that issue now. I’m not a gaming person, so I’ve not given the NVIDIA chip a massive workout, but for some reason Photoshop CS4 seems to lag on the VAIO. Even with nothing else open (to eliminate RAM as the cause), simple stuff like scrolling around an image or zooming has a pretty nasty delay. The same actions used to be buttery smooth on the MacBook, and aren’t nearly so bad on my desktop. Odd. Another pretty huge problem is that with the graphics switch to auto, the computer holds off switching the graphics if anything is using it that could be affected by the swap. Sometimes this cutoff comes into action with no apparent reason, refusing to switch graphics, and sometimes the cutoff fails to work, causing the computer to crash and bluescreen, or at the least, force close whatever program was using the graphics. I’m getting a bit fed up of Photoshop crashing and losing all my work just because I unplugged the laptop, so now the switch is pretty much permanently set to NVIDIA only mode. Great idea, and the battery life is a bit better when using the integrated graphics, but the implementation within the OS is my no means seamless.
Feel
The major selling point (and the reason it was so dear compared to its competitors) of the VAIO is its weight. at a claimed 1.3 kilos instead of the 2.6 of the MacBook, it’s much more pleasant to carry around in a bag. Slipped in a satchel, you barely notice it’s there (unless you also throw in the bulky power supply and its three pin lead). By comparison, the carrying the MacBook around lead to some pretty stiff shoulders. The chicklet keyboard on the VAIO is ace – very sturdy with well spaced and positioned keys. The feel is very similar to an Apple desktop keyboard. The trackpad, however, is not. It’s a bit too small, the clicking buttons are too close, making your thumb cramp, and the actual pointing action – terrible. The cursor jumps around seemingly at random. Multitouch zooming via pinch exists, but only in some software (not Creative Suite) and with a very jerky motion. It’s hard to be kind about the MacBook’s keyboard and trackpad since they only worked intermittently after about a year (the ribbon cable wouldn’t stay in its connector), but when they worked, the trackpad was a pleasure. Pinching and scrolling around Photoshop documents was better than a mouse, and I should imagine it to be even better in newer MacBooks due to their larger glass trackpads. The carbon fibre lid on the VAIO is fairly sturdy considering its thickness, and impressively thin, and the thick aluminium block that forms the chassis gives no flex. It’s a shame about the plastic shell underneath the aluminium block which forms the base, as this is very cheap feeling compared the the full metal shell of the MacBook. It’s full of holes, vents and stickers like a cheap laptop, and seems really out of place on something costing £1400. The wireless switch on the bottom front is a stupid addition – you bump it to off every time you move the laptop, then have to wait for it to reconnect. Why would you even need to turn off the wireless anyway?
Conclusion
I’ve got a bit of a love-hate relationship with the VAIO Z. It could be so much better if these little niggles were sorted, and I’m still not sure it feels worth the £1400. I think it would benefit greatly from 8GB RAM and a SSD, so I’ll have to look into it when the prices for DDR3 come back down. I’m also planning to upgrade with Creative suite CS5 in the very near future, so hopefully that will sort many of the problems there. I don’t feel comfortable working on such a small screen, I much prefer my desktop with its gargantuan power and plenty of desktop space so I can’t help wondering if I could have made do with a cheaper laptop. I bought the VAIO online without ever having seen one, which was probably a big mistake, but with the MacBook dead, I needed a laptop – fast. That didn’t even work out so well – it took Sony nearly a month from ordering to build the custom laptop and get it to me. At least they kept me well informed as to the progress, and I never have to go to a pretentious Apple ‘Genius bar’ again.
By: Edward Townend About the Author:
Edward Townend, owner of Townend Creative Limited is a graphic and web designer based in South Yorkshire.
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