And when the internal battery starts to go, you have to bin it. As I have with my first PS3 one. Great design?

The one they released without rumble because that was ‘last gen’. That great piece of design.

Nah, it’s a well-written and mostly approving 7/10 review of a $2,500 laptop. And I’m here to tell you why 7/10 is a serious problem for Sony and its overpriced laptops. 

it does appear that you’ve been forever predisposed to being an Apple user

I only bought my first Mac a few years ago and while I’m extremely fond of Apple’s laptops, I’m also fond of lots of other ones, too. I’m not interested in people who want to interpret stuff in terms of what “side” the author is on — it’s just so much confirmation bias and projection and it’s pointless.

The thing you have to understand about tech writers, is we basically have no sunk cost in any of this. Whether we want it or not, it’s piled upon us. The emotional connections are different. It’s hard to explain, but when commenters come at us talking about predispositions and fanboy this and that, it’s crazy, because you’re the ones buying your own loyalty. When writing about gadgets, our job is to help the undecided make good decisions. Just keep buying $2,500 of happiness, if you already know what makes you happy.

the bit about building PC’s and blaming their instabilities on the kit / OS as opposed to the builder’s inability to build a stable machine

What are you referring to? I build myself a new gaming box at least annually. If you think that the kit from, say, Shuttle PC, is always stable, you’re living in a fantasy world.

I have a Vaio from 9 years ago and, unlike a couple Dells after that, it still works. Soon will be buying my third Macbook Pro, 
The corners on Sony’s new model $%^&*( looks painful. Reminds of a DiY to make the MBP feel better – google: “macbook pro sharp edges fix”

Sony. How sad. I could see buying an X505. 

And I’m also having trouble understanding how being a fan of Apple laptops makes his opinions on other laptops any less relevant, especially when he’s comparing their evolutionary processes. Are you saying fans of Apple can’t form meaningful opinions about non-Apple products? Even when they’re acting in the capacity of a tech reviewer? Even when they’re users of other laptops? Is technology really that partisan, and is Apple really a wedge issue?

Apologies if I’ve completely misunderstood you, since it seems like I *must* be misunderstanding you.

Snap. Then why would you endorse such a piss-poor review? I understand it might be a point you’re trying to make, but it really doesn’t help your argument from the POV of an informed reader.

I’ve read many of your tech articles and despite this line of defence, it does appear that you’ve been forever predisposed to being an Apple user – the bit about building PC’s and blaming their instabilities on the kit / OS as opposed to the builder’s inability to build a stable machine does indicate a particular giveaway in this regard.

Yes, if you’re recompiling kernels or working on 400,000-part AutoCAD drawings, the MB Air may not be fast enough.  But it’s plenty powerful for 99% of uses.

That’s why I brought up my own VAIO laptop.  Once Win7 was installed and all the updates applied, it did everything I wanted it to.  It is and was a perfectly good machine that met all my needs, except for battery life (never lasted more than 2 hours unless the wireless was off, the screen dimmed, and the BD-ROM drive idle, and then I’d get nearly 2.5 hours).  But now that the 2-year-old battery only lasts 30 minutes on a charge and I need to get a new one, I have no support from Sony.  At all.  It’s as if my 2-year-old computer ($1300 new, so not exactly bottom-of-the-barrel) is a 1960 Edsel Ranger.  And I don’t know how other hardware manufacturers handle such things, but this was the first computer I ever bought that came with no user manual, bound or PDF, at all.  Not even an orientation slideshow.  I know most people never read those things, but I like to have at least a reference card that sums up all my features, catalogs the “bonus” bloatware, or reminds me where all my little-used ports are.

It’s as if Sony has no attention span, and treats all its products as orphans.

I guess you don’t know an awful lot about the subject! It’s OK. Sony’s been making ultraportables a long, long time.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,13409,00.asp#fbid=I9APu_KAts4
http://internettrash.com/users/pcgc1/index2.html

“it’s a very worn and tired perspective to imply that no one but steve jobs could get it right.”

Didn’t you read the post? It’s OK. As I wrote in it, Lenovo gets it right too, with the ThinkPads. Apple’s just a good example here because of the similarities between the Air and the Vaio X and Z.

Either way its what I use for my contracting and its brilliant – portable enough and great battery for trans-tasman (NZ to Australia) flights while happy crunching Java development.  And main thing that makes my mac book brethren in the office envious – the 3 external full HD LCD’s attached…

rob, try to review without comparison to apple products (and without otherwise subtly using apple as the standard) and turn that frown upside down.  it’s a very worn and tired perspective to imply that no one but steve jobs could get it right.

How do you change without pissing people off?  You have to evolve slowly.  Give people something new, then keep iterating it.  Eventually you’ll wind up with something that’s the same, only better, than the first iteration.  Unless a user goes back to try the first version (hint: no one ever does) they’ll be perfectly content that the latest version is exactly the same as what they’re used to.

With Sony products, you buy one now and you buy one in 2 years, they’re completely different.  You have to get used to it all over again.

Apple isn’t the only example of iterative laptop development either.  Look at Lenovo.  They didn’t even create the original ThinkPad, but they’ve kept cranking out new models that don’t rock the boat too much.

So iterative design isn’t just about creating a “better” product — it’s also about satisfying your users in the long run.

I’ve been a big fan of the ultraportable. Sony sold me on the format with… Oh, I can’t remember the model number. It was back when VAIO’s were purple, so possibly a decade.  I’ve own a Sony ultraportable ever since then.  The last two I bought had the option when buying to no have it loaded with crapware, and it wasn’t. The last one I bought even came with both XP and Vista restore disks bowing to the then disastrous thing that was Vista.They were workhorses. I carried one and used one as my main work machine every day doing real work, full Adobe suite stuff, not just web browsing. The latest ones I could get 9 hours of battery life out of (With the extended battery.)  And I never once had to take one in for maintenance.The damn things had a few things which drove me crazy. They used the same hard drives as iPods.  They are ridiculously slow.  Fine for music, horrible for load times. Launching Photoshop one could make a sandwich and eat it before it was ready to use. I’m not exaggerating. Yes, they eventually had SSD options but they made something already luxuriously expensive cross the road to luxuriously expensive.  And video performance was crap. The most recent one I bought couldn’t even run an external display at HD rez. Anything the slightest bit 3D died a horrible death.  But damn, I could still get 9 hours of battery life out of the thing.And then this fall Apple came out with the new Air. Affordable even with a decent sized SSHD.  Photoshop now launches in 3 seconds. Vastly better graphics performance—I can even play games. Games!  I run dual monitors at full resolution.   I can’t get 9 hours of battery life out of it, but I can usually get more than 4 if I need them.  Which is usually enough.  It’s not perfect, I can’t buy an extended battery and I’ve always been a big fan of the dock which is again not an option.

But Apple finally got it right enough to get me across the fence and I’m not going back any time soon. Which means its a sad time for both Apple and Sony because Sony is the only real competition that Apple has on the hardware level.

Really, what I think I want my next PC to be is a cross between the Samsung Series 7 tablet and the Asus Transformer Prime — usable in clamshell mode or in tablet mode, finger touch plus active digitizer, high res, Core i5 or better, lots of RAM, good-sized SSD. Hopefully someone will make me one.

It’s a market that Apple is ignoring…

The “people who have a lot of money to drop on a laptop but care more about specs than usability” market? Yeah, they probably are. Time will tell which company made the better business decision.

Really, it’s just sad when people comment like this.