Laptop Advice: Sony Vaio TR5MP...

[matt100]

Do warranty concerns come into it? A tx will have a warranty.. the tr won't..

Plus the tx will be more up to date surely with things like onyx black screens, dual layer dvdrw etc etc...

I wuld say at a grand difference if you're considering the tx series then you can obviously afford it so do!

And I'm with you on the vaio, I either bought vaios or ibooks before I got a company laptop (luckily also a vaio but not suprising its a sony company ).. style means a lot when it's sat in front of you all the time and it can mean a lot in meetings too suprisingly enough.

 

[BoomAM]

The style is something that doesnt even come into it when you refer to a Thinkpad.

I havnt said that at all.
Ive said that you should be thinking of function over style.
I find my TitaniumThinkpad to look very good. But thats becides the point. As i bought it for durability & features over its looks.

The display is 4mm thick and even thinner and lighter than any other model before it.

Any Sony before it. You cant exactely generalise to every manufacturer out there.

Dont get me wrong, the Sonys arnt bad, but you get more for your money if you branch past Sony.

 

[Spyhop]

I'll stick my oar in and agree that most Thinkpads look terrible. It's the bright colours on the black that do it - especially the IBM logo. What is that all about? I'm guessing they're going for some kind of "old school" charm, but it fails miserably. They look like they've been pulled from a skip in 1995.

 

[BoomAM]

lol.
Each to their own i suppose.
But a device, especially a laptop, shouldnt be bought on looks or style. It should be bought on function.

 

[Psypher5]

THe OP wants a VAIO. End of really? He was asking about the spec of them and which was the better? Why the pushing to try and make him want something he really doesn't?

IMO the vaio is very good looking. And that ibm that was linked looks like carp.

Hes set on a vaio for looks and wants to know about the spec, cant you just..help him? :/

 

[Spyhop]

Each to their own i suppose.
But a device, especially a laptop, shouldnt be bought on looks or style. It should be bought on function.

Agreed, it is nice to have both and ponce about with a modern looking machine, though.

This wee Powerbook is the ultimate looks-wise (funnily enough) IMO.

 

[matt100]

But a device, especially a laptop, shouldnt be bought on looks or style. It should be bought on function.

I don't class myself as especially shallow but I honestly think design plays a massive part in purchase consideration.

Once you're past some processesor, some ram and some hard drive which lets be honest are often much of a muchness especially in laptops what do you use to differentiate?

The looks.. the feel.. the enjoyment and pleasure you get from using the thing.. I don't think I'm shallow but I am a design freak and I can totally see where the OP is coming from..

Oh dammit just buy the tx1hp.. or.. if you're feeling cheeky wait for one of the SZ's, I was at Sony HO in Weybridge today exhibiting at their trade show and they had a couple there.. 13" screens so a little bigger than you're looking for but they look amazing.

Entry is £1300 and thats for a 1.6ghz 512mb 80gb model.. but the 1.6 is a core duo.. so there's 2 cpus in there effectively. I guess you might want to look at another 512mb but that needn't cost you more than around £50 I don't think (don't quote me)..

Have a look, you won't be disappointed.

 

[Alex_L]

i have to say, that i didn't think much of the thinkpad designwise, until i actually saw them. in my opinion they look infintely better in real life than on the internet. whilst the hardware might be the same as other brands, i can honestly say i'd now look at a thinkpad over other makes simply because of things like:

trackpoint - makes touchpad redundant, its just so easy to use, i would stuggle to go pack to a touchpad
thinkvantage utilities - so much flexibility in security and power management and thats just scratching the surface of what it can do.

 

[Overclocker]

Sorry but another vote for the Thinkpad X series...

And another here.

 

[Journey]

Had a TR5 for around 3 weeks and the screen back must have flexed and cracked, and that was in a padded laptop bag!

Needless to say it went back and was refunded then replaced with anX series Thinkpad, ugly yes, strong yes. SOny looked great but looks do not make it well built to my dissatisfaction.

Buy what you like the spec on Sony is ok, but just don't say you were not warned.

 

[matt100]

Thats a bit harsh.. you can't judge a whole range on that, there's a field team where I work who all have a collection of tr1, tr5 and latterly t1s (like myself) that get taken to roadshows, demo days, training sessions, on regular flights etc etc and they've had a few faults but certainly nothing I'd call excessive and given the beating they get they get my vote for being sturdy too.

I don't do as much road work as these guys but mine is regularly chucked in the back of the car/manhandled round meeting rooms/generally misreated by me and the wife at home etc and its been faultless, very nearly a year old now and never a single fault.

If you managed to break a screen in a padded bag someone either dropped something on it without telling you or you had some sort of freak accident/very unusual unit.

Anyway, the OP wasn't asking if he should buy a fisherprice thinkbook. He was pretty adamant he wanted a sony and if he's anything like me he'd rather use a leap pad than a butt ugly ibm

 

[BoomAM]

...he should buy a fisherprice thinkbook...

Exactely.
He wants an over-priced Fony that looks good. Because at the end of the day, thats what it comes down to. Looks.

Look, choose what you want. But i guarantee you, you will get into the first few months of ownership and realise that your either A) not happy with it, or B) think you overpayed.
Or it'll break/scratch badly/have intermittent problems.

 

[lolwtfbbq]

had a sony laptop once (old) lasted 2 powerful smacks to the floor still worked .Oh and last year it died

 

[manic_man]

god the spec of that is pretty terrible for over a grand :\

Im currently on the lookout for an older centrino based laptop, namely the HP NC4000, i can get one second hand for around £350 (hopefully) with a 1.5 centrino (older 1mb cache one) 512mb ram, 40gb HD, bluetooth, wifi, usually with the correct external multibay for optical drives and often still with some HP warranty left.

The NC4000 doesnt look much larger than that Sony, i still dont know why people pay through their teeth for Sony's inferior products... odd

 

[matt100]

omg this is getting sillier! I used to work in corp IT sales and I hated selling HPs!

They were cheap but boy did you pay for it with breakdown.. nngnng I can still remember a proper bust up with someone over their nc6000..

 

[manic_man]

used an NC4000 for a year at HP was the best laptop i have ever had the pleasure of using incredibly robust, very small but perfectly formed, quiet 99% of the time. I had no issues

I tried to take mine with me but they wouldnt let me

Anyway the brand doesnt matter what i was pointing out was that over £1000 for a Pentium M 1.1Ghz is just stupid, although i have just looked at the Dell website and they want similar money for a similar spec for their X1 model.

In which case i retract my statement as these new sub-tops seem very highly priced all round.

 

[mag1caltrev0r]

Well... FWIW, I've just bought the Sony Vaio S5M which is bigger than the TR series but packs a reasonable nVidia 6400(IIRC) graphics card. I have to say that I'm extremely impressed with it. The screen is excellent and importantly it runs World of Warcraft perfectly well in native widescreen resolution. I managed to get mine for £950.

It does however come with Win XP Home but I soon installed Pro instead!

 

[Minority]

The TX2 has LED backlight over the TR5 giving you a huge improvement in battery life, not to mention the brightness of the screen. You also get a higher resolution of 1366*768.

I think you should probably go and visit a Sony store and hold a TX series, they are amazingly light but I suppose it comes down to what you can afford. If it was me I'd go for the TX2 (I've got one on order)

For those who call the TX series on not being functional, some of us don't play games and actually want a laptop that is portable.

EDIT - As for Sony laptops being overpriced, yes you pay a little for the VAIO logo but with the TX series you get a carbon fibre ultra light, ultra portable amazingly engineered laptop. Just go and hold one, a laptop shouldn't require effort to pick up.

 

[Rameses]

I think also some people have forgotten that I have had a TR1MP for 2 years...Not one single problem. IMO Sony do have build quality as well as looks.

I would have no problem going back to the TR series, all be it the TR5MP as its a lilttle faster and has a bigger HD, but I suppose it comes down to warranty etc?

Unless my house insurance would cover this in some way? I did have my TR1MP covered for going anywhere in the world...Not sure if accidental damage is something that was included?

I will go though and see the TX, I assume the Sony shop near me will only have the TX1...but besides the slight CPU upgrade and HD, not much has changed on paper.

 

[Jeff Crawly]

Buying a laptop based on what it looks like is both sad and stupid!!
Get a grip! It's not an item of clothing!
If your buying it so you can pose with it then thats very sad and pathetic tbh

IBM > Sony ...