What the Vaio Z says about Sony's little design problem

Re:What the Vaio Z says about Sony's little design problem by ctdonath on Monday November 14, 2011 @10:45PM (#3236912)

Power supplies. I've got a copier paper box full of Sony power supplies. Every product they make has to have a different battery, plug, voltage, wattage, whatever so you MUST buy a new one if break/lose it, at a princely sum comparable to the price of the device.

Sony has 90% great, like awesome, design - then screws up the remaining 10% with either "meh, screw the user" or "hey, dig into his wallet" wrecking the rest. I've had two of their ultraportables, and try as I might to love them there's just one neurotic breakdown after another; my next is a MacBook Air.

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Re:What the Vaio Z says about Sony's little design problem by carmen on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @12:42AM (#3237188)

Vaio X has a standard DC barrel pot, ive powered it on anything from junk-heap printer wall-warts to 20-cent car-adaptors to lab bench-supplies without hassles.

other things it has over the air are half the weight owing to carbon fiber vs aluminum and a smaller battery owing to an Atom CPU (a feature - can tell which code is slow), and a full array of hardware ports and slots, a matte-screen with almost 0 reflected light readable in direct sun, a fan that is off most of the time, and GPS/3G. gma500 is main problem, but Alan Cox's driver is getting OK enough to use

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Re:What the Vaio Z says about Sony's little design problem by ctdonath on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @04:30PM (#3240343)

The Vaio X has been discontinued. The nearest equivalent to the MBA 13" I'm contemplating is the Vaio Z, at a cost of nearly $1000 more.

Apple products have always been derided as "under-speced and over-priced", yet customers keep voting with their wallets to the contrary. Knowing first-hand how those Vaios tend to blow their superior specs in the oddest ways, I'll take the Air.

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