Thinkpads Forum

I was one click away from buying an X200 when I read a post about the Sony Z-series, which completely killed my urge to get the X200 right away. On paper, the Sony Z-series completely kicks the X200's butt for about 200 bucks more. Is anyone else now weighing on which to buy? The Z-series' black aluminum case doesn't look to shabby either.

I would imagine the 13" LED screen on the Sony to be far better than the X200. It also has an integrated DVD-RW much like the X300 although the Sony one is upgradable to BD-R. The Z-series also has both HDMI and VGA ports (this is huge for me). Battery life appears to be identical on the standard and extended capacity batteries. It also has a switch to go between integrated (Intel) and discrete (nVidia) graphics, which is a bit overkill for me. The only big negative on the Sony is the lack of the Trackpoint and perhaps the chicklet keyboard.

What to do... what to do... How is Sony's post-sale service?

I currently own a Sony Vaio SZ1XP/C (13.3", dedicated+integrated card like the Z-series you describe); Post-sale service has been good for me, though I've only made use of it in the first few weeks for a minor issue.

I myself am looking at the Thinkpad X200 because battery life of my current laptop is not very good - a max of 3 hours on one charge on marginal usage and a lot of power saving options on.

And the hinges of my Sony are not very sturdy. They do hold, but the steel hinges of the Thinkpad X200 do look a lot better.

And I rarely use the laptop for gaming, only when I'm with my girlfriend, but she would be getting this laptop, so it would be fine.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling about the choice I may have to make and wish you good luck with yours

before knowing the ibm think pad , i am sony lover , i am using the sony ar , ux and tz ..now i getting to change to the thankpad , due to below , which cant be found in SONY

1. HSDPA (WWAN) ready in lenovo ,( i hate to plug in the usb 3g module , )

2. lenovo , wimmax ready slot.

3. expandable with 3rd party part ..

4. price is cheaper than sony , safe the money , go for the SSD.

good luck

I'm thinking of just getting a cheap used X42/X60 in the interim as my travel computer, and wait for the upcoming update of the x301, which I'm certain will be pretty sweet.

for durability.. Lenovo wins hands down.

I have had 3 or 4 sonys..

their hinges will not last...

on the other hand... i now have gone through around 10 IBM/Lenovo laptops....

absolutely the best....

Yes, I agree with the above posters.
You can't go wrong with Lenovo, although you say HDMI & VGA is a must. I assume you will be watching DVD & BD Movies through your new laptop. They may seem a bit flashy when new, but in the long run the Thinkpads perform as when they were new.

Lenovo = built like a tank

aj

To me, it's a no-brainer: the Sony has 1600x900 resolution versus the X200's 1280x800, so I would get 41% more pixels. Display quality should also be better. I would be willing to spend $200 more.

However, the X200 is slightly lighter and I do believe it's more solid. So, if you carry the laptop around a lot, get the X200.

hexproject wrote:their hinges will not last...

They would last if one opens the display carefully.

ajb wrote:Lenovo = built like a tank

aj

This is the reason I always use Thinkpad.

I played with a Sony Z at a Sony store today and I am not impressed. There is a ton of flex in the screen and the laptop feels like a V-Tech toy in comparison to a Thinkpad. The keyboard felt awful. On the bright side the screen picture quality was nice.

aquina wrote:I played with a Sony Z at a Sony store today and I am not impressed. There is a ton of flex in the screen and the laptop feels like a V-Tech toy in comparison to a Thinkpad. The keyboard felt awful. On the bright side the screen picture quality was nice.

I concur, the Sony Z series is not built very strongly and is not considered a rugged notebook. It has a sub-standard keyboard in comparison to all the thinkpads. The only positive attribute it has is the screen is very nice. It all depends what you want to use it as and how rough you are going to treat it..

yeah this choice has been killing me to i don't know if i want to x200 or the sony z series. pandering more to the z because it has more features and horse power. but arggh we all know when it comes down to it the x200s the real work horse and survivor. gosh the choices. x200 why couldn't u come with a bigger screen and a trackpad and a hdmi and a dedicated graphics card and a bd player and a better screen and a............... dammit choices..

The problem is that i move around with my x60s a lot. its pratically with me all the time. Anything not built like a tank is gonna end in the junkyard really really fast. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.........!!!

neenee wrote:I currently own a Sony Vaio SZ1XP/C (13.3", dedicated+integrated card like the Z-series you describe); Post-sale service has been good for me, though I've only made use of it in the first few weeks for a minor issue.

I myself am looking at the Thinkpad X200 because battery life of my current laptop is not very good - a max of 3 hours on one charge on marginal usage and a lot of power saving options on.

And the hinges of my Sony are not very sturdy. They do hold, but the steel hinges of the Thinkpad X200 do look a lot better.

And I rarely use the laptop for gaming, only when I'm with my girlfriend, but she would be getting this laptop, so it would be fine.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling about the choice I may have to make and wish you good luck with yours

i just realised u don't have a VGN-Z16GN/B so it actually might be more durable. me think i go to shoppie and take a lookie at the physical durability of it . carabon fibre body can't be so bad can it?
http://www.sony.com.sg/microsite/vaio/p ... _z/f5.html looks kinda tuff to me. btw i really like the keyboard on that thing like the macbook air. It seems to everything the x200 is and more - the magnesium roll cage(but really my x60s seems to be doing fine without it) it even has the ultrabase thing

Greetings:

I don't know if sharing desktop experiences has any relationship to laptop experiences, and certainly enough time has passed that Sony may have gotten better... but several years ago our company replaced all its Dell and HP desktops with Sony's and it was as disaster (the Sony's were replaced with less than a year with a complete loss).

So while there are times, as I'm pursuing what I need to know to make an intelligent Thinkpad buy decision that I'm tempted to look at the new Sony notebooks, I'm reminded of that terrible experience.

Thank you.

could u please explain what exactly happened to the sony desktops. i am kinda interested to know.

lenovo sl300 seems to be a good competitor to the z and x200
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4582

Cheap too and at 1.8kg(remove the cd rom drive and it should be near my x60s). has nearly all the capibilities of the z for half the price.

Writing this from an X300 ... the Dell e4300 is looking awfully nice.

3.3 lbs, thinkpad style trackpoint, backlit keyboard, AND a backlit screen, 1.1 " and same specs otherwise ... I am not a Dell fan but this has me thinking. I have owned Sonys and quality is subpar - buy the extended warranty - they are sexy but not built to last. X200 has really good battery life but by comparison a lousy screen. If it wasn't the thing you looked at all the time - then it might not be as important but ...

I was back and forth between these for a couple of weeks, and landed on an X200. The Sony does look sleek, but there are just so many "things" reported with it:

Keyboard layout is weird, and you are not guaranteed to like it.
Batterylife not nearly as good as X200
More expensive
Not as solid build quality
Noisy

The X200 just seems like a safer bet, especially since I'm gonna be traveling/commuting with it a lot. I also have a 22" monitor I use at home, so the screen size and quality doesn't concern me that much.[/list]

did u actually have a hands on test of the z ?

I did go to the Sony Style store to touch and feel it, and I wasn't more impressed than it having a great and thin screen. I'm worried about the keyboard layout, and the buttons don't feel that good. And I don't like the Speed/Stamina thing, and the hybrid graphics technology. Knowing how many driver issues you still have on normal graphics card, I just know it's gonna be problems with those for a while.

Novi wrote:I did go to the Sony Style store to touch and feel it, and I wasn't more impressed than it having a great and thin screen. I'm worried about the keyboard layout, and the buttons don't feel that good. And I don't like the Speed/Stamina thing, and the hybrid graphics technology. Knowing how many driver issues you still have on normal graphics card, I just know it's gonna be problems with those for a while.

Yeah that true. dammit sigh. btw how about the screen is it better or worse than the x200? and did u try the 1600 x 900 mode?

I'm going to take a slightly different approach in my response. Mine will be generic, a practical Sony VAIO vs ThinkPad comparison report. (non model specific).
I take this approach as someone who is a huge ThinkPad Advocate, and yet has always been drawn to the various VAIO's due to features & styling. As a hard core laptop addict / geek.... .... I own a ridiculous amount of ThinkPads as well as other brands, many of which are VAIO's.

However that said, in each case when it comes to purchasing a VAIO I always buy a high end model, enjoy it for a very short time, as a secondary laptop, only to be very disappointed at all of the shortcomings that come with a VAIO purchase. Being totally spoiled with the breadth and depth of ThinkPad support, that alone, is abysmal with Sony laptops. Sony is perhaps the worst as far as offering good support via the web, or over the phone, then making available all the drivers you need is a huge shortcoming with them and the list goes on and on. Then when it comes to the VAIO itself they usually suffer from keyboards that are far less as nice to use, far less solid than that of the typical ThinkPad. Port layout is rather odd, planned obsolescence guarantees that docking stations, and other peripherals are rarely interchangeable if at all. And finally when they come out with a good model, it is discontinued as opposed to being left in the lineup and improved upon year after year. Thus much like a fashion model, I find them attractive but horribly impractical. If one is supremely lucky and gets a "good one" that is trouble free than you can usually get your moneys worth. However conversely if you get a "bad one" that breaks down you will be so sorry as the price of your time and trouble alone, trying to chase down the issue, and find proper solutions, will drive you crazy... take it from someone who has been there.

And yet have I learned?.....No..... .... or actually YES! So what is it? Well I've come to the conclusion that I will most likely continue to buy a few VAIO's from time to time, and have a certain degree of fun with them. Notice I said fun. Beyond that I will never rely on one for actual work other than mundane tasks one would use a home computer for. Since I make my living with a laptop, it's ThinkPad hands down, no contest, no hesitation, no question.

Buy a ThinkPad, any ThinkPad, that suits your needs and you will not be disappointed. Period. Take it from someone who spends an obscene amount of money on laptops......

I tried my neighbor's Sony laptop, and I didn't like the keyboard. It was quite uncomfortable to type. And when I showed him my IBM, he liked the keyboard and he was even thinking to get an IBM too! What I like from his Sony laptop is the long battery life. When I looked at the battery percentage, it showed 8+ hours at 70%! I estimate it could be near 12 hours at full charge.

denisky wrote:What I like from his Sony laptop is the long battery life. When I looked at the battery percentage, it showed 8+ hours at 70%! I estimate it could be near 12 hours at full charge.

Don't be fooled by this indicator. On VAIO's it's reputation is for grossly over estimating the remaining battery life. I have yet to experience long battery life on a VAIO, especially as compared to a ThinkPad with the same configuration.

Cheers

archer about the support. Have u experienced the time for sending a vaio and a thinkpad for servicing(reparing) ? just wondering whats the difference in the service time. How durable are those vaios, how many times have u sent one for servicing?


sigh still thinking about the choice. my x60s not able to take virtual machine and video watching anymore. its at its limit.

god d#$@$it if only the dammed x200 had a touchpad and bigger screen and the x300 had a 5400rpm drive.

the unfortunate thing is that the current z has all the functionality that i want in an ultraportable. but i just don't know if it can last like a thinkpad. the x60s isn't a bad laptop its just that my power needs have outgrown it . My experience with the thinkpad has been pretty good, really no complaints.

denisky wrote:I tried my neighbor's Sony laptop, and I didn't like the keyboard. It was quite uncomfortable to type. And when I showed him my IBM, he liked the keyboard and he was even thinking to get an IBM too! What I like from his Sony laptop is the long battery life. When I looked at the battery percentage, it showed 8+ hours at 70%! I estimate it could be near 12 hours at full charge.

btw the vaio z i think has a different type of keyboard. something like the mac air.

tyanlion wrote:the vaio z i think has a different type of keyboard. something like the mac air.

It has flat topped keys just like the new MacBooks and MacBook Air. They really take some getting used to, I know as I have a Black MacBook with the flat keys. They are quite uncomfortable for any serious typing, report writing, long emails, etc. I only use that laptop for casual stuff and even at that the keyboard in a pain in the .....I cannot endorse flat topped keys at all.

wait how about those repair times

tyanlion wrote:wait how about those repair times

Actually I have had to send three VAIO's in for repairs over the last 22 months and it's like sending them to the north pole for the elfs to work on......
Not funny, but then again it is, as one is forced to wait until they take their time and perform the repairs. Then each time, I've had to clean off the smudges on both the case, keyboard and worst of all the marks, fingerprints and smudge on the display. Again, I'm certainly not bashing Sony, but if you want to computer to rely on and not get all stressed due to the problems, the last thing you want is a Sony. Just get the ThinkPad that meets your needs and you will not regret it.

I'd consider new TT series http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4613