Not too long ago, I reviewed the Sony Vaio X1 and the SSD Drive in it. And to compare the two, from prices to spec, the weight and it’s size, there are advantages and disadvantages between the two. But both are competing for the same thing, lightness. Though both are in a different category, one is “netbook”, the other is sub-compact notebook.
First of all, the MacBook Air has Core2Duo CPU, while the Sony Vaio X1, only Atom chips. Even though the Atom chips is up to 2Ghz, it’s still not a real dual core cpu. The MacBook Air claims 6 hours, but I only got to 5 hours. Sony Vaio X1, gets 10 hours and it does get 10 hours. WOW! Form factor, the Sony wins, lightness, Sony wins again. Battery life, Sony wins, price, Sony wins again. So why do you want to get MacBook Air? For the same SSD version, the MacBook Air cost $1700 while the Sony Vaio X1 is $1400. Second of all, Sony runs on Windows 7, not fast at all with the Atom chips. I still find Windows XP to run best with Atom chips. MacBook Air runs with the latest OS X Snow Leopard. Compare the two OS’s, the Mac wins, screen size and back-lit keyboard, Mac wins again. 128Gb SSD versus 64Gb SSD (Spec was from an older Sony Vaio X1), Mac wins. CPU Speed, Mac wins again. You can use Photoshop or any other power hungry software and other multi-tasking things and the Mac wins again. You can use Photoshop on the Atom as well, believe me, I have tried, and it works well. But if you try to do other things while running Photoshop, good luck with Atom chips.
Both have it’s advantages and disadvantages, it all depends what you want and what you need. Do you need the most light notebook out there and last more than 5 hours of Battery but don’t mind the Atom chips and Windows 7? Get the Sony Vaio X1. It looks like regular “netbooks” out there, nothing really special about it. You won’t get the wow factor that you get with Mac, but who cares, as long as you get 10 hours of battery life, that’s what matters. At least it does to me.
So why did I get a MacBook Air? One, it’s because it’s light enough. Even though, as I mentioned earlier, isn’t as light as the Sony Vaio X1, it’s still light enough where I can type with one hand and the other hand carrying it. The 13 inch screen is perfect, and the loading time to the OS is in 15 seconds. That’s twice faster than Windows 7 on Sony Vaio X1 and the MacBook Air looks sexy and looks expensive. The only thing that is bad about the MacBook Air, is that the vent is towards the back, so if you are on your bed and place it there, there is no ventilation for the heat to go to, making the MacBook Air hot. Laying it on your chest also feels warm. The biggest advantage over the Sony Vaio X is that it loads way faster than Windows.
Why would you want to get Sony Vaio X1? Well, I would because of the price and form factor. Perfect for traveling, just to surf the internet and such, but if the price isn’t as close to the MacBook Air, I would really consider the Sony Vaio X1 over the MacBook Air any day. But because the price is close to each other, I would rather get the MacBook Air. 5 Hours of Battery time is plenty enough. But if you travel a lot, and you don’t want to bother looking for a plug, then I would get the Sony Vaio X1. But the Sony Vaio X1 looks nothing special. It just looks like the rest of the “netbooks” out there. No wow factor. The current Sony Vaio X1 gets the new Atom Z550 processor, which is 2.0Ghz. But still an Atom, not Core2Duo. The Sony Vaio X1 I reviewed was the Z530, which has the 1.1Ghz Atom Processor. The one thing I like about the Sony Vaio X1 is, even after 3 hours of using it, it doesn’t get hot, not a single hint of heat from the bottom of it.
But in real life, I would get both. One for travel long distance in a plane, while the other for more power house stuff. There isn’t a perfect world, sometimes, it’s just best to get two. And combined the two in your backpack, it’s still not going to be as heavy as just one of my HP Tablet PC.
At the end, if one company would make in between the two; very light like the Sony Vaio X1, Core2Duo CPU like the Mac Air, super fast and stable OS like Mac Air, doesn’t get hot like Sony Vaio X1, quiet like the Sony Vaio X1, back-lit keyboard like Mac Air, bigger screen like Mac Air, removable battery like Sony Vaio X1. But this is the real world, nothing will ever be perfect. So in this case, looks like the Sony Vaio X1 is the clear winner, even though it’s too expensive just for an Atom “netbooks” PC, but hey, can’t win them all. Soon I’ll take pictures of the Sony Vaio X1 and MacBook Air side by side for comparison and see the differences in size.
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Eberhard
Eberhard, twitter @powercx, likes to write as a hobby, and he loves the media. Likes to play with gadget toys, plays with any cool Software for smartphone, PC or Mac and writes his own review. His review is unbiased and not sponsored. Even though Powercx.com has been around since '96, he didn't start blogging till '98. His Tech experience is with Cisco Systems and Wells Fargo as an avid backend web developer with JSP, PHP, ASP, CSS, and Javascript as well as a part time Web Designer on the side does not end there.
This site is about all type of gadgets that he will encounter with. From cool Software that comes with the Hardware, or any Hardware that comes with heavy interest in the community. He will be posting at least two post a week.
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