Sony Vaio laptop

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wodger

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# 19290 12-Feb-2008 09:06

A customer I look after is wanting to buy this laptop: http://www.sony.co.nz/vaio/product.jsp?sku=VGNTZ27GNR It'll be getting "downgraded" to XP. He is a business user and he has VERY high expectations and demands of his current laptop. He uses dragon dictation software. I am thinking that this sony, with its relatively slow processor speed (albeit a core 2 duo), slow HDD speed @ 4200rpm, and apparent max capacity for 2GB ram, isn't really alot of bang for buck comapared to what else he could get for that sort of money.. ? He does alot of work in the pacific, so I think he wants the LED backlit screen to make working outside easier. What do others think? Appreciate your thoughts...

chiefie

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# 110045 12-Feb-2008 09:44

Why not suggest to him Dell XPS m1330? which is much cheaper than Sony's TZ as mentioned here.

Also, is there any real reason to downgrade to XP other than the resistance to try Vista first? I highly recommend give Vista a try, at least for 30 days, and if it doesn't do what expected (without bias feeling through out the usage, and actually use it with open mind) then he can look at downgrading it, but just be aware that there may not be any XP drivers for the hardware. Beside with SP1 coming, it will be all better.

When XP first arrived, it had the same resistance from people reluctant to try it out.

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scottjpalmer

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# 110046 12-Feb-2008 09:51

The "bang for the buck" of the TZ series is the size, weight, classiness, build quality and battery life.

This will sort out the XP drivers issue should this path be followed.

chiefie

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# 110050 12-Feb-2008 10:11

scottjpalmer: The "bang for the buck" of the TZ series is the size, weight, classiness, build quality and battery life.

This will sort out the XP drivers issue should this path be followed.

Ah! That's a good site... Good to see Sony DOES provide XP downgrade drivers!

It is probably good to bookmark this link/topic in case anyone else is seeking Sony's Windows XP's drivers. However, I'd still suggest to try out Vista first, give it a fair run.

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wodger

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# 110053 12-Feb-2008 10:35

Yeah.. i think the weight of it was important to him. He's quite a difficult customer. We certainly don't want to recommend something and then have him unhappy with it. If the Sony doesn't satisfy him, he only has himself to blame.

chiefie

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# 110054 12-Feb-2008 10:44

wodger: Yeah.. i think the weight of it was important to him. He's quite a difficult customer. We certainly don't want to recommend something and then have him unhappy with it. If the Sony doesn't satisfy him, he only has himself to blame.

As mentioned in the other topic... TZ is great for small footprint and weight... if not for being overly priced though. If he's a difficult customer to deal with, then i think you've already have the answer... Get him to get Sony TZ, but still let him know the should give Vista a try, or even, ask him what with Vista that he doesn't like (from his own words and not from what he had heard-said from others)...

When Vista came out, I took the backseat and waited until this year that I've put Vista on our main computer and it works great/better. I think it just needed to be given some time to warm up to those who are resistant regardless how much better it potentially be.

I can only see few stopgap issues like UAC and limited/restrictive drivers (on x64) and perhaps pretty high hardware requirement. But feed it with at least 2GB memory and you'll see the Vista's potential. With Vista, it's a whole new level of computing, not one from the past where we keep monitoring "Free memory available" in XP. as Vista will cache all possible stuff in memory for speedy response, instead of wasting those free memory and not making use of it at all.

As for UAC, I was pretty hating it but I can it potentially stop innocent installation of malwares. It can be intrusive but we've been living in a very relaxed-state of Windows until Vista came, so it's a better security, hands-down (despite the unfamiliarity of questioning every action you take)

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nzbnw

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# 110076 12-Feb-2008 13:18

I have a SZ Sony Laptop similar to this one: http://www.sony.co.nz/vaio/product/vaio-by-price/notebook-panel-pc/vgnsz58gnc.jsp.

All I can say is while they are more expensive, I do believe they are worth it, a very good product, I haven’t had any real problems with it and it's very light. I have had a Toshiba before this one and a Compaq before that and I have to say the Sony is a big improvement (and so it should be).

As for Vista, I recommend it fully. I find when ever Microsoft release a new version of Windows, all these people who think they know it all, play the stability card, while over time it all falls over and goes away. Everyone said 98SE was more stable than ME or XP, but hardly anyone uses 98SE now. Vista takes a bit of getting use to, but I wouldn't go back.

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# 110135 12-Feb-2008 18:40

I am aware people want to revert back to XP from Vista for usability/practical/ethical reasons, but I didn't know that there was a performance hit with Vista? I was under the impression that Vista was ereet as far as CPU and stuff goes.

Or am I completely wrong again?

wodger

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# 110314 13-Feb-2008 08:22

Thanks for the comments. Unbeknownst to me the laptop had been ordered already and arrived yesterday. It wasn't apparent in the photos and I had never really seen a new Vaio before... I can see where the extra money goes in terms of miniturisation ... it's tiny! I'm glad I get to have a play with it for a few days with Vista before downgrading and before handing it over. :) It will be put through its paces I'm sure. Cheers.

chiefie

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# 110322 13-Feb-2008 09:04

Any reason why not let him use Vista for himself despite he'd preferred XP? I think the customer needs encouragement and education on new OS instead of spoonfeed them with FUD.

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wodger

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# 110354 13-Feb-2008 12:01

99.9% of our clients use XP - we'll go there with vista as and when we have to. He has made the decision to downgrade it and is so particular about things that we really don't want to offer him something that we aren't completely able to support. So, his decision suits us. He also uses dragon dictation alot, so I'm not sure about compatibility and performance with that app under vista.

Cheers

chiefie

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# 110367 13-Feb-2008 13:02

Fair enough.

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snaffta

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# 110694 14-Feb-2008 20:31

wodger: 99.9% of our clients use XP - we'll go there with vista as and when we have to. He has made the decision to downgrade it and is so particular about things that we really don't want to offer him something that we aren't completely able to support. So, his decision suits us. He also uses dragon dictation alot, so I'm not sure about compatibility and performance with that app under vista.

Cheers

The inbuild Vista dictation prog/narrator and voice recognition is better than anything i have ever used before. I used dragon naturally speaking once at polytech ...ages... ago. and It was P*ss poor. Might have been a crappy mic.
I don't think Vista will be any problem here at all.

OK. I just looked at the specs. or the sony.co.nz site, Maybe I'm missing something? Is it the TZ-27 for $3700?? I don't see why you'd pay that much for it? Buy the dell or something else with a video card? There are other better Vaio's for $2000. I don't get it.

~Snaff

scottjpalmer

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# 110695 14-Feb-2008 20:54

As mentioned above Snaffta, the TZ series is purchased for it's size, weight, battery life and social status, not for it's performance.

snaffta

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# 111441 18-Feb-2008 19:26

scottjpalmer: As mentioned above Snaffta, the TZ series is purchased for it's size, weight, battery life and social status, not for it's performance.

...Oooo. Whoops for me. I read the bit that said...

//He is a business user and he has VERY high expectations and demands of his current laptop. He uses dragon dictation software. I am thinking that this sony, with its relatively slow processor speed (albeit a core 2 duo), slow HDD speed @ 4200rpm, and apparent max capacity for 2GB ram, isn't really alot of bang for buck comapared to what else he could get for that sort of money.. ?//

~Snaff