Obselete Sony Vaio TR5-MP

[WilliamYZF]

Whilst researching a case for my as yet non existant blue NC10 I realised I have been using a laptop of similar physical dimensions for the last four years,.

Main differences are price (£1500 back then), much smaller hard drive (30gb) and only 512Mb of Ram but it does have a memory stick slot (I have a sony camera), built in dvd drive and XP Pro.

Why is it being retired? I has gone through two keyboards, one motherboard and the second 1.8" hard drive it has had is now making horrible noises intermittently. Battery life was originally 3.5 hours plus it is now about 15 minutes. The webcam died at least two years ago

It was my second Vaio (first only lasted 2 years) and my last. Al;though I have a penchant for anything Sony their laptops, whilst usually a premium price, do not seem to last any longer than similarly specced cheaper alternatives.

Makes the NC10 seem a bit of a bargain. The main criticism of the NC10 seems to be its small trackpad but I feel sure mine is about the same size.

If Sony were to bring out a netbook I wonder what the price would be?

[TheRing]

Currently Sony and apple do not think the netbook market is a viable one, steve jobs stated by it was a passing phase. How wrong was he, now if sony brought one out it would be expensive but i reckon if apple brought one out then it would do to netbooks what it did for mp3

[Squonk]

[quote1228269627=TheRing]
Currently Sony and apple do not think the netbook market is a viable one, steve jobs stated by it was a passing phase. How wrong was he, now if sony brought one out it would be expensive but i reckon if apple brought one out then it would do to netbooks what it did for mp3
[/quote1228269627]

It looks as though Apple is reconsidering that stance. However, don't expect an Apple entry to the market to be in the same cost bracket as current netbooks. By Jobs' own statement, "We [at Apple] don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that."

Funny, Samsung, Asus, Acer, MSI, Dell, Lenovo, and HP seem to know how to create sub-$500 computers that aren't pieces of junk. Apple has for the most part neglected the low end market segment, and now they discover they have done so at their own peril. It will be interesting to see what they come up with and how attractive they can make their "junk."

[Rsaeire]

Apple don't know how to make a netbook for under $500 because they need to add their Apple tax on afterwards, you know, the extra something "special" that makes a lot of their devices stand-out in the crowd; for all the wrong reasons.

I for one think Apple's design for the Macbook Air is great, but the machine is under-specc’d. The Lenovo X300 is a better buy, and practically every review site states the same.

Apple really needs to stop trying to differentiate their products by making them needlessly more expensive. It's the same thing that Sony do; charge more money for something that shouldn’t' warrant such an excessive price.

[Squonk]

[quote1228332905=Rsaeire]
Apple don't know how to make a netbook for under $500 because they need to add their Apple tax on afterwards, you know, the extra something "special" that makes a lot of their devices stand-out in the crowd; for all the wrong reasons.

I for one think Apple's design for the Macbook Air is great, but the machine is under-specc’d. The Lenovo X300 is a better buy, and practically every review site states the same.

Apple really needs to stop trying to differentiate their products by making them needlessly more expensive. It's the same thing that Sony do; charge more money for something that shouldn’t' warrant such an excessive price.
[/quote1228332905]

This is especially true now that Apple uses x86 (Intel) microprocessors. Theoretically, there is nothing now separating Apple hardware from off the shelf PC components except for Apple's insistence that OSX may not be run on any hardware other than its own. I won't get into that discussion as it's against forum rules. Just pointing that out.

I agree about the Air. There's nothing really wrong with it, except that it is indeed a poor value, even for a Mac (you can get a MOTR MacBook Pro for what you pay for an Air). And if my previous post made me sound as though I had anything against Apple (as a company or for its products), that wasn't what I was going for, either. I just think that statement by Steve Jobs makes it quite clear that Apple still doesn't get it when it comes to the netbook (or the consumer market in general) It reminds me of the pouty little kid who can't do what the rest of the kids are doing so instead he just decides that it's stupid, anyway, and then takes backhand swipes at the other kids.

My main concern from an Apple netbook is that the company has an astonishing ability to drive competitors almost completely out of a market while charging substantially more for an otherwise identical product. Plus, anything Apple touches automatically becomes trendy, and the last thing I want is Apple zealots usurping the netbook market. Not only is there the market share issue, but the fact is that trends tend to die. I don't want netbooks to disappear as I believe they are the first imminently viable low cost mobile solution ever offered.

[hef]

every sony machine (LT and DT format) that's ever crossed my desk has been utterly destroyed. they don't seem to stand up to much.

[DjFIL]

Here's the fanboy style response. I hate Sony products, and I think the Vaio line is the worst of all Sony products. I've seen way too many friends, classmates and work collegues buy Sony Vaio's and almost all of them having some type of hardware issue before the warranty was out.

On the other fanboy side, I love Apple. I'll be keeping an iMac as my main desktop/file server/workhorse computer to work along side whichever netbook I purchase in this upcoming 2-4 months. If Apple released a netbook at MacWorld in Janurary I'd be very excited. But it'd have to have great battery life, keyboard and touchpad for me to consider purchase. It'll be up against the NC10 and the HP Mini 1000 (once it has a 6-cell battery), as those are my current front runners for purchase.