I’m curious about the performance of three main things:

- Screen
  - viewing angle(?) (definitely an advantage for macs)
  - brightness (?)

- Battery Life, (running on one regular/main battery)
  - How does batt.life perform with corresponding modes of brightness?

- Speakers
  - sure the TR speakers are located high on the laptop for better sound, but the Apple computers have HarmonKardon’s…!  Ahh…!

Can anybody give me an evaluation of these things?  I’m curious about 12” iBook & 12” Powerbook & 15” Powerbook vs the Sony TR… 

I recently bought both an Apple Powerbook 12” and a Sony TR2AP1 (I need to do cross development for work). I’ve had them both for a couple of weeks now. Here are my comments so far.

Vaio TR2AP1

[list]* Better screen compared to the powerbook - amazing viewing angle, overall feels brighter. In fact, I’d go as far to say that I’m somewhat disappointed in the PB screen when compared to the TR.
* Much, much smaller than the powerbook. Its feels considerably lighter. Its truly a subnotebook whereas the powerbook is a small notebook.
* Battery life (standard battery) lasts over 4 hrs for me depending on what I’m doing
* Trackpad is nice - can scroll and click within the touchpad. The powerbook touchpad seems to only let you move the pointer. You have to press the actual button to click.
* No Page Up/Page Down keys ... you have to Fn them… :(
* Stupid initial drive setup (my 40 gig is split into 3 partitions, with one that has the recovery CDs on there… and the machine itself doesn’t come with recovery cds or dvds)
* Horrible speaker. Sounds like crap, but the built in bass boost for headphones is nice.
[/list:u]

Powerbook 12”

[list]* Overall, a much better constructed, sleeker machine. The metallic body just feels nice. In comparison, the Vaio TR has sharper edges and rattles a little (the battery doesn’t sit snuggly). Sometimes I forget, but Sony is really just a low end consumer product company and their products really show it.
* Has a real firewire port instead of the absolutely retarded i.Link crap that Sony uses
* Has built in bluetooth
* Has built in DVD-r burner
* Battery life seems to last between 2.5 and 3 hrs for me
* Has full pitch keyboard. I have small hands, so it doesn’t matter, but others who’ve used my Vaio find it too small.
* Very nice built-in speakers.
* OSX is interesting… I like the Expose feature a lot.
[/list:u]

Thats my feelings so far. Battery wise and screen wise, the Vaio has the upperhand. Beyond that, the powerbook is just a more pleasent machine to use. No notebook is perfect, so, you should try to go to a store where you can see both. I’ve found that many CompUSA’s have display models for both. Also, keep in mind that the TR screen is only 10.6” and the PB is 12”. The font size between the two is vastly different.

kn

I know this is a hardware-specific post, but I must ask whether you’ve had more exposure to Apples or PCs.  Apples are looking more and more tempting, but being a longtime PC user I’m wary of whether I’d run into too many software problems (incompatibilities or lack of software) for Apple.  Any comments?

I’ve always been a pretty anti-Apple person, but over the last few years, they’ve really impressed me with where they are going. OSX is a very impressive OS from a technical and esthetic standpoint. As they’ve matured, both OSX and Windows seem to be converging as far as UI goes, so it’s not as difficult a switch as you’d think. It’s also quite compatible with Windows on many fronts. It can read FAT disks, network with Windows networks (including AD IIRC) and there are PC emulators out there to give you the ability to run XP and any Windows program under emulation. If you’re a gamer, stick with Windows.

Has a real firewire port instead of the absolutely retarded i.Link crap that Sony uses

What is the difference between a “real” firewire port and what we have in our TR’s?

Also what do I have to type to get my post quote to say “imagex wrote” instead of just “Quote”?

There are different flavors of FireWire, the most useful being the 6-pin implementation that Apple uses on its machines. 4 pins carry data, and the other two carry power, which makes it possible to run a hard drive or charge an iPod by plugging it into the FireWire port.

Sony uses the 4-pin implementation, which only has the 4 data pins, so your device needs to be powered externally. Sony’s started putting a proprietary DC power port next to the FireWire jack on their machines, and this allows the TR to power some peripherals. Sadly, only devices made by Sony have the necessary connector.

my friend was just rooming here a bit before she left on a trip into tibet, and she had the mac and of course i have the tr1.  we sat side by side in my room for a few days computing and whatnot so i got to see a lot of what goes on with a mac.  hardware wise macs are very cool and built like a brick…they also weigh as much as one or two, whereas the tr is as light as a feather in comparison.  she decided to pack her palm instead of the mac, whereas i would have packed my tr—still trying to sell this now worthless to me Clie! 

i guess the same still holds true from day 1 of mac vs. ibm, or whatever ya want to call it. it’s connectivity and software that makes the difference.  for example, we had a hell of time connecting our two laptops, she can’t share even emailed pics without a hassle with a pc, and as a mac user in asia is very limited in the software she can find.  she managed to find some knockoff mac software here in KTM but it was at 10x the cost of the pc disks they have here in every street market.

anyway, i was in the same boat you were in august of last year, deciding over a mac or pc notebook after dropping my last boat-anchor of a laptop and totally destroying it.  i went with the sony and never looked back.

jiggles

Here’s my experience with both of these. My sister has a 15” Powerbook (I’m her support person) and I have the TR.

- Screen
  - viewing angle(?) (definitely an advantage for macs)
  - brightness (?)

The TR’s screen is better. It’s better in that it’s far brighter and has a higher contrast ratio. The viewing angle is a little better too. Of course, the TR has a glossy screen which can introduce glare depending on the angle. Also, the TR has a finer dot pitch so that it tends to have sharper text at smaller font sizes. The Powerbook screen is still pretty good but side by side you can see the difference.

- Battery Life, (running on one regular/main battery)
  - How does batt.life perform with corresponding modes of brightness?

With standard batteries installed the TR fares better the Powerbook (keep in mind I’m testing it against the 15” model). Both models can play an entire DVD with power management features turned on. The TR can get close to 4 hours of actual usage which is something my sister’s Powerbook cannot do. With the extended TR battery installed (something I don’t believe is an option on the Powerbook) I can go 8 hours of actual usage with wireless enabled (which I actually did one day).

- Speakers
  - sure the TR speakers are located high on the laptop for better sound, but the Apple computers have HarmonKardon’s…!  Ahh…!

The TR speakers suck. I like that they’re located higher but they are very tinny. They’re fine for audio as long as it’s not too bassy. If I’m in a quiet room playing MP3s then it’s ok. One of the issues is that the TR doesn’t quite put out enough volume so you can’t crank it up. The Powerbook speakers are definitely better in this respect as they are generally more fuller sounding and can get a lot louder.

I like both machines. They’re both nice to use and are extremely similar in a lot of ways. Both OSes continue to gain features of the other making them better and easier to use. Admittedly, the Powerbook is easier to use out of the box. Things are setup nicely from the get go. For my Windows systems (including my TR), I normally have to tweak a few things and install a few third party items to get my system exactly the way I like. However, once it’s set up, it’s as easy to use as a Mac. My biggest complaint about my sister’s Powerbook is probably the touchpad. I’m spoiled by the TR’s ability to simply tap to click, the touchpad scrolling (which my sister likes), and the touchpad back/forward features.

Just had to throw my 2 cents in. My experience only comes from playing with display models in Sony outlets or Apple Stores.
                                                                                         
The display on the Sony TR beats out the PB. Even with the glossy finish, I find the display to be much better overall. It’s very crisp, clear, and bright, even with the brightness turned down for power-saving.
                                                                                         
I cannot claim on battery life, as I’ve never experienced it. However, from the numerous claims out there on this very subject, the TR (and most subnotebooks, where power is a general thing manufacturers pay attention to) seems to outlive the PB. Apple likes glitz, and glitz costs power. Not to mention the G4’s power consumption tends to be higher than the Pentium M.
                                                                                         
Speakers. I agree the Sony speakers suck, especially when compared to the Powerbook. Apple takes great strides in making their multimedia experience with ANY of their machines, and speakers are one area that Apple excels. However, a good set of portable headphones usually offsets this.
                                                                                         
I’ve been debating over this for my future purchase, which will occur sometime this year. There’s other aspects to look at for the comparison, such as the recent issues surfacing about Apple’s newer notebooks, and footprint and weight, but those weren’t addressed by the original poster. Personally, I’m weighing closer to the TR2, now that I know that, for a small fee, I can get an X server for Linux to run the native 1280x768 resolution.
                                                                                         

Sony uses the 4-pin implementation, which only has the 4 data pins, so your device needs to be powered externally. Sony’s started putting a proprietary DC power port next to the FireWire jack on their machines, and this allows the TR to power some peripherals.
Sadly, only devices made by Sony have the necessary connector.

But how often do you find yourself connecting Firewire devices when you’re not near a power outlet? Is it really necessary to have the full 6-pin on a laptop? Plus, it’s a power-saving feature, as it’s less strain on the laptop to power an external device, let alone do a highspeed data transfer to/from it.
                                                                                         
                                                                                         

* Trackpad is nice - can scroll and click within the touchpad. The powerbook touchpad seems to only let you move the pointer. You have to press the actual button to click.

Under OS X, go into the Mouse Preferences Panel. Out-of-the-box with OSX (since 10.1, maybe from the get-go with 10.0.4), you can set the trackpad to respond to “tap” and “double-tap”. It’s easily fixed. The Apple Store in Tyson’s Corner, VA was very helpful in showing me this when I was introducing myself to OS X for the first time - it’s just one of those things I expect a touchpad to be able to do.                                                                                          Quoted from a bookworms.org article on the Powerbook:
“Other unique perks include a tap/double tap/drag trackpad”

its really true however, and i am a a tr owner, the power firewire port is a nice feature.  it allows one to lug one less charger around, and since i often take the ipod AND the tr1 traveling, i wish i had it. someone in sony had the idea, but managment probally got in the way and wanted to make a buck from it, so we got the worthless dc port. 

being subnotebook user on the road all the time is akin to being a backpacker in the woods, these little things add up, literally, and the smallest convienences are appreciated. put this down as a mod request to sony - give us real firewire.

Doh. That last one was from me… for whatever reason, this BB never seems to remember me no matter what I do….

kn