Both Apple and Sony recently announced new thin-and-light notebooks, but which one did we like better?
| Apple MacBook Air |
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 The Macbook Air is unbelievably thin and light, and in person the laptop is much more smooth and clean than we expected. It is easily one of the prettiest laptops we've seen, and Apple has included some impressive additions, but the omissions are in their own way just as glaring. We loved the multi-touch trackpad, which was even more functional than on our iPhone, but it doesn't work in every app . . . yet. We wonder if the lack of ports or wide-area wireless networking will hurt sales with the core market for this device, technology journalists. In any case, it's hard to hold the Macbook Air and not want to take it home. Release: October 2008. Price: $1800.
Pros: Thinnest laptop, super light, sleek design, multi-touch trackpad.
Cons: Lacks ethernet and most connectivity ports. No docking station. No wireless internet beyond Wi-Fi.
| Nill |
Slight |
Moderate |
Palpable |
EXTREME |
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| Sony VAIO SZ |
Specs » Gallery » |
 While we were disappointed to not see any brand-new VAIOs emerge during CES, Sony refreshed several models with Intel's latest 45-nm Penryn chip and dubbed them VAIO Premium. The SZ, Sony's 13.3-inch thin-and-light notebook, was updated with The Core 2 Duo T9300 and a whopping 4GB of DDR2 RAM. While usually more equals better, the consensus in the benchmarking community is that there are few if any real time performance gains north of 2GB of memory outside of certain commercial applications like AutoCAD or rendering 3D video. We're still fans of the SZ, but Sony is going to have a hard time convincing us to pay for 4GB. Release: February 2008. Price: $2500.
Pros: Powerful for a 13.3-inch notebook
Cons: For now, it's not worth paying for 4GB of RAM when 2GB will do
| Nill |
SLIGHT |
Moderate |
Palpable |
Extreme |
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