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Sony's New Vaio PCG-TR1A: 12" Powerbook Killer?

Posted by timothy on from the paging-randy-waterhouse dept.

Anonymous Howard writes "Sony has a hot new subnote on it's hand: the Vaio PCG-TR1A. This subnote is packed full of features: integrated camera (still and video), 10.6 inch bright wide-format screen, 900MHz Centrino, CD-RW/DVD Combo drive, 30GB drive, 802.11b, two usb ports, firewire, 3.11 pounds and a magnesium alloy case. The thing looks really cool. For me, it's the first subnote that actually gives me a viable option for purchase instead of a the Apple Powerbook 12". Read a article about it over at Designtechnica. Check out this forum thread that has good pics, other then the stock pics, next to a VPR Matrix 200A5."

7 of 452 comments (clear)

  1. 12 inch powerbook killer? by theWrkncacnter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't see how it can be when it costs more. I purchased a 12 inch powerbook with a superdrive (DVR-R/CD-RW), 802.11g, firewire, 2 usb ports, 32mb nVivida gforce 4 and a bunch of other stuff for the same price as this thing, and the prices for the 12 inch pb have since gone down. I hardly see how its a "killer." Plus, I love how everyone plays catchup to apple. For such a small market share they sure do seem to set a lot of standards.

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    -1 (Troll) is antihammer
    1. Re:12 inch powerbook killer? by ravenousbugblatter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree - no way in hell you can compare a 900 mhz centrino (which is nothing but a gimmick) against a 867mhz G4. Not to mention being able to burn DVD's on the powerbook, 802.11g, better graphics, a bigger screen, and the biggest thing of all - OS X 10.2 Jaguar, with the soon to be available OS X 10.3 Panther.

  2. OSX On Sony? by evil_roy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hard to believe. It's going to be hard to be a PowerBook killer without it.

  3. Re:Dell has had one for some time too by KevetS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How can this be considered a PowerBook killer when it has no DVD-R option, and EXTERNAL DVD/CD-RW drives as the only possibility for burning cd's? Sure it looks small and light, but the 12" PowerBook has a hell of a lot crammed into it's small package, which is more than I can say for this Dell.

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    This is my United States of whatever.
  4. 12" Powerbook killer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This VAIO costs $700 more than a 12" Powerbook. Show me a Mac user who actually wants a Windows machine, or better yet, wants to pay *more* for one?

  5. Re:Interesting... by neuroklinik · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I'm not interested in investing lots of money in applications for yet another properietary OS."

    Hmm... Open-source Darwin core... X11... More "open" technologies than you could shake a stick at... Loads of great built-in languages... Freely available ports of tons of great Unix apps... Exactly what is so "proprietary" about Mac OS X that is scaring you away?

  6. Re:Interesting... by SN74S181 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly what is so "proprietary" about Mac OS X that is scaring you away?

    It should be fairly obvious, but people seem to not notice.

    Mac OS X only runs on a single source of hardware. That makes it extremely proprietary.