Compare with...

  • Sony VAIO S Series
  • Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen
  • HP Pavilion g6
  • ASUS Zenbook UX31E
  • SAMSUNG Series 9 900X3A
Ranked #3 and #5 in Dual core full size laptops
$1,899
  • 13.3"
  • 2 GHz Dual core
  • 1 GB
  • 80 GB HDD
Released July, 2007
The laptop now measures .66 inches thick, but more shocking is its weight.
Rated 80% by by The Verge (Jul, 2011)
 
  • 15.4"
  • Core i7 2.8 GHz Single core
  • 4 GB DDR3-1066
  • 500 GB HDD
Released January, 2011
They are easy to use, sleek and lightweight, and have a great hard drive that will last for a very long time.
Rated 100% by by lch8119 (Dec, 2011)
 

Conclusion Which is better for you?

64%
81%
View Details
54%
84%
100%
100%
View Details
80%
88%
View Details

Winner

AppleMacBook Pro 8th Gen

74
88

Features Key features of the Sony VAIO Z Series compared to the Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen

GHz2

Front view of Sony VAIO Z Series
I loved the size and weight at first but after some use I was worried that it wouldn't hold up for long.
Rated 60% by by Student (Dec, 2010)
Front view of Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen

2.8 GHz

Intel Core i7 640M

Upgrade to SSD is also very simple and you have much more control as to the quality and price you prefer that goes to your laptop.
Rated 80% by by Brian (Apr, 2012)

screen size

13.3"
15.4"
Compared to other screens I have seen in this size the Z blows the competition out of the water.
VAIO Z Series by lexter (Feb, 2011)
I did not think a 13.3 inch screen would be big enough for me, but after I realized that the multi-touch pad lets you zoom in and out, its the perfect size.
MacBook Pro 8th Gen by willsgrill (Mar, 2012)

screen resolution

Sony VAIO Z Series
Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen
Operations is quiet, the high-resolution LED-backed screen is superb - but you need to have good eyes, I can imagine others will have a hard time with the super-fine resolution.
VAIO Z Series by CSK (Mar, 2011)
It's light, it looks great (and great attention to detail), it's super fast, and I love using Lion.
MacBook Pro 8th Gen by AJ (Mar, 2012)

cpu speed

0 GHz
2.8 GHz

2 GHz
3 GHz
Our $1,999 unit came fully equipped with Intel’s latest 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo P8600 processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 250GB hard drive.
VAIO Z Series by LaptopMag (Aug, 2008)
Some of the other benefits are: It has some pretty good specs (2.8 GHz, Core i7, 750gb Hard drive), the track pad is amazing with the swipe gestures, comes with plenty of good software (Photobooth, Garage band, iMovie, iPhoto), and a brilliant screen.
MacBook Pro 8th Gen by AUCARK (Apr, 2012)

processor

Sony VAIO Z Series
Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen
It's just to much chip to allow for cooling, so the dual core i7 is mainstream, but if you look close, this one has a much faster i7 than many.
VAIO Z Series by Mark-J.-Tierney--coastie-1980
The Intel Dual-Core Processor is fast and efficient, and even better than the Pentium Dual-Core 2.20GHz processor on my Windows 7 notebook PC.
MacBook Pro 8th Gen by John-Williamson (Jan, 2012)

memory

0 GB
4 GB

1 GB
4 GB
This review is for the VPCZ line, and the version I have has the Core i7 M640, and 8 GB RAM.
VAIO Z Series by MuddyAzian (Jan, 2011)
It handles the Microsoft office suite flawlessly, and the added ram allows me to open and view very large pdf files without any lag.
MacBook Pro 8th Gen by H.-Austin (Dec, 2011)
 

Performance Real world tests of Sony VAIO Z Series vs Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen

 

Differences What are the advantages of each

Advantages compared to the Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen

More cores Dual core vs Single core
Twice as many cores; run more applications at once
Lighter 1,814 g vs 2,540 g
Around 30% lighter

Advantages compared to the Sony VAIO Z Series

Marginally newer Jan, 2011 vs Jul, 2007
Release date over 3 years later
Much more storage capacity 500 GB vs 80 GB
Around 6.5x more storage capacity
Much bigger screen 15.4" vs 13.3"
Around 20% bigger screen
Significantly faster processor 2.8 GHz vs 2 GHz
Around 40% faster processor; run computation-intensive applications, such as photo editing, faster
Has a memory card reader SDSC vs None
Read and write data from a camera or phone memory card
Significantly more RAM 4 GB vs 1 GB
4x more RAM; run more applications and have more browser tabs open without slowing down the system
Significantly higher resolution screen 1680 x 1050 vs 1280 x 800
More than 70% higher resolution screen
Sharper screen 128 ppi vs 113 ppi
More than 10% sharper PPI; enjoy photo-realistic, crisp images

Reviews Word on the street

Sony VAIO Z Series

Apple MacBook Pro 8th Gen

Rated 70% by 55 users at amazon.com
Without it, even tho it's not very thick, this makes the Vaio amazingly thin - almost to the point of it looking like a dept store dummy display.
Rated 80% by by KindlePad (Sep, 2011)
The SSD is blazingly fast, the machine never gets even slightly warm (despite the fact that I usually run a number of CPU hogs on it), the keyboard is amazingly comfortable (It has a similar chicklet layout to the MBP keyboard), the screen is phenomenal (by contrast, the Thinkpad screen is much too dim).
Rated 100% by by Narada--the-wondering-jew (Apr, 2010)
There are a few negatives, the illuminated keyboard is a nice idea, but could be better (see Logitech keyboards).
Rated 100% by by Michael-D.-Briggs--Dark_Psion (Jan, 2012)
Rated 88% by 372 users at amazon.com
Seamless aluminum case is functional, solid and very cool; display is better than most anything out there; and ... well ... it's a Mac.
Rated 100% by by Water-Mark (Jan, 2012)
I've enjoyed my first Mac for two months, just like every friend who owns one told me: quick start up, instant power off, performance clearly over any Windows PC I've owned, reliable, no crashes.
Rated 100% by by JR-Bib (Dec, 2011)
I like the design of pro better than air, 'cause it looks more balanced and more rigid, air lovers don't blame me please.
Rated 100% by by Peter (Aug, 2012)

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