Are retirees moving to the new DTV visa - anybody done it?

[Scrubber]

Just want some thoughts from TV laptop users. I want to buy a laptop for around 40,000 Baht and was looking at either a Sony Vaio or a Macbook. Which do you think is the better buy (or even other brands)???

Thanks in advance...

[TopDogger]

The first person u need to ask is yourself... There 2 completely different systems..

[niller74]

Been VERY happy with my VAIO VGN-FE14SP that I bought almost 3 years ago. The only issue was that I had to replace the battery a year ago. The machine has pretty much run non-stop since I bought it.

[Scrubber]

The first person u need to ask is yourself... There 2 completely different systems..

You're right, although you can have XP running on a Macbook alongside Apple's own OS and switch between the two.

[nikster]

MacBook - get the Aluminium one though if you can, they've renamed it the 13" MacBook Pro - it is a vastly better machine than the white MacBook or the old Aluminium MacBook. BHT 46,000... The LCD display is one of the best you will find on a laptop, and the build quality of the unibody aluminium machines is amazing.

http://store.apple.com/th/browse/home/shop...pro?mco=MTE4MTY

I would not recommend the white MacBook just now - it's still OK, but the display is much worse than the Pro, and the lineup with just a single MacBook model suggests that it's due for a replacement very soon.

The aluminium ones also have 5-6 hours real world battery life for your extended babe-watching working sessions at cafes around nimmhan...

Edited June 23, 2009 by nikster

[livinthailandos]

beyond the difference of the OS weither you choose to use apple or windows it should also take into effect other differences to. I actually own a vaio and macbook, I have had my mac 3 years already.

How much ram do you get

size of hard drive

applications available

architecture differences

please don't believe all the hype about mac being virus proof apple OS maybe based on unix and BSD but its still possible to catch a virus. chances are very slim though.

the mac is good at finding all kinds of external usb devices on the other hand updates are a pain in the butt, you have to download them all at once they dont do like windows or linux where it downloads updates in the background. If your going to use windows on a mac I would wait and go for windows 7. I've had a positive experience using it even on my netbook, ( keep in note i've got 2 GB ram on my netbook )

my only complaint is that the battery life of my vaio is really bad just slighty over 2 hours 10 mins, using my apple I get about 3 hours 25 mins.

[BugJackBaron]

beyond the difference of the OS weither you choose to use apple or windows it should also take into effect other differences to. I actually own a vaio and macbook, I have had my mac 3 years already.

How much ram do you get

size of hard drive

applications available

architecture differences

please don't believe all the hype about mac being virus proof apple OS maybe based on unix and BSD but its still possible to catch a virus. chances are very slim though.

the mac is good at finding all kinds of external usb devices on the other hand updates are a pain in the butt, you have to download them all at once they dont do like windows or linux where it downloads updates in the background. If your going to use windows on a mac I would wait and go for windows 7. I've had a positive experience using it even on my netbook, ( keep in note i've got 2 GB ram on my netbook )

my only complaint is that the battery life of my vaio is really bad just slighty over 2 hours 10 mins, using my apple I get about 3 hours 25 mins.

New macbook pros should be hitting the shelves in thailand this week or next. 7 to 8 hours battery life!

Really good if you use free wifi spots as many don't allow you to plug in your machine.

Apple has finally hit a sweet spot for me...

[pagallim]

beyond the difference of the OS weither you choose to use apple or windows it should also take into effect other differences to. I actually own a vaio and macbook, I have had my mac 3 years already.

How much ram do you get

size of hard drive

applications available

architecture differences

please don't believe all the hype about mac being virus proof apple OS maybe based on unix and BSD but its still possible to catch a virus. chances are very slim though.

the mac is good at finding all kinds of external usb devices on the other hand updates are a pain in the butt, you have to download them all at once they dont do like windows or linux where it downloads updates in the background. If your going to use windows on a mac I would wait and go for windows 7. I've had a positive experience using it even on my netbook, ( keep in note i've got 2 GB ram on my netbook )

my only complaint is that the battery life of my vaio is really bad just slighty over 2 hours 10 mins, using my apple I get about 3 hours 25 mins.

New macbook pros should be hitting the shelves in thailand this week or next. 7 to 8 hours battery life!

Really good if you use free wifi spots as many don't allow you to plug in your machine.

Apple has finally hit a sweet spot for me...

The MacBook Pro is significantly more expensive though, but a great machine (I have the 17'' previous version, as well as one of the MacBook Air's). Operating System should be the deciding factor, and I'm sure that if you already use Windows, you won't be disappointed with Mac OSX. If you only need access to Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc) these can be directly downloaded into the Mac OS, or alternatively you can partition your hard drive and run Mac OS or Microsoft XP/Vista by selecting which of the OS at start up. There are also products that create a second 'virtual' computer to run Windows on a Mac, which removes the need for closing one system before starting the other.

[Gary A]

It always amazes me that people waste a lot of money on these powerhouse laptop computers. Now you have a super powerful computer and all you use it for is to write letters and surf the Internet. If you are going to do a lot of graphics work, you will usually do it on a desktop at home anyways. Useful things for a laptop are Bluetooth and WiFi. The big bottleneck here in Thailand is the pathetic Internet service. I'd guess that ANY new computer will be much faster than your connection.

[T_Dog]

I switched from a MS machine to a MacBook three years ago and I will never own anything but a Mac again. In those three years, I have spent maybe an hour trouble-shooting problems. In those same three years, I have spent tens of hours helping friends with Windows issues. I don't run any virus protection, and in the event a program stops responding, the rest of the computer keeps happily running along. I bought it with MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for the Mac so all of my old files work fine. Life seems a whole lot simpler with a Mac, at least for me.

The comments about the MacBook displays are right on. Mine faded over its life and the color is a bit washed out. I use an HD external monitor as well (split screen) and use that where color and contrast matters. Hope all that helps!

[magmur]

Hi there, in 2005 me and all my PC specialist friends wanted the VAIO as we thought then with all this ads going on this is the ultimate machine, so around 10 of us bought it, 2 in AUS(like me), 6 in germany and another 2 in US and became proud members of the Sony community. My machine failed within 6 weeks, motherboard broken, unfortunately I live in TH/Pattaya and it was a hel_l of a way to find someone to help me, the Sony shop in Pattaya are parrots who only can repeat 'thank you for chosing sony", I insisted long enough so they gave me a thai writing print of Sony Bangkok and finally after getting there they asked me to leave the machine for checking, 3 days later I received a call the fix should be costing more than 600US and around 2 month of time, I called the AUS vendor bc of warranty and they asked me to send the machine over at my cost forward and return, a 150US poorer I got that machine back after 2 month, it took excactly 4 weeks to fail again, the same problem, in between the CD drive failed, could only be opened with an office clip, the motherboard was replaced again by a chinese shop in Parntip at 10K Baht, I even didnt ask Sony again, after another 3 month the battery failed, cannot be used any more, a new one would be around 15K Baht, another very annoying point is that the keyboard locks itself from time to time so you cannot use certain keys (that drives you nuts if you have to type some LogIN details) and you need to dig into your BIOS to unlock it. The keys for brightness and snooze didn't work at all. This is my very own experience and the arrogance of Sony tops the pain. All of us had similar problems around the world, all of us have the Vaio just sitting somewhere as a data backup, some bought new Windows Laps, 6 of us bought apple, MacBooks or iMacs and we are all very happy with the machines as well he apple community support and the local support, all the software is build in already and it's really incredible what you find in here, you just need to purchase some very special things, if you are somewhere around Pattaya I'll be happy to show you my iMac, and also the problems with the Sony.

kind regards Mag you can mail to me at: [email protected]

[Mahseer]

If you go for a Mac have them include iWork09 as this will allow you to open/save doc and xls files. A mate bought a desktop yesterday in Chiang Mai and it's not part of the present package but it didn't take too much too much to get them to include. Also note that Snow Leopard OS comes out in September and if you buy a Mac now you are eligible for a free upgrade.

[Plus]

You will certainly look cool with a Mac, but it's a major loss of face if, for example, you can't connect to a wifi spot and assistants can't help you as they all been trained to connect from WinXP and you have to click on different buttons on a Mac, or when you try to buy an aircard for Edge/Gprs or, god help, 3G, and shop assistants have no clue how to set it up on Apple, or a banking site that tells you to install IE5 to use it, or a popular game like talesrunner that works only with Internet Explorer, too.

Yeah, there's this neighbour kid with all those online games that won't work on anything by Windows. Sure, they are stupid Thai games by stupid Thai developers, but tell this to your own kid when he wants to play, too.

[AbelMagwitch]

I can not say how much more I prefer my Macbook to any PC. If you buy a Mac I promise you will not go back.

Buy the Mac.

[filingaccount]

Just want some thoughts from TV laptop users. I want to buy a laptop for around 40,000 Baht and was looking at either a Sony Vaio or a Macbook. Which do you think is the better buy (or even other brands)???

Thanks in advance...

What are you going to us it for? At home? Travel a lot? Coffee shop user? Just browsing and emailing? What is important in your case?

Then consider 3 things.

LCD quality

Keyboard quality

mouse quality (eg. touchpad, nipple)

These are the 3 things you use each and every time you use the laptop. If one is of poor quality, or doesn't work as you want, then the purchase will not make you happy.

In my case, having a reflective screen is horrible. You can only see your own face and what goes on behind you, not whats on screen.

PM me with your requirements and I'll be happy to answer.

[hughden]

I bought a Vaio a while back. Hated Vista so much that I sold it and bought a Macbook.

Liked the Macbook so much that have since gone out and bought an iMac, and more recently a Mac Pro tower. Would never go back to a PC, although I do have XP hidden away on a drive in the Mac Pro for gaming. Only problem I have had is a hard drive failure in the iMac, which I replaced myself fairly easily, and was able to restore back easily with Time Machine.

The new Macbooks are very smart.

[CDNinKS]

Open Office for Mac will solve all your MS Office problems and its FREE

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

I normally bash Apple products for their being overpriced, however given the choice between a Mac book and a Vaio i would chose the Mac, any time. Why?

The Mac runs Mac OS and you can install Windows and Linux and they will all co-exist and work happily. On the Vaio you won't have Mac OS.

And i have friends with Vaio's (two, to be precise) and they both have trouble after trouble with their machines, one of them eats hard disks at a rate of one per three months and had it's mainboard changed twice of which only the first time was under warranty and the other has the third DVD drive and now the USB connectors are no longer working (no power provided to them), looks like a new mainboard is due, too. Warranty for that one expired a few weeks ago, so typical again.

I personally, however, would go for an Acer. Good bang for the buck and of four that i know (one of which is my boyfriend) none ever had the slightest issues.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[surayu]

Sony Vaio= Troubles

New machine, had to replace the DVD reader after just a few months, then when you have the earphones on and you switch the volume to the max the speaker will intermittently restart working, despite the earphones plugged in, very annoying, just to finish also considere that the silver paint will peel off from this plastic box soooo fast, i can't believe Sony went so down in quality, they have always been one of my first choices when making a purchase, not anymore....

[livinthailandos]

somehow saying this might come back to haunt me but here goes, like i've mention other things on my post i do have to agree for 40,000 get a mac, the other this might shock most of you is. My sony vaio that I got back in march 2008 has had zero problems what so ever, mind you after vista basically annoyed me, and errors with updates I said bye bye windows hello linux, since then never had any real issues though.

Note i bought my sony vaio in singapore sony shop.

The only other thing i'd say about a mac it maybe over priced but man it gives you a great feeling of an OS with great hardware support that actually works well.

no having to reinstall an OS

external usb devices that just work the minute you plug it in.

no messed up updates

no overly paranoid UAC system

no driver issues

no blue screen of death

[TopDogger]

The first person u need to ask is yourself... There 2 completely different systems..

You're right, although you can have XP running on a Macbook alongside Apple's own OS and switch between the two.

And the same with OSX on windows I would presume..

[TopDogger]

For 40'000 your not going to get a very good Mac or Vaio branded notebook..

I'd go with an Acer, as for 40'000 you should be able to get a half decent model.

[voracious]

I bought a 15" Macbook Pro for my daughter it's great. For myself I use a Dell XPS 15". For my other daughter I just bought a Dell XPS 13" to replace her Sony Vaio TR3. The mac is great put pricey for the specs. You really pay quite a bit for alumibody cool factor and the MacOS (note, I've been using apples since the old apple ][+ so I'm not a mac hater by any means).

The advantage of the Dell, if you are comfortable using a windows based OS is that you get alot more bang for the buck. For about 1300usd, it came with 4 gig ram, 500gig drive.

You can plug both the Mac and the Dell into a LCD or Plasma TV via HDMI (as long as your monitor/tv has hdmi input). In playing movies from hard drive to the big screen I notice the Dell performance is a bit smoother.

For gaming, nod goes to the XPS (more software for it).

For surfing & streaming online video both are fine.

If you're proficient with windows and don't mind the (possible) extra work that comes with it, then the Dell is an excellent performer.

With respect to livinthailandos, all his points are on the mark as far as the negatives with windows.

With respect to TopDogger, it's far, far easier to put windows on the Mac, than attempt to put OSX on a windows machine, as OSX only works with drivers that are Macintosh compatible. Although it's doable, it's not the 1-2-3-done that it is on the Macintosh. (i've installed windows on a mac before)

Hope it helps.

[Rawkus]

A MacBook is a very capable laptop, as said above you can also run Windows either natively or in a virtual machine with relative ease.

If you are an inquisitive sort you will also find that OS X is a very good operating system with all sorts of goodies pre-packed: iLife, iPhoto, DashCode, Mail, TextEdit, and a proper Unix terminal application are all good. iWork is OK if you have the time to re-learn your word processing and office suite, if not then download and use NeoOffice.

I would disagree that you don't need any anti-virus, ClamXav has picked up several nasty things (although they were all targeted at the Win machines on my network) and may pick up OS X targeted things in the future.

The only issue I have with OS X is that the uninstaller is not very good, download AppZapper and enjoy blasting the programs you don't like into oblivion.

[nikster]

It always amazes me that people waste a lot of money on these powerhouse laptop computers. Now you have a super powerful computer and all you use it for is to write letters and surf the Internet. If you are going to do a lot of graphics work, you will usually do it on a desktop at home anyways. Useful things for a laptop are Bluetooth and WiFi. The big bottleneck here in Thailand is the pathetic Internet service. I'd guess that ANY new computer will be much faster than your connection.

Simple business logic: I get paid by the hour.

Setting up a new Mac to the point where I can start working takes 2 hours from out of the box. Setting up Windows takes minimum 2 days, probably with 3rd day of screwing around with the settings and installing some apps I forgot. So let's say 3.

The MacBook Pro has paid for itself after 2 hours. Because I can spend the next 2 days working rather than screwing around with the machine. Now isn't that amazing!

And that leaves out all the other niceties, and all the other ways in which the MBP saves lots of time over windows. Most of them have to do with little annoyances that are absent on the Mac. OS X is by no means perfect but it has, on average MUCH fewer distractions and interruptions in any given day. Backup - no brainer just works. Viruses - none. Etc. This is not about boot up time (though I never reboot, current uptime is close to 14 days and that's only because of the last system update) - its about the many little day to day things.

mithril-XL:~ nik$ uptime
9:30  up 13 days, 19:38, 6 users, load averages: 0.30 0.35 0.33

Edited June 24, 2009 by nikster

[nikster]

The only issue I have with OS X is that the uninstaller is not very good, download AppZapper and enjoy blasting the programs you don't like into oblivion.

Most applications you can just delete. So there is no need for an uninstaller. That's certainly true for all apps that don't require you to enter your password during install.

Sadly there are now some Mac apps that do require passwords, and so install crap somewhere you don't see, chief amongst them Apple's own like iPhoto and Safari. But anyway - most apps can still be simply deleted (drag to trash, or cmd-del).

[Ping]

It's a bit like the old Betamax v VHS argument. I'd say most of the posters to this thread are from the Betamax corner. Unless you have a specific business or application-based need for a Mac, stick with the mainstream and buy your Sony (or Acer or whatever else takes your fancy).

[wester]

If you must....go Vaio.

The main reason is that if you need to fix it or upgrade, you might be able to do the Vaio yourself...whereas the Mac will need to be taken or sent in for service. Macs are for people who like 'design' etc...blah blah....In truth anyone who wants superior functionality and performance can get it in spades with a regular non-MAC computer. It just won't be as pretty to look at.

And just so you know - Vaio is not that great either. If you are going to drop 40k you should get a custom made barn burner that will allow you to kick a$$ every day and then easily and without headache (or too much extra money), unscrew the case and pull out the old hardware when newer drives, video/audio cards, etc... come online. But if all that is to crazy for you just buy the Vaio ... and realize that in 2 years it will be a boat anchor. Good luck

[Deksan]

If you must....go Vaio.

The main reason is that if you need to fix it or upgrade, you might be able to do the Vaio yourself...whereas the Mac will need to be taken or sent in for service. Macs are for people who like 'design' etc...blah blah....In truth anyone who wants superior functionality and performance can get it in spades with a regular non-MAC computer. It just won't be as pretty to look at.

And just so you know - Vaio is not that great either. If you are going to drop 40k you should get a custom made barn burner that will allow you to kick a$$ every day and then easily and without headache (or too much extra money), unscrew the case and pull out the old hardware when newer drives, video/audio cards, etc... come online. But if all that is to crazy for you just buy the Vaio ... and realize that in 2 years it will be a boat anchor. Good luck

Fix a notebook yourself isnt that easy at it sound to be honest :/ Also in my experience as there is less apple model you are going to get more support on internet with pictures on how to open your macbook and how to add memory change hard disk and so on. Where as with a vaio model number, you arent going to find anything in a few months-years as there is a many many models that comes out all the time.

Personnaly i d go with the macbook pro, you might get good bargain right now as the price have dropped and model have changed the shop here need to get the stock out. The aluminium feel is really really good compare to the plastic commonly used by dell/acer/sony but this is just a personal taste.

[jackdanielsesq]

I have run Sony everything for years - but - and its a very big BUT - their QC has gone to the dogs and I would never buy another Sony Vaio ever. They also lost a bomb recently. Mac O/S is Linux done right. Their products - even the crappy Nvidia GPU are still all under warranty, simply futz with them. I have never had any joy with Sony anywhere in the world. They might be worse than Dell.

17 inches & 8 hours is tough to beat.

BR>Jack