Nausea Medialis

Yeah you read that right! I got this fancy thing (TZ190 N, pictures) a few weeks ago, but since I have to work too, it took some time to put the penguin on it ^_^. Sony was never known for its standard compliance and the Vaio TZ seems to be a prime example of that. None of the Fn keys work. In-depth coverage of the issues I have/had with this laptop are covered here. You'll find the specs there too. However, let's look at this marvel from the positive side :-).

Being quite the pricey little jewel, the initial plan was to use it just on the road. However, after experiencing the screen quality I quickly decided this would become my main system (honestly, compared to it the HP's screen looks crappy) - especially since the keyboard is big enough to type comfortably on. As we speak, my unfortunate HP is now eating dust and waiting for a buyer.

Of course there was some competition (I still like to believe I am a grown up person who takes balanced decisions). I considered Asus' EEE PC 901, but having tried the EEE PC 701's tiny keyboard, I knew I was in for some serious RSI. Next runner-up was the HP UMPC 2133, but the fact it's still a bit hefty (size- and price-wise), and has sub-average specs (a Via C7... no thank you!) made me decide to pass. Being the ricer that I am, I still want to be able to roll my own kernel!
Both are affordable alternatives but none match the power you get with the Vaio TZ, which sports an ULV Core 2 Duo. Another tempting feature was the SSD, which can be considered usable with 32 GB, although certainly not comparable with present conventional laptop drives. Pit this against the EEE PC's 4 GB SSD and you know what I'm talking about ;-). Another advantage is the impressive battery life - advertised to be as long as 6 and a half hours. While both sublaptops are moderately priced, they were not what I was looking for. I'm quite an impatient (and sometimes impulsive) consumer and the fact HP's model wouldn't be coming with the Isaiah anytime soon made me decide to go with the Sony after all. The gorgeous design did, of course, not influence my decision at all :-P.

Something I never considered, but which is aiming at the same public as the Sony Vaio TZ more or less, is the Macbook Air. Some people might think it looks fancy, I think it looks ugly (it's still thin though), and it's still too big for my taste - 13" is just like their entry level Macbook offerings, and the CPU in it is no ULV, and they even dare claiming Intel made it 'especially for them'. Get a grip Jobs!
Add to that that I am highly allergic to Apple's marketing tactiques and you will understand why I did not even look at the Macbook Air. Yet, its design may look stunning, but I don't think it's worth my money. And I say thank you to Broadcom wireless... I want to run Linux on that thing remember!

Anyways, I hope fellow users have a good read, fellow Linux users get interesting info on the peculiarities of this thing, and wannabe users find what they need to convince them to purchase this state-of-the-art piece of electronics :-).