Desktop design: Apple vs. Sony
It's likely that more than a few would-be Mac buyers who decided that for whatever reason they couldn't part with Windows ended up with a VAIO. All PC manufacturers place an importance on design, of course, but no two more than Apple and Sony. Both companies recently put out updates to their all-in-one and small-form-factor systems. Let's take a look at how they compare.
Apple's latest iMac effort returns the shape and stand of the previous iteration but adds an anodized aluminum finish to the enclosure and a glossy glass panel to the display. The case is made from a single piece of aluminum, which means nary a seam to collect dust or dirt except for around a small panel on the bottom you can remove to add more RAM. With its VAIO LT19U, Sony has really taken a step forward, but to this reviewer's eyes, it's still no match to the iMac in terms of overall design. (There's a surprising gap in price, which is also not in Sony's favor.) Sony goes for the floating-in-space look with the VAIO LT19U, using a clear strip of plastic in the frame. No question it lends the system a unique look, but the overall appearance looks busy to me because the clear section of the frame sits between a gray bezel that frames the display itself and a thin gray border on the outer edge. I prefer the cleaner lines of the iMac, with its simple black bezel surrounding the screen and a thin strip of aluminum showing along the sides and top that elegantly widens below the screen. The thicker bezel on the VAIO also makes the size of the screen seem smaller. To its credit, Sony cleaned up the back its all-in-one, which previously looked like the underside of a laptop with black vented plastic interspersed with ugly white manufacturing stickers.
Apple didn't change the design of the Mac Mini. It didn't have to; the Mac Mini just about the smallest SFF PC you'll find (without venturing into Stealth territory), and it's an undeniably cool-looking little PC with that anodized aluminum again along the sides, a Lucite top, and a rugged rubber base. Sony's VAIO TP1 has been widely compared to a Roomba in appearance, so I'll choose another object: a toilet paper dispenser. You know, the kind you find in public restrooms where the toilet paper is inside the thing. (Perhaps that's why Sony calls it the TP1.) I appreciate Sony taking a risk here, but this VAIO looks more odd than good. It looks more like an accessory you'd add to the first flat-panel iMac of yore rather than a PC you'd buy today. Add the fact that you can get two Mac Minis (and a copy of Vista Home Premium) for the price of a lone TP1, and it's hard to make an argument (You absolutely need an HDMI port? You hate right angles?) for Sony's round PC.
What's your take on Apple's and Sony's desktop designs? Let me and Crave readers know below.
Care more about features than design? See all the specs compared here.
And for your a design "war" to be fair you should include laptops... or is it your next article??
I'm not an anti-Fanboy but please!
Unless you count their CD Rootkit as being inventive.
They've been copying Apple for a while now and I don't see any change to
their clunky design-by-committee approach. Sony is done.
They used to be a great company, but they lost their way years ago and will
continue to languish and hemorrhage marketshare and money until there's
nothing left. And aside from Sony employees, no one will shed a tear.
Apple Mouse Pic: http://a248.e.akamai.net/7/248/2041/1316/store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/mb112_125.gif
Sony Mouse Pic: http://www.abtelectronics.com/images/products/l_vgpums50.jpg
On the whole, Apple?s products look much better on the web and in advertising, but in person they are disappointingly plain. For example, the MacBookPro looks ?iConic? (sorry, couldn?t help it) on the Apple website, but when compared in person to the Sony VAIO AR, it looks unimpressive compared to the glossy black and shiny silver trim of the (slightly) larger Sony. The Sony incorporates many more ports and connections, has a dock connector to reduce clutter at home, and incorporates a TV Tuner and a Blu-Ray drive while the only standout feature of the MacBookPro its ?MagSafe? power connector.
Another great example is the VAIO Type R Master desktop which is only sold in Japan. Its industrial design is not the best I have seen out of Sony in terms of visual appearance, but its functionality is unsurpassed. Instead of looming over your desk as a large aluminum cheese grater like the MacPro, the Type R Master is made up of two units, both of which are the standard home theater component width. There is a slim and compact unit with USB Ports, 2 optical disc drives, a multimedia card reader, headphone and microphone connections, and even an ExpressCard 54/34 slot and PCMIA slot for adding on extra connections. This slim box is everything you need to access from your computer, and is connected by a cable to the larger box with the motherboard, power supply, etc. This is excellent creativity on Sony?s part.
VAIO Type R Master Pic: http://japan.cnet.com/story_media/20255727/100.jpg
I do admit that Apple beats Sony in two fields. The first is the use of high quality materials. It frustrates the hell out of me that Sony can go almost all of the way with some brilliant industrial designs, and then fall short at the last minute by using plastics whereas Apple uses high grade aluminum and glass.
The second is innovation. As ?Hoohaa? said, Sony is not really adding any innovation to the PC market, they are merely dressing up existing technologies and selling them at a premium. However I respond to ?Hooohaa??s criticisms by saying that the only thing Apple has truly innovated on in the past few years was the iPhone, and that is not a personal computer.
I think that if Sony would use more high quality materials, improve their marketing, and dedicate more effort towards technological innovation in the personal computer market, they could be frightfully successful.
the right side (strangely enough results in a right-click, even if you have to
lift your index finger off of the left side for the touch-sensitive panel to
recognize where the click is coming from), and the center scroll ball, which is
customizable to act as a third mouse button, or to activate Exposé or
Application Switcher (the sides of the mouse are customizable in the same
way).
Kudos to Sony for having a Blu-Ray drive in their laptop, though. If the
screen is larger than 30", you might be able to tell that what you're watching
is in 1080p. And the TV Tuner is also brilliant, if not purely for the fact that
mobility in laptops was getting kind of cliché.
I'm also quite impressed in your desk, if you can vertically orient a tower such
as the Mac Pro on it. Most people would place a box that big somewhere
under the desk, to free up room for the monitor or, say, other things in
general. Besides, having all of your computing components together in the
same shell would make too much sense.
As for innovation, I'm confused. Do you mean speaking in hardware terms or
software terms? Because hardware-wise, of course Apple hasn't made any
innovations. If I recall, they weren't the first to market with a wireless-N
router, or with wireless-N capable computers. The eMac didn't come with a
built-in microphone long before any other computer was even dreaming of
making voIP accessible, and the iMac wasn't the first computer with a built-
in, SDTV quality webcam. Software-wise, there have been plenty of
applications that allowed for digital distribution of music, TV shows, and
movies before iTunes. Plenty of browsers before Safari have had built-in RSS
readers (readers do not equal aggregators). And H.264 was just a silly codec.
I could make a lightweight high-definition codec in my spare hours at
college.
Aaaaand, I'm done.
I have been using Mac since 1984 and always had the same complaint. The Mac has far more features that most people, including long time users, realize because the the documentation is too minimal. The mistaken idea that the mighty mouse has no right button is a mistake easily made by a non user because the mouse has no split between the right and left sides.
I have been a power user for many years but still constantly discover new goodies all the time. I have been using Apple Mail for years and only just discovered features I never knew existed.
Keeping this in mind it is no wonder that most negative comments about Mac are made by those with little or no experience of using them.
the "non-physical" button on the right side of the mouse, like any other USB
mouse that you could plug into a Mac, but I admit this is where they definitely
"over-minimalized"). Sony definitely offers more compatible connections, but
those mostly serve to connect (probably) Sony-made peripherals. What I
think is it comes down to is this: Sony has the resources and experience to
out-design Apple any day of the week, but as a corporation, they are both in
bed with Windows (Vaio) and at war with Microsoft (PS2, PS3, PSP, any any
other hardware battles M$ is willing to jump into with its Billion dollar
parachutes). Apple, for the time being at least, represents the corporate
marriage between Form and Function by writing their own OS and designing
their own hardware, and so has either nothing or everything to lose with each
new design, all the way from the OS to the the distribution model. With that
much at stake, I don't blame Apple for going the Flashy but Minimalist route
while Sony quietly toes the line between it-makes-sense and Windows-
compatible. Sadly, it goes back to Windows vs Mac all over again. Or at least
until Steve Jobs learns Japanese.
believable without any flaws in the actual content of facts. Firstly the Mighty
has a incorporated two buttons settings so you would not have to hold the
command button to use the right click of the mouse and if the mighty does
not have any physical button then how would it work as a mouse or a control
unit. The points you have pointed out on the mighty mouse is "Mighty"
flawed. Please do some KIND of background research before submitting any
post. On the post of functionality of the mighty mouse, the mighty mouse has
other functions too apart from the opinionated post that will4vaio had, the
mighty mouse has a four-way scroll and also side buttons to be used with
MAC's Expose functions (which I cannot resist to mentioned that Vista has
stolen from MAC OSX which came out at the time of XP).
Also the post was about the desktops so any laptop or notebooks discussion
should not be posted on this anyway. But again to fact verified the point you
made about the MacbookPro, the MacbookPro does come with a shiny or
glossy screen as an option and it does has other advantages for example the
digital/optical input and output of audio which is extremely useful if you are
in the field of music production. Not to mention the fact that Blu-ray is still
not decided to be at the top of the Hi-DVD vs Blu-ray competition so why
invest in £2000 on a laptop that the drive may be out-dated in the very near
future? ? Also the macbookpro was designed to be productivity in mind
unlike the AR series which was designed to replace desktops therefore it is
not comparable as their designed functions are not the same. Whilst the
MacbookPro is designed to be on the move the AR is designed to be at home
so it doesn't matter if it doesn't "reduce clutter at home" because it was
designed to be ON THE MOVE.
PLease if you want to compare the Type R design to the Apple Mac Pro, I don't
think there is a comparison, the Mac Pro is smaller in size and more powerful
with 8-core or quad-core Mac Pro workstation and with 16 ram. The design
of the Mac Pro is customizable with 33 million possible configurations,
however the Type R cannot be customerized or it would be harder to with the
Sony restrictions. As you mentioned before in your AR argument that
MacbookPro creates more clutter but it doesn't really justify your Type R
argument as more separate bodies means more clutter right? Please do
correct me if I'm wrong on this point? ? Again the Type R is designed to be
used as an entertainment machine the Mac Pro is designed to be productive
so why has people said that MAC is for fun and PC is for production? ? Design
wise Mac Pro does win hands down with the Aluminum Glossy Finish with the
Cinema Screen.
Luc
having no physical buttons. In addition to lacking physical buttons (which makes
manipulation difficult), the Apple mouse requires the user to hold down a
button on the keyboard while clicking the mouse to ?right-click?. "
This is wrong information. Click on the left of the mouse to left click. Click on
the right side to right-click. Got it?
windows vista and xp respectively anad i cant wait to see all of leopard. while it
isn't a computier and barely deserves to be added as such the new ipod touch is
years ahead of zune or any sony mp3. the mighty mouse does take a while to
get used to but is relatively simplel to use once you set it to your liking. while i
don't really have a use for a laptop but if i were looking at the two i would
choose a macbook over a vaio. the only thing sony pc's have over mac is the
logo which looks great.
primary click. Windows users often feel naked with out a right click while mac
natives (at first) feel strange with the mouse doing more then just a click and a
move, now suddenly there are 8+ buttons on a mouse when you just want to
open something on the desktop. To me, that's where keyboard shortcuts come
in. I'm a small crowd but I still fight for the Apple single click mouse button.
However, this whole iPhone bugs me! The iPhone is far from original. It is nothing more than a newer version of a device I bought in Australia in 2005 called the imate Jam. In fact, having owned both products, I can safely say that while the iphone is more stylish and is in some ways an imrovement over the Jam in many others it falls short of a smart phone released more than 2 years prior. An article in Time Magazine stated the iphone was revolutionary and claimed that many of these features had never been seen before. It's a shame that a reputable publication can so easily sell themselves out. Other models can also claim to be muses fo the iphone including LG Electonics' LG Prada.
Even the name was stolen from Infogear (A company purchased by Cisco).
I don't mean to bash Apple as I think they make some good designs but to claim that they are an innovative company really irritates me.
And by the way, I have never regretted buying my Sony Vaio and am perfectly willing to upgrade to another in the future. If you know and are happy with the PC platform I recommend sticking with Sony. Either way, you can't really go wrong... unless you go Apple (Just joking)
All Macs are lame computers. I find it hard to understand how a "design savvy" company can make only white and silver computers.
If you want design innovation, look at the gaming and boutique PC market.
Alienware (and even the new Dells for that matter)
Voodoo PC
Falcon NW
Boxx
Cyberpower
ABS
There are many more to this list.
These companies remind us of the specialty chopper shops that constantly school Harley-Davidson on bike design.
In addition the looks, these PCs runs circles around the Mactels.
Apple has no idea how to make a striking computer anymore.
The old G4s and iMacs were it for Apple.
Their focus is on the iPod Touch and iPhone now.
To me, Sony has been ahead of the pack for a long time in their designs, and this is just another step they have tken in their design innovation.
However, you will always get a snide remark about something other than an Apple from an " Apple head", excuse the pun, because they are sold on Apple's marketing of everything Apple. I'm not, but I guess that comes from being a 20+ year Accountant and having to deal with both the PC and Macs. When you look at the progressive nature of the computer since 1980 when they were introduced, Apple tried to carve a niche in the marketplace and then proceeded to try and garner support for their minimal product athe time with promises of better things to come for your support. I decided not to join thier club due to poor software compatibility, and it still holds true 20 years later. Apple marketing points to total support for Apple and their I-Tunes. I have a hard time buying into the whole Apple strategy. I don't want to buy a $600 I-Phone either like so many did before their price drop, or an extremely overpriced mp-3 I-Pod. Personally I preferred an 8GB Sony and a 30GB Toshiba Gigabeat for that purpose.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not busting on Apple, they have come a long way, but I just don't feel like they are there yet.
It all holds true in the eyes of the consumer not necessarily the designer to whether people are going to like the product or not. Some people are going to go crazy with the mini, some people are going to for sony also, thats why you need choice.
but check this fact out, the macs are highly praised for their keyboard configuration with the keys apart from each other.However the first computer to apply this design was a labtop for sony many years ago.
Personally I think that the battle should have been in the labtop market and it should measure the quality of the product, the design should not be a compromise between looks and performance as it is useless to have the most beautiful computer if it doesn't work. I have the vaio tz and a mac pro and I love both of them but their are no parallels between the Tz and any other computer. Maybe sony is not adding any remarkable improvements in the market (let me see , they have blue-ray) but who cares Apple created the Isafe which apparently is more advance. Apple has not even gone high definition, they support blue-ray but are leaving it up to sony to convince people about it waiting until the format is already establish and widely accepted to enter the game.
Now please prove me wrong, anyone
There's a difference; tech sites are towards the average (and slightly above average) consumer while these geek sites are towards the hacking/modding techies.
I go with trustedreviews.com because as the name says, you gotta trust them. And with all my years of reading tech sites, its the base with non-bias reviews and articles. (a consequence that theyre not Americans?? hmmm...)
Back to the subject, Apple has always been a childish brand from the start. Their design has been very kidish and non-professional.
As for Sony, they first came out with a elegant/smooth design. They tried and and took rick with many different innovation with their Vaio line (most have not made it into U.S). Just search for any old Vaio model laptop/handhelds/computers/monitors and you will know what im talking about.
These great elegant design has been out for well over a decade in Japan. Theyre not afraid to try new things where as Americans are narrow minded. That's why Japan is years ahead of us. It's impossible to catch up if Americans think Apple is leading the way with technology and style, because they're not. Apple are afraid to make mistakes so they adopt ideas from the weird and creative Japanese and release it in the U.S. as a first (in the U.S., of course)
By the way, why is American tech site seems racist to me?? This why American geeks should be pathetic.
Also Matthew Elliott wrote this article base on my last post i posted here, which is about the new imac design.
I think its deleted. Damn you Cnet!! Youre just like the official Apple forum which deleted my thread when i posted about the design flaws in the macbooks (the screen without fleets causing screen damage).
And i didnt mean to offend when i stated that Japanese are weird, theyre no afraid to make mistakes and are very creative.
And again, they're American desigers in Sony as theyre Asian designers in Apple. Vise versa with each and every technology design company out there!
I don´t consider Apple a aesthetic leader any longer. Do please do me a favour and do not mistake aesthetics with design.
Even if aesthetically the older [1996-2002] Apple line could be sort of fancy, they are becoming more mainstream AND blander. The latter being the worst of both crimes.
There are by far cooler desktop designs, such as the Asus Spresso [a little masterpiece].
INHO, the main design [and aesthetic] limitation of Apple is the inhability to handle buttons.
Yep, buttons. That makes the current Apple line A NIGHTMARE TO USE. I´m not a button freak, but this is what overall makes the mac learning curve too steep from a specific point on.
I mean. It is fairly simple to use a rosetta system [macs] up to certain level. From that point on, if you need interface speed, they get brutally irksome. It seems that they forgot that a person has ten fingers, and for a certain speed [such as CAD applications and the everlasting king of shortcuts Photoshop]you will most presumably want to use all of them.
To sum up
What I wanted to say is that the apple line is just too simplistic. In the bad way. They moved forward from a certain "cyborgfunk" aesthetics into the corporate world of crisp aluminum and brushed metal surfaces.
But
I miss the quirk, the dirt, the whatever that makes a design and an aesthetic truly unforgetable. That is [sadly] Hello Kitty territory [which is a great design regardles I don´t like it]. Whatever that made the Citroen DS a true classic lasting 25 years in the market.
SonyFS laptop and that thing was damn near indestructible, but more
importantly it looked good while doing it. My current laptop an Apple
Powerbook G4 is great, I have very few complaints and its usually user error.
My one main complaint is that the aluminum case, while gorgeous and eye
catching, collects dirt and dust far too easily. Thats not to say that a Sony
would not, ( no computer is infallible) but on a case as beautiful and shiny
and pretty as this it gets to you more. one other thing, the aluminum case
isn't as physically durable as the hefty plastic of a Sony, so far I have about
two dents in it. Each one took part of me with it, my heart sunk . But I'm still
happy with it.
And why are some people making this a battle field for Mac vs. PC this is a
Sony discussion of the design of two computer companies. Besides we all
know that a mac can do more out of the box than a PC. (My appologies I
couldn't resist :-P) However having had access to Sony's, Fujitsu's, and Hp's,
out of the PC category Sonygives you so much more out of the box than the
others.
But this isn't a duel of who has more useful software out of the box, its which
design inspires awe. To me I like the apple designs, elegant but not show-
offish, minimalistic, but not watered down. But thats not to say that when I
see a good looking Sonylike the TZ series, or that LT series, I get that tingly
feeling, of computer lust.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But don't go being purposely mean to
get your point across. if you don't like the Sonydesign then say it, but don't
go on and on about how they're lame. Their not lame their just not your cup
of tea, deal with it an move on. Same goes to you mac haters, and don't think
that either of you are making yourselves look better by saying "I don't mean
to bash" at the end of your shpeal, it doesn't stop the 8 paragraphs of "their
not original" "their childish" and whatnot.
So I guess to end (to me), Sony is like a Golf GTI its beautiful and sexy, and
can work hard but at the end of the day it settles down and its just a
computer. But an apple is like a GTI in brushed aluminum, it does the same
stuff, it just looks different, some might find it beautiful, others might find it
flashy. But people will always look at both. and in the end thats what design
is all about.
P.S.
That thing does look like a roomba
I looked at each machine specs and look.
My brother (a Mac guy) told me to just look at it as a monitor upgrade (no longer the 16" CRT). Yes I killed two birds with a big $
I have always been a M$ guy and still am. I am running XP
on my iMac. The mouse leaves something to be desired but I can change that. Just like a Sony, I can change the mouse.
- Apple vs Sony design
- by neenawt September 19, 2007 7:49 PM PDT
- I switched over to the Apple side a year ago and have not looked back. The
- Reply to this comment
-
Showing 1 of 6 pages (134 Comments)appearance alone sold me. I bought an iMac 20" and it became fun to sit down
at my computer again. The design is simple, elegant and intuitive. Sony's
design is not bad, it's just "bulky" by comparison. Having said that, I am on the
fence about the new iMac design in aluminum with the black border. It just isn't
as clean a look, in my opinion.