2011 Sony Vaio Z or Newest MacBook Air?

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Combat Jac

I am lucky enough to have a job where my employer is going to buy me a new laptop to use for both work and school. I'm a university student, but I also work in a law firm so I want something that I can bring with me to campus as well as work, without it being a burden like my 15" Dell currently is. I would only be using it for taking notes, writing papers, emailing, listening to music, watching videos, and surfing the web. I do NOT play computer games, so the external Power Media Dock that comes with the Vaio which has an optical drive and 1gb GPU isn't absolutely necessary, but it does look pretty bad ass. I would want a 13" laptop that is very thin and light, but I would also like it to be powerful. Both of these models seem to fit my criteria, but I am having extreme difficulty in choosing one. The only issues at stake here I suppose would be the price and the operating system. Price does not matter to me, I am allowed to spend up to $ 2,000... But for that I can only get the base model Vaio, whereas I can get the highest model Mac, and even tack on a mouse, printer, and some other accessories. I really like the look of both of them, so I could care less which one i get in that respect. As well, both are almost identical in weight and thickness (Vaio is slightly better in both, if you compare the average thickness of the Air because it's thinnest at the front and thickest at the back) The only thing is, I have been a PC user all of my life and have less than 5 minutes experience using a Mac. I've been shopping for almost a month and wouldn't even consider a Mac at the start, and now I am. I just think it would be nice to not have to worry about viruses and malware ruining my computer after only having it for a year, because that's happened to me with every computer i've owned so far. But I just don't know if I can make the switch to a Mac. Someone help me out!!
Thanks for the balanced answers everyone. I should have clarified a few things, however. I'm a political science major, so I really don't need any intensive software other than Microsoft Office, and it is my understanding that you can get it for Mac as well.

I also should disclose the performance specs for the specific models I would be getting, though the differences are quite small:

Vaio Z: $2049
Intel; Core; i5-2410M processor (2.30GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.90GHz
Premium Carbon Fibre
4GB (2GB x2 fixed onboard) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
128GB (64GBx2) Solid State Drive with RAID 0 Technology

Power Media Dock⢠with AMD Radeon⢠HD 6650M (1GB) graphics and CD/DVD player /burner
*There is currently a $100 coupon on the sony online store, so i could get either and additional 2 gb of ram, upgrade to a blu-ray drive, or get the full1080p dispay.

MacBook Air: $1639
1.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
256GB flash storage

So, for the extra $
Thanks for the balanced answers everyone. I should have clarified a few things, however. I'm a political science major, so I really don't need any intensive software other than Microsoft Office, and it is my understanding that you can get it for Mac as well.
I also should disclose the performance specs for the specific models I would be getting, though the differences are quite small:
Vaio Z: $2049
Intel; Core; i5-2410M processor (2.30GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.90GHz
Premium Carbon Fibre
4GB (2GB x2 fixed onboard) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
128GB (64GBx2) Solid State Drive with RAID 0 Technology
Power Media Dock⢠with AMD Radeon⢠HD 6650M (1GB) graphics and CD/DVD player /burner
*There is currently a $100 coupon on the sony online store, so i could get either and additional 2 gb of ram, upgrade to a blu-ray drive, or get the full1080p dispay.
MacBook Air: $1639
1.8GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
256GB flash storage
So, for the extra $400,

Answer
I was PC user all my life but shifted to MAC last year with macbook pro. And now I just bought an
11" macbook air with i7 and 256 GB as my only computer, the day it launched. I am an engineer and now also studying software programming. This little champ can perform any task you throw at it. I understand what sort of portability you want so I even recommend you to go for 11".

Did I mentioned that I have Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and MAC OS X LION both running smoothly on my 11" Macbook Air, also with MS OFFICE, iWork and lots of other softwares.

So for $2000, you can buy a macbook air + optical drive + Windows 7 OEM Copy + softwares + accessories ++++ and can enjoy both Mac and PC together.

MacBook pro 2011 v.s a iMac desktop?

Jessica

Hi. I am having a difficulty time deciding which apple computer should I get for the summer. I like the MacBook pro for its portability. I am a university student who currently own a MacBook 2008 version but is looking for more external hard drive space to download movies, applications, and get good hd graphics. The application i want to download is Final Cut Pro, Adobe photoshop, after effects, motions, and other media applications. I will be using the computer to edit my film projects for school (heavily) and personal stuff. I am planning to get an iMac or a MacBook pro. The down side with an iMac is that I need it to be portable. I really like both. Since I own a MacBook laptop already should get a MacBook or a iMac. So what do u guys think. Please help me decide. Thanks.

Answer
For video editing I personally like the top spec 15" macbook pro although if you already have a macbook then maybe the iMac makes more sense.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro
Before you buy Final Cut Pro, Apple are releasing new video editing software called Final Cut Pro X (ten) in June at a fraction of the price ($299) of the old Final Cut Pro.
http://www.macworld.com/article/159193/2011/04/final_cut_pro_x_announced.html#lsrc.mod_rel
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/12/apple_unveils_new_64_bit_final_cut_pro_x.html
Z.

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