I spent over an hour at Best Buy earlier tonight playing with the Vaio model I’m interested in. I really liked the keyboard design, and the screen was beautiful. I wasn’t sold on the touchpad buttons, though. The sales guy actually knew what he was talking about and had an old Vaio at home, which was helpful. He almost sold me on buying from Best Buy with their battery replacement program. The estimated 6.5 hr battery life is a HUGE selling point for me.

However, the 15” Powerbook is still in the running. I love that it has s-video, the Wi-Fi stuff, and the Radeon 9700 as a standard. The reliability of OS X is tempting as well, though I fear it’s too “dumbed down.” It’d also be great to have an Apache server running for PHP development & having mac browsers for testing. However, the prospect of two-hour battery life does not sit well. I think I could utilize an old P3 with Linux to serve my web testing needs.

I’m going insane. As soon as I settle on one, the other starts looking better. I have gotten absolutely nothing accomplished but reading reviews and comparisons. I’m all about the Centrino technology, but the reliability and security of the mac OS is very important, especially for a notebook. I have it all worked out on how to use the Powerbook with my current PC, but man, that stupid battery life. If only it were better, I’d be ordering one now.

*sigh* the Vaio weighs less and has more buying perks. I think I’m going with it. I might be a mac down the line when I have more funds. I’d rather have something I’m familiar with using for now I believe. I have them configured to be within $50 of each other, but the Vaio has a free $130 Epson all-in-one printer and a $200 e-coupon. ARGH but maybe the mac would…fuck this, I’m tired of wasting so much time debating. I liked one metaphor I found:

“its sorta like saying which is faster a rolce royce, or a ferrari enzo

abviously the ferrari, but it takes a hell of a lot of time to get to that speed, and i doubt its as comfortable as the smooth, safe, luxury ride of the rolz roice” - Source

Clearly, the guy can’t spell, but you get the point. Since I can’t afford my Lexus yet, then I should accept that I can’t afford a Mac yet. Actually, the mac is cheaper but not including the money I get back with the Vaio. However, by the time I add software I have to buy, it’d be more. I’d pay the money if only the battery life were better.

In other news I bought The Walkmen album, bows + arrows, and the new Rufus Wainwright album, Want Two. I haven’t opened the Rufus album yet, but I did list to The Walkmen and was disappointed that one of my favorite songs was on a different album.