After months of debating whether to bight the bullet and shed out a £1000 + for a Apple Macbook Pro, I stumbled across a gem of a laptop the Sony S Series. After receiving mine a few weeks ago (July 2011) I could not be happier.

This laptop really is an Apple Macbook Pro beater.
The features below are some of the major similarities with the Apple Macbook Pro 13.3" £999 model and the £740 Sony S Series (notice the difference in price!)

Intel® CoreTM i5-2410M (2.30 / 2.90GHz)
LED backlit display, 4GB RAM, 320GB (5400rpm) HDD, CD/DVD player/burner, HDMITM out. USB 3.0

However the Sony S Series offers even more:

With an ability to switch from stamina to speed mode. Unlike the mac the sony offers the perfect balance between work (stamina mode) and pleasure (speed mode). Turning in speed mode boots up the AMD graphics (512MB VRAM) integrated graphics card. Running games like Fifa 2011 and Call of Duty with ease.

The S series also includes 7 hour battery life like the mac but also offers the option of an additional slim battery at another £70 booting up the battery life to 14hours the best on the market for a laptop packing this much power.

Other add ons include finger print scanner at an extra £40 and 3G at an extra £100. All the specs can also be upgraded to a very high standard at extra cost.

The Sony all comes in at a 1.55kg with the macbook weighing in at 2.04 kg.

On the other hand this could be down to one of the only disadvantages with the product with the side hinges holding up the screen feeling a little bit flimsy.

But this just does not put we off this great product. Whether or not this review will be successful in showing the Apple fans the premium they are paying, remains to be seen.

To compare the S Series with the Macbook Pro yourself here are the links:
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs-13inch.html
http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-s-series/tab/edi torialarticle1

Youtube review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xJ_rD13F_o