Apple's MacBook Air joined the ranks of products featuring Intel's latest Haswell a few months ago. Running on 4th generation Intel processors, the Apple MacBook Air has become an even better notebook. However, it is not the only ultrabook worth nothing. Sony has come up with an Intel Haswell-powered Vaio Pro that can give many ultrabooks a run for their money.

So which is the better candidate? It depends on what users really prefer but several sources agree that Sony's Vaio Pro can give the MacBook Air a good fight. There are several aspects about Sony's laptop which might prove better than the Air. The following sections list some of the reasons why.

Design

The Vaio Pro 13 has an extremely thin design that rivals and even beats the MacBook Air. It measures 325 x 215 x 17mm (WxDxH) and weighs only 1.04kg. The design and size of the Vaio Pro 12 makes it easy to fit in many travel bags. It can also fit inside an airline tray table, adding to its portability. Similar to the Sony Vaio Pro 11, the Pro 13 comes with a carbon fiber ensuring durability. The design compares with Apple's MacBook Air. The Pro 13 offers a consumer-oriented appearance but definitely a classic and elegant appeal to still keep it under the high end category.

Resolution

The Pro offers excellent screen resolution at 1920 x 1090, IPS display and Full 1080p HD. The display provides a variety of color settings. These include a vivid default setting that is similar to the color configurations found on HDTVs. Even when users decide to lower the settings to make the resolution more eye-friendly, they can still expect clear and sharp visuals. The display remains clear and bright regardless of the settings.


This is ideal for people who are very critical of their video and photo quality. The ten-point touch screen offers excellent user experience. It is extremely responsive for easy navigation. Users may have to update their built-in Vaio app to make sure the lighting sensor is extremely responsive. However, it should be noted that over responsiveness can inhibit user experience.

Apple's MacBook Air sticks to a 1440 x 900 TN panel similar from the previous version of the laptop line. The device comes with a 1366 x 738 native resolution. Nonetheless, it remains as one of the most ideal high end ultrabook options around.

Performance

The Vaio Pro 13 delivered exemplary performance primarily because of the fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4200U processor including the PCIe-based 128GB SSD. Multimedia users should think about an additional storage as the 128GB memory may not be enough to hold as many video files. Another good thing about the Vaio Pro is that is boots instantly from sleep mode. It will only take a few seconds to do the job.

The MacBook Air, on the other hand, packs on 1.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache plus 4GB of 1,600MHz DDR3L SDRAM and 128GB or 256GB of PCI Express Flash storage.