Sony Vaio Duo 13 vs Samsung Ativ Q vs Apple MacBook Air:Who is the best?

Sony Vaio Duo 13                                                                                                                                       Sony Vaio Duo 13 is an innovatively designed ultrabook featuring Windows 8 as its operating system. The hybrid has hit the market, flaunting a slider-styled screen along with an extremely compact body. This 2.8 pounds machine is, therefore, portable and handy for comfortable use. The Vaio Duo 13 differs from many traditional hybrids in that it converts from tablet to notebook via a wide hinge mechanism under the display. It’s a slider. When activated with a light lift of the display, the screen slides up and docs at about 120 degrees, revealing a full-sized QWERTY as well as a small and oddly rectangular track pad occupying about two-thirds of the space. The notebook mode, the display is stuck in its angled position, and can only be adjusted into a flat tablet mode. This is purposeful, and should be at a comfortable angle for drawing and drafting. With a better design and bigger screen than the original Vaio Duo, the new Sony Vaio Duo 13 is a solid improvement on its predecessor. This model beats other Core i-Series laptops with regard to its outstanding battery life. It provides eight hours and fifty-three minutes of video playback time during a battery drain test.

But,While the sliding design has improved, it still feels a tiny bit delicate around the hinges, which isn't great for such an expensive product.  It's still tough to figure out exactly who the target audience is. The lack of screen angles is especially frustrating.

THE BOTTOM LINE The Sony Vaio Duo 13 is an excellent product, and probably the best hybrid Ultrabook/tablet device we've seen, but with such a hefty price tag it's still not enough to convince us to ditch our separate laptops and tablets. The Sony Vaio Duo 13 is ambitious, but less universally useful than other Windows 8 laptop-tablet hybrids. There may not be a real need for a slider-style PC.                                   Key Features: 13.3-inch 1920x1080 touchscreen display; 1.3kg; Intel Dual Core i7-4500U 1.8GHZ processor; 4GB RAM; 128GB Solid State Drive; Hybrid tablet/ultrabook design; Pressure sensitive stylus

Manufacturer: Sony                                                                                                                           Price:$1399

VS                                                                                                                                                           Samsung Ativ Q                                                                                                                                        Samsung ATIV Q hybrid laptop will also come with the capability of being able to transform from a laptop to a tablet instantly, by smooth sliding. The design of the Samsung Ativ Q is impressive: with a 13.3-inch screen, it certainly feels more laptop than tablet, but the superbly high resolution display (QHD 3200x1800, which equates to a 275ppi) means that you'll be more than impressed whether you're checking out Windows 8 (the full-fat version, not the confusing Windows RT some users will have encountered) or Android 4.2.2. The Samsung ATIV Q is a powerful hybrid device. With an Intel Core i5 processor at its heart, the Q also features backing from Intel 4400 HD Graphics and 4GB of RAM. Windows 8 makes a good foundation for the Samsung ATIV Q, with Android present to provide some much needed glamour. Sadly, Samsung’s TouchWiz UI is missing, leaving plain old Android to hold the fort. Keeping things running smoothly across the two platforms, Android apps can be pinned to the Windows 8 homescreen, creating seamless shortcuts between the two content levels. the Ativ Q comes with Samsung's S Pen stylus with 1024 levels of sensitivity and SideSync software which means you can use a smartphone or tablet as a second screen or have it mirrored on the larger display. The Ativ Q really comes into its own because of its dual-OS setup – Windows 8 and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean come pre-loaded. You can switch quickly and easily between the two with appropriate buttons and even share files such as the photo gallery. The ATIV Q is made mostly from magnesium, is admirably thin at 13.9 mm, and seems pretty solidly built. Its screen slides and tilts up to reveal the keyboard, but it then can also be flipped over to face the other way, kind of like a cross between the convertible designs of the Sony Duo 13 and Acer Aspire R7. Samsung ATIV Q also comes with an impressive specs sheet. The Samsung ATIV Q has a 13.3-inch display with a mind-blowing resolution of 3200 by 1800 pixels. That results in a pixel density of 275 ppi, which is really impressive for a tablet of this size. According to Samsung, the display shines brightly enough to be usable outdoors. A Haswell-based Intel Core i5 processor delivers all the processing power, paired with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and Intel HD Graphics 4400, all the while consuming a reasonable amount of energy. Samsung claims that the tablet should be capable of getting up to 9 hours of battery life. Storage-wise, there's up to a 256 GB solid-state drive tucked in there, although the actual amount of space available to the user should be less. Last but not least, there's a 720p front-facing camera outfitted for video chats. The Samsung ATIV Book Q is a hybrid with a completely new design, QuadHD+ (3200×1800) and weighing 1.2KG. Based on Haswell it should offer a lot of performance and great battery life. It comes with a dual operating system. Windows 8 and Android are provided with seamless switching making this a unique proposition.                                  Price:$1500

VS                                                                                                                                                              Apple MacBook Air                                                                                                                                   The MacBook Air has been known for its good battery life.New Intel fourth-gen CPUs help the updated MacBook Air achieve amazing battery life. The multitouch trackpad is still the industry's best, and even better, the 13-inch MacBook Air now starts at $100 less than the previous model.                                                                                                                                                  

Performance:

The new Haswell processors use very little power, giving the 2013 13-inch MacBook Air and absolutely stunning battery life. In our test, in which we streamed the live BBC News channel feed on iPlayer over a wireless network, the laptop lasted for nine hours. That's significantly better than the 11-inch MacBook Air's 7 hours 15 minutes, and a substantial improvement over the 2012 MacBook Air's 5.5 hours.

Since switching to solid state storage off the shelf with the late 2010 update, the MacBook Air has been known for its good battery life. But with the Haswell processors in place, it's absolutely stunning. At last, you can use your notebook all day long on a single charge.

But, Newer features such as touch screens and higher-resolution displays are still missing. The ultrabook competition is catching up, in terms of design.

The bottom line: Apple keeps the latest MacBook Air updates on the inside, but greatly improved battery life and a lower starting price make up for a lack of flashy design changes.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Specifications

Release date06/10/13

ProcessorIntelCore i5 1.3 GHz ( 2.6 GHz ) ( Dual-Core )

RAM installed size4 GB

Hard Drive128 GB

Operating SystemApple OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

Display Type13.3 in

Max Resolution1440 x 900 ( WXGA+ )

Graphics ProcessorIntel HD Graphics 5000 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0

Optical DriveNone                                                                                                                                       Price $1,099