I made a quick video demo of the Vaio P’s instant mode which is a sub-OS that boots you into an environment that offers some basic computing. Sony has had a similar media-capable mode in previous computers, but they haven’t added online functionality until the release of the Vaio P’s Instant Mode. With the VAIO P’s Instant Mode, you can access your media (photos, videos, music) and get some work done with a Mozilla based browser, Skype for VOIP, and Pidgin for instant messaging. Check out the video demo below:
Vaio P Instant Mode video demo
March 11th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
VAIO P ‘Instant Mode’ video demo http://www.umpcportal.com/?p=6223
March 11th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
The phone looks familiar
and the menu looks like on our Sony 40″ TV 
March 11th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
I think i may have missed it in other reviews, but how long is windows boot?
March 11th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Have you tested battery life in Instant Mode? (Sorry if you mentioned that in the video; my Vaio TZ audio drivers just disappeared after a Windows update so I watched in silence.) The TZ has an IM (not the same one) and media playback battery life is a bit shorter. Unless the P’s IM runtime is significantly longer than in Vista, I don’t really find this sub-OS useful.
It takes much longer to boot than Vista takes to awaken from sleep and obviously isn’t a full-featured as a “real” OS. I guess it’s handy for people who shutdown Vista rather than put it to sleep, though I wonder how many actually do that. Do you?
I’ve had my P for over a month and haven’t checked out IM even once b/c I never have the device shutdown. Sleep mode is so great: 3 seconds to awaken; 10 seconds to awaken, connect to home network, and launch Firefox; 6 seconds to sleep. Fast! And it’s not a big drain on the battery either. About 2.5% per hour with the standard battery and around 1% with the extended.
Ben Reply:
March 12th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Haven’t checked the battery life yet, starting the test shortly.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Wow, am I the only person to think that 20 seconds is horrible to be considered instant on… I am a huge suspend ‘er and most system will resume and start working with in 5 seconds from pressing the power button…
EC Reply:
March 12th, 2009 at 1:03 am
WOW I didn’t even turn enough attention to this one to notice the time of 20secs!?
I have to agree that this isn’t anything great as I believe the better SSDs handle that on WinXP, no?
Ben Reply:
March 12th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Sure they might be able to handle it on XP, but the unit comes with Vista which isn’t the best on hibernation. Definitely fast on sleep though so Jenn is right; it probably won’t be of much use unless you are all the way shut down, or there is a big savings on battery life. I’ll check the battery life soon.