Sony might have stopped updating the VAIO UX series UMPC a while back, but the amazing guys over at MicroPCTalk certainly haven’t. In what is being championed as the masterpiece of the forum, a modded UX490 (the lastest UX model from Sony, released November 2007) features nearly every major mod that the community has come up with over the last several years. [original thread here]

• The original 48GB SSD has been swapped out with a 128GB RunCore Pro IV SSD.
• The original Core 2 Solo U2200 @ 1.2GHz has been replaced with a much more powerful Intel Core 2 Duo U7700 @1.33GHz and is overclocked to 1.438GHz.
• The insides have been carefully maneuver to fit the E169 Huawei terminal which offers HSDPA/UMTS (900/2100MHz) 3G data up to 7.2mbps, GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz) voice calling and texting.
  
• The original Intel 3945ABG WiFi card has been swapped for the Intel 4965AGN card which offers WiFi A/B/G/N and functions under OSX.

Pretty intense right? But wait, there’s more!

• The UX490 quad-boots Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.7, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Vista Business, and Windows XP Professional (the words “incompatible software” don’t exist for this UX490.)
• The Huawei terminal even works under OSX making it probably the smallest 3G capable Mac in town!

I’m waiting on some benchmarks and will update this post when I get them, but this UX490 is said to be able to hit 57k in Crystal Mark, which would make it the fastest UMPC in the world, and almost certainly the fastest for it’s size (524 grams/1.1 pounds).

I’m absolutely impressed with what a small but dedicated community can do with a device that they love. Honestly, who thought a computer this small would be this moddable?

Major props to everyone at MPCT who collectively worked out all of the tweaks and mods over the years which have made this possible. Huge shout-out to Ahn who pioneered the first U7600 mod, and did all of the mods on this UX490. Also a giant shout-out to MPCT forum member darkerx who endeavored to create this monster of a mobile machine.

I think we can officially dub this unit the, community created, MPCT UX590.

Maybe the guys at Sony will catch wind of this and become again interested in the UX series!

It’s a Sony Vaio P and in my local online stores I’m seeing this ultra-mobile PC for just 470 Euros. It’s a shock to me because the last time I looked, the Sony Vaio P’s were selling for near 1000 Euros. With Windows Vista Home  edition and a hard drive, you might want to think about performance but even so, it’s rare to find a stylish, 3G-enabled ultra-mobile PC at for this price and weight.

Our full review of the P-Series is available here.

The ‘gotcha’ is that this offer only seems to be happening in Germany so maybe Sony Germany overestimated the stock requirement and have a few thousand QWERTZ versions in store somewhere. Clearly they can’t be used for any other country and they need to be shifted to make way for Windows 7 versions.

If you’re in Germany though, this isn’t a bad offer at all! I’ve picked out one of the offers from a reputable online retailer. Misco have the VGN-P11Z with 60GB HDD for 474,81. (No affiliation) Amazon.de have the Black VGN-P11 for 532 Euro (affiliate link below)

Sony Vaio VGN-P11Z/Q 8 Zoll UWXGA Netbook (Intel Atom Z520 1,3GHz, 2GB RAM, 60GB HDD, Mobile Intel GMA 500, Vista Home Premium) schwarz

The interwebs were set ablaze by our earlier article showing you an awesome wearable computer setup powered by a Sony VAIO UX380N UMPC. Now we’re back with more from the creator himself. I sat down (virtually) with fiveseven808 and asked him som questions about his wearable computing setup and what he might hope to do with it in the future.

UMPCP – Q: What modifications needed to be made to the MyVu Crystal head mounted display?

Fiveseven808 – A: Removal of the displays from the original MyVu display unit, removal of the second display from the MyVu connector, and I had to find and build a suitable frame/mount for the display used and then splice together four conductor cables with a pulldown resistor to make something so that the UX will auto detect and interface properly with the MyVu display controller.

UMPCP – Q: What would you estimate the cost of the project to be, excluding the price of the VAIO UX380.

Fiveseven808 – A: Mmm… cellphone = $30+$10/mo, USB cable = free from an old portable HDD, external battery = $120 (but a battery of twice the capacity can be built for less than half), HMD [head mounted display] = $150 (from craigslist) and then whatever input device you want to use, I guess. I have so many input devices and no real standard one for my wearable computer yet, I’d rather not try and force it into the costs… pretty much everyone has a Bluetooth and java enabled cell phone that can be used as an input device though.

UMPCP – Q: Ok, so a cell phone was used as the input device?

Fiveseven808 – A: It was/is my main input device as I walk around as I don’t like the responsiveness or look of the Frogpad, and I use my BT keyboard and mouse when I’m sitting down as I can input stuff faster. An application for a phone with a physical qwerty keyboard and touchscreen like the G1 would easily serve as both and quite effectively too if I may add. I don’t have a G1 nor the programming experience to make it happen though, and I figure if you’re already holding a device, why not use the computing power in that device itself? That’s why I moved to my glove input idea.

UMPCP – Q: Could you only input text, or were you able to use the mouse as well?

Fiveseven808 – A: I was able to use both, but I was using my old Nokia and controlling the mouse with it was not the easiest thing in the world. Doable, but not worth it for long term use.

UMPCP – Q: How did you use the phone to interact with the mouse, exactly?

Fiveseven808 – A: The four-way d-pad on my phone was used to control mouse movements. Soft keys were used to control mouse clicks. I think the asterisk key allowed general text entry (written on the phone then sent as a string to the computer so predictive text could be used).

UMPCP – Q: That is all done with Bluetooth?

Fiveseven808 – A: Yep, all done with Bluetooth. Through use of my system, I found that ANY wires at all, is a pain, and makes the system less useful. Display is an exception since I cant find/make a receiver small enough to fit inside the glasses or around neck.

UMPCP – Q: So the entire system fits inside of a backpack?

Fiveseven808 – A: Yep! Fit inside a medium purse sized bag as well. Quite small really. That backpack I showed is about half the size of a regular backpack as it’s a biking pack. Everything fit in there quite nicely with room to spare for other stuff.

UMPCP – Q: How long could the system run with the extra juice from the external battery?

Fiveseven808 – A: Theoretically it could run everything for an average of eight hours, but in reality it was more like 6-7 hours, and with my UX suffocating inside without much ventilation, the figure went down to 4-5 [due to constant fan use]. $60 more would’ve bought me the parts to run the UX an extra 10-15 hours.

UMPCP – Q: How does the display look when you have it right up to your eye, or in your case, against your glasses?
A: Actually, they’re the same as MyVu’s optics claims (which are quite bogus if you ask me). I did some real world tests and it came out to be something like a 5-6 inch display at about a foot and a half or so away from your face

UMPCP – Q: So it’s basically like looking at the UX’s screen on a desk?

Fiveseven808 – A: MyVu claims something spectacular like 60 inches at 20 feet, but in reality the optics only focus the display about a foot and a half away from your face, and the size is only like 5 inches at that distance. It’s an experience on its own, it’s hard to compare it to something really.

UMPCP – Q: What resolution does the MyVu HMD provide?

Fiveseven808 – A: 640×480

UMPCP – Q: Wow, that low?

Fiveseven808 – A: That’s actually extremely high resolution for only costing $300. Before MyVu came out with their displays, a monocular VGA HMD (from what the company used to be) could easily run you $2.3K. Usually wearable computing enthusiasts use command line based operating systems as most “affordable”(and I use the term lightly) HMDs don’t have the resolution or quality to display proper GUIs.

UMPCP – Q: So what were you able to use your setup for?

Fiveseven808 – A: Haha, Facebook/Myspace, email, instant messages, scanning for access points. Not much really. I only had my system for about a week or two before it finally died. I’ve been trying to get a viable wearable computing system for almost 10 years now and this was the first time not much went wrong… at least until my UX died.

UMPCP – Q: You have WWAN connectivity for $10/month?

Fiveseven808 – A: The first thing I mentioned when I was naming off prices was a cell phone for $30 plus $3/month fee (corrected). I’m using a tethered iDEN phone off of the Boostmobile/Nextel network. Technically it’s kind of like an exploit; the phone is prepaid, accessing the iden packet network does not deduct anything from your account. iDEN phones also allow for tethering. The $3 a month is only because you have to keep your account topped off every three months (min $10 refill). So technically, internet is free (if you don’t count the money you’re required to deposit in your “prepaid account” to keep your account “active”). It’s half the speed of dialup though! But works literally anywhere you get cell reception, so I think its well worth it lol.

UMPCP – Q: Would you call your wearable computer practical, experimental, or somewhere in between?

Fiveseven808 – A: Somewhere in between. The platform is about 80% complete, but the usability is like 20% since there’s no real application for it (I dont have one yet at least lol). I say it’s more of an experiment until I pour more money to get it working again, and find out what works and what doesn’t. I’d love to see a “real” wearable computer that’s marketable to the general public, but with the boom of smartphones, I doubt it’ll ever come to fruitition until someone does the research to find out what works, what people want, and what they’re willing to put up with (size/weight/performance/price) etc. I figure my project is the research point for all of that.

UMPCP – Q: Let’s say programming knowledge and bandwidth wasn’t an issue. How could you see yourself using the setup in terms of augmented reality?

Fiveseven808 – A: As of now there’s no infrastructure set up to accomodate augmented reality. There’s quite an interesting ‘windowing” system out there that uses flat surfaces like windows/billboards/signs and what not as “screens” to be used with an eyetap like device to display relevant information, but as of now, HMD’s don’t have the resolution for that kind of application. In a place like Japan where QR codes and other 2D barcode are the norm, something like that augmented reality windowing system coupled with them, could provide instant ads anywhere also coupled with the relevance of the invidivual viewing them. In any situation that requires you to refer to a manual, set of instructions, or some kind of reference material, having the material always on display in front of you as you work is also quite invaluable. There’s quite literally an ‘infite” amount of applications for wearable computers; there just isn’t a balance point of price/performance/comfort ratio that people are willing to put up with, at least not yet.

UMPCP – Q: Do you think, in your lifetime, we’ll see some sort of widespread wearable computer (which may or may not be similar to the setup you are using now)?

Fiveseven808 – A: I’d like to think so, but at the current pace of wearable computers and the speed in which things like netbooks and smart phones are taking off, probably not. I’m studying electrical engineering, and while my specialty is more towards robotics than other specialities that would help wearable computing, I will certainly do my part to advance the field!

I’m happy to report that at this point, fiveseven808 has fixed his Sony VAIO UX UMPC by baking it in an oven and reflowing the solder, apparently fixing the issue. He’s currently working on an improved mount for the HMD. We’ll keep an eye on this sweet setup and let you know of any cool developments.

Apologize for not being able to bring you an in-depth article about the Sony VAIO W. I actually just checked it out for a few minutes when I saw it in Best Buy. I was pretty impressed with the netbook section at this particular store. There was the Sony VAIO W, the Asus Eee 1005HA, and the HP Mini 1000, among others. Up until then I hadn’t seen much of the VAIO W so I spent a bit playing around with it.

The first thing that I checked out was the chiclet style keyboard which very easy to type on, a la Sony VAIO P. Unfortunately it had one of the most bothersome of keyboard characteristics: the tiny right shift key.

If anything sets the Sony VAIO W apart from most of the netbook crowd, it’s 1366×768 resolution on the display which noticeably increased screen real estate from the other 1024×600 equipped netbooks adjacent the VAIO W. Unless you have bad eye-sight, this is a good thing. Even the completely default IE 8 screen, which seems to thrive on toolbars, seemed spacious at that resolution. It’s surprising to consider that the Sony VAIO W’s screen has more pixels than my 12.1” primary laptop which has a resolution of 1280×800.

I’ve always known why companies like Apple and Sony didn’t/don’t want to jump into the netbook game. They make products that are elegant and functional. Unfortunately, good design doesn’t come cheap, but as most of us know, netbooks do. So what do you get when you strip the design budget from the price of a Sony computer? Something that is decidedly less Sony, and instead more… regular. The unit was small, light, and pretty thin, but it just didn’t look or feel like the quality build that usually comes with Sony branding. At very least, someone at Sony said “We CAN’T put Vista on this thing, or it will suck.” And thus, the Sony VAIO W is (I think) the only VAIO released to come with XP instead of Vista since shortly after Vista launched (this is a good thing).

Aside from these things, the Sony VAIO W may as well have been the same computer as the one sitting next to it, with its Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, and same old ports as every other netbook seems to have. I can’t say I was particularly impressed with the Sony VAIO W, at least not more so than any other netbook I’ve used. They haven’t raised the bar, they just reached it.

Welcome to this week’s netbook roundup. In this space every Monday I’ll highlight netbook news items from around the web.

• AT&T Rolls Out Barely-Subsidized Acer, Dell, Lenovo Netbooks Across the Country – AT&T fires up a bit of netbook subsidization, offering the Dell Mini 10 [Portal page], Acer Aspire One [Portal page] and Lenovo S10 [Portal page] for $200 with a two-year, $40/month (minimum) contract.
• ASUS Eee PC T101 tablet reportedly facing uncertain future – Though the Asus Eee T101H [Portal page] was seen quite a long while back on an Asus’ Eee roadmap, it seems to have a questionable release at this point. Most likely the success or failure of the Asus Eee T91 [Portal page] will decide what comes of the T101H.
• Samsung Go (N310) reviewed, gets 8.5 hours battery life – The Samsung N310 [Portal page] which we saw several months ago is being branded as the Samsung Go in the US. Apparently its standard 6-cell battery is good for 8.5 hours which is quite impressive.
• Sony- Netbooks are Here to Stay; Touch Enabled VAIOs This Year – Sony recently hoped into the netbook game after sitting on the sidelines since the genre appeared. Now they are recognizing the netbook as something that they need to get involved in. In addition to the release of their VAIO W [Portal page] netbook, they are planning on releasing touchscreen computers after Windows 7 lands.
• Asus Finally Launches the Eee PC 1004DN – Another one that we’ve known was coming for a while: The Asus Eee 1004DN [Portal page]. Asus’ first netbook with optical disk drive and the Intel GN40 chipset. Asus has now released it in Taiwan.

Another gem from the geniuses at www.micropctalk.com. MPCT forum user fiveseven808 has created a wearable computer setup using a Sony VAIO UX380 [Portal page] to power the whole thing. Fiveseven808 was kind enough to give me a good run down of the setup and some images as well.

Components include:
Main system:

• Battery geek: BG 14-18-60External battery (60wh)
• Sony UX380N
  • VGA/TV/LAN Dongle
• Motorola iDen i425 (for next-to-nothing (but half dial up speed) always-on internet access)

Input/Output:

• Modified MyVu Crystal Head Mounted Display
• Bluetooth enabled cellphone (text and mouse input)
• Bluetooth stereo headset (voice input and stereo output)
• ThinkOutside Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard
• Logitech Bluetooth Mouse
• Bluetooth Frogpad (text input)

Essentially he took the MyVu headset, removed one of the eye pieces, and mounted the other to his glasses to that he could see his surroundings and the UX’s screen at the same time. The MyVu is attached to the UX through the A/V output port on the UX’s port replicator dongle. With some additional addons he provided his UX with extra battery life via an external battery, and several input methods to communicate with the UX while the rest of the kit resides within the backpack.

Unfortunately I must report that fiveseven’s UX380 recently died due to some physical failures, but I got a chance to talk to him about his initial vision for the project:

I guess my original goal was to design a prototype wearable computing system that is expandable, cheap, compact, yet powerful enough to be used as an every day computer with the possibility of having augmented reality systems and other passive information systems convey useful location based information to the user at all times.

I had a chance to speak with fiveseven and have somewhat of an interview with him that I’ll share in the near future. You’ll be able to read fiveseven’s comments on the project. I personally found this setup, and the idea behind, it very cool. Here is to hoping that he manages to track down another UX to continue his work.

Sony, along with others such as Samsung, was one of the early companies that jumped into the idea of the UMPC with some great devices. For a company that hesitated to jump on the netbook bandwagon, Sony was surprisingly passionate in their early UMPC work, updating their Sony VAIO UX series on a nearly bi-yearly basis. Though the UX series never made it to the big-leagues (read: widespread consumer awareness) it apparently made some friends in Hollywood.

Over the years, the Sony VAIO UX series has appeared in a surprising number of films and music videos, often toted as a futuristic high-tech gadget, or a high-class luxury device. With the help of my compadres over at www.micropctalk.com, I’ve compiled a short-list of videos where the VAIO UX is featured and some screenshots of the devices in use from a few of the mentioned locations. I’ve also included Wikipedia links in case you are unfamiliar with the media:

• Terminator Salvation (film) – Used by John Connor
• 007: Quantum of Solace (film) – Used by Bill Tanner
• Stargate Atlantis (show) – Used by Rodney McKay
• Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) (music video) – Used by Wyclef Jean
• Same Girl (music video) – Used by R. Kelly
• 24 (show) – Used to arm a suitcase bomb
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop (film)
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets (film)
• The Pink Panther 2 (film) – Used by Kenji
• The Guard (show)

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (film)

Same Girl (music video)

Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)

Drop a line in the comments if you’ve ever seen your favorite gadget featured in a movie or other form of media.

As time goes on, more and more of my time is being taken up reading very interesting smartphone news. WVGA, Android, WM6.5 and Cortex are the important keywords and every time a device comes up it becomes clearer that the push towards the MID market is greater from the Smartphone manufacturers than it is from the Intel-based MID and UMPC market. With Menlow in a strange UMPC-like state (with no Moblin support now) there’s a long wait until consumer-focused MIDs come out on the Moorestown platform in 2010. It’s even clearer than before that ARM will have the upper hand in the MID space in 2009 by building up from existing products and brands that already sell millions of devices. Intel will have to sit back and wait for the time being.

Today has been particularly active in the ‘MIDPhone’ space.

As I was updating myself on the status of my Samsung Omnia order (no delivery date in sight) I took a quick look at other options that are available and the Toshiba TG01 (soon available in the U.S.) jumped up at me. With a screen size of 4.1”, a resolution of 800×480 and  processing power that is 2-4 times as much as the Nokia N800 / N810, it’s difficult to ignore. Pricing is now under 500 Euro for an unlocked version and 02 in Germany are selling it for 150 Euro with a 25 Euro / month contract. Add 15 Euro on top for Internet and you’ve got an interesting option that you I could walk out and buy tomorrow. Chris over at SlashGear has just finished his review and although he wasn’t impressed with the UI and predicts that the WM operating system could be an issue, I still think that the device represents great value for mobile internet fans. When Windows Mobile 6.5 comes along it could make it even more interesting, especially if Opera 9.7 works on it. I’m looking forward to seeing some browsing speed tests on this one. Note: No keyboard!

As I was finishing up reading Chris’ article a news item about an HTC Leo popped up. The Ai.rs blog has posted what they say are the specifications for this new HTC device. I don’t know who Ai.rs are but everyone seems to be following up the story. WMPowerUser (a blog I frequent more and more these days) says that the device is the HTC Firestone. All I know is that it’s rumored to have a 4.3” screen and run a Snapdragon platform at 1Ghz. This is definitely another one to add to the MID list. Again, it looks like there’s no keyboard.

Only a few minutes later I read the news that the Samsung Mondi is launching. The Mondi is an even bigger device with a slider form factor and a 4.3” screen. Samsung are dropping a WiMax module inside and handing it over to Clearwire for a launch in Las Vegas. It’s an ARM11-powered device running Windows Mobile again. No pricing, No availability details. Style and feature-wise it’s not too exciting and in fact it doesn’t even support voice so this is really focused at mobile internet activities.

The Mondi’s compact design provides the user with a more mobile form factor and ease-of-use than the typical laptop or netbook. While it is small enough to fit into the user’s hand or pocket, the Mondi packs an impressive Web browser, powered by Opera 9.5, which takes full advantage of the device’s 4.3-inch touch screen.

I’d like to see this with HSPA, Android, a high-end CPU and a big fat battery for all-day mobile internet use!

Press release. Via.

Finally, in addition to all that, there’s news about a Sony Xperia X3 which had previously been known at ‘Rachael.’ Dutch blog ‘All About Phones’ found the information in an Expansys we page and it’s quite the interesting read, largely because it’s going to be running Android and will have a 4” 800×480 screen. As yet, the CPU information is unknown. If you’re thinking about an HTC Hero, you might want to wait for final specs and pricing on this one.

Breaking: Xperia X2 news is coming in

None of these devices represent the ultimate MID yet but you can see where things are going. The 4” to 5” space is getting very busy already. I’ll beadding some of these (if not all!) to the database very soon.

Sony has been resistant to admit that the netbook is something that consumers want for quite a long time. The closest thing they’ve released to a netbook to date is the Sony VAIO P [Portal page] and that is really stretching it. Sony itself doesn’t consider the VAIO P a netbook and certainly doesn’t market or price it like one. You could say that Sony makes premium computers, which are often of good build quality, but come with a price to match. It is plain to see why a netbook wouldn’t be part of their plans. It isn’t exactly easy to build a computer that would hold up to Sony’s idea of quality while keeping the price down. Additionally, a netbook has the potential to devalue high priced laptops whether its warranted or not.

Well it looks like Sony finally had to do it. Recently announcing the Sony VAIO W netbook, Sony enters the netbook game again stiff competition from companies that already have lots of experience in the field of creating inexpensive, but relatively high quality computers.

The Sony VAIO W has fairly typical netbook specs: 1GB of RAM, 1.6GHz Atom CPU, and running Windows XP (thank goodness!). One area where the VAIO W kicks back at cookie-cutter netbook specs is the screen. Offering more than the obligatory 1024×600 resolution, the VAIO W will have a 10.1” screen sporting a resolution of 1366×768 which is a nice properly formatted 16:9 aspect ratio. Sounds pretty ugood right? Unfortunately Reuters is reporting that the Japanese price of the VAIO W is ¥60,000 or about $629. I can’t say that price bodes very well for the VAIO W, especially considering that it may be the price for the 3-cell battery version of the device.

The VAIO W will be released in three colors: pink, white, and brown, and it looks like Sony has whipped up three color matching accessory kits which include a mouse and slip case, both matching the color of the VAIO W of your choice. The keyboard seems to be very similar to the VAIO P’s chiclet style keyboard which we loved when we reviewed it [VAIO P review, keyboard section].

[Engadget]

The guys over at Micro PC Talk have had Mac OS X running on the VAIO UX series [for some time now, but a recent video by MPCT forum user perrin21 shows a UX390 running the latest version of Apple’s OS X pristinely. Perrin21 added a few nice mods to his UX390 [Portal page], including a draft-N WiFi card to connect to his/her Airport Extreme, and an Mtron SSD. Everything else on the unit is stock. The video demonstrates the general responsiveness of the OS on the unit and a fully functional, and calibrated, touchscreen. There is some web browsing action, a demo of Boxee, and Front Row, all appearing to work beautifully on the UX390. Not bad for someone who wants OS X in their pocket, am I right? Catch the video below:

Vaja hand crafts a lot of really nice looking and premium priced gadget cases among other things. This time they’ve crafted up something wonderful looking for the VAIO P [Portal page][review]. With two different styles to choose from, you can wrap your VAIO P in fine leather and make it even more expensive. There is a full body case (pictured above) and a sleeve (pictured below) that stays on the VAIO P while you use it. There are actually three variations of the full body case. You can customize either of the case styles to your personal color preferences. The sleeve costs $120, and there is one full body case that can be bought for $180 and will ship in 3 business days. All the other styles get customized by you and will take around 20 days to make and run your $200. All of the case options look incredibly beautiful and I should warn you now that if you don’t want to be tempted to drop $200 on a case for your VAIO P, you should not click through to Vaja’s site as their wares might be too appealing to turn down. Don’t feel safe even if you don’t own a VAIO P, they make plenty of other cases as well. Honestly, these cases look magnificent in my opinion.

[jkkmobile] [pocketables.net]

I just recently finished the last section of the Sony VAIO P review. Many thanks to Dynamism for lending us the unit. The review was done in rolling format, so each section came out at different times over the last few weeks. In addition to a short review summary, this post serves as a hub to access all of our Sony VAIO P review articles as well as any additional VAIO P coverage that we put up while testing the unit.

Summary

The VAIO P is an extremely small computer for something that uses a laptop form factor. It is very light at 1.4 pounds, and very thin, standing just 20mm high off of the desk while the lid is closed. Packing a 1.86GHz Atom CPU, 2GB of RAM, 128GB SSD, and running Windows Vista (specs as tested). The VAIO P uses a completely passive cooling system which means it is totally silent if it is equipped with an SSD. Windows Vista runs well on the device considering its size. Vista is responsive with the specs that we tested and doesn’t get in the way or productivity like it might on some lower powered hardware. The VAIO P doesn’t handle the Aero effect well, turning it on severely hinders the responsiveness of Vista showing an easily visible reduction in performance. Despite its low Aero performance, the VAIO P plays back h.264 encoded media, on its very high pixel density 1600×768 resolution screen, with relatively little issue on Windows Media Player. Most people will want to turn up their DPI and browser font settings to make the screen more easily readable.  Flash player playback works well through sites like YouTube and Gametrailers, but HD Flash playback was too choppy to be considered watchable.

The overall build quality is good. The unit feels like one solid piece (albeit very light). Some of the smaller details could be a bit more solid; the wireless radio switch and power slider are just a bit wobbly. The mouse keys provide an excellent tactile and audible click, but feel a bit loosely attached to the unit as well. The hinges have a very light level of strength making the screen very easy to move, this might not be desirable for those that work in a turbulent environment like a car or plane as the screen could move around if shaken too much.

The keyboard is probably the smallest it could be while still offering a very great typing experience. The chiclet style keys make typing comfortable, and it is very easy to pick up. One issue with the keyboard is a tiny right shift key which is placed right next to the up arrow and can lead to some very annoying typing experiences. The nub-mouse works well, but I had to disable tap-to-click because it was easy for the mouse to accidentally register a tap while typing (the mouse is very close to the G, H, and B keys). Reducing the sensitivity of the tap-to-click feature could fix this, but a more intuitive software implementation is possible and would be more desirable.

For much more detailed information on the Sony VAIO P, please feel free to peruse our entire VAIO P review and check lower for additional coverage.

The VAIO P that we reviewed had specs only currently available outside Japan through importers such as Dynamism.

Review Coverage

• Unboxing and First Thoughts

• Initial Software Impressions

• Initial Hardware  Impressions

• Performance

• Long Term Software Impressions

• Long Term Hardware Impressions

Additional Coverage

• VAIO P ‘Instant Mode’ video demo

• Is the VAIO P supposed to be the successor of the UX series?

• VAIO P ~ VAIO UX? A chat with Sony

• The perfect hinge strength (for me) [video]

The Sony VAIO P is an impressively small unit that manages to pack some relatively powerful hardware into a small, envelope shaped footprint. Though it may not be practically pocketable like Sony wanted us to think, it is extremely light weight and slim. Let’s begin with the hardware tour, as usual.

Hardware Tour

Front (right to left): Wireless radio switch, SD card slot, Sony Memory Stick slot, power slider, battery LED indicator, SSD activity LED indicator.

Right: Kensington lock, USB 2.0, port replicator connector.

Back: Nothing but hinges.

Left: A/C adapter, USB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone jack, passive cooling vent.

Size Comparison

As you can see above, I have several comparison shots of the VAIO P with the HP Mini 1000 [Portal page] and the Sony VAIO UX180 [Portal page]. It wasn’t until I set my iPhone down next to the VAIO P that it really hit me. The VAIO P is really quite tiny. If you can imagine, it is just as long as the iPhone, but wider. It has the footprint of a super wide iPhone. It isn’t quite as thin as the iPhone, but it is certainly the thinnest mobile computer I’ve ever used.

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My review journey continues with the Sony VAIO P. The unit is quite pleasing to use, even if it is running Windows Vista. A quick refresher on the VAIO P’s basic specs for those of you who are just joining us:

• 1.86GHz Atom CPU
• 2GB of RAM
• 128GB SSD
• 1600×768 screen
• Windows Vista

Find more detailed specs on the VAIO P’s Portal page.

So we have the top end VAIO P running Windows Vista. Certainly, because the OS is the center of everything that happens within the computer, people tend to get concerned when a company makes the choice to put a heavier OS (like Vista) on a mobile device. Luckily, the VAIO P has the specs to run the OS like it should be run, in the background, and not taking up the majority of resources. As the VAIO P is sitting here idle, the task manager is reporting that 1GB of RAM is in use. Now the question is, do you see the RAM as half full, or half empty? In all seriousness, I wouldn’t want to be caught running Vista with just 1GB or RAM, but then again, maybe that’s why Sony opted to put 2GB of RAM in the VAIO P. It isn’t as bad as it sounds though, if you were running less than 2GB of RAM, the OS would probably make more utilization of the page file (which would be a nice alternative if you are using an SSD). But in the end, Vista performs well visibly, so long as you don’t turn on Aero. Windows and apps are quick to load with no hang time.

Turning on Aero really hammers the system and drops performance quite noticeably. I would attribute this to the particular processing that is required to render the transparent Aero effect (and with no dedicated GPU, all of that processing has to be run on the CPU). Don’t worry though, the VAIO P is quite snappy when it comes to other tasks. Have a look at the performance section if you are interested in some additional details.

As I mentioned, the VAIO P has a zippy 128GB SSD for storage. However, out of the box my VAIO P only had 92GB available and only displays as having a maximum of 119GB. This is after Dynamism installed an awesomely bloatware-free image of Vista. So where is the extra 9GB of space that seem to be missing from my drive? Sony has a good track record of installing recovery partitions on computers that don’t have disk drives. This is useful because they don’t need to ship a DVD with the computer, and you don’t need to own a DVD drive. I’ve used the recovery partition on my Sony VAIO UX180 many times with great success. In fact, I used to do so on a fairly regular basis to keep my computer running in tip-top shape. There are ways to reclaim that space if you really want it, but for the majority of users, I would leave it there in case you want to restore back to the VAIO P’s factory state.

But what about the other 27GB of space that is already used on the drive? There are several things that are most likely to be consuming this space. First and foremost is the operating system itself. Vista certainly isn’t the slimmest OS in town. Second is probably the page file. Beyond those two, there is always the recycling bin, and hibernation file. All of these can be trimmed down, it is just a matter of what you are willing to give up.

I always have a feeling in the back of my mind that dropping Vista in favor of XP on the VAIO P would take it from ‘better-than-netbook’ performance, up to ‘real-laptop’ performance.

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I’ve had the VAIO P for a few weeks now and it’s time to look at the performance of the unit. You may recall that this is the top-end model: 1.86GHz Atom CPU, 128GB SSD, 2GB of RAM, and running Windows Vista (see more detailed information on the Portal page). This particular configuration is only available in Japan at the moment, but can be bought from places like Dynamism.

The VAIO P runs Vista, which most people recognize to be quite the resource hog, and feel that it isn’t optimal for mobile computers because of limited resources. Luckily the VAIO P’s lightning fast SSD, 2GB of RAM, and 1.86GHz CPU, handle Vista pretty well. The OS itself is responsive and doesn’t show any signs of hanging. Even Windows Media Center, which runs a graphically complex GUI, runs acceptably on the VAIO P, even if it doesn have some slight issues with the VAIO P’s super-wide screen (more on that in the upcoming full software impressions section).

Video Playback

It amazes me how much more video content we see online these days, than compared to a few years ago. Back in the day, usually only small videos would be uploaded to the web, and playing them back often required downloading them then watching them. With many different Flash players out there today, we see lots and lots of video content, and video playback through Flash players is a big deal now, as it is often a frequent web activity. So let’s see how well the VAIO P can play back Flash video. Using an SD quality video from Gametrailers.com (which uses a pretty efficient Flash player), I saw full framerate playback with no issues. Below you can see the CPU usage while the video was playing:

Unfortunately, the VAIO P can’t handle the same video in 720p HD through Flash playback. The image below represents the CPU usage during Flash HD playback of the video. One thing to note is how the CPU graph on the left (representing the virtual second CPU from Hyperthreading) is a bit higher than the right. While the CPU isn’t being maxed out, the video playback was very choppy, to the point that I would call it unwatchable.
Flash HD playback might not work to well, but 720p, h.264 encoded WMV, and similar formats play back without much issue in Windows Media Player. For some reason or another, videos were a bit choppy, and showed some horizontal tearing when using my preferred video player of choice, VLC. I would imagine this has something to do with VLC’s implementation in Vista, as I’m used to using the XP counterpart. The image below shows a 720p h.264 encoded video playing through Windows Media Player, and the resulting CPU usage.

HD playback performance is particularly important on the VAIO P because the screen can actually display the content. In most cases, we test HD video playback on netbooks simply for performance’s sake, however when you really think about it, it doesn’t always make sense to watch a 720p (1280×720) video on your netbook which only has a resolution of 1024×600. However, in the case of the VAIO P, the high res screen can really display full 720p content with 1:1 pixel mapping and even has room to spare. The VAIO P’s screen has a resoultion of 1600×768, which is even wider than the widescreen HD standard of 16:9. For comparison’s sake, 16:9 (standard widescreen format) breaks down to 1.78:1, while the VAIO P’s screen has an aspect ratio of 2.08:1, meaning that the screen is slightly more than twice as wide as the height.

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The first beta of Mozilla’s mobile focused browser was recently released, and provided that it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, I thought I’d give it a try on my Sony VAIO UX180 [Portal page]. I flipped the unit into portrait mode and recorded a quick demo of the action. I’m pretty impressed so far and I like the interface. They still have some work to do and it will be really interesting to see how good of a web experience you can have on a Linux powered device (like the N810 [Portal page]) with lots of familiar Firefox addons running in conjunction with Fennec. Check out the video below:

So as I mention in the video, this was easier to explain with a video than writing it, so consider this a video post!

How about you dear readers; what is your preference on hinge strength and what advantages does it offer?