Sony VAIO P: world's lightest 8-inch netbook

[ovaltina]

Looks lovely - like a shiny pencil case with a computer inside.

I doubt it would last more than a few days bouncing around the bottom of my rucksack though.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

£849 on their website!

Haha fucking rip off!

 

[g force]

WTF? You can get a proper sized Vaio for that from Sony Centre on TCR!! Twats

 

[zenie]

WTF? You can get a proper sized Vaio for that from Sony Centre on TCR!! Twats

Yes but that's not the point of an UMPC is it?

 

[editor]

Looks pretty, but I'm not sure it'd be that much fun to use. Expensive for a netbook, a little small to be a true laptop replacement.

You're missing the whole point of the thing. It has no aspirations to be a laptop replacement and that's not what it's for.

It's a gorgeous, upmarket piece of ultra-mobile kit offering fantastic connectivity in a ridiculously small package. If I could afford it, I'd buy it now. It's an amazing piece of kit and a real innovation in the netbook market.

Instant on? 3G? GPS? Yes please!

 

[kained&able]

so is it a really really smart phone with shit battery life?


dave

 

[Sunray]

The not so sexy shot

 

[g force]

Yes but that's not the point of an UMPC is it?

Well no....just the stupid price point.

 

[elbows]

Oh dear, the £849 one doesnt have 3G and has a 60GB standard hard drive.

3G with 60GB SSD is £969

3G with 120GB SSD is £1369

 

[ovaltina]

The not so sexy shot

From the look of that keyboard, they've nicked the Thinkpad Clit mouse replacement (a little stick thing in the keyboard you use to move the mouse around instead of a trackpad)

 

[Crispy]

It's a sony ulrtaportable, it's not for us normals, but we are allowed to drool.

 

[editor]

From the look of that keyboard, they've nicked the Thinkpad Clit mouse replacement (a little stick thing in the keyboard you use to move the mouse around instead of a trackpad)

Yep. They're great to use as well.

so is it a really really smart phone with shit battery life?

You're kind of missing the point, aren't you? Has your mobile got a 1,600 x 768 resolution screen and a large keyboard and can it run thousands of Windows applications?

 

[zenie]

Oh dear, the £849 one doesnt have 3G and has a 60GB standard hard drive.

3G with 60GB SSD is £969

3G with 120GB SSD is £1369

fuckin' ell!

 

[kained&able]

no it doesn't which is why im asking. I would have no intrest in this to replace a laptop but if the battery life was better and i could find a decent hands free way of using it as a phone then that would be cool and would mean WANT.


dave

 

[derf]

Well, it's something a bit different from your average netbook, and it looks to be so slim you could slip it in your pocket. And the 3G/real-time GPS connectivity opens up all sorts of possibilities.

More specs:
There's 128GB solid state drive, Bluetooth streaming A2DP, 2GB RAM, built-in camera and microphone, 2 USB 2.0, Wi Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500, quick-boot option for super-fast access to the web, email, photos...

Dimensions (Approx.) : 9.65"(W) x 0.78"(H) x 4.72"(D)

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665749282

It does look good and with the solid state hard drive the thing is taking apart the rules and rewriting them.
the built in GPS will attract a good few.

Like all things first in it's class it costs too much but I think the likes of Asus and Acer will have versions out soon.
I know one thing, this is the first real nail in the coffin of standard hard drives as we know them.
I'm just about to upgrade my spare to a 250 gig WD drive in the morning. Pity I can't wait a few months for solid state units.

 

[elbows]

I know one thing, this is the first real nail in the coffin of standard hard drives as we know them.
I'm just about to upgrade my spare to a 250 gig WD drive in the morning. Pity I can't wait a few months for solid state units.

Not particularily, its fairly typical in recent months. You can buy a 30GB SSD for around £100, 60GB SSD for £170 or less, but the price for a 120GB SSD jumps to around £300.

 

[pk]

Oh dear, the £849 one doesnt have 3G and has a 60GB standard hard drive.

3G with 60GB SSD is £969

3G with 120GB SSD is £1369

LOL!!

 

[kained&able]

when are say terrabyte ssd's going to be around and resonably priced?

we talking years still?

dave

 

[editor]

LOL!!

It's outrageously priced, but comparable to other similar high end ultra portable laptops currently on sale.

I can think of at least one laptop with a 128GB solid-state drive that costs substantially more. Although the price of SSDs continues to fall, it's going to be some time before us mere mortals will be replacing our high capacity hard drives.

 

[elbows]

I can think of at least one laptop with a 128GB solid-state drive that costs substantially more.

Yes Apple's SSD options tend to be a disgusting price, at least they were with the Air. I guess they know how much they can fleece their high-end customers for with such options.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I can see those slender Asian girls, who love their Blackberry Pearls, absolutely loving this...

 

[derf]

It's outrageously priced, but comparable to other similar high end ultra portable laptops currently on sale.

I can think of at least one laptop with a 128GB solid-state drive that costs substantially more. Although the price of SSDs continues to fall, it's going to be some time before us mere mortals will be replacing our high capacity hard drives.

The market trend here is falling prices of conventional drives and slow introduction of solid state with a steady price fall. I assume it's the same for the UK.
Normally I would expect a couple of years before we see cheap product hitting the market and becoming the norm but with the computer companies in trouble at the moment that may well accelerate the process.

Another Chinese manufacturer announced mass lay offs yesterday so they really need something to generate large scale sales. This may be the product that keeps them afloat and finally gives the consumer a reasonably priced new product in a much shorter time scale.

Well I hope so anyway.

 

[editor]

Just been to the UK launch and had a good play.

Good points: it looks really fantastic
Bad points: there's certainly more than a few, the biggest of which is the price. It *starts* at £850!!

LOL. Sony must have been on the crack pipe when they came up with that one!

More later....

 

[Crispy]

luxury item though innit.

 

[exleper]

(apple make something like this please?)

I concur, apple could make a really nice high-end netbook if they wanted to, but they would probably feel that market is covered with the iPhone I suppose.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Heh starts at 850! Ed is right about the crack pipe...

 

[editor]

luxury item though innit.

There's luxury and then there's luxxxxxxxuuuuury. £850 is a ludicrous price to pay for a netbook, not matter how pretty it looks.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I can't afford it, have no need for it at all, and it's quite staggeringly overpriced.

I really, really want one

 

[editor]

I can't afford it, have no need for it at all, and it's quite staggeringly overpriced.

I really, really want one

I've got to write up a review now, but suffice to say, I preferred my Asus Eee.

Vista on a netbook is like ballroom dancing in flippers.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Vista on a netbook is like ballroom dancing in flippers.

*makes note of that excellent turn of phrase*