NetbookTech

A few more tidbits regarding the new updated Sony VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC we announced yesterday thanks to today’s press release:

• Trackpad and left/right buttons are built directly into the LCD bezel
• Mobile nav grip to make it easier to access content on the go
• Weighs 1.4 pounds and is about the size of a business envelope and as thin as a cell phone
• WEB button brings you directly into a web browser – available even when the PC is turned off and without a full boot of Windows
• ASSIST button launches Sony’s VAIO Care software which lets you tune-up, maintain, update, and troubleshoot your PC
• 1600 x 768 LED backlit 8 inch ultra-wide display

The SonyStyle blog site has first-look impressions of the new P Series here.

The new VAIO P is available for pre-order with prices starting at around $800 dollars.

[Check it out]

Sony launched a new eco-friendly line of VAIO W netbooks at CES 2010 known as the VAIO W Series 212AX Eco Edition series. What makes these netbooks particularly green you might ask? First off, the netbook features a chassis made up of approximately 23 percent recycled CDs. Yup – CDs. Secondly, the system comes with a stylish reusable carrying case made of recycled PET bottles (material used in plastic bottles). Finally, there’s no printed materials here – the 76 page manual is all electronic.

In addition to being eco-friendly, the new W Series eco-friendly mini-notebook is also kid-friendly thanks built-in parental controls, KidZui web browser, and online family Norton software. KidZui is a web browser, search engine, and online playground for kids ages 3 to 12 with online content reviewed by parents and teachers.

The VAIO W specs are as follows:

• Intel Atom N450 processor clocked at 1.66GHz
• 250GB hard drive
• 1GB RAM
• 82 key QWERTY keyboard with 1.2 mm stroke and 16.05 mm pitch
• Built-in MOTION EYE camera and microphone
• Electro-static touch-pad
• Memory Stick PRO (Standard/Duo) media slot with MagicGate functionality
• ExpressCard/34 slot
• Wi-Fi Atheros 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth
• Optional Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband
• 10.1 inch 1366 x 768 resolution LED backlit display
• Intel HD audio system
• Intel GMA 3150 graphics
• Windows 7 Starter Edition
• Measures 10.54 x 2.01 x 7.07 inches and weighs 2.96 lbs

Pre-sales are now available at the Sony Style website here – www.sony.com/pr/wseries

Here are official press release pictures:

[Reprinted from Krunker.com] Sony announced today that Qualcomm’s Gobi mobile Internet technology will be coming to select VAIO notebook systems. Devices with the Gobi chipset can connect to a wide variety of high speed mobile broadband services all around the world – basically wherever you can make a mobile phone call, you’ll be able to access the Internet (of course it’ll cost ya to connect to the service provider). The beauty of having Gobi embedded in the notebook? There’s no need for external dongle devices when you’re not in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot – everything is built right into the notebook and it’s optimized for battery, radio, and throughput performance.

Sony will initially unveil Gobi technology in three ultra-portable models – the VAIO Z, TT, and the new P series. Expect variations by region also.

[Check it out]

If you happen to be in New York City over the next several weeks, there’s a chance you might come across 10 mannequins located in high traffic areas of the city. These mannequins will not only be fashionably dressed (wearing design from brands such as threeASFOUR, Elise Overland, Katy Rodriguez, and Libertine) but they’ll also be carrying the new VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC.

Yes folks – this is indeed Sony’s new marketing campaign for the VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC. Sony is trying to attribute this high priced netbook.. err Lifestyle PC as the perfect accessory for the fashion conscious. I mean.. seriously, if you’re all dressed up for a night on the town, don’t you want to carry a full blown PC in your purse?

What.. you don’t?

In any case, if you really want to catch these mannequins in action (ha.. I couldn’t help myself there), you can find out where they’re at by visiting www.sony.com/golightly or what they’re up to by checking out their Facebook profiles. (OMG.. yes they each will have their own Facebook profile – *shakes head*). This marketing campaign will continue until February 14th.

[Check it out]

Here’s another review of the new Sony VAIO P Lifestyle PC – this time it’s from the folks at SlashGear who played around with a pre-production model for roughly two weeks. Here are a couple of tidbits from the review:

• There’s nothing you can really upgrade on the device – the 2GB of memory is basically “soldered to the mainboard”
• There’s a proprietary port for attaching a dongle which provides the Ethernet port and VGA port
• Keyboard is “surprisingly usable”
• Trackpoint is “pleasant and essential change”
• Built-in speakers are “awful” so bring along a headset if you want to listen to audio
• Screen is beautiful but text under 10-12 point in size “can prove troublesome to read”
• 1.33GHz Intel Atom “is a disappointment” (though apparently there’s a 1.86GHz Atom processor option available outside of the U.S. ?)
• Some minor issues with EV-DO and Windows Vista

In summary, SlashGear had this to say:

“Until Sony begin to offer the same 1.86GHz Atom CPU option in the US as they do elsewhere, the VAIO P will always be a case of beauty above brains.  For some, that will be a trade-off they’re willing to make, and they’ll settle for the merely average battery life and learn not to try anything too arduous that might stress the processor.  For everyone else, it could be a case of waiting on VAIO P take-two”

You can read the entire review by going to SlashGear’s website here.

While we all know (and hopefully agree) that the new Sony VAIO P-Series Lifestyle PC is a work of art, what we really don’t know is how the device performs.

Of course, a quick look at the specs and one could easily surmise this system would be an under-performer – even when compared to standard netbooks available today. Just look at the ingredients of the VAIO P Lifestyle PC – an Atom Z520 processor clocked at 1.33 GHz; a 60GB HDD with a rotational speed of 4200 RPM, Intel integrated graphics powering a 1600 x 768 display, and finally, Windows Vista as the operating system. Yes… all ingredients for a possibly underwhelming system.

Luckily, the folks at Akihabara News managed to get their hands on a new Lifestyle PC, and as a result, have confirmed what we’ve suspected. Quoting the article now – the “the Vaio P sucks… BIG TIME ! And at least with the stock version…”

Ouch!

I’m not kidding – that’s what they said. While they didn’t actually run any formal benchmarks on the system, they arrived to this conclusion simply by using the system.

Their main observation? It takes a long time to boot. The desktop comes up in about 1.02 minutes but it’s far from usable. It takes a minute or so more before the system is actually usable. Of course what we don’t know is how much crapware might be installed on the Lifestyle PC. Sony is notorious for installing loads of crapware.

Now to be fair, Akihabara News does get a few things wrong in their posting.

First off, the most glaring error occurs when the author claims the VAIO P has a dual core CPU. The Atom processor in the VAIO P is in fact a single core processor with hyper-threading enabled which means you get two “logical processors” – not two physical processors. Hyper-threaded enabled processors can perform anywhere between 15 to 30% faster than non-HT enabled processors – but it’s very dependent on your use case scenarios.

Secondly, the reviewer states “ATOM CPUs just sucks big time unless they are properly integrated like on the Ion platform (NVidia)”. Actually the Atom processor performs quite nicely given the energy efficiency of the platform. However this particular system couples a 1.33GHz Atom with the wrong OS – Windows Vista. Vista is a resource hog – plain and simple. If one must run Vista on the Atom, then replace the integrated graphics with a real GPU – say the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M from the Ion platform.

Now back to the main issue at hand – the Lifestyle PC’s performance. Yes, it does bite the big one under Windows Vista.. but was it really any surprise? Our first hand use of the VAIO P at CES 2009 convinced us that we were looking at a performance handicapped system. There were response time delays when you clicked on menus, started up applications, or ran video clips. Even that video clip we attempted to launch was choppy at best on the Lifestyle PC (I wish I took a video clip of that).

Of course, things might look slightly different if you couple the VAIO P with a solid state drive – boot times and application launch times might be faster – but so will be the asking price of the system. 

Ahh.. the VAIO P Lifestyle PC – it’s downright young and sexy on the outside but slow and geriatric on the inside.

[Check it out]

Sony finally unveiled their mystery notebook product at CES 2009 this past week. Dubbed the VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC, it’s the lightest 8 inch notebook out on the market weighing in at a mere 1.4 pounds and measuring a mere 0.78 inches thick (full measurements are 9.65 x 0.78 x 4.72 inches).

The Lifestyle PC is definitely filled to the brim with features and specs including:

• Intel Atom processor running at 1.33 GHz
• 8 inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1600 x 768 and XBRITE-ECO technology
• Up to a 60 GB hard drive as well as up to 128GB SSD
• Approximately 4 hours with standard battery or 8 hours with the large capacity battery
• A max of 2GB of RAM
• Built-in GPS
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n via Atheros chipset
• Bluetooth support including Stereo A2DP profile
• WWAN support
• Memory Stick PRO (Standard/Duo) media slot with MagicGate functionality
• MMC slot
• SD memory card slot
• Intel HD Audio Sound System
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator
• Built-in MOTION EYE webcam and microphone
• Windows Vista Home Basic for the base model. Windows Vista Home Premium for the higher end configurations
• Available in garnet red, emerald green, onyx black, crystal white and classic black

The Lifestyle PC also has a one-button quick-boot option allowing you to boot into a small Linux kernel. This mode features Sony’s xross media bar interface and provides access to web (Firefox browser), email, photos etc. A Sony rep told me the boot time for the quick-boot option was timed at around 17 seconds. It’s a great way to access your system without jumping into Windows (especially since Windows Vista is running on this device). Here are shots of the interface

Curious about the keyboard design? Here are shots of the keyboard:

Here’s a welcome change – there is no touchpad on the Lifestyle PC. Sony chose to go with a trackpoint-like device. Smart decision – I’ve always been a fact of trackpoints.

The base model sells for $899.99 and features the Intel Atom 1.33GHz processor, 8 inch display, 2GB RAM, 60GB HDD, GPS, integrated mobile broadband, Bluetooth and Windows Vista Home Basic.

The next model up sells for $1199.99 and replaces the hard drive with a 64GB SSD and replaces Vista Home Basic with Vista Home Premium.

Finally, at $1499, the 64GB SSD gets upgraded to a 128GB SSD.

Not exactly netbook-like pricing is it? Oh wait.. it’s not a “netbook” … it’s a “Lifestyle PC”. Sense a bit of annoyance on my part? You bet.. but more on this later on. For now we’ll stick with the product announcement on the Sony netbook err.. VAIO P Series Lifestyle PC.

Could this be a picture of Sony’s first ever netbook entry?

That’s the speculation circulating the Internet after the FCC revealed Sony’s latest VAIO notebook models – the PCG-1P1L and PCG-1P2L. Temporarily known as “notebook PCs”, the new systems measure a mere 9.5 x 4.5 inches – that’s significantly smaller than current 10 inch netbooks out there (as an example, the HP Mini 1000 measures 10.3 x 6.56 inches). In fact, the form factor suggests a system that looks more like an old-school HP Journada than anything else (assuming we’re talking about a clamshell design). 

Known features include Bluetooth, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and even EVDO/HSPA support via Qualcomm’s Gobi chipset. Oh yeah, we also know the units come with Windows thanks to the mention of the “Windows Logo”.

[Check it out via Boy Genius Report]

The title of this cdfreaks.com posting read “New Sony netbook packs Blu-ray” and I immediately got excited. I thought to myself – “Yes.. Sony was getting into the netbook market and amazingly enough, they managed to pack in a Blu-ray drive.. wow!”

Oh how wrong I was.. but I was mislead you see. I was mislead by the title of the article. One mouse click to the article made me realize that cdfreaks had in fact got it all wrong.

They incorrectly labeled the new Sony VAIO TT Series as a netbook when in fact it’s an ultra-portable notebook. Folks – there’s a HUGE difference here. Ultra-portable notebooks have better processors, larger hard drives, better graphics, better components and cost more than netbooks. About the only commonality is their weight!

So yes.. there is in fact no new Sony netbook with a Blu-ray drive.. only a new Sony lightweight notebook with a built-in Blu-ray drive. The price for the VAIO TT? Oh at least $2000 dollars on up…