Sony Releases New VAIO P Series 8-inch Screen Notebook

The tiny 8-inch screen 1.8lb Sony VAIO P has been officially announced and is available online at SonyStyle.com with pre-orders for the $900 device starting tomorrow.

The VAIO P isabout the thickness of a cellphoneand Sony is claiming a weight of 1.8lbs, meaning it can comfortably fit into your coat pocket or easily slide inside a purse or backpack pocket. The screen may be small at 8-inches, but the unbelievable 1600 x 768 resolution will mean a lot of viewing real estate can be crammed intothat small area -- at the cost of very small text and icons of course. The screen is a glossy XBRITE-ECO variety.

The VAIO P is crammed with wireless options, including Wi-Fi 802.11n, BlueTooth and Verizon WWAN (subscription required). Location "GPS Like" functionality is part of the mix to enable you to quickly find local restaurants and points of interest.

The VAIO P comes with an Intel Atom Z processor clocked at 1.33GHz with 512KB Cache. Built-in RAM is 2GB and the OS that comes bundled is Windows Vista. Obviously performance will be a concern, and Sony has somewhat addressed this by offering an instant-on lite OS called Sony XRoss media bar that allows you to surf the web, play music and view media files without booting into Windows.

The VAIO P will start at $900 and be available in four colors: Onyx Black, Emerald Green, Garnet Red, Crystal White. Interestingly Sony is not attaching the name "netbook" to the VAIO P. While the size would suggest this device fits into the so called netbook category, the high-end price and other features do not. This device is somewhat like the older Sony VAIO U series that has been around for a while. As with the VAIO U, a dongle is neededto supportmonitor out and LAN ports.

We'll have a Sony VAIO P review unit in our hands soon and will be sharing more pictures and first thoughts at that time with of course a full review to follow in the coming few days.

 

More like a MID that got stretched out than a netbook.

Nice features especially the GPS. According to the Sony site it looks like a full functional GPS with an additional offline mapping feature.

Look forward to the review.

 

i am very excited to see this 'netbook' , got a bit tired of the exciting netbook with standard specification...

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just checked the UK retail price .... the basic model is £850 ... which is about 1250 USD....

day light robbery

 

im sorry, but this confirms my suspicions. Sony is overpriced.

 

May I introduce to you the Sony VAIO P - where the "p" is literally a dot.

 

Wow, this thing is crasy small. Its about the size ofthe key-area on my TZ keyboard (not the ful kb, but, just where the keys are). My TZ is small and portable enough though (not to mention more powerful and functional).

 

how do u reformat or reinstall or restore windows on these notebooks without optical drives?

 

Some more pictures in a preview here http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/news/2009/01/08/CES-2009--Sony-Reveals-Ultra-Wide-Ultra-Portable/p1

 

You use an external one.

 

looks great but for $900!!!

 

Same price as a last-gen Macbook plastic!

 

How can even the finest eyes read 1600 x 768 on an 8 inch screen? It's so small there's no room for a touchpad, and the really wide screen ratio is awkward. I can understand someone wants bragging rights for having the smallest full size keyboard netbook on the planet, and who else other than Sony... but this isn't very well designed. However, standard GPS, WWAN, Bluetooth, and N wireless in such a tiny package is very impressive. It's the perfect shape for a purse, or manpurse <.<

 

Just like the Macbook Air and other "niche" notebooks, it will have its share of detractors and also share of buyers that will keep it going on the market.

I can't believe it has a higher resolution than even the Vaio TT in a smaller size. I'm disappointed there is no HDMI out to take advantage of the nice XMB interface and media playback.

 

This piece of hardware illustrates well what's wrong with Sony. They design and built some, admittedly, cool and beautiful things that not a lot of reasonable people would buy because they are outrageously expensive. Too many of their stuff are for "niche" markets.

This Vaio P is attractive and its specs sheet quite impressive but how much profit will it bring to Sony's balance sheet? Not much I'm sure.

With the much rumoured major restructuring (an understatement) of the company and the recession, I think the Vaio P will likely be one of the last of the "show off" products Sony is releasing for a long while.

 

i have no problem reading 800x480 on my 3" sony ericsson xperia. so i would have no problem reading that on that notebook. but i HATE 16:9 widescreen so i can't even explain how much i hate such a device to exist.

i mean, it's awesome in width, 1600 pixels is great to work. but WHAT ABOUT THE HEIGHT? 768? that's NOTHING. we'll have to scroll all around every page and mail and everything we want to read.

i'd LOVE such a device in .. sa 16:9 form.. but best would be 4:3 .. 1600x1200 it would be awesome

 

I WAS RIGHT!! Haha i said i was sure this thing would look like a nokia E90 and it does!

Anyway, this is nice i mean if you can pull it out you pocket and browse the Web in full well that mighty impressive phones are nice and all but phone internet experience still sucks compared to netbooks good luck to sony on this

Also i dont think this is overpriced if it was over $1000 then it would be but its not

 

The size of the text does not change. If someone is able to read 0.5cm text such text will be displayed _always_ because with new computer user won't (all of the sudden) be able to read 1mm text.

The higher the resolution --> the smoother the text is.
The bigger the screen --> the more text is displayed.

So I am very happy this netbook will be hires -- it just means clear text, not smaller.

 

So that's why Sony denies joining the netbook fray. This thing is way overpriced to be categorized a netbook.

This thing better not be loaded with bloatware; Sony is notorious for being one of the worst bloatware offenders ever.

 

there is a version with a 128gb SSD....but get ready for it......it costs $1500........man if it was $1000 with a 128gb SSD THAT IMO would be worth it.

 

the dpi will be similar to my xperia. if i remotedesktop onto my homeserver over the xperia, i have a 2x4 mm startbutton .

scythie. it's not overpriced. it's just sonypriced..

and i think i'll prefer browsing the web with my xperia. i can use it in vertical way, together with opera9.5 it's a good experience. that sony thing will not give me more vertical space as my xperia then, actually less. + taskbar and window title bar and menu bar and tab bar => much less..

people will love f11 on that device.

 

Either optical drive or using an recovery partition.

On my Samsung NC10 I've never needed an optical drive. I restore images from the hard drive.

 

Can't wait for a full review, but I see three problems right away:
1) Price -- s/b in the $600 range at the highest
2) Vista -- why? Guaranteed diminished performance.
3) Keyboard -- Sony is making the same mistake as Asus with a badly conceived and designed right shift key. Someone look at the keyboard and tell me why it needs two "Fn" keys? Simply idiotic. Acer is the only one that has gotten the right shift key right. It might sound trivial but in "real world" operation, a small shift key is a constant annoyance -- and one that shouldn't even exist.

 

Why the heck is Sony not offering the 1.86Ghz processor they sell in Japan here, and why are they locking the US versions to Verizon so that it's useless when we travel? Give me the high speed processor and HSDPA!

 

I don't think it is that overpriced. Remember that in the world of ultraportables, smaller, the more expensive. And there is no denying that this thing is absurdly small.

I suspect that Intel does not let them use faster Atom processor in USA. They don't like the idea of Atom competing with more expensive Core processors. I guess Sony somehow got exception in Japan, perhaps because Intel recently got into trouble with the local regulatory agency for this kind of business practice, and they don't want to risk it again.

The same reason might be the case for it using Vista. MS does not let companies to use XP in laptops with more than 1gig of RAM.

This is why Monopoly is bad - we have many notebook producers, that is why we get innovative products. With Intel and MS dominating their respective field, they can do whatever they want to do, while disregarding their consumers.

Oh, and I think it is an attractive products - however, I hate super-wide LCD. 1600*768 is ridiculous.

 

This is the ONLY application of widescreen where I don't mind it. They designed from the keyboard up and gave it almost the largest screen they could (they could have gone wider), and for that I give them kudos.

 

argh, typical sony for overpricing.
if this is $700 that it'd be good or $900 with the 128 ssd.

 

I haven't read more stupid thing this New Year...well, they're comming

for me? a real crap for almost thousand pounds (here). And a gift I can't give to anyone, because there is only one person which can read text on this Sony P. The very very very sharped eyed japanesee WW2 veteran which somehow survived Hiroshima and got its already strange thin eyes mutated to a superhero form. (sorry for all the folks involved)

another stupidity I read here is comparing it to Xperia, which of course doesn't run Vista, and it ends here.

absolutely useless thing for no work, and if I want to browse the net, HTC Touch HD is enough...because that is the only thing this Sony is capable of (you won't read much, but you will see some pictures ;-)

crazy resolution, but they needed it. A crazy "19:9" form factor and 8'' inch screen that would have a readable text would require something like 400 pixels in vertical resolution, so would be even more useless for work. And I don't really know what is the usage for such a screen, you can't play Blu Ray or DVDs as you don't have the drive (obviously;-) and you can't develop in Visual Studio there because you don't have the power. And internet is optimized for 1024 resolution last time I checked (and developed;-) so the only usage I see is probably for the stellar Skype 4.0 interface heh

stop designing netbooks for kids, there are zillions of ppl with eyes that can't read even 1280*800 on 13'' inch screen. I have trouble with small fonts on my XPS M1330 as well and I consider myself to be young.

No chance of any work on this machine, and as I said, for browsing internet i ALREADY have cca 150g HTC Touch HD not 1kg overpriced thing. And I was expecting sooo much from Sony Netbooks...

 

Hot , I want one!

 

I think its actually quite cool, although I would prefer to be running xp on such a low end processor. The price is to expected, you didn't expect something more advanced and unique compared to the opposition to be cheap?

 

In this case I wouldn't put the blame on Intel or Microsoft for Sony's choice of the Z520 1.3Ghz Atom. Like was the case with the Dell Mini-12, the Z520 1.3 Ghz Atom is probably an initial offering by Sony and a faster Z530 1.6Ghz Atom will be offered later on.

The Z series Atoms are designated as MID and UMPC processors and have fewer restrictions placed on them then the N series Atoms for netbooks (why I say the Sony P is really a MID). The Z Atoms were meant to be used with Vista but had crap performance because of the original 1Gb of RAM the Intel US15W chipset was capped at. The US15W has been changed to a max of 2Gb RAM so performance should be improved. Going to have to wait for a review to find out for sure though.

 

The resolution is definitely an odd one as Ive never seen anything with a 2:1 aspect ratio.

Honestly Im expecting the worst and most apps will be displayed at either 1280x768 with a border at full screen or 1600x1024 with 256 pixels of vertical chopped off the bottom.

 

I don't see how anyone can consider $900 for this pocket computer to be expensive. How many of us remember the Windows CE running palmtops? Adjusted to today's dollars, most of those would be over $1000.

Key factors in my considering the Sony P to be quite a bargain:
1. Made in Japan - That usually carries a hefty price premium over being made in Taiwan or China , but means a better assembled product and higher quality control. If the PSP-3000 were made in Japan instead of China, we'd probably pay over $300 instead of $170. Okay, so say the $900 P could be made for $700 in Taiwan or $500 in China. The $900 ones have less than one random manufacturing error per 1000 units, the $700 have 20 random errors/ 1000 and the $500 have 300 random errors /1000. Which pool would you wish to pick from? I'd rather pay the extra $400 for the made in Japan product for something that I'll carry with me pretty much all the time.
2. GMA500 graphics - 1080i, Direct X 10.1. I can watch HD video and play Red Alert 3. That was probably a strong reason for the Atom Z520 rather than the N270 (and its less capable GMA950)
3. Xcross media bar - Just like my PSP, I can quickly access videos. Rather than use my PSP for video playback on airplanes, I can use the P with its much larger, HI-RES screen.
4. No internet needed GPS - 8" standalone GPS with turn by turn (although not spoken) directions! Heck, the Garmin 7200 (7" screen) alone costs $800.
5. Size. Nothing else comes close to this size and functionality. It is finally small enough that I can have a computer with me at all times. I also have a 7" EEE PC and 10" HP Mini 1000, but light as they are, I have to carry a sizeable bag to bring either with me. The P can go into my cargo pants or coat pockets. Heck, there will probably be shoulder holsters made to hold the P in the near future.
6. Hi-Res display. Any other 11" inch or less computer under $1000 have a resolution this high? The new HP Mini 2140 will have a 1366 X 768 option, but I'll bet it will come pretty close to $800 and be made in Taiwan or China.

I view this item as basically replacing: a $500 Netbook, $170 PSP and $800 standalone 7" screen GPS unit. This is no "netbook"; The Sony VAIO P is much more functional and an outright bargain at only $900.

 

The GMA500 is actually inferior to the GMA950 in gaming, due to the substantially decreased clock speed, although it gains some support for video acceleration in exchange. I'm not sure what was the point of giving DirectX 10 support to it either; it's too slow to render any DirectX 10 applications.

 

Hmm, had not realized that the clock speed was half that of the 950. Emphasis on video acceleration makes a lot more sense for this form factor. Must be why OQO also selected it.

 

It's called the Sony VAIO P not the Sony VAIO PSP.

 

Right, I'm just getting a kick out of Intel trying to market the GMA500's DX10 support.

GMA500/950 for gaming...heh.

 

Nvidia Ion for "gaming."

 

God forbid we do more than one thing on one device!

 

Internet, Email, GPS, music, video, word processing, portable storage, and with a Verizon subscription texting and IM.

There's atleast 9 things you can do with it.