Official Sony VAIO P-series Owners thread

Yes Canadian selections are always fewer than rest of the world. I don't think the speed difference are that critical while the HDD vs SSD definitely is.

 

So you ordered the 1.6Ghz model? Actually........as per SonyStyle.ca (1-888-289-7669) they are only carrying the 1.33Ghz models.

 

Oops sorry I didn't realize I made a typo on my first post. Yes I ordered the 1.33Ghz/80GB HDD model as shown on the site.

 

You'll be happy when you receive it. When you first start it up, it will take some time to setup.

The good thing is its coming with Windows 7 installed..........so you don't have to deal with the process I had to deal with. Its a nice machine.

 

ekam congrats on the purchase. Thats a fantastic price. Cant imagine how the reviews would have been different if it had launched at that price rather than the premium it originally went for. Prices in Ireland are still incredibly high (if you even find one) with them starting at €900 ($1250 CA) . Even the extended battery was quoted to me by the Sony Centre in Dublin at €230 ($319 CA, $316 US) and with the 20% off accessories coupon on Sonystyle CA its $134 CA (€97). So for $684 CA (€493) you get 7-8 hours battery life. Sweet

Just wish I knew someone in Canada who could send my one. Dying to get my hands on one before they finally sell out. Even the 1.33ghz would be twice the speed of my HP 2133 1.2ghz VIA in real world. I can't see the P being replaced by the fabled Mark 2 after the iPad announcement.

 

How did you do that? After a clean install of Win 7 on my VAIO P688, I downloaded the trial version of MS Street & Trips 2009, installed it & use my OEM key but when activating the software online, it just doesn't accept my key.

 

I bought my vaio-p 1.33 red at the end of the last year at Dixon Manchester airport duty free. I paid £499 and then got £150 rebate from Sony. £349 for this machine is a very good price. I also got a dongle with VGA and Ethernet ports included in the package.

 

That's sweet. Yeah mine doesn't come with the dongle but I don't think I'll use either ports often if at all.

 

some hotels in Europe offer only Ethernet broadband (probably to avoid wi fi hacking) so dongle comes handy for me. I don't use VGA port so but it works fine.

 

I also like the P very much, but for a couple of months now, I am waiting for a refresh. Do you think that maybe Sony will discontinue this series? Should I just grab now one?

 

I am asking the same question, but I have not got a P yet. But will there be a refresh, and - if so - when...? (I don't think I will wait longer than till May-June.)

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_atom#Future

 

The Atom Pineview CPU are not the upgrade of the Z5xx processors. Is the successor of the Nxx CPU (Diamondville). This is the problem, and that's why the P didn't take the PineTrail upgrade. For now there isn't anything more powerfull than the Z550 2.0 CPU, and the P has this CPU for quite some time now.
It was rumored that a new platform was coming from Intel, the Oak trail as the successor the Z5xx CPU (Silverthorne). But nothing certain here, so I don't know what can be refreshed on a new P. I hope Sony will not discontinue the P!

http://translate.google.it/translat...k-trail-sostituira-atom-z5xx-7712&sl=it&tl=en

 

That's correct, so don't hold your breath expecting a replacement anytime soon until late 2011 at the earliest.

MID/UMPC is still a niche market compare to netbooks, so development is going to be slower.

 

Borland awesome price for a new P. Your proving you can get great deals in Europe even with Sony's usual screw the European attitude. How do you find it for everyday tasks such as web browsing and which browser do you use.

Just finished negotiations for a used Onyx black 1.33 with a slight scuff mark on it's right side. Getting it for €310 with a leather case, dongle and Win 7 including shipping. I wanted a white one really as I'm gonna put a certain OS from california on (which I can't name around these parts as it's against the rules) and white is more fitting bit black will do. It's gonna be my new project for a while. Can't wait. I have that childish feeling you only get with a purchase of shiny tech.

 

Not too bad. I got my new 1.33ghz P530h from Sears a few weeks ago for $330 USD. They actually had a few models equipped with the 64gb SSD for $200 on clearance, but I missed those...

 

Hi everyone!

I have a P23G that wouldn't boot into Windows (XP): the windows loading screen appears for 10 seconds then boots back to the safe modes/last good configs screen. The instant mode XMB works, but booting into windows via XMB doens't work.

Sony service said they can't take out the HDD for me to backup my data before I give it to them to fix.

My questions are
- Is there a way to access my data? (remove HDD or any other way?)
- Is there a way to fix windows (temporarily, just to allow me to access data)

Thank you everyone!

 

I should admit that the performance is a bit slow but it’s 1.33 version. My Vaio TZ31WN/B with dual core processor is still my first choice for more or less intensive work. I’ve also got Win7 upgrade kit from Sony but still can’t make myself to upgrade. I dual boot my Vaio-P with Vista and XP instead. You can’t beat Vaio-P as a travel companion. Having Vaio TZ31WN/B I did not want to buy any netbook as TZ just blows away any current competition. However Vaio-P is completely different product and you can easily forget that you have a fully capable PC in your bag when you travel. For office work and browsing it’s perfect. If somebody wants to play Crysis on it – look somewhere else.

 

Sooooo... I'm about to switch from pre-installed Vista to a clean install of Win 7. Wiping, starting from scratch, and loading drivers off the product page. Can someone who's done this (with original Vista OS) please confirm that all drivers install properly in Windows 7 (GPS functionality with Streets&Trips in particular)? If the GPS doesn't work, I'll just stick to Vista...

 

My 1.33 Vaio P should be arriving on monday. Just to be completely mad I'm considering getting another P in white with a 1.86ghz processor and 80gb HDD. I have found it for a very good price new. Can't find any SSD models unfortunately (would love a 128gb SSD). Is there a major difference between 1.33 and 1.86 in real world apps such as browsing and office work or is it just playing the benchmark game. I know this has probably been asked already but with recent driver updates and Windows 7 etc performance and perceptions change. Thanks in advance.

Edit: I should clarify when I say 'browsing' I'm talking 40 tabs open in Opera 10.50 and Evernote running with IM in the background.

 

^Ok, I'm one of those guys who leaves 20 tabs open on my desktop, but on my P I only leave 1-2 tabs opened and that's it.

Given how fast Pine Trail is over the older Atom, the faster speed on these Z5x0 probably won't make enough of a difference in 99% of real life scenarios. 1.33 is pretty hot as it is so those faster chips just get throttled down anyway if you do anything intensive.

 

Interesting all this. I am in the market for a P my self, but I wouldn't like to grab one now, and in a month or so to come a new model. Anyone knows when approximately a new P is coming? I don't think we will have to wait untill 2011. Sony doesn't make so much time to refresh their series. I was hoping for better battery life, I think 2-3 hrs with the standard battery is unacceptable for such a machine.

 

@Ekam. Thanks for the reply. Yeah I have heard many stories of throttling on higher end 1.86-2ghz Vaio P models and to me that smacks of poor scablility and lack of forethought on Sony's part. I love the Vaio P design but without a Z series replacement with a lower TPM I can't see the Vaio P design as it stands surviving. I'm hoping to use my new/old 1.33 P on monday and maybe just jump on the 1.86 if its still in stock.

@exetlaios: As I said to Ekam above I am concerned for the P's future. I think you are like me, waiting and waiting for a P 2 but I'm going the opposite direction to you in that I am worried that in a month rather than a P replacement there will be no more P at all so I'm jumping now. Might just end up getting 1 or 2 P's which will be superceded by a vastly different model but I don't think so. The battery is a bit crap but I will have at least 2 standards and maybe an extended so I should get through the day. Not ideal but what can I do.

Whether people see the iPad as a laptop or not (I don't) it is a game changer and Sony have largely failed with the P and many of their other series. The portable market and Apple's marketing just killed the P at Sony's insane price points. The price, differing specs across regions, niche display res etc smack of the old Sony. Thats the same Sony that made some of the greatest portable laptops in history but also the company that made the greatest financial loss of any company in history and they have woken up to the fact that if it happened again there may not be a Sony brand at all. Its survival over style this time out. They need a ubiquitous product in the tiny portable appliance market that suits many. The P could never be it. Its not for everyone, but it is for me.

 

Point is MOOT if GPS won't work with S&T!!!

Less than 2 pages later you were trying to convince me that S&T worked fine on the P with GPS. If that's not the case, why would you say otherwise?
*edit* Just spoke with CharlsS and he confirmed he managed to get GPS + S&T working with Win7. I guess I'll give it a go and report back.

 

Watching District 9, 1560x810 H.264 at avg 35% CPU.

 

Thats pretty good stuff. I'm sick to my back teeth of the netbook crowd whining about the P not playing 1080p content. It doesn't have a HD display. When fed proper content it seems to be able to do most things from all reports. These are the same people trying to play those 1080p movies on netbooks with 1024x600 displays. I've seen toddlers realize the big square cube doesn't fit into the smaller square hole in their play toys but these adults are still incapable of coping on to the reality that if your screen doesn't have the pixels you cant watch the damn movie in full HD. At least the P has the highest res and therefore most HD-like display out there.

ekam is that 35% with WMP? If so could you try the same with Gomplayer

http://www.gomlab.com/eng/GMP_Introduction.html

I use it on my HP 2133 and it devours video that WMP cringes at. I'll try it myself when I actually get my P delivered and post comparative results if anyone wants to see. Or if someone wants me to test anything else just say so and I'll do it as soon as I can.

 

@Jurispundence,

We are at the same position, but you decided not to wait any more!

I might do the same, you are right if the P becomes unavailable in Japan, I will regret it for ever. There are some users in the pocketables forum that they were saying that various resellers told them that a new P is coming in the Spring. Conics as well, wrote me that a new P is coming shortly. In the other hand, I contacted Sony Italy, and they told me that the P is out of production, and they don't expect anything new..
The only sure thing, is that Sony will release a new TT soon, has released a new netbook (M series), has already the W series, the X that is Atom-based as well....Maybe you are right, for now Sony wants to sell, instead of approacing certain kind of population.
If I'll decide to pull the trigger, I will definitely not go over 1.6 ghz CPU. A lot of users that has the 1.86 and the highest Z550 2.0 ghZ. reports the P is becoming very very hot, quite unusable. Anyway, is not the CPU that makes a big difference, is the SSD.

 

Thanks for also your insightful thoughts. I am in the same dilemma: Should I go for a P now (1,86, SSD) - or wait for a possible refresh coming perhaps soon? Someone posted earlier that there could not be a substantial P refresh before 2011, and that is waiting far too long for me. And they also questioned what the upgrade possible could be - given the (great, but limiting) P formfactor.

 

The upgrade path for the Z is Moorestown, which hasn't been released yet. There are rumours that Moorestown won't support functionality needed for running in Netbooks, so it will only be seen as embedded CPU. If that is true, the Atom Z won't have a successor for Netbooks.
Another rumor is the Oak Trail platform, google is your friend. I Noone knows for sure, but 2011 is too far away. Sony refreshes usually every 3-4 months, if the P doesn't take an upgrade untill the summer, I will consider it as phased out. A lot of people are saying that the X is the replacement of the P, same specs but biggest screen. That would be another wrong move from Sony.

 

exetlaios: "A lot of people are saying that the X is the replacement of the P, same specs but biggest screen. That would be another wrong move from Sony." I really agree. For me and many more the formfactor of the P is of course the central point. To put it simple: The X cannot possible be a replacement for the P. End of that discussion.

What I do fear, however, is that the white P with SSD (128 or 256) 1,86 will be unobtainable later this spring, and that the P will not come to refreshed or upgraded at all - or in a way that makes it far too hot.

For us being in this dilemma, I cannot see an easy way out at the moment. (I will wait till after Easter, though.)

 

I don't really think Sony thinks X replaces P, they have been in the ultraportable for too long to not recognize that, but it is possible, although unlikely, that Sony may give up the P form factor for a short while.

The X, not in the right form factor, but certainly is a better netbook and may absorb some buyers that are looking more for a laptop-like operating environment (rather than hand-held like). Also, there are still people prefer UX over P to this day, so if P is really "discontinued", the replacement in this segment could possibly be more along the line the UX.

 

Tried it and didn't play smoothly, even if I disabled the build-in codecs.

 

Could someboby with knowledge of it please give me advise regarding CPU speed and heat dissipation (how warm the unit becomes during "normal" use: Office, net browsing and perhaps also watching movies). Where is the "treshold" for the machine not being too hot and still keep a decent speed, given primarily these tasks: 1.33 Ghz, 1.6 Ghz, 1.8 Ghz or even 2.0 Ghz (if available?)? BTW I think I will go for an SSD.

 

Please post some pics and first impressions. I mailed Conics and here is there response:

"Hi XXXXXXX ,

I expect they will release a new model within 1 - 2 months.
(we have no details on the new model, sony doesn't give this info to
anyone early)

It's quite popular, so I don't expect they will discontinue it."

Fingers crossed

Anyone heard something new about Oak Trail?

 

I've been tempted to buy a P model. With 3 laptops though things might be getting a bit much. Fujistu is a real competitor in the sub 8 in space. The LOOX U/G90N that Conics sell looks really cute to me and may be an alternative for those who really must have the smaller form factor. I might still try and get a P if i can find one for the right price.

 

I had the same reasons for not getting one. I LOVE the form factor and size and pairing it with win 7 and a 1.6 or better atom with green chassis would be a dream. But I cannot justify $800+ for a netbook no matter how cool it is.

 

The way I see it, I would not be surprised at all to see Sony fully drop the VAIO P series in the coming future, no matter how a lot of people are saying that Sony won't do such a "silly" thing. Of course, I hope that I'm wrong though. This is the main reason that I just jumped in to grab a VAIO P while I still can a few weeks ago, although I did get mine brand new at a "decent" price.

 

There's a market for any product, and while it may not work for you, the same cannot be said of everyone. There's little doubt that the tech in the P's will outshine other netbooks of a similar size. The screen itself is phenomenal, and the weight puts it in a class of its own.

Don't be so shocked by the sticker price (directed toward the author of the post you're responding to). The HP mini is a child toy compared to the P-line (ESPECIALLY after they switched away from the Gen1 metal frames).

 

Seriously, Sony sells junk as much as Apple or Lenovo do. I still don't get the fuzz is about with the new Z.

When I first saw the P when it came out last year, I said to myself, no one is stupid enough to buy this at that price.

More than a year later, price gone down in half (in Canada) and there's nothing out there that's even remotely similar to the P. So I am a happy owner.

As a fan of subnotebooks (owned Sharp Mebius, Fujitsu Lifebook, friends with Toshiba Librettos back in the day), the P is unique (think development costs and lack of parts sharing with other laptops) with a very decent screen & useable keyboard. I bought it almost as a homage to the libretto.

Those who complain about the screen is like complaining cars that have too much horsepower! Hello why don't you increase the windows DPI setting?!?!

 

Fujitsu have gone a$$ backwards from the U800 series. Just like what they did with the P8K. Reviews on this unit are horrible.

 

Spot on! It just does not make any sense to play 1080p on non-full HD screen. You will end up with image interpolation and other problems. The only way to have a perfect picture on the particular screen is to have 1:1 pixel mapping which is NOT 1080p for Vaio-P. 720p is also not perfect as well but as we can’t have 1600x768 on youtube 720p is more than enough.

 

I agree 100%. I would use the heck out of a P but the price should be a little lower. Since it is smaller I would say more in the 500 area for a starting price. Hell back in 2004 or 2004 my mom spent 2000+ on a sony ultraportable that I loved, but that was a ULV P-M and basically a shrunk down laptop. Im not saying the P should be removed either as I love that computing segment as there definitely a market for it.

One day Id love to have an emerald green 1.6 or 1.8 model with a 6 cell battery. Might have to wait around til people start selling theirs.

I disagree my lenovo is great and I got alot of machine for my money. As for sony I cannot comment other then their heat output. As for the screen I love the high resolution of the P and its the screen and size that drew me toward the P.

 

As someone who owns a portable of comparable size to those Fujitsus...the P's keyboard is much, much, much better if you want to do typing on it. Granted I can type just fine on my U3 but it's definitely interesting. Interestingly enough even though the U3 is slow as molasses thanks to the 1st-gen 1.8" drive and crusoe web browsing is very easy because the thumb dial functions as a scroll wheel.



more pictures

 

Hey, you got the 530h/r! Same model I picked up from Sears when they were closing out stock of P's. I love the red, but I kind of wish I'd been able to snag the white model--too worried about scratches showing up on the lid. Nearly impossible to see prints/scratches on white.

I finished installing Win7 Pro x86 a few days ago. I tried copying install files from the recovery discs, but MS S&T2009 simply wouldn't load on win7. Since the OEM key provided is just that--OEM--it was useless on Win7 anyhow. After many hours of playing phone tag, I was able to acquire a retail key for use. I'm now up and running, and everything is perfect.

For some reason though, I get the feeling that general use was faster while running Vista... regular tasks seem more sluggish than with the pre-install.

 

Yes, I have the same feeling and I am now back to the pre-installed Vista. Plus video-playback is a lot better with Vista. It's strange as a lot of people are happy with WIN-7.

 

If I hadn't acquired a retail S&T key, I'd likely do the same. However, I was constantly suffering from maxed memory, even after optimizing. I'll stick with 7--fortunately, I've never seen the need to use it for video. Without a built-in dvd drive or data plan, I simply can't see how it would ever be a factor, as the P is only used when I'm "on the go".

 

you don't need a DVD drive to watch video on Vaio-P. I have 32G high speed SD card where I keep some good collection of videos when I am on the go. I also have unlimeted data plan but it's useless abroad as they charge fortune per Meg when you are ouside UK.
By the way some people on the Vaio-P forum complained that they could not use it with BLU Ray drive!!!???
I am still happy with my old Vaio TZ-31WNB most of the time and I bought P as a toy or travelling very light plus 150 quid rebate from Sony was a good deal.

 

I find ripping DVDs and then editing them down (to a manageable size) to be much too bothersome. Besides, the battery dies too quickly when not powered--you wouldn't make it through a full movie

I've got an HP BR drive. I'll install my BR media player and see how it goes later

 

I have a spare battery but you are right - the battery life is crap compare to my Vaio tz (7hours), Don't bother with blu-ray so - it would not work as hardware is too weak. some people already checked.

 

Now it's a fact that there will be a new P i May:

Take a look at this site: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/31/sony-vaio-p-model-pcg-11111l-hits-fcc-with-evdo/


And also this: http://www.pocketables.net/2010/03/sony-showing-some-vaio-p-love-new-model-passes-through-fcc.html

Or this: http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=5474