New VAIO P coming 9th of January

The UK keyboard have "giant" Enter key, US have a "small" one.

 

How did you get the 99% and "mainly women" figure?

 

Offensive much?

Just because you don't like the unit doesn't mean you need to put down those who do.

 

Actually, I did not really see it as offensive. The Vaio P will be very popular with women, and it's true that the large majority of consumers are clueless when it comes to installing Windows 7. 90% of the people probably don't even know what Windows 7 is.

99% is a bit high though, but 90% sort of clueless could be accurate.

 

So the 90% of your guesstimate that includes majority of WOMEN are clueless?

Pfft men.. lol

 

Sony Japan as well said that is going to be a device oriented mostly for women...that's why the famous commercial with the two japanese girls putting the P in their jeans pocket. But, if I recall good the percentage that Sony thought was 60% women - 40% men, which is quite a lot. About Windows 7, I agree with billy.
Aren't you guys worried about the battery life of this P series? How can compete with other netbooks-ultraportables when you have the same hardware and less battery life? With the double price as well! I mean everything that counts in such devices is the battery life...I expected much more from Sony. The Z has better battery life than the P!

 

Battery is a big - i agree...

But I also remember Asus EEE 700 have about the same battery life, so i guess no biggy?

 

90% of male consumers are clueless too. People spending time on forums like this one is really a small minority.

 

That is the Japanese keyboard. You can see the kanji characters at the bottom right of each key.

 

I can't see Sony making two different English keyboards for the UK and the US. For the most part we use the exact same written language so what would be the point of the extra expense? Did the Queen's English change recently?

 

You might be confusing "clueless" with "not caring". Most computer users never want to tinker with user settings, tweaks or shortcuts let alone command line interfaces. It isn't that they aren't capable of figuring it out, they just don't care to. Women usually have better things to do than fiddle with computer settings; that is what tech geeks are for .

I was at Best Buy the other day and saw at least three people who signed up for having the Geek Squad "set-up" the computer, i.e. remove crapware, install software, etc. Most of us would have to be armless to let another do that for us (and even that might not stop us from using our feet), but the vast majority of folks just don't care to.

It is like with cars, a small % of people love to work on them, do routine maintenance and keep them running at peak efficiency, while the vast majority have to be reminded to check the oil and tires occasionally and would much rather pay someone to do an oil change.

 

Just a correction, those are hiragana (Japanese syllabary).

 

This link shows the difference between the US and UK keyboards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout

Among the differences are the size and form of the Enter key.

And, in fact, this link tells us that the right shift key is located on BOTH keyboards far out on the right side, as opposed to the P keyboard as it is on presented several websites.

 

Thought you guys might be interested in some Vista performance index numbers:

[source: call-t blog (japanese)]

Left to right are the Z540, Z530, and Z520, and top to bottom are: Processor index, Memory index, Graphics (2D/desktop), Graphics (3D/gaming), and Primary HDD.

Minor differences are noted due to variation between Vista Business, Home Premium, and Home Basic. High HDD performance index is due to the SSD configuration. Another site lists the Toshiba 60gb 4200rpm drive with an index of 4.1.

For anyone interested, Japanese bloggers have already found XP drivers for the Atheros AR928X wifi a/b/g/n card and the RealTek audio chip.

 

I am sure XP will run on this machine, the only problem will be the fn keys, which usually are a problem with sony vaio laptops.

But..sony needs to make this machine fast for everybody, not just 1% of geeks that will install XP/linux/W7 on this machine. So they either start tweaking it or prepare for W7.

PS, basic UK version have vista home premium, while US version have Vista home basic.

 

Did Engadget get everything working on Win7?

 

I read somewhere that Japan (and UK as well?) get a 1.83 Ghz processor. Is that still and atom, or a real processor with real guts?

 

That's the Atom Z540 (1.86ghz). Still single-core with VT. Also, I think UK only has the Z530 (1.60ghz) option.

One difference is that the Z540 has 2.4W TDP (whereas the Z530 and Z520 have 2.0W TDP), so it could be a further battery drain on the already unimpressive battery life.

 

More about the keyboards of the P and TT models of the US and UK:


Sony Style US shows the Vaio P model with this keyboard: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=8198552921644608896&parentCategoryId=16154


Sony Style US this one for the TT model:
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=8198552921644590401&parentCategoryId=16154


Sony Style UK offers this Vaio P model, with such a keyboard (look at picture 7/17 in the Picture gallery):
https://www.sonystyle.co.uk:443/Son...commendations&forward=showcua&bc_search=rhome

Sony Style UK offers this TT model, with this keyboard (take for instance a look at picture 11/12 in the Picture Gallery:
https://www.sonystyle.co.uk:443/Son...s&carea=48FC10930BB800A7E10080002BC29B85)/.do

Well, I think that's it....

 

The processor is the one thing that's really sucky about this.

Everything else is amazing. GPS w/ maps, WWAN, EVDO, 802.11n, amazing screen & size....

Does it have Bluetooth?

 

It has Bluetooth. SonyStyle.co.uk says: "Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n; Bluetooth® technology"

 

I was thinking about the original Japanese report, but the pictures are the same.
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/pcuser/articles/0901/08/news043.html
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/pcuser/articles/0901/08/news043_2.html

 

How much more expensive are the higher end "net-book" processors?

Do they have better battery life as well?

 

I think it's about $160 for Z540 1.86GHz, TDP is 2.4W
Link for Z540: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Atom/Intel-Atom Z540 AC80566UE036DW.html
Z530 is about $95, TDP is 2W: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Atom/Intel-Atom Z530 AC80566UE025DW.html
Z520 is about $65, TDP is 2W: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Atom/Intel-Atom Z520 AC80566UE014DW.html

 

To me it's perfect apart from being 1-2 inches too wide too be truely pocketable and too pricey.
The 1.6 is the best chip I think

 

The CPU is the only thing that is making this machine so cheap guys! If there woul be a normal dual core, or a single core Intel CPU inside it would be around 1200$ for a base model.

Someone mentioned Japan model with 1.86 Ghz and poor battery life? I believe this "high end" models will have extended battery included, so dont worry about battery life

 

1.6Ghz isn't any problem. Vista is.

 

The 1.33 Ghz and 1.6 Ghz both have 2W TDP, and the 1.86 Ghz has 2.4W. Not a huge difference.

 

It might be

Theory: 1.33 heats more, because most of the time he runs at 100% where he produces more hear and consume more power.

1.86 heats less, because he runs at lower % and consume less power

 

No matter what, they all use less power than the N270 (2.5 watts) in most netbooks.

 

Haha, I like that theory.

The other way to think of it is that the 1.33 might stutter when playing H264 while the 1.86 might not, so (depending on your needs) there might not be a point to (significantly?) longer battery life if it can't do what you want.

 

Also because of the new chipset, hopefully.

 

With the 1.6 can I play 1080p 30mbps H264 video with the hardware acceleration?

 

Hm, well according to this review the P is choking a bit on Flash content (high quality) and WMV HD (1080p).
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2009/0114/mobile_m02.htm
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2009/0114/mobile_m03.htm

Certainly not a conclusive test by any means, but it doesn't look particularly good so far.

 

It shouldn't stutter with the 1.33Ghz either. The Z520 has a GMA500 video solution which has hardware decoding for H.264, thus off loading this duty from the CPU. This is probably why they selected the Z520 over the N270/GMA950 (no H.264 hardware decoding)

Remember, if you buy the ones from overseas, you lose the GPS and 3G WWAN options.

 

I don't think FLASH is GPU accelerated, so the CPU would be doing all the work. If there is a lot of crapware running in the background (very likely), FLASH would stutter.

In terms of the WMV, the GMA500 in the P does have VC-1 hardware support, but the WMV HD shown in the link above might not be VC-1 compliant....

We need someone with an evaluation unit P-seres to run some H.264 video on it.

 

In spain they are selling the 1.6 with HSDPA but, don't say anything about GPS...

 

Also, they are using W7 Beta, which we dont know if it does have hardware acceleration support yet? Maybe nvidia drivers dont have it either?

Man, i cant wait to get my hands on this baby, ship them already!

 

I hope Canada will get them soon..

 

I wish the Sony Vaio P had dual webcams, for wide angle views. That would have been interesting. =P

 

The 1.6 processor and the extended battery should have been standard on the base model. The difference in cost between the 1.33 processor and the 1.6 model is a mere $30.
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=29035

There is no GPS for the European models.

There is though some competition that will be released soon.
The MSI Wind U120 will sport mobile broadband, 6 cell battery, 160GB HD and 1.6 processor is standard. Battery life looks like it will be good. The Vaio offers a higher resolution, lighter weight and maybe a better design.
There are positive and negatives on both sides. These laptops are though both just travel laptops.

At least with some other Sony models people are paying a premium and the specs and the package also reflect that.

I find a 1280x768 resolution much more readable and better for using for longer periods of time. HP got in right in this area.

It also looks like the green and the white models will not be released in the UK.

 

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison, as the U120 is significantly larger and heavier than the P. No doubt we will see a ton of competition in the 10" and 12" netbook / affordable ultralight sector this year, but the P really competes against systems like the Raon Everun and OQO. Aside from the P, my next most coveted system has got to be the HP dv2, but as the AMD Neo and Nvdia ION platforms get adopted we should see a lot of ultralight, superthin computers that are much more graphically powerful than the Atom N270/GMA950 and Z500/GMA500 in the near future.

 

They cannot put 1280x786 on the same display, it would be too wide.

 

They should really have made the 1.6Ghz standard. As it is, they're looking at poor sales once the early reviews pan the speed, and firesale prices because people don't want to be hunched over and typing on a slow machine running Windows.

 

Are you sure?

How many people do you think read reviews? I say none, they just go to the shop and look items, and when they will see vaio P they will fall in love with it.

Only a few of us will read reviews, but will then order vaio P anyway

 

The general public are getting more clued up about specs. They might not know all the ins and outs but they probably will equate the higher specs/price as being indicative of being better value for money.
When many people want to buy things many do ask around friends and family etc and many do read reviews online now or register and post in forums looking for advice. With the increasing numbers of people getting online this is only bound to happen.


Lemon i take your point. What i wrote was really not meant to be a comparison as such it had more to do with justifying the P’s price premium. If it had good battery life and the 1.6 processor (for the base model) then yes to me the premium would be justified.

 

I present to you the HP Mini-Note 2133. I had such a hard time unloading mine because everyone who would be interested thought it would be pitifully slow, when it was just a bit slower than an Atom.

Of course, I'm not Circuit City and the only places I could advertise were online but the review units with Vista really killed the device.

 

I also believe 90% of the people don't read reviews.

Anyway, I don't worry because the P will run fine with XP or Windows 7. But the PPI is putting me off. I can't believe it will work comfortably.

Agreed, the 10" 1024*600 netbooks are not P's direct competition.

 

The same people who go to Best Buy and buy the $399 special.

 

As far as I can tell, there is no GPS for US models either. There is cell phone triangulation that gives coordinates, but that's not GPS, despite what marketing calls it. It will do you no good when travelling outside a coverage area, where GPS works just fine. And furthermore, it requires a (very expensive) mobile phone data plan to work.

I really hope some class action lawsuit lawyers soon pick up on this one, and sue the heck out of companies that market their devices as having GPS when all they have is cell phone triangulation.