New VAIO P coming 9th of January

Thank you

 

P with Ubuntu

 

Stopped by the Sony store in Manhattan up on 56th and Madison today to try out the VAIO P. I have to say that I am impressed with the size, build quality, screen resolution and the keyboard. I had no problem touch typing with it. The trackpoint worked well, but needed tweaking for my taste. Most importantly to me, the performance with Vista was more than acceptable. Windows opened up quickly and using word processing had no lags at all. It will be perfect for on the go writing. I can't wait to receive my own unit in February!

 

Was it a model with HDD or SSD?

 

I believe it was an HDD model as the hard drive had less than 60Gb capacity.

 

When do you think we will see the P series with pre-installed Windows 7?

Sony refresh their series every 3-4 months. Is possible next refresh to be the right one? I don't want to pull the trigger yet to this baby, with all these bad reviews about Vista inside the P.

 

Well considering that Windows 7 is still in beta, and won't be officially released until this fall (at the earliest), I wouldn't anticipate seeing it any time soon...

 

Computer technology is outdated the minute you buy it. There is always something newer, better, faster or cheaper on the horizon. Only you can decide when the machine is appealing enough to meet your needs.

As for Vista on the P, I didn't find it too slow at all when I played with them at the Sony Store in Manhattan. Sure, it wasn't as fast as a desktop, but it was perfectly usable. I'm sure it will bog down with 4 or 5 applications open, but having Firefox and MS Works open at the same time did not cause noticeable lag; dialog boxes and menus responded without delay. I only wish they let me download a 720p video from my USB key, but they didn't

 

I'd wait for at least the 1.6 Ghz version; its coming, I'm sure of it.

 

looks like sony is starting to ship the ones ordered from sonystyle

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/27/sony-vaio-p-begins-shipping-stateside/

 

My local SonyStyle store (San Francisco Metreon) says that they are receiving shipments tomorrow. They were actually supposed to arrive this afternoon, but some truck incident delayed the delivery (uh huh).

So it looks like these things should be getting into real people's hands very soon...

 

Check out YouTube! This person has just recieved his Sony P and tested out the video performance on YouTube. Full screen creates problems and HD simply doesn't play. What a shame, I hope this can be fixed by a video card driver update?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2PEhkPMNRs

 

I doubt youtube HD video is hardware accelerated, since thats flash basicly.

That guy should rather test some .wmv or .avi

 

Or maybe it was because hardware acceleration was on.

I have seen recommendations to switch it off if Flash videos lag here on NBR.

 

By the way, what are the video player(s) software(s) compatible with Intel GMA Hi-Def hardware acceleration ?

Thank you.

PS : Atom is not HD capable (1080).

 

I was just thinking, why get a Sony P when you can purchase a Nokia N97 (out in a few months) that can go online, take calls, send texts, take 5mp photos, videos and do a bit of documentation? Also, with over 30GB of flash memory? It costs half the price of the highest spec-ed P and can really do a lot more.

The reason why I say this is because without decent video playback, the P won't be a "proper" computer Most things on websites these days have videos, if not HD videos. I really hope Sony comes out with better drivers or something otherwise the Nokia N97 is just as good, abeit the smaller screen and keyboard.

 

Why buy a car when a motorcycle will get you there faster and cheaper?

Completely different form factor. You shrug off difference in screen size, resolution, and keyboard size as if it were inconsequential, and perhaps to you it is.

While my HTC Touch Pro will do for web browsing and emailing in a pinch, I sure as hell wouldn't want to work on it for an hour or two...

One is a cell phone. One is a netbook. There's a difference.

 

And third is vaio P!

Please guys vaio P is not a netbook

 

Riiiiiiiiiight.

And I'm not a fat slob, I just play one on TV...

 

If this would be a netbook, sony would be able to put XP on it.

But because it does not meet its "standards" they have to go with a crappy vista.

But please...show me one "netbook" with 1600x786 and under 0.7kg

 

It looks like Sony is not going to do the Matte Black version of the P530 with Vista Business. They'll still have a Vista Business one, but it will have the same glossy black case as the other black P's.

 

What about driver for XP, nixon? Since Vista busines can be downgraded to XP??

 

So, still no mate black model? The only think I don't like of the P series is this glossy case...it will be fingerprint magnet!

 

I'm thinking of getting one of these to use as Media Center

My plan is to hook it up to a projector (Otptoma HD65) via HDMI & (obviously I will also need a USB TV Tuner)

Do you think the 1.33GHz Z520 is capable enough using Windows 7 Media Center?

Is there a way I can get a surround output?

SSD drive is obviously an option, but I'm thinking it will probably work with the standard 60GB HDD?

 

looks like the P can run areo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfqHrBklwXQ

 

Bummer, but the biggest bummer of US P series for me is the CPU.

 

Yeah but it's a bloody slideshow.

 

All that I hope the P can do is play HD video files and HD videos on YouTube. Computers nowadays are expected to do this otherwise it really restricts a lot of what you can do on it.

 

Oops sorry : there are 1080 demos on Vaio here. They play fine.

• VAIO P / MPCHC + 1080p DivX
• VAIO P / PowerDVD8 Ultra + 1080p H.264
• VAIO P / WMP11 + Youtube 720p H.264

 

Does it have HDMI?

doubtful.

extremely doubtful.

--

why don't you just get a HTPC? If you want a Vaio you could get a TP:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665296592

 

Have you considered the price tag of the TP?

However - I doubt the Vaio P will serve as a decent home entertainment system...

 

Hmmm, no - looks like VGA, not the end of the world

I've got HTPCs & I certainly wouldn't waste money on a TP - its about the size of a dustbin lid & very noisy.

Looks like the show stopper is stereo only sound out unless it's hooked up to a usb sound card, but then that would be two dongles already.

Oh well, I was really trying to think of something the P Series could be useful for. It's not much good for anything else (like the old C-Series Picturebooks I had - novell, pretty, but also pretty useless & shocking battery)

 

MY Lifestyle P arrived today - anyone else had some time to configure?

 

Can you post some pics?

 

Post the wallpapers!

 

Are XP drivers easy to find for this thing?

 

I played with the 64GB SSD version at my local SonyStyle this evening. I found the keyboard pretty easy to use and the screen very crisp and detailed. I had to disable the push-to-click function of the pointing stick because I kept "clicking" when I started to move the cursor around.

I wanted to find the speed of the 1.3Ghz Atom acceptable but I tried the YouTube test and full-screen Normal or HD videos were unwatchable. They both played okay in the default/small size but as soon as you expanded the movie display, they became jerky or there were a bunch of wait-cursor animations displayed. I hope that the faster processors make a significant improvement, as evidenced by the Japanese 1.86Ghz models demoed on YouTube.

Some other things I noticed:
* The SmartWi connection utility allows you to turn on/off the GPS separately from the WWAN. With the WWAN off (and some link displayed to activate the service), I turned on the GPS and it displayed something like "Seaching for location...". Since we were inside a building, I'm guessing the GPS couldn't get at the satellites. This seems to support the idea that the GPS might work without a Verizon contract.

* I was lifting the P up and rotating it around to look at the body in detail, and the hard drive protection was activated. This is a nice touch and is one more of the modern laptop features that aren't often found in the common "netbook".

 

Yes Please!

 

If the hard drive protection activated with an SSD drive, it's a rather bad design flaw.

 

I'm impressed by these videos and how the P can handle it. Do we have any idea when approximately will come the 1.6 and 1.86ghZ models to US?

 

I dont know why they dont make the Atom with more L2 cache (its got 512kB).. bumping it up to 1 or 2 MB would make more difference than increasing clockspeed.

 

why are people getn so excited about this netbook.i guess you gotta pay for the style ect of it,just like when you buy a mac lol.

it does look awesome,but dang,that price lol

 

Good point -- Sorry, my mistake. They had 4 versions out for display and I was moving amongst them setting up wireless, and I recall this occurred with the base, non-SSD version.

 

I just got mine about an hour ago and it is charging up now. For an early impression, check out www.pocketables.net. Jenn got hers as well and is farther along the process than I am.

 

Check out Jenn's size comparisions - vaio p versus loads of other umpcs

http://www.pocketables.net/2009/01/sony-vaio-p-size-comparisons.html#more

 

Congrats lemon, enjoy it!

What are your first impressions?

If you could post some pics and wallpapers, would be great.

Maybe you should start a "Official P series Thread", cause now people are getting the P.

 

I tried one today, Keyboard is good, Size is a bit larger than I thought, very thin and light though, screen does not give that WOW appeal, seems to have bog standard colour and viewing angle, not vivid at all, nothing like the TZ/TT screens appeal, as for the high res it 's pretty workable, but the joystick is very bad, makes the thing almost unusable, wouldn't of killed them to added even a tiny touchpad..

Performance wise it's a slouch, pretty sure it was the lowest end P series model, but takes nearly twice as long as my HP mini note 1000 to boot..

Wouldn't pay more than £500 for it, not worth more than that... ideal for internet on the go but with that joystick i'd rather lug about my mini note...

 

Has anybody tried playing iTunes videos with their P series? Results? Thanks.

 

HD or regular?

 

I've read somewhere it runs sluggish on the 1.3