Vaio P slow? Compared to what?

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum. I love the Vaio P and I want to have the $1199 model, but on every page I read that the Vaio P is slow. But what does everbody mean by slow and compared to what?

I have a Compaq Pressario
1.6ghz Intel Celeron
520 CPU
1024mb memory
256 shared intel graphic card (mobile intel 945 express chipset family)

PS: It is running Windows Vista home basic.

So my question is; will the vaio P run slower than my compaq model? And in what? opening programms, etc.?

Thnx.

 

Yes, and in everything. The Vaio P uses an Atom processor (and a slow one at that) which can't compare to any "normal" power CPU, even a Celeron.

 

Thnx litkaj for your comment.

Anyone else?

 

I currently own an Asus eee 1000h with a 1.6GHz Atom cpu (running Win XP). I also used to own an eee 900 with a 900MHz Celeron M cpu (also running XP). The Atom based model is a bit faster than the 900 Celeron. The Vaio P has a slower 1.3GHz Atom CPU I believe, which means it will be slower than your current computer.

 

get the Japanese version with the 1.86 Ghz atom.

 

Well, I am living in The Netherlands and I don't have a credit card, so that isn't going to work.

But I really begin to get doubts about the vaio P. I use my laptop to work with MS Office 2007 (incl. checking e-mails), internet (a lot of youtube) and watch divx. So that are the only things I use it for. Not high-end stuff.

I am looking for an ultra-portable laptop that I can take to school to make notes on it and the other things written above. I wanted to purchase the TT-series but after I saw the vaio P I was sold right away.

I like the thing that I can take it anywhere (with the TT it is different, because I can't take it in my pocket).

And about the screen, I don't have to worry (for home use I have a 24" Full HD screen).

So what should I do?

If you guys say, well the Vaio P is unworkable for the things that I want or you have to wait 5 to 10 seconds before opening outlook 2007 or intrnet I won't do it?

 

Anything Flash-based isn't real speedy on the Atom processor. I get occasional hitching on YouTube even with my 1.6GHz (Dell Mini 9) and most games on Konregate are completely unplayable.

The 480p DVD XviD rips I've made are playable but I get some dropped frames with H.264 and anything higher res, regardless of the codec, is out.

As to surfing the internet in general, that works fine. I've not tried Office 2007, but I'd think aside from a bit of lag when first opening that it would work fine (especially if you install the Feb Feature Pack for Outlook).

 

Since upgrading to W7 beta bd 7048, the response time of accessing the internet and general use has increased from the annoying lag time when using Vista Home Basic.
Looking forward to the release of W7.

 

The general use may increase, but if I can't watch decent video's in divx format and youtube movies, than it's nothing for me.

Very dissapointed, because that was my dream laptop :-(

If anyone has experience, bad or good, compared to movies, etc. please let me know!

 

An Atom has no problem playing Youtube videos or Divx videos (or even 2 or 3, 1 GB Divx videos at the same time). 720p videos runs without stutter too, but 1080p is out of the question. I can't speak for the Vaio P's Atom though but I see no reason why that would be any different.

 

With hardware acceleration from the video card, sure. On its own? Sorry, don't believe it.

 

The Pinnacle Showcenter 200 manages to play DivX HD video using a 200 MHz ARM CPU.

 

Yeah - I've asked related questions.

I've only briefly played with a P and I didn't really have time to learn anything indepth about it, but the consensus is as a Vista platform it'll be noticeably slower than even my nearly two-year-old UX390 (Core Solo 1.33), let alone my UX490 (Core 2 Solo 1.33) for light duties, although the P might be faster for multitasking due to the 2Gb of RAM. And the Core Solo isn't exactly a speed demon with Vista - although laughably, all of my (SSD'd) UX's actually cranks Office 2007 snappier than my Gen 1/2 Crapbook Air 1.8 SSD's did starting Office 2008 for Mac.

I only played with it enough to know that while it didn't feel unusably slow, it did seem a tad sluggish and that the trackpoint was going to cause me immense irritation, so it's out of the running for me anyways. If it had a touchscreen I would have been sorely tempted despite the potential speed downgrade.

If you're interested in it, I'd suggest doing the same as me - waiting for W7 and seeing what Sony has to offer in terms of an updated handportable. Personally, I really, really would love to see that Lenovo prototype go into production. I'd buy it for $2-3K even if it had an Atom.

 

Clock speed isn't everything. Media tanks use processors made to process media.

Face it, clock-for-clock, the Atom is a crappy chip and runs about like a 600MHz Celeron (number picked because the original eeePC I had with the Celeron ran most tasks better than my 1.6GHz Atom).

 

The question was, can it run Divx videos or Youtube videos. My answer was yes. I was trying to drain 8 hours of battery life as fast as I could, so I ran 3, 1GB DivX videos perfectly at the same time. The Atom is more than enough to run 1.

Youtube videos run perfectly too. HD Youtube is out of the question though, but who cares about that.

 

I did some quick investigating, here are some clips on the Vaio P.

720p clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EghnIEFwt_M

1080i clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2lIfjc_JFc

Here's a forum guide to running HD videos on the Vaio P.
http://forum.pocketables.net/showthread.php?t=2278

"Running at 1.33GHz, the 1080p and 720p videos run super smoothly in Vista, with stock drivers. Movies like "Iron Man 2008 1080p BluRay DTS x264-ESiR" run perfectly in Media Player Classic HC with PowerDVD 8 Transform filters."

Interesting quote from the guide. Personally I don't see any reason to run Blu-ray quality videos on a 10" screen, it's not a good experience because the screen is too small.

 

hey statics,

Im also live in the netherland, why dont you buy a vaio tz, the previous version of the tt. from computerpirates.com its only 1000 euro and its much better than the P version.

Goodluck

 

I had a question actually. Are there any other P-a-likes on the horizon?

 

I have both the TT (1.2 core2)and the P (1.33ghz HDD not SSD) I love both but the TT is much faster. The P plays youtube fine but as soon as you try full screen view...it stutters. Its fine for basic web and email. Lots of fun! I have put Windows 7 on it and it is a bit faster but not close to the TT.

 

Does Z interest you by any chance? I have a new one for sale for reasonable price. let's me know.

Regarding the P, really try it out before you buy. There is a lot of limitation. However, it's portable to the extreme. I'm thinking abt gettin one myself. If it can play 1080i with little stutter then youtube stuttering should be some software issue rather than the processor itself. Different browser or different codec pack may help. Just my .02

 

Thnx for everyones comments, well, like my fellow dutch-man just said. I am thinking about buying one of the t-series. TZ or TT, it doesn't really matter if you look at the specs. So I think I will spend my money on that serie.

Thnx everyone. Great forum, quick reactions.