Sony's Vaio UX, now with 32GB of Solid State Disk

Sony continues kickin' out the updates on the VAIO UX lineup with a new 32GB Solid State Disk option for those tempted to drop Yen in Japan. And tempted they will be since the larger capacity SSD brings sufficient capacity for XP and MS Office without the heat and vibration associated with the current 40GB hard disk. What's more, that SSD smokes the HDD's read/write times while extending battery life, dropping the weight, and cutting OS boot and sleep recovery times by half in the process. You'll pay for the privilege though with the 16GB SSD option already demanding a pricey ¥60,000 premium (about $515) which should bump the take-home price to right around 3 grand. Still if given the choice between this and the $2,663 Q1-SSD with that same 32GB SSD and OS, well, we'd probably take our chances on the UX dontchathink?

[Via Impress]

[Rohit Kapur @ Sep 26th 2006 9:47AM]

Is it just me or are these prices getting more and more absurd as the days go by?

Sony is setting itself up for a fall everytime. I mean, with the PS3, it's still understandable that they're gambling with a 600$ tag because of the device's popularity, but with the UMPCs, it is ludicrous.

[ja$on @ Sep 26th 2006 10:07AM]

I don't understand why someone would buy one of these things unless they were crazy a$$ rich and wanted a cool toy. They are retarded expensive, have limited functionality, small screens, and have bad battery life. Could someone explain to me in what situation something like this would be useful or why someone would get one of these instead of a small tablet PC?

[damion @ Sep 27th 2006 8:17AM]

The reason that you would pay this much for the devise is the functionality it provides if you need it. It can connect to the cingular network and get 400kbps-700kbps anywhere you have cingular connectivity and in major cities even faster where is cingular EDGE network setup. It has 2 different cameras built on the front and back of the device. It is a full computer that you can fit in your pocket. It is a very integrated piece of technology and thats why its expensive. This has no direct competitor(price/option, especially with built in Cingular) in the market for its size.
What functionality does it lack? Not everything should be built for gaming.

For example: You could do video conferencing on the go (literally) anywhere you had connectivity. I dont think people really understand the power of seeing someone and talking face to face and being across the country. Seeing family you haven't in years, assuming you like you family:). You could use Skype or something like www.helloworld.com for that, its not too hard. Just some ideas.

[Nick @ Sep 26th 2006 11:01AM]

Well fist off people how will buy this will be the same people who pay 3K for the ultra slim laptops. People love small toys and the smaller they are the more they are willing to pay for them.

As long as Sony is able to make a profit on these items they will continue to increase the specs and and the price tags for those who will pay for it.

Sony has positioned itself very well with these products. They are miles ahead of the competition and as time goes on I can imagine that their lower models will drop in price real fast at the pace they are introducing new models.

[lifesux @ Sep 26th 2006 11:31AM]

agree with Nick, Sony has its own targets, check out their products, the 1st BD laptop, it has an incredible screen. not only in computers. when everyone's making vedio/picture MP3s, they just give OLED. and why do they make qualia, aibo, qrio? SONY really made out life frozen cool. SONY is just up there.

[Ady @ Sep 26th 2006 1:46PM]

Already available from dynamism for quite a while for 3000$ for 32GB SSD:

http://www.dynamism.com/ux/pricing.shtml

Definitely gonna get that soon or the asus R2H. The two things which R2H lacks is the keyboard and the pocketability.

[Thomas Ricker @ Sep 26th 2006 1:54PM]

Ady, the 32GB SSD is preorder only.

Thomas

[ConceptVBS @ Sep 26th 2006 2:28PM]

This SSD is the same on used inside the Samsung Q1.

[dave_davis @ Sep 27th 2006 8:55AM]

Now, if we could only have some solid state memory in the VGN series.

[Oddmanout @ Sep 27th 2006 9:38PM]

I think I'd rather see a PDA-esque hybrid solution. Say a 8gb-10gb system partition on flash memory, and a 30gb - 60gb HDD for data. You'll get all the same benefits accept battery life won't be increased as much. But with a good caching scheme you probably could get some increases there as well.

And speaking of caching...from what I've read, up till now it's generaly been a bad idea to run a swap file on flash. The flash tends to die prematurely. I've read of people setting up the later models of the sharp Zaurus to use a usb flash drive for it's swap. Most died in a week or two. But maybe they've started making flash with many many more write opperations in it's lifetime...

[PN @ Oct 27th 2006 12:49PM]

Flash SSDs are faster that most 2.5" notebook class hard disks. No seek. No latency. Flash SSDs use either dynamic or static wear leveling to mitigate any "wear out" issues that may occur. There are different "grades" of flash: consumer grade, such as that found in USBs may not be appropriate for notebooks and computers. Following is a brief article on the differences between consumer and industrial grade flash: http://www.adtron.com/products/slc-nand-flash.html

[wilbur collins @ May 7th 2007 3:46AM]

Dell D460 is a recent hybred SSN laptop with the same 32gb storage; however, Sony seems to have the edge on physical size and quality. Yes, the price is hefty, but the older I get the more I want it to be small and light, particularly for travel and downloading pictures and carrying my classical music with me. Sony does have a DVD burner as a $400 option - again expensive! I think I will wait for a 60-80 gig SSN.

Wilbur

[Andy @ Jun 28th 2007 10:18PM]

hallo, i just asking anyone. where can i found driver for flash disk sony 8gb to be formatted. if anyone know it, please send me an E-mail at [e-mail]. thanks

[Danny @ Aug 10th 2007 5:49PM]

God forbid they make a one-size-fits-all disk so us hard disk users can afford flash memory. All computer makers suck ass. No one can EVER upgrade their computer's performance significantly without buying a whole new machine.

http://www.discountbluray.com

[amer @ Apr 1st 2008 7:02AM]

fuck u