Sony's VAIO UX bumped to Core 2 Solo and 64GB SSD, rivals Iridium in density
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Sep 25th 2007 6:07AM
posted Sep 25th 2007 6:07AM
[Via Impress]
posted Sep 25th 2007 6:07AM
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Grrr... How long will it take manufacturers to figure out that 3 hours of battery life doesn't cut it? I need something that will last from when I leave the house until I plug it in to charge overnight. Otherwise, I'm hauling around 532 grams of empty battery.
There are such things as electrical outlets that let you charge the batter while in use or a car adapter works also. So the 3 hour battery life while short for strictly mobile use is still moot. GET A DAMN RECHARGER.
The 3hrs battery is the oversize one that cause an oversize bulge in your trousers pocket. Sexy. The standard battery doesn't even last 2 hrs.
But it looks like Sony Viao unit is really pushing this UX in sales figures, this series of UX models has to be more than 18 months old already...
The three hour battery is the standard one, the extended gets 5-6 hours. The SSD bumps the runtime of the normal battery way up.
@3rdsun: Right. Get a recharger. Plug it in. Is that the part that makes it ultraportable?
The whole point of the UMPC is to go cordless. That kind of makes the power cord kind of a throwback, huh? Or, more to the point, that makes the current crop more of a toy or gadget than a tool.
Atleast its battery life lasts more than most Laptops....
And im pretty sure if they could get a battery thats cost effective and not HUGE that lasts all day, then they would...
And if i could get ahold of one of these on the cheap, id buy one in a heart beat....
Core 2 solo, I like the sound of that. Why dont the rest of the UMPCs use these instead of the low power A110 processors.
Because they chug through the batteries even faster than normal.
2-3 hours are definitely not enough. I hope the companies will spend more effort to develop better batteries. For me a laptop must be able to work at least 5 hours without charging the batteries. The power of the thing doesn't matter that much...
Eliot
Unfortunately, scientific advance in battery technology is much much slower than computer technology! I think the most common alkaline battery was invented some 70 years ago...
That's all very nice but what it really needed was an upgraded WWAN. EDGE (on the US model) is awful on an iphone let alone a $3k laptop. Come on Sony where's my HSUPA?
Heyyy! Here's an idea Sony... Strip off some of those extraneous features, swap out that keyboard for some control buttons and analog sticks and that can be the PSP2! I'd even take a downsized screen, but please keep the resolution and the form factor! =D
that would look effin ugly.
pick me pick me, oh wait...you're not giving this one away, huh? rats!
Theres also a Core 2 Solo U2100(1.06GHz) model not mentioned. not sure if it has SSD.
Hum, I wonder if this thing could run City of Heroes?
http://www.cityofheroes.com/
It's not going to stop Vaios from sucking...
Seems like Fujitsu U810 is ultimately the best UMPC once can get now. It has very decent specs, albeit it does use A110 cpu instead of Core Solo but it's only $1000 and screen can be flipped around into a tablet. It does however last around 5hrs. 3hrs on Sony is just crap, the only point of UMPC is to last long for business or communication use. Fujitsu does however lack cellphone card in it, but you can get a CF based one since that computer has a CF type II slot and you'll still have an SD slot for memory or whatnot. It may be me but money that Sony wants for this computer, pretty much just like oQuo is just nuts and helps deny this UMPC market to many people.
I've used one of the previous models, and it wouldn't matter if they put the fastest processor known to man in there, I still wouldn't use the damned thing. The keyboard is virtually unusable. I can type far faster with my "beef hammers" on a Palm Treo than I ever could on this thing. It is awkward to hold, and the placement of the keys makes any typing almost painful.
The screen is another problem. I don't know what it is about it that makes it so hard to see anything. The resolution may be too high on too small a screen. Perhaps it can be adjusted but in the several hours I used it, all I got was a headache.
Its too big to fit in a pocket, unless you're wearing fatigues, and the battery life is abysmal. You have to carry a dongle to use the ethernet port too.
Bleh. I'd rather have a slightly more powerful Treo than this piece of crap.
Beef hammers? Who types with their penis anymore??
You don't?? It's the best way to cyber. It keeps your hands free to hold the papertowel.
You know, I need a presentation device to bring with me to tradeshows and business meetings. My company builds Flash based product tours/presentations and it is always easier to close a sale if I can show the goods - alas, places like a tradeshow make it almost impossible to get in front of a computer with an internet connection or one where I can pop in a thumbdrive.
So, I have been looking at this Sony vs the HP touchscreen notebook. The HP is way cheapter and seems to have more processing power - but this Sony is pretty tight too.
Anyone here have any advice?
1 GB RAM??? Grrrrrr. How about 2 GB??? I'll have to wait for the year 3000 for that, and for its price to drop to a comfy $1,000 USD...