Loose lips sink ships, Sony -- not that you'd care. Apparently the company couldn't stand to wait any longer on that long netbook it had been teasing, so it's gone and leaked it out onto the sonystyle site. Apparently, the oddly shaped P-series device will sport an 8-inch, 1600 x 786 LED display, a 1.33GHz Intel CPU, a hard drive up to 60GB (or a 128GB SSD), and will run Vista Home Premium or Home Basic. There's not much else in the way of info, save for the fact that the laptop will be available in three colors (Crimson Red, Champagne Gold, and Black Silk). Not quite the heart-stopper we were hoping for, and knowing Sony, likely not real netbook-ily priced, but still an interesting entry to the ever-widening field of teensy computers. Now if only it ran Linux...
Update: In case it wasn't clear, that's not an image of the P series, but a TT -- obviously a placeholder for now.
[Via
jkOnTheRun; Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted December 25th 2008 10:33AM
I'm SO SICK OF MEDIOCRITY!!!
1.3 Ghz processor? With Vista? Why even bother, Sony?
it not an atiom,i think. it its dual core then performance up and it can use more than the gma graphics.
its it a a c2d ulv can it use other graphics *cough 9400m cough*
Shame on you Sony! You were good once! :((((
lemme just say this now, it wont fit in a pocket
How is this "underwhelming"?
Excellent, ive been following this for a few days very keenly. It looks like it will fit very nicely in an inside jacket pocket.
Lets just hope they can follow this up with other great features:
- built in 3G modem
- usable key board and mouse
- bluetooth
- plenty of IO
- reasonablew price (at a minimum below £600 for a reasonable model preferably below 500)
- 1 GB RAM (especially if vista is on it)
- decent battery life
Roll on Jan 9th!
The bias on this site is ridiculous. No sooner does any new info trickle on this netbook then the fellow labels it underwhelming. Very amateurish. Underwhelming based on what? Is this was that isheep company, we know it would be a different story.
1600:786 is not equal to 16:9. ITS WIDER, which suggests that the laptop isn't a "twin" of the TT (by the looks of the picture). It's that really long and thin netbook thing that the FCC leaked earlier.
Price? If it's more than $800, I don't think regular consumers would be interested, considering the way the economy is. Plus most people will find a $400 netbook to be equally usable. Knowing Sony, and the fact the TT series start at $2000 plus, I can see Sony put this around $1000 to $1500. If that's the case, then this is not Sony's netbook (obviously since they already said they won't play in the race to the bottom), but this would be for those wanting a cheaper TT.
Please Sony, the least you could do is to put 2GB RAM standard, and no intel GMA950 (at least use the GMA4500, same as the TT). 1GB RAM today with Vista is a joke, considering how cheap RAM is.
It will be as expensive as that overproced UMPC they discontinued from their USA site. Yeah, it'll be nice but so damn expensive.
good luck finding wallpaper for this thing.
Good luck clicking the "fit to screen" button D'OH
my girl got me the Al macbook for xmas. Brilliant!
Who the hell needs to step back with a freaking netbook when the macbook is light, powerful and feature rich? It is the ultimate laptop form the company that builds its tech swag from the ground UP!!!! From day one. Hell, the track pad on these new mac lappys are the shit! Gestures! Damn!!!!
Next, I'm going to get the wireless wacom tablet to use in note taking in modern physics. Yes! I'm on why to becoming a biophysicist.
I'm geedy as hell. I haven't felt this way since I got the new 8 gig touch for my b-day a few months ago and farther back when I got the flowerpower imac(still raising hell after almost 8 years)
Apple is making it rain on them bitches!!!!!
PS
I powered it up and I was on the net in less than 30 seconds.
Bite that pc.
yep, you sure are geedy. damn geed.
oh, and i typed this in less than 30 seconds. stick that in your mac and smoke it.
geed
The Leopard welcome screen takes 15 seconds, hope you wipe that smugness off your shiny laptop it can leave a nasty stain.
I want to see dell ADAMO!!
you can barely call this a netbook
vista, hard drive, (probably) expensive
and i know that other netbooks have hard drives, i just dont think that they need it since all you should really be doing is surfing the net!
nice
It's about time, we called this about a month and a half ago: http://www.netbookreports.com/2008/11/sony-netbook-you-betcha/
The price wasn't disclosed but don't be so surprised if it ends up retailing for $749.99. Even at that price it's a budget compared to the Air and "Adamo."
This is gonna be xpensive....but will look sweet
Love to see new cheap netbook from Vaio as well !
Good , I can't wait to see what Vaio made their netbook out of !
wow..sony is just asking for a closure now
i can't believe i used to be a fan of these guys
utterly dissapointing
where have the good 'ol power house days of the walkmans and discmans gone to.......
Anybody else see the other picture?
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/4522/vclamfr3.jpg
This is obviously a rework of the old "clamshell" portable devices like the HP Jornada and somewhat like the old Sony Picturebook. Not really a netbook at all. Having used a Jornada, it's an interesting form factor, and has a lot of potential, but it's something that I think will always be more popular with business users than consumers. No trackpad is going to be difficult in Vista as well, but it looks like it will be a touchscreen (notice the white in the bottom right picture of the attached pic that looks like a stylus), just like the Jornadas.
Everybody who is banking on price can start to look elsewhere. The fact that it's Sony, has a ridiculously high res, LED, (likely) touchscreen, and that it's Sony will mean this will be pricey. I would even be willing to bet that the processor is in fact an ULV C2D.
So after a year netbooks jumped out, sony joins the league, not bad, much faster than AMD...
What we asking for a netbook? a powerful device can run Crysis @ 60fps? Nooo, just a time-killing merchine, rendering well in facebook or youtube will be enough~
But the resolution is interesting, 1600 x 768... Now let's ask, will it be able to play 720p?
I think ULV can handle 1080p..
Im very excited - my SZ6 is unnecessarily powerful for my day-to-day tasks, I wanted to buy used TZ or R500 but if this puppy will handle HD video, Win XP, being lightweight (max. 1 kg) with good batterylife (?maybe extended battery making it thicker?) Ill definitly get one of those.
Just send me informations NOW, Sony!
@johnson412 - the picture you've posted is a fake. It is a HP Jordana with a Sony badge on it. Look at it compared to the HP - there is no difference apart from the badge
Looks like junk to me. Sony can't make anything but Playstation and PSP. That's it. That's all they can do. Their cameras are the absolute worst and their computers aren't Macs. So what's so interesting about this? Unless it has an Apple logo, I'm sorry, your computer sucks. And that's just a fact.
No way that thing is going to be under $800.
This is going to be as much of a dud as the Samsung Q1. :(
Only the engadget editors can look at an 8", 1600x768, LED blacklight screen, and say "meh, that's underwhelming...", but trip all over themselves when Apple files a patent for things that WinMob has been doing for years.
And yes, I also think this will be expensive, it is a Sony after all, but damn, a 1600x768 is nothing to scoff at.
its a GIANT XPERIA X1...
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/24/sony-vaio-japanese-teaser-suggests-something-long-thin-and-co/
You guys don't get it. The special thing about this one is that it uses the UMPC/MID version of the Atom processor.
The Ion chipset for Atom is for Netbooks and consumes 14W. The "Poulsbo" US15W chipset consumes a mere 2.2W.
Truly low power and small size.
I think i have seen one of these on some movie at youtube its not tall but really wide.. and if it uses ULV C2D, ssd and 1gb ram it should be fast enough for vista considering the ssd will also be used for pagefile. BUT... considering the ulv c2d and ssd the price will be around 1000 euro's ... maybe good for people with 2 much money.
I WANT ONE! GIEB!!....
is that a netbook in your pocket, or do you just have a really flat penis?
It seems the P series notebook isn't on the SonyStyle site any more - http://sonybrands.com/sony-vaio-p-series-laptop-removed-from-sonystyle/
The problem with the wider aspect ratio is that software and web sites are not optimized for it. Explorer with all its fat menus and status bars wastes bunches of space on my Acer netbook, and it was the same with an NEC 780 clamshell I used to own. Chrome and running in full screen partly helps, but you spend a lot of time looking at half the website. If Sony prices it per their usual premium, it will be another fail on their part. Coming with Vista certainly does not help.
Netbook schmetbook -- I remember the early Sony Picturebook's from the late 90s. Those were the first true netbooks, you could slap in a PCMCIA network card in those (later, the early WiFi cards) and have micro laptop computing like today's netbooks, a decade ago.
What's really great is the advent of the CHEAP prices in tiny laptops, even with an Atom, that outperform those tiny machines at one-tenth of the price. I remember the days of the $3000 ultracompact laptops.
I had been wanting an ultracompact laptop for so many years. Now they are finally affordable.
What's still sad is that I have to pay a hugely massive premium to go beyond 1024x600, as I want a higher resolution.