Sony VAIO P ripped apart

Well, that didn't take long. Mere hours after we saw the ultra-lovely Sony VAIO P make its official debut here at CES, some industrious, sadistic folks have seen fit to tear it to shreds, exposing its guts for all to marvel (or tear up) over. We have to say, it's just as good looking on the inside as it is on the outside, but see for yourselves after the break, where there's a beautiful / horrifying gallery to stare at, and hit the read link for the full project.

Gallery: Sony Vaio P ripped apart

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[Via jkkmobile]

[JerJer @ Jan 8th 2009 12:40AM]

first image in my head: you guys taking a sledge to a CES display and then clamly taking photos of broken shit. awesome.

[roomtek @ Jan 8th 2009 12:43AM]

wow!!!

[Kris120890 @ Jan 8th 2009 12:45AM]

Definitely the atom inside then.

[Connor @ Jan 8th 2009 12:45AM]

Low rank me.

[Chin-Poh @ Jan 8th 2009 12:52AM]

Reverse psychology eh? Well two can play at that game, I have up-ranked you good sir!

[Connor @ Jan 8th 2009 1:04AM]

High rank me.

[LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Jan 8th 2009 1:53AM]

Wow. My mind is blown.

[Tim @ Jan 8th 2009 2:39AM]

keep me neutral

did I break your reverse psychology yet?

[Caleb @ Jan 8th 2009 3:25AM]

Do not read my post.

Caution if you view this post you suffer from a recussive fractal mind wipe. Do not read, view, rank or comment upon!!

[Arkenklo @ Jan 8th 2009 5:01AM]

You win. Bigtime.

[Doc @ Jan 8th 2009 12:53AM]

Someone mentioned earlier today that the weight of the P almost made it feel like it was just an empty display model. After seeing just how minimalist it is in design I think we can see why this thing is just over a pound.

[Boards of Canada @ Jan 8th 2009 1:56AM]

isn't it fantastic?

[Mircea @ Jan 8th 2009 8:10AM]

Simple yet extremely expensive. In the UK it's over £900, just because of the weight factor? Please...

[ChaosEntity17 @ Jan 8th 2009 12:54AM]

That didn't take long.

[dspalding @ Jan 8th 2009 1:24AM]

thats what she said?

[nVidiot @ Jan 8th 2009 12:58AM]

Do I dare ask what that chip is next to the atom? Do I dare hope that it's an Ion?
If so, all my bank account are belong to Sony.

[Bryant @ Jan 8th 2009 1:02AM]

I have to agree here. If it's an Ion, it explains the screen resolution and the presence of Vista with Glass.

[Damo @ Jan 8th 2009 3:14AM]

Not really, my MSI wind can run vista Aero with all transperanciy settins fine on my desktops 1680x1050 resolution,

[Peter R. @ Jan 8th 2009 4:57AM]

As much as I would love for it to be Nvidia's Ion, it's painfully not. Sonystyle.com clearly says the P series comes with Intel accelerated graphics, in other words, it's probably intel's craptastic GMA950 graphics chipset. Concerning Nvidia Ion, there probably won't be alot of netbooks/nettops produced with it, considering Intel doesn't want to work with Nvidia to include it with their Atom CPU.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/12/24/intel.blocks.nvidia.ion/

It seems Intel, doesn't want to admit to the fact, that their GMA950 graphics is mediocre. Or maybe it's because their new Atom CPU, Pineview, is right around the corner, whatever the reason they don't support Nvidia's Ion. I can't wait for someone to defy Intel and release a netbook with it though.

[Peter R. @ Jan 8th 2009 9:38AM]

I retract my earlier statement about Intel not wanting to part their crappy integrated graphics from Atom CPUs. Its seems Intel is indeed selling standalone Atom CPUs, without their weak sauce graphics chipset.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/25/intel-put-the-kibosh-on-anti-ion-hubbub-welcomes-standalone-ato/
How did I miss that piece of news,... oh that right, it was posted on Christmas. Damn engadget, you are real troopers.

[Steph-Chan @ Jan 8th 2009 11:40AM]

That is an Intel System Controller Hub US15W Chipset
Check it out: http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=35443

[Montusama @ Jan 8th 2009 1:00AM]

I was like "already!!?!??!" yup....already....seems nothing is sacred.

[Loonie @ Jan 8th 2009 1:02AM]

What's really scary about this thing is the tinyness of that circuitry. They could shrink that thing down even more.

[Ken @ Jan 8th 2009 1:28AM]

Those photos are from an article in IT Media (Japanese).
It's actually a Sony engineer who performed the dissection for them....they do this because they'd rather explain it right rather than some enthusiast
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/pcuser/articles/0901/08/news043_2.html

[Frederik @ Jan 8th 2009 1:57AM]

Uh, if somebody could read Japanese, how many different processor configurations could this thing actually be customized. I tried to use Google Translate and for some strange reason, it says that this P series will use the Z520/530/540 which are Atom for UMPC and also N270, probably depending on how you want to configure it. Is that correct?

[Boards of Canada @ Jan 8th 2009 2:02AM]

Its priced at 100000yen on sony site... more than 1000$. mmm... street price will be lower here I hope. Anyway, its obvious next year we will have a dual-core atom version.

Hard to decide... 900$ for this super classy mobile mini computer or 1200$ for a new i7 workstation?! I guess I'll take the workstation. Still I wish I had that gadget..! I want to sit aside the guy with the macbook air and put out my little marvel! (no no, not my wurst).

[fh @ Jan 8th 2009 2:28AM]

Specific models are priced at ￥100,000 or above. The base model (1.33ghz, 60gb, no extra frills) is about ￥80,000.

What hasn't been reported widely is that the UK SonyStyle pre-order has an upgrade option to 1.60ghz (Intel Atom Z530); and the Japan SonyStyle pre-order has a 1.86ghz (Intel Atom Z540) upgrade option -- hence the added price.

[Zunavio @ Jan 8th 2009 2:24AM]

Wowww look at that motherfboard -- Sooo small...

[skulldriveshaft @ Jan 8th 2009 2:35AM]

so Paris Hilton's handbag should be going up in flames shortly?

[Caleb @ Jan 8th 2009 3:32AM]

I realy like the full size keyboard layout and wide screen and with those minimal sized components I can see why it's so light.

I just wish they had put in a trackball insted of that stupid IBM style trackpoint. That makes it totaly unusable for me. I had to use a thinkpad at work for a couple of years and never did get used to those trackpoints. Ended up using a USB mouse.

Anyone know if the case material is metal or plastic? It looks like plastic in the photos but you never can tell for sure untill you see one live. I also can't wait to see one of these once someone with some modding skills gets ahold of it. Add a couple of SDHC readers to it (or that newer version that was just posted on engadget), remove the trackpoint and put in a trackball, touchscreen?, etc.

[Peter R. @ Jan 8th 2009 5:08AM]

I don't see much of a reason to buy Sony's Vaio P, your basically paying more for design(loads more) than functionality. A 1.33GHz Atom, 2GB RAM, and Vista for $900?! To you Sony, I say no thank you, my money stays where it is. $900 for a netbook that can only do standard tasks, just doesn't warrant the purchase(for me at least).
Even though I said all that, I still can't get that overall size and supposed 8 hr battery out of my head.

[zakeen @ Jan 8th 2009 5:34AM]

Thats your view, but you must remember there are people that have more money then they know what to do with and this is a product for them. When price is no concern this IS the netbook to get. Not that Im a million air, but I am for one dont mind paying stupid amounts of money for something that I enjoy most.

[oZ @ Jan 8th 2009 9:22AM]

And that last sentence explains it all. I don't have $900 to spend on another laptop, either with or to replace my MacBook, but this little gadget has me looking back at it every so often, subconsciously.

Damn you, Sony.

[hd images @ Jan 8th 2009 7:03AM]

fanless.

[math0ne @ Jan 8th 2009 8:27AM]

It's pretty cool what a small percentage of the computer is taken up by the actual computing parts, i'd says less than 20%.

Computers will soon be build seamlessly into their interfaces.

[Denver_80203 @ Jan 8th 2009 8:35AM]

I think sony posted this. They know it will happen anyway so... strike while the iron is hot.

[Ogo @ Jan 8th 2009 1:44PM]

"Sony VAIO P ripped apart"...... ahhh so Sony hasn't adopted the IKEA build it yourself business model.

[bryan @ Jan 8th 2009 7:49PM]

Sort of like a Jornada part duex - 8 years later. Glad to see that **wonderful** design making it's way back...

[Peter @ Jan 9th 2009 4:25AM]

I don't get all the complaining. A MacBook Air for 3 grands is okay, an MSI x320 for a grand is okay, but this is too expensive for you?
Come on... Getting such an ultraportable loaded with so much good stuff below $1000 - that's pretty great, and even the highest spec is a great deal. And besides, what else could you get in this form factor for less, that has build quality and such a slim and light form factor?
I agree that a $1000 ultraportable is not for everyone, but for those that it's aimed at, it's actually pretty cheap, especially considering it's a Sony.

[jim @ Jan 26th 2009 8:32AM]

Is it possible to swap Intel Atom, just the cpu? upgrade to 1.86ghz...