Sony's VAIO P spotted for sale in Hong Kong, price tag spotted too
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 20th 2009 9:49AM
posted January 20th 2009 9:49AM
[Thanks, Kip HT]
posted January 20th 2009 9:49AM
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First? if not, ill actually comment. $2100!?! how much was it retailing here for again? $350 or something?
If you can find them for $350 I'll buy 10 from you. Try almost 3x that...
haha. i honestly don't know, so i threw an obviously wrong number for the hell of it. No need to be so offended...
I guess only rich Sony fan-boys and girls will by these at that price. They will probably be purchased by those who bought the first MacBook Airs as well.
What the.. I thought they were out there everywhere? I'm in Singapore and just played with one yesterday. Starting from US$860 for the 1.33ghz
^ $1,125 for the 1.6ghz
It's available online over here (Korea) for $860 and up. Not bad for a Sony VAIO device.
Also, Tax free for everything in Hong Kong... (I amnot sure in Singapore)
That "top of the line" was probably a Japan-import too - I think I know the store from that photo. That means they can charge any price they want. Go to Sony Style HK instead - the price is $750US direct conversion and $1000 for the 1.6Ghz.
http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/vaio/index_3.jsp
Hey, I was out looking for it in Singapore on Saturday. Where did you see it? Funan?
Played with one at Sony Style in Wisma Atria (Orchard).
Makes the supposed Apple tax look like nothing. (I don't believe there is an Apple tax)
Besides the PS3, Sony has only dissapointed me in the last few years. It seems like they're getting too far out of touch with mainstream consumers.
Even the PS3 has disappointed me by completely killing off PS2 B/C and memory card readers, I know I can always get an external USB memory card reader but I will miss the PS2 B/C in the system as will others. I guess it was a sacrifice that had to be made.
But what is unexcusable is the build quality problems on at least the older PS3 models, especially with the Blu-Ray drive crapping out like mine did while playing GTA4 and the drive somehow became damaged and Sony wants $150 to fix it if its out of warranty which of course all older models are.
That's no good!
My 20GB is still running strong. With the PS2 chip in my PS3 and everyone else's with a 20GB/60GB PS3, the transition should have been minimal to non-existent.
Sorry bro!
If the PS3 had full B/C like Sony said it would, I would own one right now. I still have a pile of half a dozen PS2 games that have never seen the inside of a console that I plan on getting to at some point. PS3 can't help me with that. On top of that, my PS2's optical drive is making a clicking noise that coincides with noticeable load time increases. I'm going to have to get another PS2 just to finish those games off. >:P
Now to be slightly on topic. $750-850 sounds reasonable for the Vaio P, although way too expensive for a computing accessory in my book. I'm sure it will find some niche, like most sony products do.
you had 3 years to buy a PS3 with backwards compatibility. if you havent bought one by the time it was dropped, you werent going to get one period. and if its taking you this many years to 'finish off the ps2 games' youre clearly not a gamer and not a loss for the industry. lets not bs ourselves here
@ Smash
Relax dude. Just because someone isn't jobless and has all the free time in the world to game doesn't mean they're not a gamer. People have to work and sometimes even raise a family you know... Sheesh.
Out of touch with mainstream customers? That's not a recent thing. Sony's been making super-expensive laptops like the P for years (like the Picturebook series)...I was actually surprised that the starting price wasn't HIGHER than $900. Then companies like Asus and Acer had some sense in them and came along and realized (like they should have years ago) that a similar product could be produced and sold for far cheaper....that's why the Eee, Aspire One, and similar products are selling like hotcakes.
@toomany0's
get back to me when you get a job and a family. if you had both, finishing 5 year old games would be the least of your priorities, or bitching about how support from them is dropped years AFTER you could have bought the system.
Also, some products in Hong Kong are inherently more expensive.
correction. they're cheaper there because there's hardly any tax. that's why people shop there!
Everyone in China wants to take a trip to HK solely for shopping, because in China everything has an import tax, etc jacking up Chinese retail prices. HK is shoppers paradise.
perhaps you meant since most people who can afford to live in HK are rich, the products might be 'more expensive' I can assure you, its more likely that Sony would rather release the products there for the higher willingness to pay, than to suggest that Sony has different prices in different markets and releases its products to retail in some arbitrary order.
and some products in Hong Kong are also incredibly adorable while you can't get them anywhere else.
Agreed. Some things in Hong Kong are more expensive than others: Housing and food. Other than that, 平靚正 it is.
@lpppppl
I LUV 香港! Not like the many Hong Kong made crime dramas implied, it's a peaceful little harbor, though crowded. People there are generally tender and mild, just like Jesus. However, their good temper does not apply to live birds, especially when China just diagnosed 4 cases of HPAI (High Pathogenic Avian Influenza) and one died just recent days.
I recognize the store (I live in Hong Kong)
This shop is in the 1/F of the Wan Chai computer center. It deals with a lot of imported laptops, laptops not from the authorized HK dealers, the shop is responsible for the warranty.
But wow, $13,980HKD....for that price in HKD you can get a fully featured and speced notebook in here.
If I remembered correctly you can get a nice VAIO Z series for around $15,980 in here.
but then again, I guess we are comparing apples and oranges...
I've been buying hardware in Hkg several times and have _never_ settled for the price offered. There is always room to negotiate!
Ditto, 討價還價 (bargaining over the price) is fun to watch, and even funnier to get involved.
Singapore is actually one of the cheapest places in asia for tech stuff. But branded gadgets are cheaper in the US in general.
When I first saw the Sony P I was REALLY impressed.
But the first reviews say it can't play video larger than 320x240 without stuttering and dropping frames. That is a deal killer.
Battery life is around 2 hours.
All for a price almost 3 times what other netbooks sell for.
And here I thought Sony might be learning something....sigh.
This is not the time for expensive netbooks, it the middle of a global recession! Especially when asus and acer are churning out cheap competing netbooks! Expect Sony to loose another billion for fiscal 2009.
The top model in Korea sells for 1,599,000 won. One year ago, before the recession hit and the value of the Korean won tanked, that would've been $1,600... Today it's $1,162.49.
too much $.
It is nice how this thing will fit in the inside pocket of a jacket/suit, though. I don't think there's anythign wrong w/ electronics doubling as fashion accessories.
for that price it better fit in my pocket ;)
Silly Sony! We are in the beginning of a global recession and they think over priced consumer electronics are going to sell?! Really? Expect them to loose another billion for fiscal 2009.
absolutely absurd. that's why i don't buy sony or apple products. (except ps3)
you're paying over 2k for a fashion accesory.
it's products like this that keep sony afloat during the economic crisis.
Went to Sony store in Hong Kong and saw the laptop.
VAIO P Series - VGN-P15G which comes with 64GB SSD is HK$7,980 and VAIO P Series - VGN-P13GH which comes with 60GB HDD is HKD$5980. Stock will arrive on February 13, 2009.
Check them out at
http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/vaio/index_3_e.jsp
Still loving my Air :)
still lovin' my aspire one and my bank account is lovin' me back for it
Like the aspire, but have no issues with my bank account ;)
thank god you don't have a wife... think of your bank account then...
hummmmm. I am a woman:)
That's not too out of line with what a fully tricked out model is going for on Sony's JP website. Now the big question is do I get one of these or go for the Dell Mini 9. Different class, sort of, but the Dell is a whole lot cheaper. Plus it doesn't have the Vista performance penalty.
The Sony store here is taking pre-orders for them starting at HKD 7,980, so basically USD$1000 for the basic model: http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/vaio/vgn_p15g_q_e.jsp
Delivered mid Feb.
That one that is displayed is a grey market one. Those can be quite expensive, but is available early for those that have more money than patience. The downside of buying those is also the warranty is not valid locally usually, so either they are not warranted or are just covered by the shop's repair discretion.
Hong Kong prices are inflated, more often than not! More so in the grey market.
I saw the non 3g Iphone selling in there for USD 1200!!
and did you negotiate?
@Wally & @Crawdad . . .
I *love* the idea of ultra-portables. I had the original Poqet for many years (640k DOS machine) that ran for weeks on a set of AA batteries. In 2003 I took it on a flight and popped eyes all over business class. I lightheartedly joked that it ran an experimental 2ghz Intel Centrium and had a gig of RAM, 32gb of SSD, etc. Not one of my victims got my joke and one offered me two grand on the spot. They found it incredible that it was a relic of the '80s.
In sum, a truly workable pocketable computer will probably attract premium buyers, but *not* if it comes with a lousy battery and much worse video than an Archos PMP.
Its screen will probably look like this:
without zoom:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|..AD space..|....................engadget..................|..AD space..|
|..AD space..|....................[pic].........................|..AD space..|
|..AD space..|....................[pic].........................|..AD space..|
|..AD space..|....................[text]........................|..AD space..|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
with zoom:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|............................ENGADGET...........................................|
|............................[.......half of picture.......]..........................|
|............................[.......half of picture.......]..........................|
|............................[.......half of picture.......]..........................|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Either too much horizontal space, or too little vertical space. The toy is nice, IMO, but its hardly more practical than any other netbook out there. Make a new image with 1600x768 size and resize browser to see for yourself. Don't foget to zoom out to 50% to see the actual 8" (approx) screen size!
This has been in japan since the day official announcement was made. Thats at regular stores too, not the elaborate display the have at the sony ビル
Wow! Sony is now working with Apple prices?
You clearly haven't seen any of Sony's prices before. Have you priced out any of their computers ever? They've always been pretty much as expensive, or more than the equivalent Apple product for over a decade. Back in the day, Steve Jobs often quoted Sony as being a company that Apple needed to emulate. Sony INVENTED "Apple Prices", which could more accurately be called Sony Prices.