VAIO P spotted and unboxed in the American wild
By Tim Stevens 
posted January 30th 2009 10:27AM
posted January 30th 2009 10:27AM
posted January 30th 2009 10:27AM
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OMG Joshtops! It's a white pPhone!!!
I would copy/paste the link to the engadget article about the black vs white iPhone, but you all know what browser I'm using...
Netscape?
No, an iPhone.
The more I see these netbooks, the more I want one. But I already have a decent laptop and I should just wait for an iphone killer based on that insane nVidia platform.
there are already plenty of iphone competitors, but if you want an iphone killer, i suggest you attach a gun to any electronic device and program it to kill iphone on site... other than that stick to comment on how the p series can fit in you backpocket
or is Sony planing on making a desktop that has the SLOT for the Vaio P series... if that was the case i would really love it
There's also some posting on this from Pocketables.
Yeah, lots of great pictures over there too. Here's the link: http://www.pocketables.net/2009/01/unboxing-the-sony-vaio-p-vgnp588e.html
Drooling all over my desk right now!
Yep!
Jenn's
Unboxing: http://www.pocketables.net/2009/01/unboxing-the-sony-vaio-p-vgnp588e.html
Setting up: http://www.pocketables.net/2009/01/setting-up-the-sony-vaio-p.html
All with PROFESSIONAL pictures and on a server that can handle the traffic :)
Damn I was all set on getting an NC10 but this is f*cking sexy!
The Samsung NC10 is superior in so many ways. You'll get a lot more features in a much cheaper price. I own one and I can tell you that it was the best investment I've made in a while.
Still waiting for 1.6. or 1.8 version. (Sony stop the B.S. profits are down) , or its OQO 2+2=3.
A majestic beast...
Honestly, that thing sucks. Low end processor, HIGH price, eye-strain inducing resolution.. what the hell is to like?
Oh yeah, it fits - BARELY - in a pocket. Yay.
I want one, but it's just too expensive for a netbook.
Are you crazy? its not hard on the eyes cause you can scale the typo to any size you want. The higher resolution permit you to use more softwares than standard notebook. the more pixels the best.
The price is high but its the only one with such mobility right now. You can wait for the competition to catch up but I dont expect such a nice product this year.
That laptop is really really nice and impressive when you see it for real.
Overpriced, and under powered. Next.
Like I have said before, it seems that only Apple is allowed to sell overpriced and underpowered hardware with a premium for good design. If I had the money I would buy it in a heartbeat regardless of its performance.
The catch is that I, and many others, am not buying Apples overpriced, underpowered hardware either.
I agonized over this one, being a Sony buyer for decades. I have the TZ that was $2500 last year. Great laptop for my living room chair. However, for a cheap portable, I went with the HP Mini 1030NR and love it. Best keyboard I have ever used, and the processor is faster. With a 16G SSD, it was $399 at Best Buy. I now have Windows 7 beta on it, and it works perfectly. (It came with XP). Sony just asks way too much for this one, and doesn't even use the 1.6Ghz processor!
corporate let me order one, fully loaded with accessories it ran $1200
fedex brought it yest...
i unboxed it and then- it took almost 5 minutes to boot up and the font size (even when maxed) at the default resolution was horrible... its performance on the web was intolerable...
i called sonystyle and got an RMA... UPS picked it up less than two hrs later...
this thing is an absolute dog...
sony f'd up huge...
BS... we saw the video and its nothing like you said.
"Nice laptop Betsy!"
"Why thank you Nancy!"
"Looks soooo swell..what does it do....."
>>Anyone overjoyed to pay through the nose for 'style' over substance needs a bullet, really.
No they don't. You on the other hand, need one for being so narrow-minded.
Wow, way to kill the guys website.
OK, you guys have totally killed my poor little web server. I just took it down for a rest. Sorry :)
The post just has my initial take on the system (I like it) and some photos. Here, I'll stick the photos up at Flickr for now:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamwill/sets/72157613121533799/
I'll change my site to link to the pics at Flickr and bring it back up in a minute...
Also, it's now running Fedora and everything works except there's no native driver for the video card, yet. So it's stuck in VESA compatibility mode.
AVG, the processor's fine for Linux, frankly I'd say if you actually try and run Vista on it you deserve everything you get. Throw Linux, or XP or Windows 7 on it. It's almost certainly 'intended' to run Windows 7. The resolution is not 'eye strain inducing'. No resolution is eye strain inducing. The 'resolution' of a book is a lot higher than that of this screen, yet you manage to read those perfectly well. Know why? Because FONT SIZES ARE NOT BASED ON ***ING PIXEL COUNT, that's why. Set the DPI correct and the fonts on the Vaio P are exactly the same size as the fonts on any other monitor with its DPI set correctly, only almost as sharp as a good printed page. Don't set the DPI correctly, see my earlier comment about deserving everything you get. Admittedly, Sony should set it up this way out of the box, because most people don't have a clue about resolution independence.
What's to like? It's massively smaller than any (other) netbook, and weighs a lot less. The build quality is much higher. It has built-in Bluetooth and an excellent keyboard. Just that is enough for me.
Not all applications respond to DPI setting. Firefox noticeably did not include this for some reason.
I have a HP mini-note 2133 and have had problems with apps not responding to the DPI setting. It really bugs me because everything else looks so sharp and clean. I can see myself having the same problem with this laptop.
Adam, you might want to take a look at this ubuntu forum where they are working with the same chipset and trying to get 3D to work on the GMA 500. They are on the Dell mini 12, but it should be similar because its the same poulsbo chipset.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014534&page=25
Adam, your pictures needs some light.
Oh, and I just realized - read the story with 'North American' in mind, folks. I live in Vancouver, BC. :)
Arthur: I don't really use Windows, but Firefox may have its own setting. Have a look under the Content tab in Preferences, click the Advanced... button next to Fonts & Colors.
If there's no UI setting for it, try setting it in about:config . The setting name is layout.css.dpi .
Adam: Oh, it does have an internal DPI setting. That just changes the size of the toolbar and icons at the top. It will not resize the pages Themselves.
My daughter has been wanting a laptop, I may get her one of these. Perfect size for a kid's room and should handle the flash games she plays online easily.
Holy crap, spoiled much?
That being said...can I be your daughter?
get her a desktop no? its in her room... a netbook is too small for any long use. Perfect for mobility but nothing beat a desktop for home use.
Arthur: Ah. It works on Linux, one way or the other. :\
Well, you could just do something ugly and jack up the minimum font size to something big.
james: thanks for the pointer. Lots of people misunderstanding stuff wilfully in there, but it looks like I might be able to get something out of it. I don't want or need 3D, really, just a working accelerated native 2D driver that'll run the native resolution at a decent speed. I'll see if I can get that psb driver to build and work...
I put this in the same category as the OQO - it might look ok, but the price is ridiculous. Unless this comes with personal bailout money inside the battery compartment, I'll pass.
Nice, Linux sounds like fun too. ...I'm keeping mine with Vista till Windows 7 comes out though, than I'll mess around with the OS. ...unless someone finds a way of getting OS X to wok on it, that e super nice on the coolest NetBook ever (I mean LifeStyle Book, lol)!!
Sony, price it normally and you got a buyer. I really hate taking my 15 incher to school daily and I don't like the keyboards on most netbooks.
i'm in the same boat. i hate lugging around my notebook at school. a netbook would be great but for this price i'd rather by another laptop or 2 netbooks. prolly gonna wait on increased processor power before seriously considering a netbook.
Is it just me or those pictures have a mild depth distortion?
JUST GOT MINE! VERDICT: Good keyboard, screen surprisingly not bad (though they could have squeezed 1 more inch in there), performance in Office adequate, performance in browser a little slow but not irritatingly so, video on sites like YouTube barely OK in regular resolution but only 1 frame in 6 plays in full screen mode (no-go). Final verdict: will probably hold on to it for a couple of weeks but ultimately will return it to get the 1.86Ghz version that should be out in the US within a month or so (already out in the UK/Asia).
darkmax: I did mention my camera's pretty shit. :) I could do with a new one OH DEAR I JUST SPENT ALL MY MONEY ON A LAPTOP =)
michaelp: Why do you assume the 1.86GHz version will come out here? Sony often releases different specs to different regions. The 1.86GHz version was available in Japan *before* the N.A. release. I suspect America will be stuck with 1.3GHz for the duration of this model.
You can get the 1.86GHz one from dynamism.com if you must have it, though.
The elephant in the room is how will this "laptop" work on your "lap." I've read that because it's so "shallow" you can't sit it on your lap or legs (similar to the Macbook Pro's screen tilt problems but more terminal). This would especially be important since you need to get it close to your face with the small high resolution screen.
huh: seems fine to me, if you keep your legs together, which would be the case with any netbook...you can't really sit with your legs much apart, though, it'd fall through the middle.
I'm tended to get a VAIO just because its the only laptop brand besides Macbook that has a nice isolated keyboard instead of the usual crap.
I'm tempted to get a VAIO just because its the only laptop brand
besides Macbook that has a nice isolated keyboard instead of the
usual crap.
Just got mine yesterday. It's pretty nice, certainly one of the better netbooks on the market right now. Feels very solid, and the keyboard is of a decent size and spacing.
I just got mine today and am loving it. The resolution makes things EXTREMELY small, but its workable... I had issues connecting the Instant On OS wireless to my work network (WPA2 TKIP), but I haven't really dug into it much.
I think this is the best!
http://notebooksplanet.com/en
They are available now at certain Sony Style retail stores as of yesterday morning. I know for sure the one in Dallas has some in stock.