"The ONLY reason Sony doesn't want it to be called a netbook is because of their prior claim that entering the netbook race is a nothing more than a 'race to the bottom'. Everybody else is going to call it a netbook whether they like it or not, because in the end, it's usually hardware (guts and form factor) that define a category."

You're flat out wrong. Their main goal is to highlight the main difference between the Vaio P and netbooks. They are completely valid points because, as I've said, no other machine offers all of those features in 1 package. No other offers such a form factor with such a design. That is FACT. UMPCs are just smaller netbooks with a different form factor, so why aren't they called netbooks or small tablet PCs? I don't see anyone whining about that.

The only people that feel it's necessary to make a fuss over their semantics are the oversized children of the technology blogging world- the same community that whines about the many models of the Eee line or how Asus used the "Eee" brand for products other than netbooks. Yes, I'm talking about this bipolar community that has as many geniuses as it does have morons. For every Nilay Patel, there is a Josh T here, unfortunately.

Oh, I apologize for not jumping on the anti-sony bandwagon. Call me a shill, but I'm only defending Sony because the Engadget article was atrocious and biased.

PS. I wonder what you think about UMPCs then if only netbooks are small and low powered. Also, IIRC, one of the most popular comments on Engadget was about how the more expensive netbooks weren't really netbooks because netbooks are supposed to be cheap! Suddenly, the community has a change of heart? Give me a break. I'm not a shill. I'm just not a fan of stupidity and irrationality.

"It seems silly for them to start an argument like this, but I think they're just trying to hit home that people shouldn't compare the Vaio P to netbooks when doing their shopping, much like how someone shopping for a Macbook Air woudln't compare it to a Dell Vostro 1310- they may have the same screen size, but their designs and purposes are very different."

Pretol: Maybe you should READ my entire comment before making your own so you don't look like an idiot. Maybe you should work as an intern for Josh T.

Just in case you missed it the first time: "It seems silly for them to start an argument like this, but I think they're just trying to hit home that people shouldn't compare the Vaio P to netbooks when doing their shopping, much like how someone shopping for a Macbook Air woudln't compare it to a Dell Vostro 1310- they may have the same screen size, but their designs and purposes are very different."

The point was that they were just trying to make sure people know that the Vaio P is very different from netbooks. Yet, Engadget turns this into a whinefest so that the anti-Sony crowd on this website can form a circle jerk.

Well, just like with the MBA vs Vostro example. One is a hell lot more portable and lightweight than the other. The same holds true for the Vaio P vs. generic netbook XYZ. The fact is that though Engadget is correct on some points, they were also trying way too hard and grasping at straws to prove the Sony blogger wrong- the resolution is unique, form factor (and inherently the the keyboard), bluetooth and mobile broadband, and GPS. No other netbooks offer all of these in such a package. That's the take home message here, and Engadget completely missed it and made themselves sound like whiny children (yet again). The only points from the Sony blogger that deserved a beating were the core and the options, all of which many other netbooks have, as well as the dual OS remark- it deserves mention but the instant on XMB isn't a second OS really.

Oh yeah, I just read Sony's actual post.

Sony:
"The backlit screen: It features a brilliant 1600 x 768 resolution -- perfect for viewing web pages with no side-to-side scrolling. It's like nothing you'd see on a typical netbook."

Engadget:
""They mention that the screen is backlit. We're not sure if that's an attempted dig at other laptops in this class or not, but every netbook screen we've seen is backlit. Every. One. We'll give them this though, the VAIO P destroys the competition when it comes to resolution. Unfortunately, you pay for those pixels, and reading text on this super high-res (yet super tiny) screen is not... er, not super pleasant""
---------------------
Real classy Engadget. In an effort to insert some more humor and spite into your post, you decided to take their comment completely out of context. Obviously, he was just referring to the resolution, yet you make a big deal out of the fact that the heading was "backlit screen". I'm surprised you didn't whine about how one of the headings was "keyboard". Maybe you should've taken that out of context and made fun of them for saying that the Vaio P has a keyboard and the netbooks don't.

I'd actually agree with Sony. As many others on this website have said, the Vaio P isn't really a netbook. It's not another MSI Wind, AAO, X110 or Eee clone. The form factor is different, the features are different and the design is of a different breed. It seems silly for them to start an argument like this, but I think they're just trying to hit home that people shouldn't compare the Vaio P to netbooks when doing their shopping, much like how someone shopping for a Macbook Air woudln't compare it to a Dell Vostro 1310- they may have the same screen size, but their designs and purposes are very different.

Calm down kids. It's called a concept model. The production model will likely look much more conservative.

The keyboard looks sick, but that's about it. Am I the only one who thinks that the white/silver version looks gaudy? The lid looks horrible IMO.

I know that many nerds are really hyped about the Pre, but I have a feeling that it will be a failure overall.

First of all, the name is terrible. "What phone is that?" "Oh, it's my Pre" "Your what?"

Second of all, the design in terms of style is pretty awful. It has 0 aesthetic appeal unfortunately. It's fat, toy-like and it seems like the designers fell in love with plastic a bit too much.

So please, stop comparing this with the iphone, positively OR negatively, because it's not a competitor with the iphone really. It's more likely that people buying this will be the gadget nerds and smartphone connoisseurs, who value function over form and would've never bought an iphone in the first place. If they did, they will probably continue to buy the iphone because what is appealing about the iphone is not about how many features is packed into it.

Yeah, I saw it. It looks mediocre, especially compared to the new 13" gateway laptops covered with brushed metal. Of course, the gateway laptops got much less comments here for some reason.