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  • The VAIO P's designer spills some secrets

    by 
    Nilay Patel
    Nilay Patel
    01.15.2009

    Sony's VAIO P may or may not be a netbook (or even fit in a pocket), but there's no denying that it's an incredibly sexy piece of hardware -- it's hard not to be immediately taken with it, at least until you see how slowly it runs Vista. (Windows 7 is a different story, obviously.) Of course, there's a story behind the unique form factor and crazy 1600 x 768 screen resolution, and designer Takuma Tomoaki shared some choice tidbits recently in an interview with Chinese site cool3c. Of particular note, the P was inspired by the Mini Cooper, which Tomoaki called "small and sophisticated," and the entire design was dictated by the size of the "smallest usable keyboard." Tomoaki also said that the insane screen res was aimed at HD movies, since it can play back 720p content natviely, and that Sony's looking towards integrating the P with both the Walkman and PSP families -- something it's already kinda-sorta doing with the XMB interface on the machine. Plenty more quotes after the break and tons of pics at the read link, like this early VAIO TT-esque mockup that likely launched a thousand Photoshops. Read on![Thanks to Andy Yang of Engadget Chinese for the translation!]