Sony wows with 8-inch, 1.4-pound Vaio netbook

Wed Jan 7, 2009 8:59PM EST

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Dubbed the Vaio P Series Lifestyle PC, the eight-inch wonder—complete with WWAN 3G broadband, GPS, and an instant-on option for music, pictures, and video—easily stole the show at Sony's CES presser Wednesday.

Set to ship next month and priced at a cool $900, the P Series drew a crowd of photographers after Sony's pre-CES event, and it's easy to see why—this is one of the sexiest netbooks yet. Slim, light, and available in five colors, the P Series Lifestyle PC looks small enough to slip into a jacket pocket (well, a largish jacket pocket), yet it still manages to pack in a tight, 1600 by 768 LED display, an integrated Webcam, and yes—it runs Vista.

Wireless options on the P abound as well, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and integrated 3G through Verizon Wireless. Also on board: GPS, good for location-based services and geotagging photos, as well as an "instant-mode" Xross Media Bar for no-wait access to your tunes, videos, photos, and Web browsing. Sony promises four hours of juice from the standard battery, or up to eight hours with a larger-capacity battery. Under the hood (this from Gizmodo), you've got a 1.33Ghz Atom processor and 2GB of RAM.

Overall, pretty nice—although the $900 (and up, depending on the options) price tag might be a tough pill to swallow, and it remains to be seen how the little guy will handle a monster OS like Vista. (Although given that the P Series can run Vista and has such a high-resolution screen, maybe we should call it a notebook rather than a netbook.) Thoughts?

Comments on Sony wows with 8-inch, 1.4-pound Vaio netbook

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  • 26 Posted by trumpet024 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:23PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think Vista gets a bad rap. Look, I thought like many of the other posters here that Vista was terrible, based on what was said through reviews, the media, etc. That was until I used my father-in-laws new computer with Vista SP1 on it...it was way better than XP. Easy to use, clean, doesn't crash - What else could you be waiting for? I upgraded all my machines after that. XP is fine, but it is has fallen behind Vista, in my opinion. As for the netbook by Sony, it is way too expensive a product. Sony always charges a premium, but in this economy people are looking to other companies with quality products at better prices.

  • 27 Posted by beirut_os on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    Someone posted that Sony should create it's own brand OS. That is completly true. With every laptop that is created new and shiny from the exterior, you open the inside and see and hear only one company making the os. Is that Natural , is that healthy? We are robots for microsoft. and i think that big companies like Sony or Toshiba must create a new System for their pcs

  • 28 Posted by brianjdullea on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:13PM EDT Report Abuse

    Is that 8 inches of Sony in your pocket or are you just happy to be here?

  • 29 Posted by sojourner131 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:31PM EDT Report Abuse

    honestly, if you want a netbook, just buy an Acer Aspire. I have one and it can do everything you could reasonably ask a netbook to do, and more. Granted, it only has one 1gb ram, 120 gb harddrive, and 1.6ghz atom. However at the price of $350, compared to $900!, it's worth the downgrade.

  • 30 Posted by hlawlink on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    $900 and that is without a SSD makes that Sony pretty hard to swallow.

  • 31 Posted by leevoreis on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think this may be a good deal if it could run windows 7

  • 32 Posted by vuhgng on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    8 inch screen for 900 bucks? F that!

  • 33 Posted by icletl on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:22PM EDT Report Abuse

    I gotta give it to Sony, they do pretty VERY well! Pity they saddled it with Vista.........ah, well, maybe Apple will come on board with a smaller Airbook.

  • 34 Posted by ivant_1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    I wonder who would ever buy this thing. Not me! One can get exactly the same netbook (minus the GPS) for half the price from Acer, Samsung, Dell, MSI and a bunch of others. And if the Atom is indeed 1.33 Ghz as the article says rather than the usual 1.6, then one would get very sluggish performance as a bonus for the hefty pricetag.

  • 35 Posted by ranger76132 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:29PM EDT Report Abuse

    At $900, Sony has already priced itself out of the market for comparable products. Sony use to be a leader in the industry. Now Sony is just playing "follow the leader" and doing a very poor job of it. Too bad Sony has allowed itself to get in this situation.

  • 37 Posted by eddiea234 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:51PM EDT Report Abuse

    Someone here posting a comparison with Acer netbook. Please. With the price difference of merely $550 I'd take the Vaio with the better screen, GPS, better built quality, 2 pound weight advantage and smaller size in a heartbeat. Until Apple makes a netbook, this is it.

  • 38 Posted by artfullhands@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:58PM EDT Report Abuse

    Sexy? Please. More like cute. This thing is an overpriced toy. Most real computer lovers are going to look at this thing and say: "awwwww, isn't that cute! It looks like a computer only smaller" They make this crap for all the self indulging people who have too much money.

  • 39 Posted by brandiposey@ymail.com on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    coooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • 40 Posted by robertwesthill on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    eddiea234 "With the price difference of merely $550” It's nearly 3x the price of the Acer and with that small of a screen you’re not going to notice a big difference other than the fact you’re out nearly $600. Based on my experience with several recent Sony products including a Viao laptop I don't believe it has "better build quality".

  • 41 Posted by reverend655321 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:37PM EDT Report Abuse

    To make it faster, cheaper, and more quickly adaptable to the target market segment - run the same hardware with Linux. Vista is a hardware killing pig - it does not belong on this so called "netbook". Though the Sony is smaller, lighter, and "neater" - I'll take the dell mini9 running Ubuntu for roughly a third the price - about half with some decent options.

  • 42 Posted by zellowmicka on Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:00PM EDT Report Abuse

    The only company worse than Sony is Samsuck.. oops I meant Samsung.

  • 43 Posted by bobbybob3680 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    YUKKK. how does sony wow? more like sony dissapoints. way over priced, no mouse. its crap, equivelant to a computer from the 1900's. yuck

  • 44 Posted by starcatcher_wh on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    Based on the pricing, and the advertisement shown a while back, showing the richly-dressed lady holding this computer, leads me to believe it's marketed more toward the high-income crowd. I can see somebody like Paris Hilton walking around with one of these tucked in her purse, pulling it out to check emails at parties and such. That would be why it's got the high resolution and expensive features. It's not meant for practicality.

  • 45 Posted by koolphoto on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    I want one. I carry an 8.9 inch now wherever I go. I would like something a little smaller. I can't wait.

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