Hardware Sony Vaio P-series netbook (VGN-P11Z/R)

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/laptops/2009/04/08/sony-vaio-p-series-vgn-p11zr-review/1

Sony's Vaio P-series netbook is one of the most amazing pieces of technology we've ever laid eyes on and it's also one of the lightest and most portable notebooks we've seen to date. After a long road test, Tim Smalley discusses his experiences and frustrations.

 

Doesn't really go far in improving my impressing of Sony... Indeed it seems like a tech demo, maybe people will start to use it as a status symbol-netbook and not even try to justify the choices made on the product. I'm REALLY looking forward to an affordable netbook with a good screen resolution, but the one in that thing is just stupid.

 

Now format it, put in the ubuntu netbook remix and see how much overhead you get.

 

My first reaction was, 2gb of ram? Cool, that'll actually run XP pretty well. WAIT WHAT? VISTA?!? How did they make such stupid software choices?

 

The Sony Price tag is my biggest concern. Don't care what software it comes with. Not very hard to install whatever you want.

 

That US15W chipset looks immense.. are there any other notebooks/netbooks using it? Or even an ITX board?

 

Yes, the MSI Wind U115 Hybrid uses that chipset.

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=prodtmpspec&maincat_no=135&cat2_no=582&cat3_no=&prod_no=1716#menu

 

Soon to become the spoilt kids muggers favourite

 

Throw Vista out. install a good OS and you have a nice little gadget. A bit too expensive and not very useful, but still nice. And without crappy Vista hammering the hardware you'll get more battery life, so it's ideal as a portable movie player for those transatlantic flights but a lot more useful than any dedicated player.

 

Why not just buy a MacBook Air or similar, watching a movie on the Sony, is akin to buying a first class ticket and flying economy.

 

to use your own analogy, that would be like buying the whole aircraft and then sitting in first class, but only able to have one item of food on your plate at a time and paying extra for drinks

 

Because the Air costs a kagillion pounds and is much bigger than almost any sort of network/sub-notebook/life style slice.

The resolution on that appeals, but not enough to make me even want to buy, not even dream of buying it. I am perfectly happy with my eee 1000h, it may be bigger but it costs around a 1/3 of the sony, is slightly more powerful, more battery life easier to see screen.

The only decent attempt at a reasonably high res screen is that HP thing with a 1280x600, but that is let down by the via cpu.

 

2GB RAM, nice!

but for £700 i'd expect capacitive touch screen due to the lack of trackpad.

 

Would be interesting to see someone hack Android to run on this...

 

You'd have to be mental to pay that,typical Sony!

 

Why didn't they get rid of the 'OS' altogether? Flesh out a more featured XMB with a suite of productivity apps and knock a huge chunk off the price tag.

 

recently bought the acer one with a case and xp home installed for 360 shipped.. gonna give it to my girl on her birthday- this looks alright but vaio has always been way overpriced.. guess people just like to say vaio like apple lol.. always been way overpriced for whats offered- looks cool though

 

The reason there's such a high PPI for the screen is it's better for rendering jap text (Think of their home market). If you don't like small text then change the settings in vista, all well behaved apps are fine like this (I have to do this for my parents on their PC)

 

god forbid someone makes a nice bit of kit with a high res screen!

 

It looks simply stunning to be fair. Though, as an 'EEE PC 900 owner, I will be moving in the opposite direction with my next purchase. I have had a 15.4" Song Vaio before, but after living with a netbook I am looking for something with a dedicated graphics card. I will probably get the Samsung Q310, which offers more power, dedicated graphics (Nvidia GeForce 9200M GS) but it is still quite small at 13.3".

Sony only start to introduce dedicated graphics into their smaller models when you are close to the 1000 pound mark, which is a shame since I do love their laptops!