“Sony has recently updated their VAIO UX Micro PC line with the UX390N series. This little beast packs the power of a full blown Microsoft Windows Vista computer into a form factor of only 5.91″x3.74″x1.27″x1.50”. When you first look at palm sized portable device you may guess it to be a souped up version of the Sony PSP, but if you take a look at the USD 2449.99 sticker price, you will probably guess it does a whole lot more. And that it does.”
The reviewer says nothing about battery life. Major omission.
I’m sure Vista simply does wonders with the battery.
Seriously, the biggest problem with these UMPCs, is the OS. I couldn’t think of a more inappropriate system to run on a battery constrained, screen constrained, keyboard constrained, speed constrained, hard disk constrained, RAM constrained system.
That’s not accounting for the fact that the average user wouldn’t know how to strip the system down and remove the tray icons and all that jazz.
Hardware, drivers, and the lack of a stable release aside, I think I could see one of these things running Haiku beautifully.
Edited 2007-04-09 18:32
That was my first thought. But not just Haiku, any OS. After being burnt by Amiga, I moved to BeOS on Intel because I knew that if BeOS did not work out I would have a number of other OSes to try.
I notice that it only had flash memory for it’s drive. virtual memory can be a killer for flash memory. Aside from Windows and BeOS/Haiku which I know you can disable VM. Do any other OSes including Linux allow you to turn off VM?
Looking at the time on some of the pictures, it looks like about 1 hour and 30 minutes or so.
Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t consider a 1.33 Ghz Core Solo + 1 Gb of RAM a constrained system. That should be enough to run Vista, but I agree that it could perform way better with any other OS out there.
Just like the PSP, it’s an interesting device, and just like the PSP I bet the battery life doesn’t stand long enough.
Edit: Almost 4 hours? Hey, it’s not that bad!
Edited 2007-04-09 18:47 UTC
Don’t be so cynical. There are many ways to save power. Vista is more advanced in power management than previous Windowses. And XP could work longer on battery than Linux.
Apart from the fact that across the board people are reporting at least an hour is lost from their battery times when upgrading to Vista.
Not to mention many hours from their life.
How can there be a dozen comments that fail to see the battery life? It’s the last item in the specs listing.
Really could use…. a torrent link
You sir, are a complete cabbage.
You are giving smelly snatches a bad name.
I’m afraid you only manage to sound like an idiot when you use “sir” without giving it any thought, particularly in conjunction with what is supposed to be an insult. Perhaps you should do some reading and enlighten yourself. I’m growing a bit tired of reading “you, sir, [insult here]” replies from trolls without a clue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir
If you’d looked at the post this reply was linked to, I think you’d be eating some [H]umble pie about now. Unless you believe the OP asking for a torrent link was relevant to the story…
It is called SARCASM, but clearly it has gone over your head.
In fact, you sir, should stay off wikipedia and go out an buy yourself a woman or a man.
“We managed 3 hours and 40 minutes of battery life under normal working conditions, which included wireless Web surfing, exploring the features of Vista, and snapping the occasional photo or two. We even managed to view a few streamed videos, which looked great on the little widescreen display”
http://www.laptopmag.com/Review/Sony-VAIO-UX-Premium-VGN-UX390N.htm
“We managed 3 hours and 40 minutes of battery life under normal working conditions, which included wireless Web surfing, exploring the features of Vista, and snapping the occasional photo or two. We even managed to view a few streamed videos, which looked great on the little widescreen display”
3:40 isn’t bad. But it’s a shame that it’s so pricey.
It’s amazing how Sony relentlessly throws money and R&D at vague markets. First they tried the tablet PC and scrapped them, now they’re trying this. Vaio coolness factor aside, one possibly could be better served by a decent smartphone or an iPhone.
And the price is just ridiculous.
Edited 2007-04-09 19:05
Does it run Linux?
Not nearly as important as the ultimate question…
Will it blend?
I believe it will.
Nice. I’m modded down for answering a question. I guess whoever modded me down doesn’t believe it will blend.
I guess I’d consider this. But no, I wouldn’t run Vista much at all. OS X if I can get it to run, otherwise Linux.
I like it because I’d love to have a full computer that size; for some situations even my MacBook is a pain to schlep around.
Edited 2007-04-09 19:42
I have a friend of mine that just bought a UX280N, the predecessor. He was able to get OSX up and running no problem. It was a bit tedious yes, but now it runs like a champ.
just me but wouldnt such a small form factor with limited hardware, etc run a zippy low resource OS like Linux…be a better choice? Just slap on some homemade open source apps which I am sure Sony could do onto that bad boy…so you wont need to use Vista and watch that thing sell like hotcakes.
It is a compact and cute looking device.
I would love to have it … but the product is priced as high as any other sony product!.
Is it just my imagination, or does that device look pretty similar to the old Clio “palmtops”?
a form factor of only 5.91″x3.74″x1.27″x1.50″
Ahh! You see, they fit all that extra hardware in the fourth dimension where we can’t see it.
Sorry, the way that was presented just confused me a little until I RTFA.
Edited 2007-04-10 01:26
I think for most people text entry is pretty important. Even if just using a computer for email and web browsing, a poor keyboard can make the experience pretty unpleasant. Slow text entry may not be such an issue with a glorified organiser, or if I’m just storing contacts and texting on a phone, but if that’s all I wanted I wouldn’t spend $2449.
Personally I wouldn’t want to use a built in keyboard like that for more than a few sentences. Trying to type an essay or write a program would be an exercise in frustration. Most tiny portable PCs that I’ve seen have similarly poor keyboards, and to me it’s a crippling limitation.
Psion managed to fit a decent little keyboard on their pocket sized Revo palmtop back in the late 90s. Yet on a computer that’s much more advanced (and much more expensive), you get flat buttons that would be more at home on a cheap mobile phone or pocket calculator.
I suppose you could plug in an external keyboard, but you can’t carry one around with you without making it a lot less portable.
well actually you can carry a portable keyboard with you. There are keyboards that are basically made of rubber, so you can easily just roll it together and pack it away…
Even with those rubber keyboards you’re pretty much doubling the amount of space the device takes up. It also makes it a lot more hassle to set up somewhere, for example if you quickly want to use it on your lap when in a taxi. A decent built in keyboard, one that you can use while still holding the device, would be far better.
Plus those rubber keyboards remind me of my old ZX Spectrum’s keyboard, and that doesn’t bring back good memories of fast and comfortable typing…
There is a Sony style I went to that had that model…possibly the older one and text entry wasnt bad. Prob not the same for everyone else but I was quite comfortable with it. The more I look at it the more I am starting to like it…
Port Replicator – 1 4-pin i.LINK interface, 3 USB 2.0, Ethernet, VGA-Out, A/V-out
To my logic, the smaller (and therefore often more expensive) a computer is, the more likely it will be connected to a high quality, space saving LCD display.
It is also a fact that a digital connection is absolutely the best way to connect a digital monitor.
So why is it that, even though you can find a DVI connector in almost all current LCD displays, many smaller computers only have a legacy VGA connector?
Does Sony really think that a customer, who first shells out $2,500 for this ultra small/modern/expensive ‘gadget’, then goes home and connects it to his/her old bulky CRT?!
Personally, even if I could afford it, I would never buy this device for the lack of a DVI connection alone.
There’s no real need for a DVI connection. What do you intend to use the handheld for, that would absolutely need DVI? Graphical work? High-performance gaming? Come, now.
For day to day use, the vast majority of LCD’s come with both a DVI-VGA cable as well as a DVI-DVI cable. Whether a VGA to DVI conversion wields any detectable decrease in image quality and/or performance is debatable. Realistically, it doesn’t make that much of a difference, for ordinary usage.
And if you consider that handhelds have very limited physical space, you’ll see why providing only a VGA connector makes more sense than providing only DVI or both DVI and VGA.
There’s no real need for a DVI connection. What do you intend to use the handheld for, that would absolutely need DVI? Graphical work? High-performance gaming? Come, now.
Well, first off this “handheld” happens to have the specs of a real computer (it even comes with Vista).
Second, with the port replicator it can become a full desktop computer and thus is not *just* a handheld *anymore*. No, after that it becomes a full-blown Desktop machine complete with your favorite Desktop apps.
With Vista, its performance and having only 32GB of internal storage can be a problem though. But if you install a Linux distro on it you’d have enough performance and space left for normal Desktop computing. Also an USB hard disk could help with space problems.
I really like the idea of this device. A computer so small that you can easily take it *anywhere* and still use all you normal desktop apps.
For day to day use, the vast majority of LCD’s come with both a DVI-VGA cable as well as a DVI-DVI cable. Whether a VGA to DVI conversion wields any detectable decrease in image quality and/or performance is debatable. Realistically, it doesn’t make that much of a difference, for ordinary usage.
You don’t need to be a graphics designer to appreciate good image quality. I’ve found that DVI can make a big and noticeable difference in the clarity of text, for example. It will not help games much I believe.
And if you consider that handhelds have very limited physical space, you’ll see why providing only a VGA connector makes more sense than providing only DVI or both DVI and VGA.
But providing only a DVI connector doesn’t take much space. Internally it could take even less space since there would be no need for Digital to Analog converters.
Sony could offer a DVI to VGA converter as an optional accessory for those who need it. OR if the device still has the DA converters an adapter would be enough.
Edited 2007-04-10 14:47
Impressive, Sony have created a machine that exists within the fourth spatial dimension!
I think the units of the last parameter, 1.5 should actually be “q”, as in Sony will replace this device with something else in approximately 1.5 quarters of a year.