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Sony VAIO U50 Reviewed In Depth
LabRat007 writes "PDA Buyer's Guide reviews the Sony VAIO U50/U70, the hybrid PC/PDA that has beaten both the FlipStart and OQO to market. The short version?
They like it, but it's too expensive. Editor in Chief Lisa Gade provides the typically in-depth review, with pictures and words and
everything." The design looks great, but the price -- yow!
This seems like almost the perfect form-factor for a Tablet PC, since it's small enough to actually hold in only one hand, and big and powerful enough to write legible text, and do decent recognnition of it.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
like the U1, U3 or U101. Right now I would rather get a PC-CV50F which has a great screen resolution and
the directHD feature which is very nice for synching or installing Linux.
Maybe if Sharp would turn the screen into a touchscreen, that would be the best of both worlds, the resolution of the Sony is just too low.
***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
The U50 and U70 are $2199 and $2699 respectively. The OQO will be "just under $2000". The Flipstart price hasn't been announced yet, but I'd be surprised if it will be much cheaper. These things will remain rich men's toys for the forseeable future.
In short, I ended up going for the Palm for a few reasons. First off was price - Sony does not price their gear competitively. Their market appears to be the executives with fat expense accounts who see shiny new toys and go for them. I have a number of geek friends and none of them are big purchasers at Sony, with the sole exception being Sony's monitors.
Secondly, when it came to software - because Sony regularly releases high-end models with customised software, they don't seem to support them for too long.
So if I was somebody looking at the palmtop/tablet options out there, I would probably give this a miss. The spec's are nice, but it looks like something for someone who needs such functionality *today*, rather than waiting for equivalent devices to come to market in the next 6-12 months with a lower pricetag.
But like most Sony products, damn... it looks sweet! ;-)
Man watching 6 MSCE's around a sun box, looks alot like the opening scene's of 2001:space odyssey...
I'd LOVE to have a PC of this size. But it would have to have Linux on it... and Sony are just too proprietary with their hardware... my old Vaio PCG-C1V (Picturebook) runs Slackware just great... apart from the camera (I know Tridge has got some of these to work... doesn't work on my model) and the firewire port, which is a pain.
...is it you want it to do something beyond what Sony envisioned for it at this moment in 2004.
Examples:
I can guarantee you that if you want to run Longhorn when it comes out, it won't do it. The drivers won't work and Sony will not update drivers for older products.
If it breaks after the warranty period, forget it. The replacement parts will cost more than the thing is worth.
It will have minor incompatibilities with standard software suites, sony tech support will deny it and then mysteriously 6 months later a patch will appear that will be unannounced, you'll have to hunt for it on the Sony site.
In short, when you buy a piece of Sony computer gear, buy it for what it does out of the box, forget about putting BSD or Linux on it (or even another version of windows), and if it breaks, throw it away.
Its just a mindset at sony, and it explains why people generally buy Sony computer gear exactly once.
I could be wrong, but I think he means 20 Gig hard drive.
I play Nethack on my Sharp Zaurus SL5500.
Screenshots and other info here.
Sharp do indeed make a good subnotebook, as do other vendors. I won't run Windows any more, and I'm *not sure* I could manage to successfully put Linux on one of these systems and have all the ports work properly and the graphics catered for correctly.
Street price on the U50 is now down to 147,000 yen or around $1300. It's tempting, pop more RAM in and a 40GB 1.8" drive.
> What's so special about a 12" Apple PB compared to a 12" subnotebook from a different vendor?
If you buy a notebook today, you have roughly three mainstream OS choices: Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Personally, I feel Windows is actually a pretty decent choice. On good hardware, stability of XP/2K is comparable to Linux. The main weakness is the default insecurity. It can be hardened pretty well if you have the time and know what you're doing. Unfortunately, most people do not. I do blame Microsoft for this: it is unreasonable to expect people to muddle with dcomcnfg and registry hacks to close ports that should be closed by default. According to most accounts, XP SP2 should help a lot when it is finally released. We'll see.
I like Linux as much as the next guy, but setting up Linux on a laptop will take some time and patience if you want all your hardware to work. And often you can't get everything to work even with a lot time and patience. Are the Centrino drivers useable yet? Or most 802.11g PCCards? The usb-adsl modem that I got for free from the telco? Drivers for the SD card slot? 4Mbps irda? I'm not sure if I can completely blame the hardware manufacturers: if the Linux market penetration remains as it is, it makes sense economically to just ignore Linux.
For most users I think MacOS is a very good choice. The default installation is sensible and secure most of the time, and at least all hardware in your particular Mac is supported. Software selection is decent, with some exceptions (games?), and their laptops prices are quite competitive. The weakness is that Apple is only one company, so it cannot meet specialized needs like x86 laptop manufacturers. For example, if you want something REALLY small like those things on dynamism.com, you'd better look somewhere else. If you don't want a built-in optical drive, want a trackpoint, a 12"er with a PCCard slot, or a super high resolution (W)SXGA+/(W)UXGA screen, or a docking station, or even something as simple as a US (ANSI) keyboard layout in Europe (they only sell ISO-layout here), Apple has nothing to offer.
I still have a Sharp PC 1403 Pocket Computer. The near same PC 1402 was my first computer ever. I wanted portable over games (as in the ever present C64 back then). I've still got the 1403 on my desk, doing little tax calculations in Basic, printable on this cool little cash register printer.
Anyway, it's got tons of special periferals and looks very much like this Sony thing with all the extra stuff and it's brushed brass/metal feeling.
But: The Sharp PC 1403 runs 130 hours on two button-cell watch batteries and probably something like a decade when powered by the printers 4 mignon cells. Still have to find a modern portable computer to beat that.
Until then I'll settle for my current 12" iBook, which beats all others in price/performance/usability ratio. Oh, and it's OS doesn't suck either. Can't say that about the U50, can we?
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I wonder if this is a concession from Sony that their marginalised memory stick format is on its last legs.
...its lack of an integrated camera. This means that it's "corporate-friendly", something Sony's UX-50 was not (and it's the ONLY reason I bought a Palm Tungsten T3 unstead of the UX-50.)
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
My (2nd) biggest problem with this style device, (other than price), is the boot time. It takes the same time as a normal PC to boot up?
Not very convenient for an "on-the-go" device like this (and yes, I think laptops boot too slowly too).
"We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."
I really hate arguments that refer to "most people." Did you conduct a scientific survey? Take a poll? Hell, ask your friends? What gives you the authority to talk about the opinion of most people on any particular topic? Reviewers consider price/performance and comparable items on the market. The best they can do is give their opinion and justify their view with facts.
But what I hate to see is just blantant negativity towards certain products because it isn't the best value. Mac users are probably the most vilified on this account.
Markets work on optomism. Negativity poisons markets, and on large scales cause recessions and depressions. There is no good reason for this because it is solely a social phenomenon. For the most part, I believe things are good and getting better on every front.
My self-esteem has nothing to do with it. I hate seeing people participate in this bullying. Because, it does (however indirectly) affect my quality of life and produces nothing but dissatisfaction all around.
Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true! -Homer Simpson
Well it is cool, and probably will be an interesting device to play with but it just doesn't fit.
It's too big to be a PDA, it's too expensive to be thrown in your pocket and carried with you anyway. It's also going to take too long to boot up as someone mentioned. One nice thing about Palm and Pocket PCs is that they're always on practically. Push the power button and you're good to go.
I haven't seen much need for a crossover device like this in the US either. Laptops are popular, and seem to work as a form factor. This thing may be smaller but it doesn't have the power a laptop does.
Presently here, but not there.
Ctrl-Alt-Del, itself, is an example of physical security. Tell me you've never hit the wronf key...
In IT, "security" means "protection from malicious attackers", while "safety" means "protection from accidental errors".
So, choosing a difficult-to-type key combination for this function may be an example of safety (safe UI design), but it is not an example of security.
The use of Control-Alt-Delete as a secure attention key, however, is an example of security because it makes it hard for attackers to present a fake login. However, making the key hard to type is not necessary for its security purpose; they could have picked F10 as the secure attention key.
Here's the three point reality:
1. I want to be able to read a document while taking a dump or while lying in bed. It has to be light and easy to hold, and the screen has to be at least twice the size of the standard PDA. 5"x2" will do the job, allowing you to actually see a whole paragraph at once! (whooo.)
2. I want to be able to touch-type into the thing with comfort and ease. Handwriting recognition is the single most limited, irritating and hence, unused technology in handhelds today. Thumb-only keyboards are useless to anybody who needs to write more than a sentence. I don't need the thing to fit in my pocket, because I'm not a space-man living in a Star Trek episode. Further, I don't need to instantly be able to access the thing on a whim, because I don't intend to keep my BRAIN on a PDA. I'll pull the device out of my BACKPACK or BRIEFCASE, or pick it up off the TABLE when I want to do some WORK or READING. --Neither of which are done while standing around the water cooler.
3. The power has to last at LEAST 30 hours on double A's or something else I can easily replace at a convenience store. I DO NOT want to mess around with idiotic recharge bays and proprietary batteries.
It should also be noted that. .
I DO NOT NEED OR WANT a color screen. I do not need to watch movies or play games on my wallet. I DO, however, need to be able to type essays on a reliable machine. Until somebody can make a color screen which doesn't turn good batteries into worthless 5 hour charges, then just give me a Black & White LCD screen!
The closest I've seen anything come so far is the Psion series 5. I've written about this several times now in the last week, since I just became the proud owner of a used $75 ebay model. The machine is ALMOST perfect. The screen is just a little too shiny which makes it hard to read, and if the keyboard was only one inch wider and slightly more responsive, it'd be the perfect machine. WHY, OH WHY, DIDN'T THEY MAKE IT PERFECTLY???
I mean, it gives you 35 hours on a couple of AA's, an excellent word processor, fully programmable key-board and as many megs of memory as you can stuff on a Compact Flash card. Man, for 75$, that is one SWEET machine!
ONE inch wider, guys, and a non-reflective plastic on the screen, and you'd have created the perfect product.
-FL