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Sony U-70 Micro PC Reviewed

Posted by michael on from the finger-cramps dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "jkendrick has posted a detailed of review of Sony's dream handheld, the U-70. Slightly bigger than a PDA, with a SVGA screen, 20Gb hard drive, and 1GHz Pentium-M processor, this device could replace your PDA, laptop and desktop. The price is high, though. Oh to be rich (or at least richer than I am...)"

12 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. It's interesting... by Sheetrock · · Score: 3, Insightful
    But for that price, it should be able to handle some common storage device like CD or even DVD media. Half the reason of wanting something like this is so that you can easily watch movies or listen to music (although I suppose one could do the latter with MP3).

    20GB in a handheld does sound pretty good. I always worry about how you get these things repaired, though, especially when they're on the cutting edge like this.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




    1. Re:It's interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why people want CD/DVD drives in an ultraportable device is beyond me. I mean, there you have this small, beautiful device. Are you really going to bring your CD collection along? Why don't you just copy 1 or 2 movies onto the harddisk? And if you want to load more on the go, I'm sure a drive which you can leave at the hotel would be a much better choice than making this bulkier and heavier.

  2. Slightly? by glamslam · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If that's slightly bigger than a PDA, then I guess PDAs have gotten alot bigger since the last time I checked into them.

    This thing looks too big for a carry-it-everywhere device, but too small for anything more than basic functionality... so I guess I'm wondering, "What's the point?"

    1. Re:Slightly? by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "This thing looks too big for a carry-it-everywhere device, but too small for anything more than basic functionality... so I guess I'm wondering, "What's the point?"

      Niche market. Mainly business types that travel a lot. My uncle's probably the perfect customer for this product. He needs a small laptop that he can use on a plane, he needs small and mobile as possible, and he's got the money to spend on making his life as comfortable as possible.

      Nothing wrong with it not being everybody's cup of tea. If the price was right, I wouldn't mind having one that I could tote around the office. I've ordered a TabletPc for that, though.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:Slightly? by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "If you have this level of porability, you lose easy input methods for the standard applications."

      True, but we're talking about 6-figure PowerPoint artists, here.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  3. Wi-Fi on-off switch is nice.... good design by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I like it - evry nice design. I could happily see myself using one of these pretty heavily with some nice syncing with my desktop. I want one...

    I would particularly like the Wi-Fi on-off switch. I'm fed up with dodgy software solutions to that.

  4. Obvious Question... by tilleyrw · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When will someone port NetBSD/Linux/your-OS-of-choice to run on it?

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  5. It just does not seem practical by DarKnyht · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The idea for a portable device is the ability to quickly turn it on and use it. This appears to be using a version of XP, which to me sounds like a boot sequence to start it. Does not make it very practical for keep track of PDA type stuff.

    If it is intended for a laptop, why in the world would you want to restrict yourself to a screen that size and require yourself to have to buy extra hardware for it? The concept of a laptop, at least as I saw it, was to have everything you need built in. So the device doesn't quite fit in there.

    Outside of Novelty, I just do not see a practical need for this. Reminds me sort of the HP Jornada Windows CE devices that were built like mini-laptops.

    --
    Voting them all out of office, now that's change I can believe in.
  6. The Sales Person's Dream by Wicked187 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I can tell you right now, sales people will love this, because it is light... the down-side is that IT support for this is going to be horrible. Sales people are going to ask all kinds of silly, hypothetical questions about this and demand answers. The problem is, they are not going to be any more productive with this, because they just do not like to be productive, it's their nature.

    --
    Politics, Life, and More on my Aspiring for the Future
  7. Re:Sony.... by doctor_no · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you're worried about quality why would you bother with the OQO? Cheap Sony-basing aside, Sony is a company that at least has shipped a product.

    OQO has made years of promises, has no reputation for quality (good or bad), and has specs that are already outdated before its released. We can make a fair comparison of between the Sony U50/U70 and the OQO if and when the OQO hits the market.

  8. Re:Ummm... by ballwall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This page from Sony Japan lists the U70 at 210,000 yen, or $1892.55 in USD.

    Basically they're charging $750 to reinstall the OS. I need to get into the import business.

  9. Re:Not sure about the idea by Pieroxy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nothing prevent any constructor from building a "UC" as a PDA/cellphone, with crappy screen and keyboard. When you're home, you plug your DVI and USB keyboard/mouse in and you're done.

    That's just what I'm looking for for so long now. I think it's still a little early, but I'm sure we'll get to it pretty soon.

    Imagine: Everything in one box the size of an iPod: Phone, PDA, desktop, laptop, etc...
    You just plug it into it's station at home and... bang! Keyboard, screen and all the rest are as big as you want them to be. You can even have additional storage (CD/DVD/HDD,...)

    You can even have a "portable station", the size of an actual laptop which will add some of these features as well as some more battery power.

    --
    Write boring code, not shiny code!