Sony have announced a new VAIO laptop, the NW-series, packing a 15.5-inch WXGA XBRITE display, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processor and an optional Blu-ray drive. The Sony VAIO NW is also being priced competitively: the standard model is $800, while adding Blu-ray to that is just $80 more.
Sony Japan have announced that they are working on WiMAX enabled versions of their VAIO Z ultraportable and VAIO P netbook. Expected to land in Japan before the end of this month, the notebooks will take advantage of Intel and UQ Communications plans to blanket the country with WiMAX access.
Hackintosh netbooks are nothing new, these days, and so the more extreme OS X tweakers move on to more esoteric hardware. We’ve already seen Sony’s VAIO UX-series UMPC running Apple’s OS, but Micro PC Talk user perrin21 has a particularly slick setup: a subtly modified Sony VAIO UX 390 running OS X 10.5.7 as though it just stepped off a Cupertino production line.
Video demo after the cut
Sony Japan have just unleashed a new range of crocodile skin VAIO C-series laptops. Available in pink, red and brown, no multicolored crocodiles were harmed in the texturing of these notebooks: instead, Sony mold the plastic to resemble their scaly hides.
According to the latest model numbers dug up by Sony Insider, it looks as though Sony are preparing six new variants of the “it’s not a netbook” VAIO P ultraportable. The codes – which jump from the 500-series of the current generation to a new 700-series – suggest the same array of color options, but also specification updates: VGN-P710T/B, VGN-P710T/R, VGN-P710T/G, VGN-P710T/W and the VGN-P730A/Q and VGN-P730T/Q.
Sony is still causing no amount of frustration among would-be VAIO P buyers with the various levels of configuration and the bemusing differences in availability. Three processors have been employed – ranging from the 1.33GHz Atom CPU you can buy in the US, through the 1.60GHz version, and up to the 1.86GHz VAIO P that you’d have to source through importers if you wanted it. Now there are finally benchmarks of all the different configurations (including SSD and HDD versions) to help decide.
Full benchmark results after the cut
As knock-offs go, this Sony VAIO P copycat – called the VAINO – is pretty blatant. Unfortunately there are no images of it next to the real thing, otherwise it’d become clear that the VAINO’s 250 x 185 x 31mm dimensions are more your typical netbook scale than the long & thin VAIO P.
Since we’re still waiting to hear when the Viliv S5 MID will land in Europe or the US, our unboxing joy will have to be achieved vicariously through photoshoots like UMPC Fever’s. They’ve managed to score one of the 4.8-inch touchscreen handhelds, and have photos not only of the unboxing but of the GUI, accessories and even a few group shots with the Sony VAIO P and what looks to be Compal’s MID.
Details are scant right now, but if this image is to be believed somebody has got OS X Leopard running on the Sony VAIO P. The picture, which was flagged up on the Pocketables forum, shows the compact “I’m not a netbook!” ultraportable using the Apple OS, although apparently not everything is fully operational.
We’ve already discussed on way of getting more performance from the Sony VAIO P this morning: stump up for an imported 1.86GHz Atom Z540 version. Of course, there’s another way to make the most of the official US-spec 1.33GHz VAIO P, and that’s get rid of bloated Vista. Unfortunately switching to Windows XP isn’t as easy as you might think, with the VAIO not wanting to offer the right drivers for WWAN and GPS. Happily we now have a tutorial explaining how.
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