Sunday, July 09, 2006

Sony Vaio UX

Sony's illustrious history of tiny handhelds dates back to the original GT- and U-series, long before July's announcement of the sizzling special edition UX90 with solid state storage. Industry watchers long expected innovative Sony to posit an impressive entry to this season's spate of ultra-mobile PCs. But, the new UX-series goes beyond those elevated expectations.
The Vaio UX-series is a 1.15 pound (520g) Windows XP machine featuring an Intel Core Solo 1.2ghz processor, shock-resistant 30gb HDD, every imaginable I/O port (including a port replicator), and a 4.5" 1024x600 glossy TFT with remarkably high pixel density. In addition to its touchscreen, controls include a slide-out backlit keyboard, mouse controls, magnification, screen capture, and fingerprint reader. Connectivity includes wifi, Bluetooth, and a CF card slot for wireless. (The UX180 has no slot but includes a Cingular EDGE connection module.)
In the UX90-SSHDD, Sony replaced the hard drive with 16GB of solid state memory. This is a pricey option, but has myriad advantages: it is lighter, extends the battery life, meaningfully improves boot time and system speed, and is much less prone to data loss due to physical damage. This is a great solution for organizations that need durable portability.
The UX-series is Skype- and videoconference-ready, with a 360k pixel camera facing the user. And, it is ideal for moblogging and video capture, thanks to its second (1.3-megapixel) camera facing outward.

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