Sony releases a killer UMPC in two weeks!

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/16/sony_unveils_vaio_ux/

Sony will ship its Vaio UX UMPC on 27 May, the consumer electronics giant said today. The successor to the company's U series of handheld mini PCs will ship as the retail-oriented UX-50 and as the Sony-sold UX-90S and UX-90PS. As expected, the UX-50 will contain a 1.06GHz ultra-low voltage Intel Core Solo U1300 processor backed by 512MB of 400MHz SDRAM and a 30GB, 4,200rpm hard disk. The unit's display is a 4.5in, 1,024 x 600 panel driven by Intel's integrated GMA950 GPU - the chipset's a 945GMS. The handheld PC runs Windows XP Home Edition. Connectivity comes courtesy of Bluetooth 2 and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi. There's an integrated webcam and a fingerprint sensor. ...more at The Register. My comments: these three devices are indeed very appealing. The hardware is based on Intel CPU's (even the low-end model, the UX-90S will have a Celeron M, which, as all notebook freaks know, isn't significantly slower than Pentium M's of the same CPU clock speed; it's only that they don't support speedstep and, therefore, chew through the battery far faster) and, therefore, will be significantly faster than that of the two OQO models (the OQO 01 only has an 1 GHz Transmeta Crusoe, which is significantly slower than even the Intel Celeron M). Its hard drive, taking the size of the unit (15 x 9.5 x 3.2-3.8cm) and the capacity (20-30 GB) into account, can be no bigger than 1.8", which will also mean it'll be pretty slow (no wonder IBM has switched back to using 2.5" HDD's in the latest X-series subnotebooks, the X60/X60s) but, knowing Sony, I think they will still be able to come up with something usable and not completely ruined by a very slow HDD. The built-in Intel GMA950 Integrated Graphics Core, as notebook freaks may have already guessed/know, isn't really suited for 3D gaming. That is, it is not at all suited for 3D gaming. While it delivers passable results in synthetic tests, dedicated chipsets completely deliver a K.O. to it in games as can be seen for example in these comarative tests. That is - as with all integrated Intel graphics solutions, this chipset (and, therefore, the new Sony UMPC's) isn't for gamers either. Unfortunately, the unit is considerably (about 1cm/0.4") thicker than the OQO (3.2...3.8 as opposed to 2.28 cm). Also, the screen resolution, 1,024 x 600 on a 4.5" screen (the OQO has 800*480 at 5" - that is, the Sony has a definite lead here too), makes much more sense than, say, the Averatec UMPC, which will (?) have a SXGA (1280*1024) 5" screen - a definite, unnecessary overkill. Also, the price of the unit, while not very cheap for US buyers compared to the OQO (the 20Gbyte Celeron M model starts at $1350 and the highest-end model is around $1900, which is around the price of the OQO), will be quite a bargain for European buyers (who, in general, need to shell out far more money for the same device than American customers) - if Sony indeed ships the units at the given price (700-1000 UK Pounds, depending on the configuration). It's still at least three times more expensive than a high-end PDA (not taking into the HTC Universal into account) like the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720, N560 or the HP iPAQ hx4700, though. As the announcement is brand new, nothing other is known of the device. Speculations have already started - for example, on the OQO mailing list. Depending on the alternates, this device may prove to be a decent pocket-sized companion to my heavy and big, but, screen-wise, top-notch (1600*1200 FlexView/IPS - its screen is approximately as good as that of, say, the iPAQ HP hx4700 and the VGA Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket PC's) IBM Thinkpad a31p. I may not get a Thinkpad x60/x60s, after all (albeit the x60s with the Ultralight screen is certainly appealing - if the screen is indeed as good as it is said to be).