Video Review: Sony Vaio UX Micro Computer

Published by Morten Rand-Hendriksen | Filed under UMPC, Videos, Reviews, PC

We tested the first UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) from Sony - the Sony Vaio UX Mobile Computer - a few months ago. The 1.6lb Vista powered computer comes fully equipped with an Intel Centrino Duo processor, 40gb harddrive, Blue Tooth, Wi-Fi and touch screen not to mention a docking station and a slide out keyboard.

Although the UMPC is a great concept it is still far from where it needs to be to contend with laptops and pdas. Primarily we found the battery life to be far too short and the screen much too small to be used. The pre-installed Norton software caused massive problems because the innitial spalsh page was too large for the screen and all the active buttons were hidden beneath the bottom end. Therefore it was impossible to do anything and we finally had to attach the PC to an external monitor to get past the page. The same happened with numerous other programs. The zoom feature is a great idea but again is not working satisfactory and lead to a lot of swearing.

Needless to say we think you should wait before buying one of these things unless you have a lot of money to spend or you absolutely have to have the newest gadget. The UMPC market is in it’s infancy and we can expect many much better versions of this type of computer to come out in the coming months and years. So try to restrain yourself and go spend those $2500 on an ultraportable laptop instead.