Windows laptop (1.4 lbs) so small I can skydive with it in my jumpsuit pocket

[mdrejhon 8]

At the Sony Store, I got a chance to see the Sony Vaio P series at the (world's smallest Windows Vista PC with full size keyboard), only 1.4 pounds:
Sony Vaio P Series

People who have seen me use a folding keyboard at the Perris camps for communications (because I am deaf) -- this laptop is the same "footprint" as my folding keyboard when it's unfolded! (the one some people have seen me using at Perris) So the whole thing almost fits inside my in-chest jumpsuit pocket.

Funny I can, in theory, skydive with a fully functional laptop in my pocket - one that can also store an entire library of photos/videos (and maybe useful to some people for on-the-spot forget-the-laptop-bag video editing -- in theory, with this pocket laptop, you can skydive with all your video editing equipment, although they use underpowered Atom CPU's)... Then there's also GPS built in, and the laptop is small enough to sit on top of a dash, to behave as a high-def GPS nav system (Garmin Mobile is available for laptops too, so it can behave like a "Nuvi HD" too.)

Anyway, I'm interested in this laptop mainly for ground/chatting/email purposes (as I am deaf) and am getting one of these soon as a super light travel laptop -- as I like to communicate by keyboard, but it's pretty neat to see these things be so small, yet I was able to touchtype at full speed (in the Sony Store) on this thing!

[Gawain 0]

That looks pretty impressive. It's got the goods too, for being so small. More impressive, and more expensive than the Dell mini or Acer...

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[LouDiamond 1]

Did you read any of the reviews off of their own site that you linked to? It gets slammed pretty hard, enough to make it sound like something to pass on IMO. Looks cool though, everyone seemed to agree on that.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[shropshire 0]

At the DZ... it's the looks that are important

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[virgin-burner 1]

have you looked at the asus eee-family!? for a third of the price u get pretty much everything with it. AND, its a chicks magnet too..

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[monkycndo 0]

I needed a small netbook for work. After lots of looking, settled on a Samsung NC10. It is heavier at 2.8 lbs, but has a 6 cell battery with up to 6 hours working time and the ratings say it is much more durable than the Asus/Acer/MSWind/Dell mini. Looked at the Sony and it was too pricey.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[mdrejhon 8]

Quote

Did you read any of the reviews off of their own site that you linked to? It gets slammed pretty hard, enough to make it sound like something to pass on IMO. Looks cool though, everyone seemed to agree on that.

Yeah, the Sony is a very slow Atom 1.33 Ghz. But the "go-to" site is the Sony Vaio P Forum at Pocketables. There's even instructions on how to use SetFSB.exe to software overclock the CPU, as well as tweaks to make video playback properly. (Mostly disable SmartWi and a few other utils, and also switch Vista graphics to Basic mode). Some people, amazingly, got 1080p to playback smoothly (downconverted, but still sharp, on 1600x768) on the screen (video subtopic area), using PowerDVD Ultra. Also, get the SSD version, not the HDD version -- it greatly makes up for the performance limitations.

I need a netbook for typing purposes, so CPU speed is not as much of a concern.

I may get a MSI Wind, or some other netbook, but I really dislike being stuck with 1024x600 -- I wish more netbooks came with 1280x768 or 1360x768 -- newer models come with that -- And Sony Vaio P 1600x768 is extreme, but fits my bill well...

I'm still leaning towards the Sony due to its size, but time will tell...

I'm still using a 2003-era Dell laptop for basic Internet/email/communication use, and the netbooks performs similiarly (more or less). Expectations are WAY too high regarding performance, IMO -- but in the Sony store, web browsing seemed pretty snappy anyway. Not as fast as my desktop -- but that's to be expected anyway.

If still I get the Sony, I definitely will be more than doubling the speed of Vista by doing the tweaks recommended in the Pocketables forum.
I want at least 60 gig (preferably SSD), and I definitely have to have Bluetooth and WiFi. The built-in GPS is a bonus to me, too, and I dislike going less than 1280x720 on netbooks. When you choose a different netbook that meets these specs, they are now over $600, which is already 2/3rd the price of the Sony. Then the Sony is still much smaller (yet has the same size keyboard, because it only eliminates the wristrest/trackpad area, in favour of the eraserhead controller) Also, the Sony is a better chick (or guy) magnet, because it is HALF the size of an eeePC -- Photos. The highest-end MSI Wind model (most expensive) with 120gig HDD, but still 1024x600 screen, appears to be a good compromise, if I want to spend about $450-ish Canadian, but it's still double the size of the Sony, and I like the size of the Sony when I actually saw the Sony in the store... Tough call, since people who know me as a deaf guy, know that I am VERY selective of the best gadgets for deaf communications -- like my famous folding keyboards at Perris big way camps.

[humbled1 0]

Quote

have you looked at the asus eee-family!? for a third of the price u get pretty much everything with it. AND, its a chicks magnet too..

The asus eee family and other "mini" notebooks are based on Intel's Atom CPU. In my experience, all those machines have horrible performance. Even with a SSD drive they are barely usable. And that is with XP, Linux is do-able but most (ok all) of my customers cant/dont use Linux.

BUT this Sony is based on Intel's Core Duo CPU. While I have not used this laptop, that and the LED screen puts in a class much higher than any of the Atom based notebooks.

Though I am not a fan of them using the properitary Verizon 3G mobile broadband chip, which means u have to use verizon as your mobile broadband provider.

Also most of the mini-laptops max out at 1GB of ram, which is not horrible, but at todays low prices for RAM, I say 2GB for XP, 3GB for Vista 32bit, 4GB+ for Vista 64bit.

It actually appears to be an excellent laptop.

"Tell ya the truth, I don't think this is a brains kind of operation."

[jcd11235 0]

Quote

The asus eee family and other "mini" notebooks are based on Intel's Atom CPU. In my experience, all those machines have horrible performance. Even with a SSD drive they are barely usable. And that is with XP, Linux is do-able but most (ok all) of my customers cant/dont use Linux.

I would actually be interested (although it's a very low priority) in picking up a small netbook and installing Puppy Linux. (I personally despise Windows, so Windows performance is a non-issue for me.) Since Puppy loads the entire OS and all of the applications into RAM (256 MiB is plenty), it avoids the performance bottleneck of hard drive/SSD use. While it lacks all of the easy customizations and UI enhancing animations (as opposed to animations that serve little to no purpose) of my primary machine's OS, Puppy is smokin' fast, and surprisingly full featured for a secondary machine. Not requiring hard drive use should also boost battery performance. All in all, it seems like a perfect OS for a netbook.

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

[LouDiamond 1]

Sounds like you are after "cool factor" more than performance factor but I would offer up that you can have both. Have you considered the OQO?

I've personally flown this device in the wind tunnel and jumped it from 25k ft on a chest mounted Nav board. It's a fine piece of kit and it's small and has the "cool" factor you're after.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[mnealtx 0]

Damn...that looks like a bad-ass little minicomputer.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[shropshire 0]

It's got to be expensive too.... especially if it's MilSpec!!

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[mnealtx 0]

Quote

It's got to be expensive too.... especially if it's MilSpec!!

1.33 GHz
Intel® Atom™ processor
Windows XP Home
60GB hard disk drive
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g + Bluetooth
5" Wide VGA LCD with touchscreen
$1000

1.86 GHz
Intel® Atom™ processor
Windows Vista Business or
XP Professional*
120GB hard disk drive
(60GB solid state disk drive available)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g + Bluetooth
5" Wide VGA OLED with touchscreen
$1500

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[shropshire 0]

wow.. not 'arf bad.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[warpedskydiver 0]

Can you troubleshoot it or restore it in freefall?

[mdrejhon 8]

Quote

Sounds like you are after "cool factor" more than performance factor but I would offer up that you can have both. Have you considered the OQO?

Have you seen me touchtype?

I type at about 110 WPM on standard desktop keyboards and about 70 WPM on BlackBerry thumb keyboards. (I keyed at 363 thumb presses in a stopwatch, so that's approximately 74 words per mininute on a THUMB keyboard).

However, the OQO is not comfortable for me; I can't type fast enough on an OQO keyboard for it to be useful, while the Sony, I can still type 110 WPM on -- I adapt to any good well-spaced keyboards approximately 16.5mm through 19mm keyboard spacing, and the Sony Vaio P series fall into the smallest possible "high quality touchtypeable league" laptops. Also, I don't have to be constantly holding up a device more than 0.5lbs to type long emails or messages.

Attendes at the Perris Big Way events, will vouch for my typing speed. Just ask Kate Cooper to others such as Jan Meyer (who helped tutor me during my first 100-way event) etc.

As a deaf guy, typing speed is numero uno, and Sony Vaio P has proven to be one of the smallest possible touchtypeable devices.... (Not quite - There's also that Japanese unit that I've heard of, on Pocketables.net, that's got a smaller size, due to the creativity of relocating the colon and quote keys on the right side, so that the touchtype homerow ends nearly at the edge of the laptop)

[hypsin 0]

I got me one of these for my birthday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uBQGXxCh9c

1GB of RAM, 1Ghz CPU, full WinXP install (can handle Vista if needed) only $400. Hook up 3g modem and you got internet anywhere.

[LouDiamond 1]

I'll offer up another solution then for your typing requirements. Get one of those USB roll up keyboards. You'll have a full size keyboard to blaze on with a small footprint when not in use. The women won't be able to resist you

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[mdrejhon 8]

Quote

I'll offer up another solution then for your typing requirements. Get one of those USB roll up keyboards. You'll have a full size keyboard to blaze on with a small footprint when not in use. The women won't be able to resist you

I already have one of those (exact same model as one of those), but I actually find I prefer these; they are much faster to touchtype on and are much more comfortable (solid IBM Thinkpad style feel). And better cool factor, too. And no wires, due to Bluetooth!

[mdrejhon 8]

And the same keyboard when folded. Actually about the same size as my wallet, and about half as thick.

Although discontinued right now, it is called iGo Stowaway Ultraslim Bluetooth Keyboard. (Also went as Dell Executive Bluetooth Keyboard, as well as ThinkOutside Bluetooth). The closest equivalent is www.freedomkeyboard.com but that one is twice as bulky.

Yes, this same keyboard would work with the OQO, but I have actually used the OQO (model 01 and 02) as well as about a dozen netbooks and handheld devices (I'm a mobile software developer).

[mdrejhon 8]

Some comments about ultrasmall laptops/UMPC/MID's

Although the OQO is of a form factor that I am not interested in unless it falls to netbook prices. I disliked the Toshiba and HP keyboards and the original/smaller eeePC keyboard, but I liked the MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, Asus N10J, Asus eeePC model 1000, and the Sony Vaio P series. I was impressed at Sony Picturebooks about ten years ago, and wanted one of those but were out of my price range at the time. Picturebooks (google it) ten years ago was the same form factor as the Vaio P series, so netbooks have existed for a long time, but at crazy price levels, or restricted to Japanese editions. (until OLPC and ASUS came along).

Six years ago, I once put down about $3000 CDN on a Sony TR-series laptop (Can't remember which exact model now, but it was netbook sized) before I asked for a refund on an order that didn't go through, and then just got a cheap Dell instead. Now I am pleased netbook-sized of similiar sizes are already available for the sub-$1000 range. The $300 ones are definitely out of the running now due to lack of RAM or lack of sufficient size HDD/SSD, or missing dongle-free Bluetooth. The cheapest model that fits my needs is about $500-600, the question now becomes: Do I want to spend an additional $300 to get a already-test-driven-touchtypeable laptop that's even smaller? Tough call. I may actually buy a $500-to-$600-league netbook instead and wait a little bit for better-performing model (dual core perhaps). Though I may still get the Sony and tweak it instead. Keep tuned.