Just about my ideal mobile computing device is this Ultra Mobile PC from Sony, the Sony VAIO VGN-UX180P Micro PC. It is not much larger than a handheld computer, and weighs just over a pound, has an integrated sliding backlit keyboard, 4.5 inch Widescreen Display, Bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and two cameras (a 0.3 megapixel camera facing the user for webcam use, and a 1.3 megapixel camera facing the other way for use as a digital camera). For security, there is a fingerprint reader. This UMPC has an 1.2GHz Intel Core Solo ultra-low-voltage CPU, 512MB RAM, a 30GB Hard drive and runs Windows XP Professional.

Unfortunately, it costs around $1000 new, and reviewers and users alike complain that the keyboard is less than ideal and the battery life is poor. They also say it should run the tablet edition of Windows to make the touch screen more useful.
All I can say to this is that nothing is perfect. To me this seems like Sony has taken their old Clie line of PDAs and re-invented them as fully fledged PCs.

The latest version of the Sony VAIO UX series, the Sony VAIO UX390, has 1GB of RAM and a 32GB solid-state hard drive and runs Windows Vista Business Edition. It also costs around $2000. For that price you could get a decent laptop and a smartphone, but they would weight a lot more than this Sony UMPC.

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by mervyn