Sony Vaio P: Netbook or notebook?

The media called Sony's P series "the sexiest netbook in the world ", and the firm insisted its product was an entertainment notebook, and this caused a lot of debate on the Internet.

Sony Vaio P: Netbook or notebook? Picture 1
Photo: SonyInsider

The difference between netbooks and UMPC (Ultramobile PC) and MID (Mobile Internet Device) are the following two product lines with only virtual keyboards on the 5-7 inch touch screen.The UMPC works on Windows and the MID runs on Linux.

According to Sony, Vaio P has an impressive keyboard length and high resolution screen (1,600 x 768 pixels) with backlight support. Akihabara News's technology site also commented that P's keyboard is a "wonder" with a suitable layout for hours. However, this keyboard size is no bigger than the netbooks on the market, and most netbooks today are equipped with backlighting.

Vaio P uses Atom Z chip - Intel chip manufactured for MID and UMPC devices. Not to mention, the used P version is clocked at 1.3 GHz, lower than the 1.6 GHz processor in the netbook.

Sony also explained that the P integrates GPS and works on Windows Vista - a rare feature of netbooks. But recently, LG released X110 with HSDPA positioning and connection technology, and according to the test of Akiharaba, Vaio P took 3.23 minutes to start the operating system. (Watch video)

Sony Vaio P: Netbook or notebook? Picture 2
Photo: Akihabara .

All of these points show that the reason why the Vaio P is not a netbook is because it costs up to $ 900, which cannot be called a "cheap mini laptop". Therefore, this product is classified by experts as "high-priced netbook" or Sony's stand-alone device line.