REVIEW: Sony Vaio P in 2023 - Pocket Sized, Ultraportable Mini Laptop! Still Usable?

Retro review of the Sony Vaio P (Gen 2) Lifestyle PC...a unique UMPC & netbook hybrid.
Is this mini laptop an ancestor to modern day Chromebooks, GDP Pocket series, and Xperia 1?
Find it here: amzn.to/40t4MKa
More Vaio products: amzn.to/3FS52ZT
Details:
The Sony Vaio P series is a range of ultraportable subnotebook computers launched in January 2009.
It was marketed as a "lifestyle PC", although they share many characteristics with netbook computers. The device is slightly larger than previous Sony Vaio UX Micro PCs (handheld PC / UMPC), released 16 years before modern mini computers like the Steam Deck. Unlike the Sony Clie PDAs (i.e. Sony Clie UX50, NX70V, NX80) which runs on Palm OS mobile operating system, these machines run on a full version of the desktop class, more powerful Windows OS.
Easily carried in your hand or pocket, this compact stylish laptop was equipped with a full range of functions, enabling mobile computing anytime and anywhere. Contrary to being simply a miniature version of a usual notebook pc, the "VAIO® P series" featured a unique shallow-depth dimension that fit on a narrow café table. Ingeniously styled with sleek lines and round corners, the "VAIO® P series" was designed to slip easily into bags or pockets, increasing portability. The smooth flat surfaces devoid of screw holes or covers, evokes a beautiful appearance from any angle.
The Sony Vaio P series features an 8" LED-backlit display with native resolution of 1600x768, coupled with Intel GMA 500 integrated graphics, an Intel Atom CPU and up to 2GB of DDR2 memory. It uses a pointing stick in the keyboard as its pointing device. An integrated "Motion Eye" webcam (optional in some models) is located on the upper right corner of the display bezel. Built-in GPS (some models), Bluetooth, 802.11 b/g/n wireless and 3G or HSDPA mobile broadband comprise its connectivity options. Like most ultraportables and netbooks, an internal optical drive is not present.
At launch, the pre-installed operating system was one of the 32-bit versions of Windows XP, which has lower resource requirements than Windows Vista. Several people have succeeded in installing various versions of Linux on the Vaio P, most notably Ubuntu Linux, which allows for full 3D graphics to be utilized.
Since the release of Windows 7, the P series now ships with that OS installed. The Atom Silverthorne platform adopted by the P series sported lower power consumption and higher-clocked processor options compared to the more common Diamondville platform. In addition, the P series is the lightest and smallest laptop in its class, weighing roughly the same as the Apple iPad 2 tablet and less than all 10" netbooks, and the 7" Asus Eee PC models. The 1600x768 resolution of the P series' 8" display is also comparable to that of much larger laptops, such as the 12.1" Thinkpad X200s and its 1440x900 resolution.
Dependent on the model, storage was a 60GB or 80GB hard disk drive, or 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB solid state drive.
The VPC-P11 series (gen 2) launched in May 2010 featured a refreshed exterior, an accelerometer to enable switching from landscape to portrait mode, a tiny 16mmx16mm touchpad built into the LCD bezel, and a choice of five colours - 'electric orange, neon green, hot pink, icy white and classic black'. In addition, a button was added to instantly switch the screen to 1280x600 resolution, in order to make text more readable, as well as a digital compass, ambient light sensor, and higher-capacity battery (2500mAh).
The P series clamshell format was incorporated in Sony's Tablet P, which was released in November 2011. This tablet features dual touchscreen displays, a similar form factor to the later Microsoft Surface Duo.
Other unique netbooks from this era include:
HTC Shift / HTC Advantage X7510 / Nokia Booklet 3G / Toshiba Libretto W100 / OQO Model 02 / OQO Model 01 / Samsung Q1 / Asus R2H / Vulcan Flipstart / Handheld PCs NEC MobilePro / Psion Netbook / Fujitsu U820 / Fujitsu UH900 / Sharp Netwalker / Nvidia Shield / Sony Vaio VGN-U750P / Fujitsu LIFEBOOK U810

[@peejae082004]

This form factor needs to make a comeback but ARM based - Snapdragon X Elite. It should have all day battery life, hopefully 8+ hrs of screen on time.

[@steventechno]

ARM with ChromeOS/Android would be Okay, but I think this form factor using a chipset similar to what a Steam Deck, or ROG Ally uses. As well as adding a full Type-C port for a one-plug solution to connecting to the desk setup.

[@MindBlowerWTF]

@@steventechno yup, perfectly capable system. And looking at steamdeck internals, when You throw out gaming stuff You are left with speakers, mobo, screen. Throw in a laptop keyboard and fill the rest with awfully large (large for the device) battery and you have capable device.

[@steventechno]

@@MindBlowerWTF yep! I daily drive my SD as my main PC and it would be a perfectly competent experience for the vast majority. Even more so on Windows 11, which is the default for most!

[@midorifox]

Please, enough of this ARM dumpster fire. There's already enough minipc using ARM. In fact, there's more ARM minipcs that there are stars in the sky. It does, indeed, need to come back, and thankfully there's a couple of x86 computers too, like that Pipo W7 or GPD PCs.

[@georgewashington3012]

Sony always had so much style. Even today that thing looks futuristic and cool.

[@jackofblades3171]

Actually the UX and this thing give us the ability to 3d print a new battery enclosure and put new batteries in them. Miss the days of removable batteries.

[@wrtucey]

What that Vaio needs is more stickers.

[@iniquitousgod]

Wonderful review; very concise, informative, snd entertaining! Thanks for the good video!

[@jseden]

man I still regret not getting one of these back in the day.. I'd gone out to buy a netbook and really liked P series but I was a poor student so the $280 dell ended up winning. decent chance I'd still have it if I had.. the Dell was stolen during a breakin because it was attached to the living room TV at the time.. iirc this model lacked an hdmi port so it likely wouldn't have been where the dell was.. I was also kind of over sony notebooks at the time too.. my two previous had been vaios and they both just ran poorly for their given specs.. and I knew how to keep a machine clean!

[@TheMrJoltz]

Excellent review for a retro device. Definitely something worth collecting and using as a flex

[@cartitechnology]

Mine has a Japanese version which i originally bought from car boot sale as a second hand.

[@magfal]

GPD or Sony needs ro revive this form factor with a 3840x1200 panel going edge tp edge. I'd even get tailored pants with special pockets to carry such a device with me at all times.

[@japanstation1]

@OSReviews Nice review. It looks like this is a VPC-P115K - a Korean unit. Since the VPC-P115K/D has a Z540 processor, I presume this does too? Did you know you can overclock it? Apparently from 1.86GHz to 2.46GHz using SetFSB. I wonder if the video playback would become smoother then? Intel never did properly finish off their GMA 500 integrated graphics drivers which is the crux of the problem really.

[@temiongcecilio]

Nice small laptop. What OS? Thanks. Liked & Subscribed.

[@icweener1636]

I wish they make more life this but with modern touch

[@j4v3l73]

I got Sony vaio p gen1, and watching this video through Xperia proi. Now I think this gadget should be with ultrawide display

[@caffeinatedhuman4035]

Can you try running Linux Mint 32 bit 19.3... last 32 bit easy os😮

[@jaredlee6591]

So beautiful so sleeve

[@michaelcorcoran8768]

You should be pretty cool if it supports external monitor

[@mistrotech8894]

How is it with a modern LInux distro like Antix or Bodhi Linux?

[@suobset]

+1 for Bodhi, love that distro!!

[@Cactus.Scoville]

Do you think it’s possible to install Android on it

[@yeyeyski]

First time I saw that Nokia laptop. So cool

[@xville8642]

can you put windows xp on this one?

[@astral16]

Not an hdmi port, it is a proprietary vga and Ethernet dongle

[@Codex8171]

I want vaio to bring it back using x86 so you can play games on the go light stuff like valorant or half life 2

[@trektn]

Random noise at 6:30 hurts ears... and intermittently comes back

[@dandansfu]

Sony is like Apple Beautiful , pricy and love proprietary

[@dheadandia8534]

bagus

[@jackofblades3171]

GPD bases their products off of sonys past with the idea that sony just did these things too soon. We have better batteries and better cpus now

[@nicugirbu1727]

How TF this video got 1.5k views and 6k likes

[@dreamingthelife]

if you tried to make someone look I did

[@nicugirbu1727]

@@dreamingthelife KZbin bugs

[@cmrgroup1097]

A new pis hai

[@user-ci8zu1wx2z]

My walmart tab has better screen

[@phonetech1640]

hmm well this is a much older device from 2009 (14 years ago)...newer screens will be sharper and higher res but I kind of like the widescreen aspect ratio which isn't very common to see