WindowsMobileToday: News: Sony Ships VAIO UX Micro PC

Sony's first foray into handhelds since the demise of the Clie line is now available. You can order the VAIO UX Micro PC, neither a PDA nor a UMPC, through the electronic giant's commerce site or by phone. PDAStreet checked SonyStyle and saw the pre-order designation had been removed. Whereupon we called its 800 number to discover the pocket-sized PC (not a Pocket PC) arrived yesterday and could, when ordered, make it into a user's hand in a week or less, depending on the shipping method chosen.

The VAIO UX Micro PC is a full-fledged PC like OQO's Model 01+ that runs on Windows XP platform and not Windows Mobile. It has a retractable QWERTY thumb-keyboard, and is a bit larger than a typical handheld, but much smaller than the new ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) tablets introduced to great fanfare - but mostly lukewarm reviews - by Microsoft and its hardware partners.(Could Redmond's Orgami campaign have backfired, creating too much hype for the first-generation products?)

At $1,800, Sony's new VAIO is, like the OQO, a lot more expensive than the UMPCs, which range in price from $500 to $1,100 or so. The first UMPC to ship in the U.S., the Samsung Q1, sells for $1,099 (the high range) and - just last week - received expanded distribution. Originally available only online at BestBuy and CDW, it is now sold in all Fry's Electronics stores and soon BestBuy locations in Texas; not exactly a ringing retail endorsement.

Sony's VAIO measures 5.91 x 3.74 x 1.27 inches and weighs 1.2 pounds. By comparison, the OQO's Model 01+'s dimensions are a little smaller at 4.9 x 3.4 x 0.9 inches and lighter at 14 ounces. The VAIO runs on a 1.20 GHz Low Voltage CPU, 512 MB of RAM, 30 GB hard disk drive, a graphics accelerator with 128MB of VRAM, and lithium-ion battery for 2.5 to 4.5 hours of power, according to Sony.

(A new VAIO UX Micro PC will go on sale next week in Sony�s native Japan that replaces the 30 GB hard disk drive with 16 GB of faster (booting 3 to 6 times more quickly), lighter (dropping 28 grams), more silent and less power-hungry (an improvement of 13 percent) flash memory. The new VAIO UX90 will cost the equivalent of about $345 more than the current model in that country. Even so, it'll sell for 209,800 Yen ($1,803), about what the 30 GB magnetic-storage model goes for in this country.)

The VAIO about to ship here also features a 4.5-inch wide SVGA touch screen (1024 x 600 pixels) that slides up to expose the integrated keyboard. Sony says its XBRITE LCD technology delivers a clean, crisp viewing surface. Like with the OQO, there's a stylus for pen input.

While the UX Micro PC integrates an Ethernet port, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, what really sets it apart from the Model 01+ is built-in Wide Area Network access to Cingular's national EDGE network. EDGE is a 2.5G cellular technology that delivers data transfer speeds of 70 to 135 kbps. Sony says its SmartWi technology enables you to toggle between wireless WAN, WLAN Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for accessing Internet and e-mail.

The VAIO UX Micro PC model also incorporates two built-in cameras: a VGA in front for video conferencing and a 1.3 megapixel type located on the back for taking photos. A VGA adapter is included to connect the PC to a projector. There's also a built-in microphone and jack, headphone jack, speakers and a Memory Stick slot.

An integrated biometrics fingerprint sensor makes it so you don't have to remember passwords, while incorporated G-Sensor shock protection protects the unit's hard drive from data loss should it be dropped.

A docking station with three 2.0 USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, iLink IEEE-1394 interface and an AV output comes with the UX Micro PC. This enables you to connect to peripherals like a full-sized keyboard, display and speakers.