Mini review
more pics coming (got to resize and upload)
After a few weeks using the Sony Vaio UX50 I can happily say I love it.
I have previously owned many sub-notebooks and lately had a Vaio TX27GPB and a 12 inch Powerbook. The 12 inch Powerbook weighs in at 2.1kg and is small but not an ultra portable or subnotebook. The TX is heading there but being 1.3kg is also not what I’d call a true ultra-portable. So I sort of had two full spec’d powerful laptops with DVD burners but neither met my requirements for an ultra-portable.
I decided to keep the Powerbook as my main work machine and get a very small, very light road machine that had different requirements from the main machine.
Before going back to a tried and true Vaio U101, having had a U50 and sold it as it didn’t really fit the bill, I bought the Ux50.
Now I’ve sold the TX. The UX50 does everything I need and more.
But on to the good stuff.
The screen is sharp, clear and bright. After using the UX for a while the powerbook screen looks downright blurry. It’s surprising to me just how usable it is being so small. I hardly ever use the zoom function as web pages, documenst are quite usable at the highest resolution. On the zoom; it seems a bit silly the way it works. When you zoom in the content becomes sort of like a pdf in that you can only use the mouse or stylus to scroll around the screen, but not to do any sort of input. This may be a setting I haven’t found yet but it seems silly.
The touch screen is great. I haven’t fully moved to the handwriting recognition as I’m not a huge tablet PC sort of user, but I am finding that sometimes the writing on screen functionality works well. For web surfing i use the keyboard to type addressess and enter fields on webpages. For quick emails I tend to use the keyboard too. It’s simple to use and I find there is plenty of feedback to let you know which keys you’ve hit. Interestingly when bluetooth is on the blue light from the LED indicator casts a rather bright blue light onto the keyboard, whcih is already backlit with blue, and I found it makes it a but tricky to see a couple of keys. I think I’ll move to using the touch screen more now I have this on screen keyboard (U-Board - http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2005/04/jkontherun_revi.html). I use such a thing a bit on my smartphone and find it simple to enter text with. When you need to enter text in a hurry, for example in messenger, the handwriting recognition works really well. I am using ritepen which came with the unit and I can happily freehand write all over the screen. It pops into whatever application you are using and for quick responses in messenger it’s gold.
I have Studio 8 and Adobe creative suite 2 on it and have found both to be very useable. I run a P4 2ghz desktop and I have a gut feel that this thing boots up CS2 just as fast. I worte a photoshop tutorial on it capturing screengrabs and in this real world test it was just as easy to do as on the desktop - On an external screen. Which is also why this is a cool little unit. The dock, a bluetooth mouse/keyboard and a 17 inch LCD screen are the only things on my desk. When home it’s docked and when i leave the little unit comes with me. I don’t have unrestricted web access in the office i’m working in at the moment so during breaks I whip over to the cafe next door which has nice comfy booths with free wireless and so I can download my email and do some web admin stuff. So cool. I feel the little screen is too small for extended photo editing or even web design but for quick fixes and small jobs it’s fine. I’m so used to a really small screen on my smartphone that this thing is big in relative terms.
I’ve played around with the cameras a little. Skype is so easy on this thing. With the speaker and mic on the front of the unit while it’s on the dock I can easily talk at normal volume and be heard and clearly hear who i’m talking with. And it’s neat to be able to do video skype calls without having to muck around with external cams. The other camera I haven’t really found much use for. I’ve showed it off but since i don’t do video or photo blogging (yet) it’s not a lot of use to me. It is simple to use. Press the capture button and shoot stills or video at will, it’s temporarily captured and you can view, email or delete in one simple interface. Sony seems ahead of the game hear setting it up for VOIP and photo blogging and so it’s a machine that will last i think. I’m keenly thinking up things i can do with the function like record a video/picture blog of my next trip OS or something.
For cool factor I used to get a lot of comments on my TR. Lot’s on my U3 and U101, lees on the T and TX (actually none). But man this little Baby turns heads. People can’t believe it’s an XP computer. And they spin out at the keyboard.
One quibble, it only has one USB port, which i find a bit limiting. It has more on the dock but as i only use a bluetooth mouse at home and travel with a USB wireless mouse I found that i had to unplug the mouse to plug in my thumbdrive. That got a bit old. It really needs on more USB port i think. That said I could buy a little travel usb hub so it’s not a biggie.
I find it gets warm in the hands but never hot. Although the fan does seems to run a bit once it gets up to temp. It’s very quite though so not an annoyance. the compact flash slot is awesome as my digital SLR use CF. So i can dump down my pics while mobile stright into the computer. Then once i’m home edit them in RAW format in CS2. The MS duo slot means i can crunch video onto my Duo, transfer music, and chuck them straight into the PSP. That’s handy too.
Battery life is fine for what i’m using it for. I turn down the screen pretty low and have got a solid 2+ hours of use every time so far. I considered the extended battery but it is expensive and adds significant size and weight. If i get another battery i’m going to opt for another standard one.
So all in all after a cuople of weeks I really think this thing has nailed it for ultra-portables. It’s fully featured enough and has the right balance of usable features and functions, and it’s only 520 grams!
EDIT: quick note as Drachen suggests later in the forum: enable sticky keys (windows control panel) and you’ll find life so much easier on this unit. The shift key is sort of miles from where you need it (left) and to do : or : it’s a bit painful to try to hold down shift and press the required key with your right thumb. Sticky keys enables you to press shift or functin and it stays on ntil you hit another key. Sweet.
