Please see this thread for pictures: Click Here

Background:

When I first saw the OQO in person years ago I thought it was a good idea but it was poorly designed. The concept of a tiny palmtop PC interested me greatly but there wasn’t many options out there. In comes the U series. I was not in the mood to import another PC and I figured I would wait to see what happens. When Sony finally brought the U to the US I started to seriously considering buying it. I got to play with one for about 10 minutes at Sony Style NY. Needless to say it was messed up (someone changed the resolution) and the salesmen knew nothing about it…I mean nothing. I asked them to pull up the handwriting recognition software for me to try and they claimed it didn’t have it. After pulling up the U specs on SonyStyle.com and showing the salesmen the line about handwriting recognition we went back to the U to find it. By the time we did, I had to leave.

When I finally made up my mind I called iCube and ordered one. Again, their customer service was beyond anything I am used to. I can’t thank them enough.

I have had the U for 2 days so far. Overall I am very happy with it. Sony made some brilliant moves and some really dumb ones, at least in my opinion.

Packaging:

The U is boxed similar to the x505…light-years ahead of how the TR was packaged. Obviously nobody buys a PC based on the packaging, but this felt like you were opening a $2,000 computer, unlike when you opened the TR.

Contents:

You get:
U750
Battery
Folding Keyboard (USB)
Stand
Wired Remote
Stylus
Headphones (I think the 51’s or just the top part of the 71’s, I am not 100% sure)
VGA Dongle
A/C Adapter
Case
Case for keyboard

Accessories:

First, I’ll talk about the accessories. The stand is made of plastic and has a tiny plastic push up bar that will raise the viewing angle. The stand has a USB port on the right…a Kensington lock port on the left (happy everyone?), and on the back has 3 USB, Ethernet, VGA, Firewire (with the DC port), and A/C port. The stand is rather light weight and the plastic has a strange feel to it…hard to describe but I just don’t like touching it. The viewing angle is terrible IMO. Even with the little stand up its still at an angle. It’s never anywhere near 90 degrees. I think 45 degrees is more like it. It’s a good angle if you’re above it, but if you want it arms length away it’s a bit odd.

The stylus is unusual but actually comfortable. I would like more of a pen for the handwriting recognition but I am going to give this stylus a chance.

The wired remote is a decent size and has a backlit LCD screen. It has a clip on the back and controls all around it. The head of the remote twists for volume control. It claims to work with Media Player (and it did) but I couldn’t get the display to actually display the name of the song. Otherwise the remote worked fine. To be honest, I’ll never use it so I gave up trying to get it to display anything and put it away, never to be used again.

The folding keyboard is similar to the x505 keyboard except that the x505 keys are physically separated where the U’s look like they are but actually have surrounding plastic. You can tell from the keyboard picture…the keys have a second layer. To unfold the keyboard there is a little lock on the side (it’s a sliding lock). Here is one of the problems I have with the unit…when you slide the lock it doesn’t open, it just unlocks. I would have liked some sort of spring. The next issue is when you close it, you need to re-lock it. Had they put a spring it would just close and re-lock. So now you need to close it and then use the slide again. Poor design IMO.

The Viewsonic keyboard in the pictures is one I own and not included with the U. I like it better then the keyboard that came with the U.

Finally, I’ll talk about the case. The case has a pull string top and padded sides. For some reason I never thought that the bottom wouldn’t be padded so I dropped the U into the case (luckily the case was on my lap and not on a table) and POW…it sort of hurt. The case has a loop for you to carry it with. I really like the case, but I am a bit curious why the bottom isn’t padded. Poor design again, IMO.

Unit:

On to the unit itself. It is a bit longer the OQO…as far as I can remember. It feels comfortable in your hands but in one hand it gets heavy after a while. I like to hold the unit in the left hand and use the stylus in the right…after a bit I needed to put the stylus down and use the onboard mouse because my left hand was hurting.

The unit is very quiet. Sometimes I forget it is running Windows XP and not Palm. It does not heat up like the OQO does…which there have been complaints of actually burning the user.

Physically, here is how the unit is setup:
On the left we have the power switch, hold switch, audio/remote port, and a stylus loop.
On the right side we have the CTRL+ALT+DEL button, the WiFi button, USB port, and another stylus loop.
On the top we have the battery release, battery lock, CF port, MS port, Standby switch, and a vent.
On the bottom we have the VGA/Dock port, A/C port, and several vents.

On the face we have 3 buttons in the upper left (left, right, double click). Upper right has the mouse and a 8 way rocker switch with a center click (used for menu’s). The bottom left has 2 buttons, Zoom and Rotate. The right has the brightness, keyboard, and settings buttons. The buttons light up when you click one. It’s a bright white light. The genius of this setup is when you rotate the device you have the same style buttons and it’s familiar to you.

The display is clear and crisp. Native resolution is 800x600 but it also runs 640x480 and 1024x786. It can output to 1600x1200. The touch screen feels soft, more like the Sony UX and not like their earlier Clies. I am almost afraid to use an aftermarket stylus because the OEM one seems to be soft to the screen. The only issue I really have is I can’t get it to calibrate 100% but I never really notice it except when you need to scroll the menu in All Programs on the start menu. My resolution will be to limit the items in my Start menu.

The machine has 20GB HDD but mine only reports 15.6 total. I have to investigate this a bit further. The 512MB RAM is enough for what I plan to use this device for. It also uses a 1.1GHZ Pentium M processor. Interestingly enough it is not a Centrino. Sony opted for a Sony WiFi G card, not an Intel one. It boots quick enough…hibernates fine, and goes in and out of standby instantly. The hold button turns the screen and buttons off but allows the PC to stay on.

The U is loaded with programs…and a trial version of Microsoft Office. I uninstalled a ton of things to get this thing back to normal. It’s pre-loaded with SP2, which I hate. It’s the first time I am really using SP2 and the damn thing gives me a warning for almost everything I do. A trial of Norton is included as well. The main programs you need to keep are the keyboard and the ritePen (handwriting recognition) software. The other utilities like Vaio Power Management needs to remain as well.

I installed OneNote as its one of the main programs I use. It ran fine and I can use the pen input to edit my notes. I like it because I can also create mini post-it type notes to leave on the desktop. This is usually use-less, but with the pen it works well.

Otherwise, everything acts as if you had a regular computer but you can use the stylus as a mouse. I am going to install tablet next week and I will do a review to explain why one is better then the other.

Here’s an odd thing…the U does not come with a restore CD/DVD. You need to make it yourself. So, if you don’t have a CD-R or DVD-R drive, your out of luck. Dumb if you ask me. Here is another odd thing…in order to use the DDRW2 you need to use the stand…not only that, you need to have it plugged in. If you drop the U into the stand without the A/C the DDRW2 will not power up. So now, you need to carry the base and the A/C to use the drive. Dumb.

Conclusion:

Obviously I don’t think this unit is perfect, it reeks of 1st effort, but it does a very noble job. My complaints are mostly minor. The unit lasts long enough, 2 hours or so, is light enough (except when you hold it in one hand for an extended time), and has excellent handwriting recognition (view the video thread on the ritePen software). It is hard to believe that someone can use this computer as their main PC, and I also find it difficult to see someone using this as a PDA (its still too big and heavy), but I can see this as a secondary PC…more of a fancy toy. I am going to pair this with a BT keyboard and BT mouse (using a BT CF card) to use in class. I’ll try it for a week and see if I like it better then my X for class notes. So far I like it a lot and would buy it again…I just try not to think about the $2,000 + about $300 in accessories thus far.

I just want to thank iCube one more time for their help in getting me another wonderful Sony product.

is it the USDM or JDM product?

looks to me it’s a USDM, but then, if so, why u order from icube? just wondeirng, thanks.

[quote author=“gameson”]is it the USDM or JDM product?

looks to me it’s a USDM, but then, if so, why u order from icube? just wondeirng, thanks.

It’s the US version. I ordered from iCube for several reasons…

1. Customer Serivce
2. It is not available through Sony Style
3. Customer Service

When it comes to buying expensive products I usually go where I feel comfortable. Even if it was a bit more expensive (and it wasn’t, it was the same price) I would go with iCube for the way they treat their customers. They go out of their way to make sure everything is ok and fix any problem instantly. I also do the exact opposite if you do something wrong to me. Since my TR fiasco at Besy Buy (Dec. 2003) I will no longer spend my money there…and I haven’t since that day. I am very brand/company loyal.

Erik

Nice review, Erik. I enjoy reading those reviews that praise the product and also outline some shortcomings of it. I have been also interested in the U series and have been following the reviews of it (U50, U70, U71 and now U750P). I have also joined the Yahoo group devoted to U notebooks (the ones mentioned above) and those guys have done a lot of talking and experimenting with their U’s. So if you were not aware of it, feel free to join. I also found a nice review here: http://www.thevooner.com/feature/2004/07/08/sonyu70/sonyu70.htm
and I read some other take on it, which was mentioned here earlier about how one guy utilizes it for his every day tasks.
Anyways, I was gonna comment on your review:
1. The stand, Sony refers to it as port replicator, and I really like that you called it a stand, because it does not really replicates any ports. I also heard complaints about the necessity of it being plugged in in order to use the DDRW2 drive. It will oblige you to carry all those extras with you, but to me it is not a big deal, I actually like any extras that come with a notebook, in my opinion they add to the “coolness” factor.  :wink:
I am not sure if you know, but there is an accessory for your U that is called Protection Case with a Stand VGP-CKU1, which lets your use your PC without taking it out of the case.
2. I was laughing at the poor guy at SonyStyle store in NYC who you had to prove that that particular software existed on a U. I had a similar situation where I had to prove to a “knowledgable” Sony sales person, that my Locationfree TV LF-X1 can be used anywhere in the world and still access the Base Station in order to watch live TV or DVDs, etc. The manual was helpful for him.
3. As far as the remote controller that comes with it, looks very much like my MD controller and I think can make this U into a nice Video and Music player. As far as Windows Media Player, check with Sony JP support site, I believe they issued an updated WM plug-in to eliminate the problem you disccused with it. Some guys at Yahoo U Group were able to write a plug-in for other players.
4. I was a bit disappointed about the battery life, but thanks Sony, they offer a double capacity battery VGP-BPL1, which I am sure gonna cost an arm and a leg.
All in all, cool review, keep us updated and see if it proves to be a useful companion for your daily needs. After I play with my upcoming X505, I might consider using U as my Video and Music VAIO Pocket :wink:

I forgot to mention that Sony does not supply Restore CDs as of last summer and oblige a customer to burn their own copies with the supplied wizard. But you may always buy it from Sony Parts (I prefer it more, since Sony had issues with that wizard): PN:  A1091984A
I think it was a dumb way of Sony to cut costs that way…

VAIOfreak - Yes I have already joined the Yahoo group when I started having issues with my choice of BT card (review to follow). I already purchased the PDAir Leather case as well as VGP-CKU1 which is backordered and should arrive anyday now. I have a 20% off coupon and I am tempted to purchase the extended battery but I am still not sure as I don’t think I will use it for more then 2 hours at a time. I will let this week determine that.

Erik

Erik ,

Contents:

You get:
U570
Battery
Folding Keyboard (USB)
Stand
Wired Remote

i think u meant 750.
by the way,
Thanks for the review
it is a very nice review there :D

............
i also wondered.. how do you log-on to windows without keyboard?

[quote author=“invisiblefly”]
i think u meant 750.
............
i also wondered.. how do you log-on to windows without keyboard?

Thanks, I’ll fix it. I don’t have a windows password, but I believe you can pull up the onboard keyboard without actually being in Windows.

Erik

Your review and comments are very helpful.  Thanks, tifo.  I look forward to your future threads on this ‘U series’ section of the forum.  :D

Very cool little pice of tech. Erik, what do you use it for exactly? If I had a use for one of these things, I’d snatch one in a minute.

A very thorough review indeed! Nice work!

Update:

So far so good. I used the U to take notes in class and it worked fine. I used my BT keyboard and mouse (i’ll review those later this week) which worked fine when paired with the Sony USB BT adapter.

First…the all important WoW factor. Sad to report this does not get as many oohs and ahhs as the X. People were curious….asked to touch and hold….but everyone asked where the other one was. When I said I still have it and I am just trying something new, a sort of relief came out. I think people see the X as more of a marvel. Everyone was curious about the stylus design but where impressed when actually trying it out.

Although the U itself is smaller and lighter then the X, to be productive you still need a keyboard…a mouse isn’t totally needed, but it’s nice to have. So when you factor three devices, three small cases…it isn’t as much of a saving as i’d hoped.

Anyway, back to the U. In class I ran three apps all at once…OneNote, Word…and then…umm…SimGolf…hehe. When I ran SimGolf the U started to really go to work…the internal fans kicked into high gear…you could really hear it. It wasn’t as loud as a Dell or Compaq, but it was certainly noticable. 90% of the air was escaping from the top port, the rest from the bottom ones.

The U wasn’t stressed beyond that…I was alt-tabbing between the apps with no problem. Power-wise, for basic apps and such, this is more then enough.

Some problems i picked up on:
1. I use the Sony BT USB adapter…simply because I had a ton of problems with the CF BT devices….problem…I have no more free USB ports for a media card or other device.

2. The screen is a tad small. From a arms-lenght distance (800x600) its a bid hard to see smaller font sizes. I guess you could solve this by going to 640 or by increasing the zoom in Word…but still, a bitt annoying.

3. AC port. It’s located on the bottom and although the AC adapter is 90 degree angled, its still too thick…on a stand that I use it *almost* makes it hard to stand up…likewise if I didn’t have a stand I couldn’t put it down and charge it.

I am running a battery test now. Everything (mem, cf, ilink, etc) disabled except WiFi. Screen brightness is at full and I am using the BT devices. This is realistically how it will spend most of it’s time with me. So far it’s on 30 mins and it reports another 1:30 remaining…when I was fooling around before, max batt was around 3 hours…as reported. I might do a test like that…not sure though.

I will send another post tonight with my battery result from this test.

Drachen - I have no ‘real’ use for it. I liked the concept and I wanted a new toy of sorts. It might work decent in the library when I am looking things up…I can hold this in one hand and look up books in the other…or if I need to jot something quickly. It’s a bit more versitle then a notebook. I wish it was a tad smaller and lighter…

Erik

Erik,

I should have warned you about Socket’s card. It’s essentially a P.O.S. and they have crazy driver issues (i.e. they won’t give them to you or will force you to buy them).

You may want to try the Billionton CF Bluetooth card which is supposedly much more compatible with many more devices and it’s easier to get good drivers for it.

http://www.billionton.com/website/product/index.asp?sid=442435209&code=CFBT02&m=1

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]Erik,

I should have warned you about Socket’s card. It’s essentially a P.O.S. and they have crazy driver issues (i.e. they won’t give them to you or will force you to buy them).

You may want to try the Billionton CF Bluetooth card which is supposedly much more compatible with many more devices and it’s easier to get good drivers for it.

http://www.billionton.com/website/product/index.asp?sid=442435209&code=CFBT02&m=1

Thank you. I sort of knew it was a shot in the dark but I was willing to take the risk…last I heard it wasn’t working but nobody seemed to try it recently.

Essentially there are 4 or 5 cards that seem to work…
Socket, Billionton, Belkin, AmbiCom, and one or two others that I dont know the name.

Socket released their newer software but it didn’t help. I can pair the mouse, see the keyboard…but not pair it. I tried the Ambicom…it can see both, pair neither. Billionton and Belkin both work but have issues. People complain of random disconnects and extreme battery life issues. I cant deal with needing to repair my devices in the middle of a lecture, so for now I need to stick with the Sony USB option as it is flawless (well, except that it sticks out of the U).

Everyone suggests dumping the thinkoutside mouse for a bluetake (or whatever the name is) however that one is blue or white (the thinkoutside is black) and is noticably larger. I really like the feel of the thinkoutside mouse and I am willing to use the USB to keep it. I might try the belkin or billonton on my own to see how bad the disconnects are…until then i’ll live with the Sony USB.

I finished the first battery test. Screen at full bright, wifi on, both BT keyboard and mouse…I got 1:53, give or take. I am more then confident that I could get over 3 hours with the lowest settings and using only internal controls. This is on the standard battery.

Erik

[quote author=“tifosiv122”]Drachen - I have no ‘real’ use for it. I liked the concept and I wanted a new toy of sorts. It might work decent in the library when I am looking things up…I can hold this in one hand and look up books in the other…or if I need to jot something quickly. It’s a bit more versitle then a notebook. I wish it was a tad smaller and lighter…

I would have loved to use it while commuting to replace my aging TR, but commuting isn’t a big worry now. Maybe I should move to Cherry Hill or New Haven or something for a longer commute. 

[quote author=“Drachen”][quote author=“tifosiv122”]Drachen - I have no ‘real’ use for it. I liked the concept and I wanted a new toy of sorts. It might work decent in the library when I am looking things up…I can hold this in one hand and look up books in the other…or if I need to jot something quickly. It’s a bit more versitle then a notebook. I wish it was a tad smaller and lighter…

I would have loved to use it while commuting to replace my aging TR, but commuting isn’t a big worry now. Maybe I should move to Cherry Hill or New Haven or something for a longer commute. 

Cherry Hill…forget New Haven…no respect for CT.

I can’t use a PC in a moving vehicle…I get motion sick so quickly :( I can barely read the music on my iPod.

Erik