Hasta La Gadget!

Sony refuses to call its latest 8-inch mini note — the Vaio P Series
Lifestyle PC — a netbook. Why? It’s a far more capable device than
most netbooks, which justifies its price (twice that of most netbooks), Sony officials say. And boy, are they wrong.

If by "capable" they mean "stuff you can get done with it," then you’re
going to need to learn a lot of hot keys. Because the worst part of
this netbook (yes, I called it that) is its mouse. It’s a pointing
stick. A device this puny
is hard enough to use in the first place, and poking a piece of rubber
to make selections is just God-awful annoying. And for clicking, there
are
two wide, silver buttons beneath the space bar; they’re positioned so
awkwardly you’re going to pray you never have to right-click.

I don’t
exaggerate when I say this netbook’s small. The 8-inch LED screen
displays a high 1,600 x 768 resolution. That’s impressively sharp, but
it means onscreen type becomes extremely small, so even
if you have 20/20 vision, you’ll be squinting often to double check
what you type. And the netbook weighs a pound and a half — small enough
to stuff in a blazer pocket. (Let’s face it, though: The idea of
carrying one of these things in a
coat pocket screams "nerdy douche.")

Other than stifling your productivity, the Lifestyle’s slow
performance won’t help much either. This netbook ships with a 1.33-GHz
Intel Atom processor — not the standard 1.6-GHz Atom in other netbooks.
(For some reason, Sony treats Japan with faster processor options.) We ran some benchmarks on the Lifestyle, and it’s pretty damn sluggish.
For example, in our iTunes conversion test the Lifestyle took about 19
minutes to convert 25 tracks. By way of comparison, the MSI Wind U120
took 11 minutes to complete the same test. Did I mention the Lifestyle
ships with Vista? That’s probably making its performance even worse.

The keyboard isn’t great, either. It’s nice and roomy, but the keys
themselves feel very flat and unnatural to type on. The right Shift key
is extremely small, something that many consumers hate about other netbook
keyboards.

And did I mention the Lifestyle starts at $900? The base model includes
a 60-GB hard disk drive; the middle model ships with a 64-GB solid state drive
for $1,200; and the top-of-the-line Lifestyle costs $1,500 with a 128-GB
solid state. All models ship with a maxed out memory capacity of
2 GB of RAM. That’s pretty pricey compared to netbooks, which cost $400 on
average.

Don’t get me wrong: The Lifestyle is a truly beautiful device — a worthy highlight at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
The cooler part about the netbook is it ships with a built-in GPS
device, a 3G modem and Wi-Fi, meaning you’ll be able to connect to the
internet practically anywhere. Other bonuses include a multimedia card
reader (Memory Stick Duo and SD) and noise-canceling headphones.

Still, that’s a lot of money, and good looks and ultraportability aren’t
everything in the technology world. Surely, some of you travelers out
there will like this thing — maybe if you purchase a separate Bluetooth
mouse. Otherwise
I don’t see this being a good device for professionals or the typical
consumer.

We’ll post a full review soon after completing benchmarking and battery
testing. Don’t get your hopes up for battery life, though: The
Lifestyle ships with a 2-cell battery compared to the standard 3-cell
in netbooks.   

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Fujitsu has expanded high-speed connectivity options for its LifeBook notebooks and tablet PCs.

Four convertible tablet PC models–the LifeBook T5010, T1010, P1630 and T2020–will now support AT&T’s 3G network.
Two other notebooks models–the LifeBook T5010 Tablet PC and the LifeBook E8420–will support
EVDO in the second quarter of 2009.

The idea is to help Fujitsu users get faster speeds during wireless browsing, says the company. 

Lifebook Product Details [Fujitsu]

Photo: Fujitsu Tablet PC (momentimedia/Flickr)

Here at Gadget Lab we’ve been blessed with an early test unit of the
MSI Wind U120 — the successor to the popular MSI Wind netbook. Our
first impressions? We like it plenty. The improvements from the first
model are very minor, but they make a significant difference on
something as small as a netbook.

Here’s a rundown of the MSI Wind U120’s features, accompanied by beautiful photography courtesy of Wired.com’s Jonathan Snyder.

Bigger, Better Trackpad

First and foremost—the trackpad (above). Almost everybody complained about the
crappy trackpad on the first Wind, and MSI listened. The Wind U120’s
improved trackpad is about two centimeters wider than the previous one,
and you’d be amazed at how much easier it is to mouse around with that
tiny addition in space. Also, the texture of the trackpad is a bit
grainy, which makes navigating less of a slippery experience than it
was on the previous model’s. Third and most important—the Wind U120 has
two silver buttons accompanying the trackpad, which beats the living
bejeezus out of the clunky, single mouse button on the original Wind.

Professional Makeover

Other than that, MSI completely reworked the Wind’s exterior, ditching
the original model’s cute, rounded aesthetic for a more professional
design with sharper edges and a mixture of black and white (above). More
serious this new netbook looks and feels indeed, which business users
should appreciate.

Spiffy Vents

The case is composed of a higher quality, sturdier
plastic compared with the first Wind. MSI also redesigned the heat
vents to, well, look like heat vents (above). The last model’s sorry excuse
for heat vents were five punched-out square holes, lined with cheap,
holey aluminum.

Same Ol’ Netbook Performance

As for computing performance, we saw no improvement. And we didn’t
expect any, since the Wind U120 contains the same guts as its
forefather. The test unit shipped with a copy of Windows XP, which operates
about as well as you’d expect an 8-year-old operating system to. (Read:
Like a piece of sh*t. We look forward to hacking this baby to run Mac
OS X.) Anyhow, we streamed some Hulu videos and they played back just
fine. Audio from the puny speakers sounds tinny, awful and barely
audible, just like on the first Wind. We recommend plugging into the headphone port (above), as
we generally do with every netbook.

Spacey Keyboard

The keyboard (above) hasn’t changed at all: It’s plenty roomy, but some might
have a problem with the three keys to the left of the "Shift" key (<
> ? ) because they’re smaller than the rest, which is a little
awkward.

Business or Casual?

With all that said, I personally still prefer the more casual look of
the original Wind (above and below)—but I treat my netbook as the computer I use to
"unwind" at home (i.e., web surfing, chatting and listening to music).

We’ll provide a full review after a bit more tinkering around and running benchmarks. Stay tuned, Gadget Labbers!

See Also:

• Review: MSI Wind U100
• Gadget Lab Catches a Second MSI Wind
• Second Generation MSI Wind Goes on Sale
• Gadget Lab Video: Running OS X on a Netbook
• Pink MSI Wind in Cynical Valentine Cash-In

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

(Thanks, Maren — for getting this thing in!)

Sony’s hottest new netbook appears to be showing more love to Japan than the states.

In the United States, Sony launched the VAIO Series P Lifestyle PC — an 8 inch notebook that weighs 1.5 pounds — at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At the convention, Sony said the Lifestyle would be shipping with a 1.33GHz Atom processor.

However, Engadget spotted specifications in Sony’s Japanese site that list two options for faster processor speeds for the Lifestyle — 1.6GHz and 1.83GHz.

What gives? Are we getting those options here, too? Sony provided the following e-mail statement:

We do not comment on future product roadmaps…. The P Series is the ideal companion PC, allowing users to take it with them anywhere and everywhere for the ultimate computing on-the-go experience. We wanted to make sure the balance between price and performance was fair and after rigorous testing the Intel 1.33Ghz processor seemed to be the ideal candidate.

That’s an odd response that conflicts with what Sony told me at CES, where a spokesman said the Lifestyle was powered with a 1.33GHz Atom to address heating issues.

Then again, considering this is a puny 8-inch netbook, I can’t imagine customers would care that much about whether they’re getting a 1.83GHz or 1.33 GHz CPU. Still, options are always nice, right?

Hey Sony, where’s the 1.86GHz VAIO P for America? [Engadget]

See Also:

• Just Why Isn’t the Sony Vaio P a Netbook?
• Sony Launches ‘World’s Lightest’ 8-Inch Notebook (Not a Netbook)

Photo: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

Apple on Wednesday quietly upgraded its entry-level, white MacBook so its specifications nearly match its aluminum (aka "unibody") superior.

The $999 white MacBook received the following upgrades:

• Processor: 2GHz Core 2 Duo with a 1066 MHz bus (from 2GHz, 866MHz bus)
• Memory: Standard 2GB RAM (from 1GB)
• Bluetooth: Version 2.1 (upgraded from 2.0)
• Graphics: NVIDIA 9400M with 256MB (from Intel GMA X3100, 144 MB)
• Storage: 320GB hard disk drive option added

Though the upgrade makes the white MacBook very similar to the low-end aluminum MacBook ($1,300), there still remain a few differences. The white MacBook’s RAM is DDR2 — slower than the DDR3 memory in its aluminum siblings.

Also, the white MacBook ships with a 120GB hard drive, while the low-end aluminum MacBook ships with a 160GB hard drive.

Nonetheless, those differences are very minor, so this is a great upgrade if you’re looking to save some cash and the new aluminum look doesn’t do it for you.

Product Page [Apple via Engadget]