Sony VAIO VGN-UX280P 4.5-inch Laptop (Intel Core Solo Processor U1400, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive)

Since my husband is the computer expert and I'm not, I'm going to give you a completely layman's review, here. I'm 35, I'm a computer game junkie. My primary use for this computer is, therefore, games. I play on a lot of gaming sites as well as downloading more simple-type games like Zoo Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon, etc. To be honest, some games are simply better on what we affectionatly call "Tiny" with the touch screen and stylus, while other games are just too difficult to deal with on such a small screen (like the afore-mentioned RCT). I have a desk top computer that I wouldn't trade for the world, and "Tiny" wasn't meant in our house to replace that. But since my husband makes his living programming, I hate to tie up any computers or desk space on the days he works at home. Okay, here we go with what is becoming my "review MO." The Good = 1. Tiny is portable, which I love. It will be going camping with me, period. (You can't ride the ATV where we go after midnight...too much noise. So I will be playing my games when I can't sleep.) 2. Tiny can share the disk drive with my desk top, so I can still play games that require a disk. (I don't know how my husband set this up to work, but it does without any problems at all.) 3. I LOVE the fact that it's OS is XP Pro. (Vista and I aren't exactly great bedfellows.) 4. I love the handwriting memo program on mine. Very handy. 5. The "monitor." It's crystal clear. I don't have great vision, but I also don't wear glasses, and I can download E books and read them without using the magnify feature. (I feel that I must mention, here, that in another review for this product, someone said that you can't input data while in magnification, but I futzed around with it and found that I could. It ain't great, but can be done.) You can adjust the brightness along quite a substantial range. 6. The two cameras are cool, although more of a toy for me than a practical use. They do work pretty well, however. I was pretty impressed. 7. I do a little competetive gaming - I SMOKE most of my competetion just because I can move a lot faster with the touch screen and stylus. woo hoo lol The Bad = 1. I have run into a few games that Tiny can't handle because of it's limited screen resolution capabilities. Mr Programmer Hubby says this, however - "There are some programs (pathetically written) that do not handle the resolution Tiny can run. That's not Tiny's fault." He's feeling a little territorial. lol 2. I won't lie to you...typing is difficult enough that I put off answering emails until I can get to my desktop. HOWEVER!!! I have found a small bluetooth keyboard that doesn't just fold...it accordians to very tiny. I will be getting one before we go on vacation. The Ugly = 1. Battery doesn't last very long. 2. I've had Tiny for nearly 5 months, and there are already some issues with wear on the screen from the stylus. I have invested in screen cleaning wipes, and do my best. I didn't buy the screen protectors because of all the bad reviews I read. Mr. Programmer Hubby is a little surprised at how easily the screen can get a little daily-use damage. It hasn't affected my ability to see anything clearly up to this point, however. But when Tiny is turned off, you can see the points of wear on the black screen. I'm still giving Tiny (a.k.a. Sony Vaio UX 280) 5 stars because, as I tell my husband, "I really REALLY love him." Tiny was my Christmas present from Mr Programmer, and I've never had a gift I loved more. P.S. I'm sorry that this review was not as entertaining or as "ramped up" as I can get, but love is a sacred thing. LOL

Ever since I first heard of a product called "Tiqit" ([...]) I wanted to buy one ... the product never came to frutition and was never released beyond Beta Versions. There old website is still up with "limited commercial availability in the second half of 2006" as a release date ... at a street price of $[...] I would have had to take out a loan to buy one... BUT you know what? ... I was prepared to do that .. at the time it was described as "the only computer you can use while walking" I came across the MicroPCtalk ([...]) web forums and saw everyone talking about the Sony UX / Vaio Micro PC's I could NOT belive my eyes ... the Sony UX280-P is smaller, faster, has more features and stronger and sexier than the now unavailable Tiqit! ..... ... AND best of all? .....CHEAPER by far ... .... I got my UX280P with the full version of Windows XP -- BRAND NEW -- (not refurbished) with a full year warrantee for $[...] right here on Amazon ...have a look around www.Amazon.com especially if you are reading this in the last half of of 2007 or later you may be able to get an even better price. I've read reviews that feel the buttons are small or hard to type but I have not found that to be a problem and I have big hands ... the trick is to just use your thumbs like typing a text message on your phone ... sure you don't want to be typing out 100 page reports .. plug in a cheap USB key board for that or an expensive Blue-Tooth key board if you have the cash .. The UX280-P will also plug into a full sized monitor or flat screen for full desk top use at desktop speed! I am in Canada and I ordered my UX on here Amazon from Electronic Direct ([...] they were Awsome to deal with, I often order from the US and Electronica Direct is one of the best to deal with. A note if you are a Canadian with no experience ordering from the US you still have to pay GST and PST when the package arrives. Also brokerage and exchange .. right now the exchange rate is almost even so it's not factor your credit card company figuers that out automaticly when you order ... it's like 5% right now and going down ... MAKE SURE to ask for your UX to be shipped by US POST then our own Canada Post delivers. For brokerage the US Post / Canada Post combination charges peanuts like $[...] ... with the GST PST included, the total when the packaged arrived, was $[...] extra as I expected, remember if you are in business you get back the GST anyway. As my post title reveals the UX-280P RULES!! .. It's like a Palm Top with nothing to learn ... you know XP you know the UX280P alredy! I have attracted small crowds a number of times using it in public :) It's compact enough with the built in camera I often use it just for a camera and with a 40 GIG harddrive it would technicaly hold about 5 MILLION pictures :) people come up to me and and ask what kind of camera it is with that huge high res screen. It's fun to use watch YouTube videos at Mcdonald's ... AND ... it's a serious business tool that has made my work SOOOO much easier in just the few weeks I've had it ... it's not just *LIKE* having your desk top computer on your hip is *IS* having your desktop computer on your hip! For internet use the UX taps into any available WiFi and it also has a standard network/ethernet port on the docking station AND on an adaptor, the ethernet runs a bit faster than WiFi, I used it to get Microsoft updates. I also use the eathernet to load all my softweare from the CD/DVD drive on my desktop through the network, works great! It also will piggy back on any Blue Tooth phone for internet access AND ... the US models come with a Cingular SIM CARD ... I purchased a Rogers Pay-as-you-go SIM Card and it works for internet access that way too ... A little expensive if 5 cent at a kilobyte (if you don't have a package) but it does work ... I've used it for emergency email (when I did not have my phone with me or was out of minutes) a few times and it realy saved my [...]! I can't say enough good things about the UX-280P with it and my desktop I have no use for a common laptop anymore ... I recomend it highly!!

It is very tiny, by far the smallest fully functional computer I've ever had. It much larger than a PDA though so users used to putting a PDA in their pocket will not be happy with this. It would fit in really baggy pants pockets I suppose, but not in any pockets for anything I wear. It does fit nicely in my winter coat pocket. It really doesn't matter to me though as I have a small backpack-like case that I carry it in, along with keyboard, mouse, AC adapter, extra batteries for all, dongle for wired Ethernet/monitor output/NTSC video out, headphones and even an AV cable for connecting to a TV. All of that and it still weighs less, takes up less space and functions as well as any ultra portable I've had. Usability: The mouse is ok once you get used to it, and the keyboard is really only for small entries and just one step better than an on screen keyboard. Some key combos can be hard to enter but there are ways around that if it bothers you. The screen is very tiny, but also very crisp and bright. It can output to a monitor and display larger resolutions too. The speaker is nothing special, but if I am playing a game or listening to music or watching a movie I would use headphones anyway. I have not played with the cameras much but the webcam is very low quality as would be expected and the main camera was not that impressive either. It can take videos with sound so in a pinch it could take place of a digital camera or video camera but realize it may be much lower resolution that you are used to (it was for me). I took it on the road last week for the first time and it worked great. It felt weird packing a bag and fitting all my clothes and the computer with all accessories into the same bag. I have been taking two bags for years so this was a noticeable change for me. I unpacked when I got to my room and before you knew it I was checking email, surfing and even played games for a hour or so. Battery: The small pack that comes with it looks much better than the extended battery, but also bites as far as life. From my very simple, non scientific testing it seem to last as little as 2 hrs to as long as 4 hrs. The extended one is about double, at about 4 hrs minimum to as long as 8 hrs. Now those figures are from one extreme using it constantly, defragging the hard drive, playing games, wireless on, to the other extreme, wireless off, quite a bit of idle time between tasks, etc. Hibernate mode works awesome as it should, with saving and resuming each taking less than 20 seconds. If you don't mind using standby mode however you can get much more battery life and not really impact the availability of the machine. It takes 5 seconds to go into standby and resumes instantly, and I do mean instantly. Until now I have not had an occasion to use standby since they made the hibernate mode standard years ago, but I have to admit it is handy to put it in standby for a few minutes or even an hour or two if I want to keep it ready to use at a moments notice. This greatly extends the battery life to 12 hrs or more depending on how much you actually are using it. I put it in standby overnight one time and when I woke up it was still had 20% left, not sure how full it was the night before though. While I admit that it is more of a toy for me, it has some merit in being a very portable unit in between the PDA and ultra portable laptop market. I really hope these don't go away, as I think it is a very cool idea and as they get even more powerful it could really become a decent gaming platform. Price being the biggest turn off, the second one being size or at least thickness (at least for this unit). Some say it's too small and others think it's too big. If it was any smaller I would have a hard time holding it, and any bigger and you lose some of the portability of it. Software: I'm running Windows Professional, Open Office, use IE7, Trillian for IM, xfire for gaming IM. I have a 4 gb memory stick that I put a bunch of MP3s on and also a few movies that range from 300mb to 700mb. They actually look quite well on the small screen and with the headphones makes a nice personal media player for moves and music. Now here's the real reason I call it my toy: it plays games, a lot of games, only limited by the 40 gb hard drive space. I have a Dell m1710 with a 512mb 7900GTX and I love it, but this thing is small enough to take to work each day and play on breaks and the battery life is good enough to last all day. It plays game much better than I ever would have imagined, party because of the lower resolution and partially because you can turn down the details that you can't see anyways on such a small screen. Work great - no issues: Morrowind Diablo 2 Warcraft 3 Quake 3 Halo Half Life Call of Duty Counterstrike MAME works great! Thousands of games Nesticle NES emulator GBA emulator Bunch of smaller simple 3d games, Zuma, Mohjongg, etc Work great after I worked around minimum 1024x768 screen res issue Sacred Underworld Minions of Mirth Work at very min settings barely playable Oblivion - had to use Oldblivion patch though Do not work or did not try Goldeneye mod for Half Life 2 - suppose HL2 would not work either but did not try Did not try Call of duty 2 because would take up too much space and COD1 looks great anyway

I had been researching on ultramobile PCs for quite a while and even looked at the Asus Eee PC, which is cheap but has a terrible low-res low-quality screen (and weighs a hefty 2 lbs, the same as my Sharp PC-MM20 *real* laptop with more memory and a 40GB hard drive). In the end I decided I'd want something no more than 1.5 lbs. and roughly pocketable. I had doubts about the VAIO UX line because, frankly, I didn't like the design, and I didn't care for the EDGE WWAN feature (I'd rather have the faster EV-DO). But when I saw one in action a few weeks ago, I decided it was good enough for me, and the price is right, so I bought one. Man, was that a good buy or what. The PC has pleased me in every way. I can now run Office 2003, Money 2008, the full version of Firefox, IE 7, and I just installed TaxACT 2007 (low-cost tax prep software). The screen is smallish but very sharp and can be very bright (I leave it at a low level to conserve battery), the keyboard quite usable, and the included port replicator makes docking at home a breeze. I hook a 7-port USB 2.0 hub to the port replicator and I now seriously plan to make this my primary PC, replacing a 3-year-old desktop. One option I'll look into is, per the advice of a poster in the product forum here, replacing the internal drive with a 100GB one. Other than that, I'm extremely, absolutely happy with a road-capable real PC that weighs only 1.2 lbs. (it actually feels lighter) that also turns into a decent desktop PC for general use. BTW, if you want an ultramobile PC definitely get something like this model which comes with Windows XP instead of Vista.

Sony not only will require you to buy expensive external equipment to diagnose *any* problems (of which there are MANY-my motherboard died horribly, took out most of the guts with it) causing you to spend almost $500 more to do *their* jobs for them. Don't even think about spending money on an extended warranty, its just a way for them to get your money and then, again, they make you purchase more expensive hardware to do any diagnosing before they will even talk to you on the phone. Sony is not a company I will be dealing with ever again...buy ANYTHING but a Sony... you can't afford all the parts you need to do THEIR job for them.

i bought mine a year and a half ago.. cons: my battery lasts only 10minutes sometimes less..! and even the newest versions come with the same type of battery. it also comes with bunch of junk programs i had to go trough and delete almost every program that came with it. recovery system takes about 10gb of memory +windows and else. expensive replacements and parts. keyboard and buttons are bad almost no use.. vs. pros: i gues this doesnt need much explaining small slick design, easy to carry, touch screen(a litle hard to use), sim card slot: you can have internet anywhere a cellphone would work(i called sony and made them unlock it and used it with t-mobile which is around $30 cheaper than cingular a month, 2built in cameras, microphone(i couldnt use much on msn but i dont know maybe its me)

It works good for me at glance. However, there are many things that you need to consider before making your decision. The first thing is it does not come with a program that we could use along with the stylus instead of using keyboard like other devices such as tablet PC or Pocket PC, so it is very inconvenient when you take it to a conference room or something, you always have to put your attention on typing on the very small keyboard. The next thing is the battery just lasts arount two hours, not four hours as advertise. It should be shipped with a better battery for such a portable unit like this, especially it is designed to use as a mobile phone too. In addition, the solution of the screen is the most inconvenient. It was 1024 x 600 instead of 1024 x 768 and it causes many dialogs and screens have part of it disappear. There are many more things that you need to consider about.

This thing does it all. It allows you to go from home den/work space to office seamlessly, never having to turn it off. It has completely replaced my more powerful PC. Five stars. Here's some advice, though: - Get the extended battery. Battery life is arguably the greatest downfall for this mini-titan. With the screen on full brightness (you can choose to dim the screen while on battery) you'll only get about an hour of life before you have to recharge. DESPITE what Sony tells you. The extended battery is physically bigger but allows for a better grip (though weighs more as well). I can't tell you how much it extends the battery off the top of my head (though Sony boasts 1.5 times more), but I haven't had to change batteries since I got it. - Buy the screen protectors. The screen can and will collect dirt often; so if you decide to pass on these then prepare to invest in some LCD cleaning solution. - The keyboard can be very cumbersome to work with, especially with extended use. As an alternative buy the Think Outside Universal Bluetooth Keyboard (just type that into Amazon). It communicates with the Vaio wirelessly saving that one USB slot for something else. Plus it's the same width as the Vaio, and folds up -- it's ultra mobile! - While you're at it invest in a decent travel-size bluetooth mouse (preferably with rechargeable batteries). With the keyboard and mouse it'll feel like you're on a regular (albeit micro) PC. - Invest in a nice padded bag to carry it in. The case the vaio sits in is nice for a protective skin but you'll want something sturdier for your investment. - When you tuck your Vaio away to travel from one place to the other (from the office to home, for example) be sure to put it in Hibernate Mode. If you don't (and choose Standby or Power Saver) the heat sensor will kick in, turning on the fan, which will overheat it and drain the battery even more (with the running fan). The max resolution it can have on an external monitor is 1600x1200. It can play 3D games such as Star Wars: Empire at War and Warcraft III fairly smoothly (though on lowst graphics setting).