Sony X505/SP Notebook Review 235
John Gaule writes "Earlier it was mentioned on Slashdot that Sony has introduced the worlds thinnest laptop, the Sony X505 which weighs just under 2lbs. Designtechnica has reviewed this system and compares it to the JVC Interlink 7310, Panasonic W2 and Sony TR1A laptops. Apparently Sony had to have a custom motherboard configured to get the CPU and hard drive in the right position for cooling. There is also no integrated WiFi but it uses an 802.11g WiFi PC Card."
Better link and more info on this laptop (Score:4, Informative)
Also, I must say, that is quite the small laptop. And you can see the fingerprints all over it in one of the photos on the main article.
There are other images available here [icube.us] as well.
Laptop too thin.. too small. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Laptop too thin.. too small. (Score:4, Insightful)
To each his own. The notion of the perfect size/weight is subjective. I personally think the IBM T30/T40 is the perfect wieght at less than 5-lbs and it is still very functional.
Re:Laptop too thin.. too small. (Score:2)
The same goes for pricing and OS. I would much rather get this 1.3 kg subnotebook [sub300.com], loaded with Lindows, no MS tax, for less than a US$900 (as compared to $4000 for the X505/XP). BTW, there are other options in Lindows.com. And yes, I would wipe it and put Mandrake on it :-)
Re:Laptop too thin.. too small. (Score:2)
Re:Laptop too thin.. too small. (Score:2)
Anyone who commutes into a large city and uses mass transit and wants to carry a laptop to work in the mornings, this sort of thing is great for. Also, anyone who has to travel for their jobs. It's not that small of a market.
Re:Better link and more info on this laptop (Score:2)
Thinner and thinner. (Score:5, Interesting)
Damon,
Re:Thinner and thinner. (Score:2)
That's okay, I'll stick with my iBook. It's cuter anyway.
Damon,
Re:Thinner and thinner. (Score:2, Interesting)
As far as it being flimsy or whatever--PSHAW! I ab
Re:Thinner and thinner. (Score:2)
No onboard RJ45 connection (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No onboard RJ45 connection (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No onboard RJ45 connection (Score:2)
Re:No onboard RJ45 connection (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No onboard RJ45 connection (Score:2)
I personally like my Toshiba (Score:1, Offtopic)
Just got a Toshiba Satellite M35-S359. Something like 1.4" thick, 15.4" screen, ~7lbs. *Very* sweet laptop, and heat is no issue with the Centrino proc in there. Forget IBM's fragile creation, get something with some panache
Re:I personally like my Toshiba (Score:3, Informative)
In our case, we can't kill the Thinkpads in service with us. The
Re:I personally like my Toshiba (Score:2)
Too many to list. Been dealing with them for years, a lot of professors at my university had them.
"I agree Toshibia has made good machine in the past put there recent efforts are severly lacking."
Aside from getting a defective power plug out of the box, this Satellite has offered no trouble at all. YMMV of course.
"Opionion's are like A-holes, eveyone's got them"
Well, yeah. This is
Merely offering my insight from doing generalized tech sup
RIAA, Bad luck (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, I just plain haven't had good luck with Sony products:
My NX60 stopped working one day for no reason (didn't drop or crush it), my stereo shocks me when i touch the case (so that's gone), my brother's PS2 died for no reason, my coworker's sony laptop's keys [letters on the keyboard] have all rubbed off ("how can I type now!?" "remember where the keys are" "what!!???"), etc, etc, etc.
My Multiscan200sf monitor is holding up quite nicely; that's a well-made piece of machinery
Note that I'm not flaming or trolling, I just think that most people on slashdot would be better-served by choosing a more open vendor than Sony.
Re:RIAA, Bad luck (Score:2)
Although I do enjoy the PS2, I waited till it was cheap-ish (relatively speaking).
Re:RIAA, Bad luck (Score:2, Interesting)
I ended up getting a Del
Re:RIAA, Bad luck (Score:2, Interesting)
I also have a dead PS2 (my newer PS2 works perfectly though, seems they fixed the DRE problems) and it seems any discman I've bought int the past few years has died in 6 months.
Interestingly, I had a discman from early-mid 90's that lasted a good 6 years as well as a bookshelf st
Re:RIAA, Bad luck (Score:2)
Also remember that one of the main reasons that MemorySticks are more expensive is that it they are proprietary, while the CompactFlash interface (form factor / pinout / comunication protocol) is an open standard. I don't know if SD is proprietary or not.
Also, since CF has the contoller on the chip not the reader, it allows a lot of flexability in terms of the actual technolo
Re:RIAA, Bad luck (Score:2)
Maybe I'm just innured because I HAVE the sony handycam, the digital camera, work buys me a new Sony Vaio every couple of years, I love my PS/2, and I've managed to tweak the 2.6 kernel so my new Clie syncs correctly... and ...
Alright, I'm a Sony Zealot, deal.
But our CEO is hooked on them too. He only destroys them half as often as the Dells we used to buy him.
2Thin 2Furious (Score:3, Funny)
Re:2Thin 2Furious (Score:2)
Can a laptop be too thin? Too small? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Can a laptop be too thin? Too small? (Score:2)
there is no such thing as too small and light.
Personally, I can live without any drives when
I travel: compact flash makes a reasonable backup choice.
Re:Can a laptop be too thin? Too small? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Can a laptop be too thin? Too small? (Score:2, Interesting)
Obviously you don't have to fly regularly with a computer. There are **THOUSANDS** of us who do. 5 to 7 pounds is a nasty backache waiting to happen, especially when compared to something like the Sony Z1A I have. It's got everything (2 USB ports, firewire, sound in and out, PCMCIA, built-in RJ45 Ethernet and 802.11b), sacrifices no drives (built-in CDRW/DVD, USB floppy), great keyboard, great screen, touchp
Re:Can a laptop be too thin? Too small? (Score:2)
Re:Can a laptop be too thin? Too small? (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdotters can't spell theorem.
Alt link for info (Score:5, Informative)
$4000? HolySheeeee-it. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:$4000? HolySheeeee-it. (Score:2)
A sales manager who travels a lot with an expense account...
Re:$4000? HolySheeeee-it. (Score:3, Interesting)
I would guess that if Sony releases this in the US it will probably sell for around $2000.
Re:$4000? HolySheeeee-it. (Score:2, Interesting)
$8,150
For my part, it looks like a _really_ nice machine, but it makes me sad that Sony recently got burned on the pen computing thing, so won't be doing a pen slate or convertible --- oh well, there's always the NEC or the Fujitsu or even the Electrovaya Scribbler...
William
keyboard position (Score:5, Insightful)
Come on Sony.. move the keyboard back so I can rest my palms on the deck, and hold the laptop on my lap at the same time...
Re:keyboard position (Score:2)
Suggest you stick strips of velcro underneath the unit and on your lap-covering garments
Baz
Re:keyboard position (Score:2)
That's a nifty idea. And with a light enough laptop and strong enough velcro, you could probably stand up and not drop the laptop. You could even think of it as a sort of wearable computer that way. You might want to rig up a cord from the cover to your belt so that when you stand up, the lid would automatically close, too.
Touchpad? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a thin v505 that is less than 6 months old, has been treated extremely gently, and is already in need of touchpad replacement/repair (the cursor just skips all over and simply does not accurately track finger movement). This is an annoying and widespread enough problem to warrant those considering purchase of a 505 to perhaps think twice. And if you do, definitely get that extended warranty (but that may just go without saying in laptop purchasing).
Re:Touchpad? (Score:2)
Well, obviously, by getting rid of it.
I'm quite glad myself, as I really hate touchpads... Eraserheads are not much better for fine movement, but their location is far superior for occasional large-scale movement -- which as a mostly-emacs/xterm-in-X user, is what I care about the most (to switch windows, etc). I'd guess that space issues were the main the reason Son
Too small to be useful (Score:5, Insightful)
No trackpad (have to use trackpoint or external mouse).
No built-in floppy or optical drive.
Have to use dongles for LAN and VGA out.
Have to use PC Card for 802.11.
Only a 20GB hard drive.
Max of 512MB RAM.
1 GHz Centrino CPU.
All your paying for is thinness and lightness. That may be enough for some, but not me. Get rid of all the dongles, include a CD drive, beef up the specs a bit and then we can talk. I don't care if you have to make it a little thicker and heavier -- it needs to be useful!
I suspect they're going for the mobile professional market. Marketing guys that will pay out the nose for the smallest, hippest item. Good luck to 'em.
Re:Too small to be useful (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not meant for you. It's a niche product. It's meant for business travellers.
I saw a few laptops sorta like this (very small, no externals to speak of) being used by journalists and business peeps at Siggraph a couple of years ago. Whereas I have an Inspiron. I love this machine but I'd be nervous as hell trying to navigate around the show floor with it tucked under my arm.
Re:Too small to be useful (Score:2)
That's a disadvantage?? I HATE trackpads with all my soul. The only reason I haven't bought a laptop is that the only ones with trackpoints these days are (a) huge toshibas (b) super expensive sonys and (c) ugly thinkpads. I'd buy a powerbook with a trackpoint in a shot...
Re:Too small to be useful (Score:2)
The only thing I don't like about my conversion from ThinkPads to PowerBooks is the loss of the TrackPoint and the gain of the touchpad, which seems to send my cursor just about everywhere but the right place
Would love Apple to see the trackpoint light.
D
Re:Too small to be useful (Score:2)
Me too, but I wonder if there are patent issues involved.
Whenever I see a particular unique solution used heavily by one manufacturer, and only sparsely used by others (and in the case of eraserheads, it's usually for notebooks which are physically too small to use anything else), I start to suspect patents...
Re:Too small to be useful (Score:2)
I suspect the real reason we don't see more trackpoints is that the rubber eraser tip self-destructs after 6 months to a year of heavy use. Manufacturers probably don't want to explain the need for that kind of maintenance to irate customers who just see their mouse cursors start drifting bizarrely.
I know the first time I saw that happened, I thought there was something really expensive wron
Sharp Actius MM-10 (Score:5, Informative)
With the bigger battery, its weight goes up to a whole 2.9 lbs, but it runs for 9 hours.
Re:Sharp Actius MM-10 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Sharp Actius MM-10 (Score:2)
Of course in many people's view, the touchpad is a drawback, not an `important feature.' It's good there's a laptop for everybody's taste, though -- in fact, Sony's use of an eraserhead is a hopeful sign, given the lemming-like movement of the industry towards touchpads lately.
Oh, and according to the review, the Sony does have an ethernet adapter.
Custom Designed Motherboard? (Score:3, Insightful)
My experience with Sony laptops (Score:5, Interesting)
Almost exactly one month out of warranty, I started having problems. The computer would start, stay on for a very short time (usually less than 5 minutes) and then it would shut off.
Thinking some part may be drawing too much power, I tried disconnection every possible part that could be disconnected. However, this did not solve my problem. I finally succumbed to calling the support department, which of course had no clue and recommended I send my laptop in to be serviced.
I sent my laptop in as they said, and got notification that it had been received at the service department. A week passed, and I had not gotten any indication as to the status. I called support, gave them my ticket number, and asked them what was going on. They had no idea, and nothing had been logged. A couple days later I called again, and got the same result.
At this point, I became rather upset, and demanded they call me back by the end of the next day to tell me what was going on. They were kind enough to call me back, but not smart enough to figure out the problem. They said it would cost me $2200 dollars to have the problem "fixed" which I'm sure at that cost meant sending me a refurb unit.
This was 1 month out of a year long warranty, and I was furious and demanded better service. At this point, I could have gotten a computer that was twice as powerful for the same price they were going to charge me for "repairs." Unfortunately I got nowhere in my requests for fair compensation. In fact, I had to pay $60 dollars to cover services rendered and have my unfunctioning laptop shipped back to me.
$3000 dollars got me use of a laptop for one year and one month. This thing had minor wear as it served mainly as a desktop replacement. After dealing with Sony, and being a loyal customer of their other products, I kindly told them to fuck off. I have never spent another dime on Sony products.
Re:My experience with Sony laptops (Score:3, Interesting)
My Sony stereo's CD player no longer works (skips)
My Sony Discman's volume control seems to be set on Random and the secret "constant noise" feature is permanently engaged
My Sony television blacks out when trying to play DVDs through my Sony PS2 using S-Video hookups (though Xbox/normal DVD player work fine through the same TV)
My PS2 stopped reading discs 3 months after I got it. I exchanged it, but now that's actin
Re:My experience with Sony laptops (Score:2)
I wrecked my car, and promptly sold the stereo equipment that was inside it. (This was not Sony's fault but a good excuse to get something different).
Problems with stereo equipment:
- A VCR that refuses to output on the RF out connector.
- A DVD player that quit read
Re:My experience with Sony laptops (Score:2)
I've spent hours upon hours talking to Indians with american sounding names (Paul, Adam...I think they're all biblical). It's mind numbing, frustrating and entirely useless.
We all know Dell consumer tech support is also in India.
Does anyone know a company that makes laptops and has support in the USA?
(BTW, the problem is it crashes on the Phoenix BIOS splash and just prints L 07 07 07 07 07 infintely, if anyone has any idea what this is...)
Buy ThinkPad. (Score:2)
Over the years I've gone through:
ThinkPad 700
ThinkPad 760cd
ThinkPad 760xd
ThinkPad 770z
All of them ran/run Linux, all of them were desktop replacements, all of them had hundreds if not thousands hours logged logged before they were "retired" and all of them still run (they have been handed down through my family as I have upgraded).
For one brief moment I bought a non-IBM laptop (a Fujitsu), but frankly yo
Re:My experience with Sony laptops (Score:2)
But, I still think it's hardware. When I try various rescues, the kernel always tells me it's not getting interrupts from the drive. Either way, they're letting me return the thing to them for repair.
Hope they don't find my linux doings. Maybe I'll put the drive in the microwave for a few...
Small Laptops ... (Score:4, Interesting)
I've been wanting a really small laptop for sometime now and finding one that looks sexy and has some punch at a reasonable price is not that easy. But when you realise that you can purchase a G4 12in ibook for just over a grand and an 11in G4 powerbook for just over 1.5 grand. This sony laptop starts to look decidedly expensive all for a couple of millimeters here and there.
Aside from the math, Id rather give Apple some of my hard earned dosh , than redmond. I'd bet Yellow Dog Linux would run a beauty on those *book's too. I just need a job... After a while one needs a gadget buying fix, and I've been yearning for the tiny powerbook for too long now!
(Gratituous Gentoo Plug) (Score:2)
What better way to benchmark a new box than by clocking an KDE build in 18 hours instead of my usual 24.
Re:(Gratituous Gentoo Plug) (Score:2)
What hardware are you running your gentoo on? I cant say I've ever had to wait 18hrs to build KDE. (2xAthlon MP 1400).
Re:(Gratituous Gentoo Plug) (Score:2)
In my limited Gentoo experience with Intel hardware, I've noticed that Portage is less about compiler optimizations, and more about compile-time options. Leaving out unnecessary crap is much more important than simply using some gcc -O1337 options. For example, you can build software with or without GNOME bindings. Some binary distros seem to build all possible bindings just in cas
Re:(Gratituous Gentoo Plug) (Score:2)
KDE isn't so bad. It's qt that always seems to take forever. Then, if you don't set your flags to forget about gnome you end up compiling that too when some package that hooks to both adds in all of its gtk dependencies.
For laughs run emerhe -ep kde. Note all the gnome entries.
Re:(Gratituous Gentoo Plug) (Score:2)
Fair enough. I used to use YDL on a blue 333mhz g3 at work. The first version I ever tried was a little ropey. But I found V3 and the previous version to be very very stable, and performance wise it seemed so m
Non-integrated WiFi is lame (Score:5, Insightful)
When it's ultra-light and ultra-thin, the goal is portability, right? This should mean I can close the machine, dump it into its bag, and run.
But you can't do that safely if you have a WiFI card in the slot with the antenna lump sticking out of the side, just waiting to break off or transfer a bump from the outside into the card socket (munging it and in all likelyhood your machine's motherboard).
Fujitsu P-Series (Score:4, Informative)
My search ended at the Fujitsu P-5010. It's the size of a book so it fits in my backpack easily. It's not thin, but at 3.4 lbs it's light. It's 1" thickness prevents it from being fragile (with it in my bag, I've fallen on my bag...no damage). Plus the modular bay battery allows me to use it for about 7 hours of compiling Gentoo before I have to plug it in.
Linux support is good (except for wide-angle resolution, gotta go XiG for that).
My only complaints are: XFree can't do 1280x768 on the i855gm chipset (this may be fixed soon). I like a trackpoint more than a touchpad.
Check out the P-series forums at leog.net
Re:Fujitsu P-Series (Score:2)
too slim... (Score:3, Interesting)
CB
Not having builtin wireless ... (Score:2)
marketing rots your brain (Score:2)
Just reread that a couple times. It speaks for itself.
--Bruce Fields
Re:it breaks easily (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2, Informative)
Basic physics tells us all objects, when air resistance is neglected, hit the ground at the same velocity when dropped from the same height, and for a one-meter fall, I don't think air resistance is the issue.
Re:it breaks easily (Score:4, Insightful)
Not quite. (Score:2)
In the case of the laptop, the V would be what it got up to. Using Vf^2 = Vi^2 + 2ad, we find that the V ~= 4.43 m/s.
If I have a 1kg laptop, and have it 1 metre above the ground, the force it will hit the ground with is easily worked out. 1 * 4.43 = 4.43N of force. If you convert it to pounds, that means the laptop struck with a force of about 0.995 pounds. Scientifically we have determined that if it broke from that fall, it was a cheap piece of shit.
Still:Not quite. (Score:2)
The force of it falling is dependant on how hard the surface it hits is. As you calculated above, the velocity at impact is 4.43M/s, giving the 1Kg laptop a momentum of 4.43 KgM/s.
F=M*A, where A is the acceleration of the laptop going from 4.43 M/s (V)to 0 M/s (assuming its not bouncing) over the collision time (T) or dv/dt.
dv is constant at -4.43M/s
time is unknown, but assumed to be approaching 0 (harder floor=less collision time).
This causes A to approach infinity.
Since our mass is
Re:f=m*a (Score:2)
Re:f=m*a - Should be 1/2m * v(2) (Score:2)
Based on your statement, dropping the laptop from a height of 0.5m or 500m will result in the same impact. Acceleration is constant, 9.8m/s(2) and so is the mass (the laptop does not get heavier or lighter on its way down).
The correct way of defining the impact would be:
energy @ impact = one half the mass of the object multiplied by the square of its velocity.
Re:it breaks easily (Score:1)
I've had to use Compaqs, and Toshibas at work, and none have been as well constructed.
If we save just one person from buying a Sony (Score:3, Informative)
So, how about the service. Non-existent. I was promised shipping boxes and RMA tags on no less that four occasions and never received a s
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2, Informative)
I can understand some people want laptops with lots of drives etc, but personally I find once I've got everything I need installed on the machine I rarely need a CD drive for anything since new software gets transferred via the network. Different strokes and all that of course.
Re:it breaks easily (Score:3, Informative)
The thing got yanked off a desktop when somebody tripped over the power cord during a reboot. It hit the floor on it's side on battery power after dropping 3 feet and never even hickuped while rebooting. I picked
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
Mine still works after 3+ years (Score:2)
I've never dropped it, but I think the build is pretty solid. The powerbooks also seem nice to me, I must admit.
Re:it breaks easily (Score:4, Funny)
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
I can attest to the strength of the PowerBook firsthand. My 17" PBG4 fell off the top of my suitcase (~2.5') inside it's minimal-padding sleeve [goincase.com], and landed head first, right on the corner, onto concrete.
The result is that the case in that corner became slightly flatt
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
Re:it breaks easily (Score:2)
I don't understand why people pay a bunch of money for a delicate little machine, then act surprised when it breaks. You wouldn't buy a wristwatch that wasn't built to take a little abuse, would you? You wouldn't drive a car that couldn't handle rain, would you? So why buy a portable computer that isn't durable e
440Mhz at $3000 (Score:2)
Re:Custom configured motherboard? (Score:2)
Re:Sony had to have a custom motherboard configure (Score:2)
Are custom motherboards a rare thing in the PC laptop world? That seems pretty unlikely to me.
Re:Sony had to have a custom motherboard configure (Score:2)
I might be missing something about why this custom board is special, though, because I can't get the article up
Re:I'm an idiot. (Score:2)
Should this be -1 Troll, or +1 Insightful?
Re:Vaio Keyboards suck (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Vaio Keyboards suck (Score:2)
Come on, that's like advertising water as low-carb.