Would You Pay $300 for a Sony VAIO P Lifestyle PC?
This is just a theoretical question for now, but would you pay $300 for a Sony VAIO P netbook, er lifestyle PC? When the VAIO P was unveiled at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, we were pretty excited to caress the device on camera. But after taking the price-tag into consideration, neither James nor I opted to purchase one. Recently Sony dropped the price by up to $500, but you’ll still find the base model running $849 direct from the Sony store. How would another $550 price drop grab you, though?
Actually, “price drop” is a bit misleading — subsidy would be more accurate. PhoneArea says that such a whopping subsidy is coming from Verizon Wireless; possibly bringing the initial out-of-pocket price of a Sony VAIO P to $299. The VAIO P already offered integrated 3G on Verizon’s network, so the technical pieces have been in place for a while. That’s a hefty subsidy to get a two-year contract from a customer and, if true, far more of a subsidy than I’ve ever seen on a netbook. PhoneArena thinks the pot may get even sweeter with a $100 rebate on top of the deal. With or without the extra $100, the deal is tempting.
My biggest concern with the VAIO P was the relatively poor battery life. Sony says on the default settings, you can expect 3.5 hours of juice. While that should be enough for a true companion device, it’s not enough for a “part time” computer will a “full time” wireless broadband bill. Personally, I’d rather see an solid ARM processor and a lighter operating system tucked inside a Sony VAIO P as an all-day smartbook. 
I think $300 would be right on for a Sony, and that extra $100 off would help buy a second battery. You are right about the lighter OS/CPU though, multitasking Vista on that thing is horrible.
I can get from 5 to 5.5 hrs on my Sony P with the six cells battery, and with the regular 3 cell from 3 hrs to 3.5. So I guess in a way you can almost get all day, by caring 3 and 6 cell batteries. From all the Netbooks I have, I really like the keyboard on the Sony P with Windows 7.
I’ll buy it w/o even thinking
I would likely buy it or something like it IF:
– it had wifi
– it had a cellular data connection
– it had bluetooth and cellular voice so I could receive calls on it
I am currently frustrated with the great smartphones out there (and they all are pretty great) but go not let me use gmail as my central hub of tasks and calendar as well as communication.
– oh yea, if needs a great IM program.
I would buy one right away if they would bundle the connection through the MIFI instead of just in the Vaio P. It would much more sense than being locked into only one device.
Price is great, but now they need to correct that battery life and up the CPU spec.
At these price points, after all the rebates, these computers are almost as disposable as phones. And, because these computers won’t be my only computer, or even my only portable computer, I wouldn’t want a data plan tied to this particular hardware. However, if this computer was bundled with a MyFi as the data plan, now that’s something I would seriously consider.
I’d like to see something like this for education, and perhaps cheaper. My Air and iPhone are sufficient sans teathering (grrrr). If I am going to compromise on the screen it should at least fit in a coat pocket and make calls. Now the iTablet or an Android equivalent… Yes!