Sony Teases New VAIO “Ultra Mobile” — Brief Analysis

Posted on 29 April 2010, Last updated on 30 October 2014 by

sony new ultra mobile News about a new Sony VAIO “Ultra Mobile inch has me pretty excited. I’ve been a long time fan of the Sony VAIO UX series, and have been wishing that Sony would reinvent the Clie UX as well.

According to a teaser page on Sony.jp, they’ll be coming out with a new device. Unfortunately, I don’t think that this one will be the answer to my dreams. Let’s take a look at what we know and what we can infer from the available information:

The first thing we should ask is: “What’s in a name? inch Sony is calling this an “Ultra Mobile inch. Generally, Sony’s line of thin, light, and high performance laptops has been referred to (in the US at least) as ultraportables so that may be something to consider, though it is quite possible that he translation simply comes across differently. While I wish more than anything that Sony was reinventing the VAIO UX series, Sony refers to those machines as “Micro PCs inch, so I doubt we’ll be seeing a new VAIO UX or anything similar (ie: no slider).

I think what we can definitely rule out is some sort of ARM-based handheld device. The device is quite clearly going to be a VAIO, and Sony hasn’t released any non-x86 VAIO devices (except for a failed “VAIO Pocket” DAP back in 2004 [thanks lvyelion]), so we can pretty easily rule out something like the rumored PSP-phone or a new Sony Mylo. And while I don’t read Japanese, the teaser page pretty clearly indicates that the device will be running Windows 7, again ruling out the possibility of any Android or other mobile OS device:

sony vaio new ultra mobile

The last thing to talk about is the orange symbol on one of the teaser graphics. Several have pointed out that it looks like a paperclip, and it could also be the view of the computer from the side. The Sony VAIO P [product page][review] actually fits the image pretty well, as the lid is quite thin compared to the body of the computer. Still, it’s probably best to not take that image too literally. Best we can infer is that it’ll be a laptop style form-factor.

vaio ultra mobile

Based on the demographic being shown in the teaser (young and hip) it’s possible that Sony has a new line of netbooks coming down the road, or it could be a new Sony VAIO P as Engadget says they’ve been told by a “previously proven inch tipster.

Still seems odd that they’d start up a teaser campaign just to add a new VAIO P to the P-series. Maybe Sony is actually working on something more akin to the UMID BZ [product page] or Sharp Netwalker [product page].

What say the readers? What would you ideally like to see from Sony compared to what you think we’ll actually end up seeing?

18 Comments For This Post

  1. UMPCPortal says:

    New article: Sony Teases New VAIO “Ultra Mobile” — Brief Analysis http://bit.ly/dkCu9m

  2. Gretchen Glasscock says:

    Sony Teases New VAIO “Ultra Mobile” — Brief Analysis: News about a new Sony VAIO “Ultra Mobile” has me pretty exc… http://bit.ly/9mzcsE

  3. Steve 'Chippy' Paine says:

    RT @umpcportal: Sony Teases New VAIO "Ultra Mobile" — Brief Analysis http://bit.ly/dkCu9m

  4. Jon Lustig says:

    RT @umpcportal Sony Teases New VAIO "Ultra Mobile" — Brief Analysis http://bit.ly/dkCu9m

  5. Ben Lang says:

    RT @umpcportal: New article: Sony Teases New VAIO “Ultra Mobile” — Brief Analysis http://bit.ly/dkCu9m

  6. lvyelion says:

    “I think what we can definitely rule out is some sort of ARM-based handheld device. The device is quite clearly going to be a VAIO, and Sony hasn’t released any non-x86 VAIO devices”

    This is not true, check the “VAIO Pocket”, VGF-AP1L

  7. Ben says:

    Thanks, will update the article.

  8. Mike Cane says:

    It’s Windows 7. Who cares about more Windows?

  9. techb4l says:

    Who cares? Anyone that wants a full x86/computing experience on the go. It’s the whole reason why UMPCs exists. They may be on life support, but they’re not dead yet…

  10. jkkmobile says:

    It is new vaio p… it popped on FCC some time ago..

  11. Clio says:

    Maybe a 3-Screen device rolled-up into that paper-clip shape? Something similar to this:
    http://channel.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=22862

  12. umpcaddict says:

    nice. can’t wait till sony releases their new line of umpcs. i just hope it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg like their ux did when it first released. sony is crazy.

    by the way, skyfire for android!
    http://www.skyfire.com/

  13. deriuqer says:

    clamshell,no thanks.

  14. Ben says:

    Don’t hate, Clie UX was clamshell and it was awesome! Gotta be convertible IMO so you can get rid of the keyboard when you don’t want it.

  15. Ben says:

    Sliders are great too, but lack the ability to be set down on a table with the screen pointed in a variable direction.

  16. techb4l says:

    With the death watch that slider devices have going on, that’s an extremely minor argument. And as the market has turned completely to clamshells & tablets, I get what deriuger meant.

  17. Another guy says:

    Make it a clamshell please. Not another of those flashy, cool-looking yet useless iPad-like tablets.

  18. Glenn says:

    In the picture of the (young and hip) girl, the block in the upper left says “Sony make.believe Viao”. What do you make of that? Are they for real?

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