Our podcast partner, Sascha, from EeePCNews.de (which has just relaunched as netbooknews.de) reports that he’s secured some new info on the Sony UMPC.

Wie ich schon auf Eeepcnews.de berichtete, wird der Sony Vaio P eine Atom Z520 CPU (1,33 Ghz) aufweisen, 2GB RAM, HDD und optional SSD, GPS, UMTS und das alles zu einem Preis, der sich wohl im Bereich um die 700 Euro einpendeln duerfte.

The Sony Vaio P will run on an Atom Z250 (1.33 as we’ve tested on the WiBrain i1 and Kohjinsha SC3) with 2GB RAM, an HDD and optional SSD, GPS and UMTS with a price around the 700 Euro (970 dollars) mark reports Sascha. The 2GB RAM hints at Vista (or ‘Windows 7 ready’.)   Apparently, the Asian source indicated that the image, now confirmed as photoshopped, is actually very close to the real-deal.

In addition to the above, a new teaser has appeared in Japan Hong Kong. With these teasers appearing at different times in different places and with strange placeholders on Sony websites, you have to hope that the quality of the product is better than the marketing program which seems somewhat dis-jointed from a web perspective. Even the launch dates seem to vary between the 7th and 9th of Jan. The first CES press events are on the 6th Jan with the Sony ‘invitation only’ Press event planned for 4:15pm on Press day, the 7th in Las Vegas.

A few weeks ago we told you about the VAIO UX280 that was modded with the 1.2GHz U7600 ULV processor and scored an impressive 30,069 in the Crystal Mark benchmark program. This time it is a UX490, the latest UX model, which was modded with the U7600 and the Crystal Mark scores are something to behold. MicroPCTalk forum member Ahn did the modification to another forum member’s UX490 (computercowboy), which involved removing the 1.2GHz Core 2 Solo CPU, and putting in its place the 1.2Ghz Core 2 Duo U7600 ULV. After putting the unit back together, the unit scored an incredible 45,999 in Crystal Mark!

Take a look at the graphs comparing the UX280 U7600 to a factory UX490 and the modded UX490 U7600. The biggest reason that the UX490 U7600 scored a higher total than the UX280 U7600 is the zippy 32GB SSD (compared to the UX280’s 40GB HDD). As you can see in the graphs below, the UX490 U7600 did some serious work in the FPU category and scored much higher than the UX280 U7600. I’m not quite sure what factor caused the large jump in FPU score. The most likely bet seems to be the contrast of SSD vs. HDD, but to my limited knowledge, FPU is all done on the CPU so the SSD shouldn’t have a large affect on the FPU score. Does anyone have any other guesses?

I think I can say for sure that computercowboy’s UX490 is the fastest (non-overclocked, thanks Brett) ultra mobile PC out there, and probably has a higher power:volume ratio than many full sized computers out there. Are there any challengers to compete for the throne?

[Micropctalk]