Sony Picturebook returns in high-def

Details of Sony's not-a-netbook went live today, apparently by accident.

It's price is $NaN.00, which means the price isn't in the database yet ("Not a Number"), but it has a 1.33GHz Intel processor, Windows Vista, a 1600x768 ultra-widescreen 8-inch display, and a 60GB hard drive or 128GB SSD.

In the unfinished ad, it weighs "x.xx" pounds and has an "x-hour" battery. The picture is apparently a placeholder: it looks exactly like a Vaio TT, which doesn't match the teaser ad or the FCC images.

Assuming it has a clamshell form-factor, Sony's returned to the netbook's own roots, producing an old-fashioned subnotebook with the benefit of new technology. The original Picturebooks suffered from poor performance and battery life, due to Transmeta's disappointing chipsets: Intel's Atom represents the successful execution of that (part) of Transmeta's late-1990s plans. The clock speed's usual for an Atom machine, though: the Core Solos in the UX ran at 1.33 GHz.

Let's see that price.

Sonystyle store [Sony]

[#1 posted by zuzu , December 25, 2008 11:07 AM]

It's price is $NaN.00, which means the price isn't in the database yet ("Not a Number"),

Fortunately my government bailout, er, "economic stimulus" is also "NaN".

Or, to quote Jon Stewart on The Daily Show,

How about from now on we call dog shit money and park benches mansions?

[#2 posted by zuzu , December 25, 2008 11:10 AM]

The original Picturebooks sufffered poor performance and battery life due to the disappointing performance of Transmeta's ultraportable chipsets: Intel's Atom is, in many ways, the successful execution of that company's late-1990s plans.

If I remember Transmeta's Crusoe correctly, it's original value-add was that it could execute any instruction set (e.g. x86 or PPC) dynamically as needed. It was only when market demand for that failed to materialize that it was re-marketed as a low-power processor.

...or maybe I just make my eggnog really strong.

[#3 posted by Rob Beschizza , December 25, 2008 11:22 AM]

I'm sure you're right, if for no other reason than them not being particularly low-power...

[#4 posted by Lonin , December 25, 2008 4:49 PM]

I'm betting it's the U7700 C2D chip, which would be great for performance. It's power draw is 5x that of the Atom though.

[#5 posted by Downpressor , December 25, 2008 6:23 PM]

Was there a Vaio with a Transmeta CPU or was it only the Toshiba Libretto that used that?

My last windows machine was a Vaio C1 (AKA "Picturebook"). Liked it alot until I got sick of the OS. There were no problems at all with the CPU performance or battery life.

[#6 posted by Rob Beschizza , December 25, 2008 6:45 PM]

I think all of the Vaio picturebooks (PCG series) used Transmeta CPUs. Your C1 included! Do you still have it?

[#7 posted by Zarniwoop , December 25, 2008 7:31 PM]

If this thing's shipped with Vista, I'm betting it'll have nVidia's Ion system, as opposed to the Intel chipset.

But seriously, why not just ship with Linux? What could you possibly want to do with this thing in Vista which you couldn't do - with less system draw - in ubuntu?

[#8 posted by Anonymous , December 25, 2008 8:01 PM]

The UX series went with Core 2 Solos a while back; I'd be very surprised to see Core Solo ULVs in a new product.

The Core 2 Duo L7200 and UL7700 are 1.33GHz, but if they're going with a dual-core processor, I'd bet they'd've said "dual-core" somewhere in the ad. But none of the single-core Core 2s put out 1.33GHz.

The Atom Z520 is 1.33GHz, released in April. Supports hyperthreading and virtualization, $40 release price. Dell uses it in the Mini 12. I'd bet on that one.

[#9 posted by Lonin , December 25, 2008 8:14 PM]

@7: I totally agree with not shipping it with Vista, XP should be the default OS on all sub-notebooks, but even though Ubuntu is about as close as you can get to Windows through Linux, it's still not Windows. Non-techies want a familiar operating system even if there are significant drawbacks with it.

There was a story 3 months ago making the blog rounds that had MSI reporting that Winds loaded with a Linux OS were being returned at 4x higher the rate than netbooks loaded with XP. Ubuntu also reported that returns of other netbooks loaded with their OS was higher than normal because of the unfamiliarity of the OS.

[#10 posted by Downpressor , December 26, 2008 2:54 AM]

Rob,

I still have it somewhere but when I bought it Transmeta wasnt around IIRC. Might be the C1XF, it came with Windows 98.

[#11 posted by Rob Beschizza , December 26, 2008 5:28 AM]

Right you are, that was a P2.

They don't ship with linux because the only consumer market that wants it is the absolute bottom end, because it's cheap.

Sad, I know.

[#12 posted by Anonymous , December 26, 2008 7:17 AM]

"..a 1600x768 ultra-widescreen 8-inch display.."

Can that be right?

My C1VN Picturebook has a 9" diagonal display with 1024x480 resolution. Perhaps, like the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary some time back, this new Sony will come with a magnifying glass?

FWIW, the downsides of the C1VN Picturebook were: price, poor battery life (max. 3hrs.), 112MB RAM, 12GB drive, and--wait for it--Windows ME!

The price, as I recollect, was $2,300 USD plus another $500 for an external CD burner.

Cheers.

[#13 posted by Downpressor , December 26, 2008 10:05 AM]

Not so sad. When it came time to put that one out to pasture, I was considering Linux, went and hung around the Tokyo Linux User Group and everyone had iBooks and PowerBooks showing off the BSD. Next day I got a 15" G4 PowerBook and havent looked back since.

The Vaio was neat, but Sony Japan's idea of an OS upgrade is buying a new machine. They can sit and spin fora ll I care any more.

[#14 posted by Avram , December 26, 2008 5:55 PM]

I think "$NaN.00" means you can exchange an iPod Nano for one of these gizmos. Either that, or you have to be an Orkan to buy one.