Features
The Vaio UX1XN is a fully fledged PC, though you wouldn't think so to look at it. Sony has somehow managed to incorporate an Intel Core Solo U1500 CPU running at 1.33GHz and 1GB of memory. 32MB of RAM is dedicated to running the on-board graphics provided by the Intel 945GMS chipset.
Squishing these components into a cramped space raises the issue of overheating. Sony hasn't been able to go the fanless route, so it instead relies on a small internal fan to cool the CPU and chipset. Hot air is expelled from a vent at the top of the unit, and although there's a fairly constant hum, the unit doesn't get too hot or noisy.
A cursory glance at the spec sheet might cause you to balk at its 32GB hard drive, but closer inspection shows it's a solid-state drive (SSD). It's essentially an enormous memory card that brings several benefits. The SSD has no moving parts, which means the UX1XN is quite resilient to bumps and shocks. It's also allows faster file-access times -- Windows Vista Business boots up in just 48 seconds, as opposed to the 90 seconds or so we'd expect from standard hard disks.
The 4.5-inch touch-sensitive display runs at a widescreen resolution of 1,024x600-pixels, which looks gorgeous when displaying images or video. Unfortunately, it's fairly poor during everyday Windows use as icons in the Start menu are tiny and text can be difficult to read.
This brings us to our next usability gripe -- the UX1XN1's awful keyboard. It's a full Qwerty model with all the buttons you'd expect to find on a standard laptop, but the keys are far too cramped. Pressing one key can result in three or four adjacent keys being pressed by accident.
Even if you do manage to contort your thumbs on to the right key, there's virtually no travel on the buttons, so it's difficult to tell when you've pressed a key. It's infuriating, especially since there are several smart phones -- all smaller than the UX1XN -- with better Qwerty keyboards. It's bad enough to put you off buying one entirely. Certainly, if you need to do a lot of typing, you should forget it.
There are other input methods: Vista has good voice-recognition software, and it is possible to enter characters via the stylus and a virtual on-screen keyboard.
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User reviews2
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Gageteer 26 November 2007
Good: Portable, yet powerful. Lightup keyboard. Great screen.
Bad: Naff speaker. Slightly compromising keyboard.
Comment: At £2000 no one was going to buy this machine and every review was going to slate it. Happily the price has more than halved, making the UX1XN a viable UMPC option. Had the price been £1000 or less from the outset, the UX1 would've received many a more favourable opinions; such as mine.
The keyboard is the most negative aspect of the UX1. It is small, it discourages you from structural changes to large tracts of text and punctuation can be awkward; hence this poorly-written review :) However, thumb-typing emails and basic revision and so on is quite possible. I'm typing this out on the UX1 right now, naturally. Just don't expect to compose your memoires on the move or anything.
Battery life is OK. If you push the machine it'll last 1:30, max, but if you're just reading and reviewing text you get closer to 3 hours. It averages 2 hours with me. The extended battery doubles the time, but is fat and ugly and stops you thumb-typing properly altogether. I have 2 standard batteries instead.
Wireless connectivity is flawless and has excellent range. Surfing the web is a joy. Bluetooth lets you add a bigger keyboard and mouse on the move.
The speaker is quite powerful, but tinny and mono. The microphone on the other hand is very sensitive and having a webchat with or without the built-in camera is easy, fun and productive.
The fingerprint recognition works very well.
I think a few more usb ports are needed.
The zoom function is useless. But you can customise the keys for other things.
The most advanced game I've run on this is Dawn of War, just about; still that is quite impressive really.
The keyboard is wearing me out :) So in summary, great machine if you can accept some size-related limitations. Now that it's 'cheap' it is worth a hard look.
Land Shark 6 September 2007
Good: Portability and capability on the move
Bad: Sony's insistence on putting loads of trialware and useless software
Comment: OK so I am a gadget freak with over 25 years in the industry. I don't impress easily, but I have to disagree with the reviewers here. This is one HUGE step forward for true ultra-mobile personal computing that knocks the stuffing out of the competition.
The first thing you notice is the speed of the thing. Using the flash drive as opposed to a mechanical disc, the unit fires up quickly and is redy for use in a fraction of the time of its bigger Vaio brother (the VA01) which I use every day.
The screen is crisp, clear and usable - even in bright light and as for the add-ons (CF slot, MS slot, Bluetooth, WLAN etc. etc) it punches through many laptop and desktop systems.
The battery is not up there with the best, but neither is it the worst and you can get a higher density battery if you can find it.
The keyboard is not as bad as reviewed and I am not exactly "slimmer of the year" although I do have the advantage of using the Sony VGP-KBC1 folding keyboard if I need to do heavy input work. However having any keyboard at all is better than none.
This was an upgrade from the U8G which I had from 2004 and to be honest it is simply the best UMPC/Laptop I have used. No more backbreaking luggae to board an aircraft and only one case for all business stuff.
The only reason this did not get 10/10 was due to Sony's insistence on placing a lot of trial software and useless advertising junk on an already small drive. Advertised with a 35Gb drive, you get less than 9Gb free when it arrives and this is simply unacceptable. Removing the bloatWare takes a considerable time as does giving a decent version of Vista Business, but once complete it makes it a really powerful machine worth every penny of the £850 I paid for it!
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