Thanks to the craze started with the Asus Eee PC, netbooks have taken the world by storm and are still selling in massive quantities. This newly created market is now flooded with offerings from Dell, HP, Toshiba, MSI, Lenovo and etc. They typically have a small keyboard and screen ranging from 7 to 10 inches, run Windows XP or Linux, and usually go for less than USD400. So how does Sony get in on the action and avoid being labeled as a mere trend follower? They went back into their archives and dug up the classic VAIO PictureBook and worked on that concept, fused it with new technologies, and came up with the most gorgeous ultraportable computer they call a Pocket Style PC - the VAIO P.
Naturally, I couldn’t resist and got myself a piece over the weekend when I saw it in Singapore. But let me just say this up front: Straight out of the box this machine sucks big time. It’s terribly slow. Font size is ridiculous. You’ll hate yourself for blowing your hard-earned cash on this. But once you uninstall the dozen or so bloatwares that come with it, do some cleaning and tweaking here and there, this baby springs back to life and can easily perform most computing tasks without choking. It’s so small and just so great for notetaking, surfing, email on the… WILL YOU TAKE A LOOK AT IT AGAIN? It’s just so sexy it doesn’t really matter what it can or can’t do! I’ve always wanted a PictureBook when it came out 9 years ago, and now I can finally get it over with.
