As annoyed as I get with pink, sparkly mobiles and Swarovski –ridden iPods, I have to admit that colourful laptops always catch my eye. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman. Or maybe it’s just because I’m sick and tired of black and grey gadgets. Maybe.
I recently tested out one of those nifty looking Inspirion Mini 10 netbooks from Dell, and I have to admit I was rather disappointed. I chose the the white version, as sitting around with a pink laptop would potentially make me feel like, oh I don’t know, an ass, and I really wanted to love it.
I wanted to love it so much that I would go out and buy one, as I am looking for a new netbook to call my own.
However, the Mini 10 made me want to cry. Generally I find Dells amazing, but despite the Mini 10’s good looks and fabulous full-sized keyboard, I was all-too aware that I was using a netbook. Sadly, this had nothing to do with its size, but everything to do with what was under the hood.
Despite giving you the option of a 160GB hardgive (which gives you enough room for 62,000 songs and 71,000 photos), the Mini 10 just felt sluggish. It’s only 2.6lbs, and incredibly thin, but the frustration I had with getting Windows 7 to start-up quickly after it had been hibernating was just ridiculous.
Now before you go blaming Windows, I can tell you I was testing out the Mini 10 the same time as the Eee PC 1005HA and it was incredibly quick and speedy to start-up after it’s been hibernating or left alone for a while. The Dell was simply too tired and sluggish for my liking.
But, Dell and the Eee PC aside, I’m now incredibly curios about the new Vaio P Series from Sony.
The new P Series is not only as colourful as Lady Gaga’s wardrobe, but as these puppies only weigh in at 600 grams, Sony are clearly playing hardball at the game of “on the move computing”.
They boast that this PC easily slip into your handbag or even a jacket pocket. While my biggeset complain with Vaios have been that pesky furry nipple known as a “trackball” that you’re meant to use for navigation, the new P Series has both the furry nipple and an additional touchpad! Hooray for touchpads! (And death to the furry nipples!)
But, even more exciting, Sony say that you can use this bad boy with two hands - as in, without the need of a lap or desktop. They say you can even use it while walking. Impossible! I hear you shout, but it’s actually feasible, as Sony have added an additional touchpad and mouse buttons on either side of the screen.
I know. The mind. It reels.
The new P Series also is the first Sony notebook to come with built in GPS, which is apparently meant to help tell you where you are and what’s happening around you.
You might be thinking “why does a laptop need GPS”, and I have to admit that I’m thinking the same thing. While I always thought that Google or whoever is spying on us could read our location from just our IP address, it would appear that having built-in GPS is much more accurate.
However, it seems that having GPS on your notebook would be much more useful if third party services could tap-in to our, uh, global position, as from what I can tell, the GPS only communicates with Sony’s new Digital Compass and the new Vaio Location Search software which “offers a real-time map view without trying up your web browser”. I’m just going to trust Sony on this one, as I still can’t see why it’s that exciting.
However, what is genuinely exciting is that the P Series, like Vaios before it, it comes with Everwair 3G. This means that your notebook comes with a slot for a SIM card, which will allow you to connect to the 3G network.
Indeed, folks, this means that you can kiss your pesky 3G dongle goodbye, and just depend on that nifty SIM card that lives inside your notebook. No wires, nothing plugged into your USB ports – just 3G wherever you go, with no extra charge, and without yet another mobile phone contract. I know. Exciting, right?!
The other very cool (but potentially useless) feature that the P Series has is that it has a built-in accelerometer, which responds to physical movements. This means that you can give the Vaio a “gentle shake” to flick through photos or to navigate back and forward in your web history. (I should note that Sony give no mention on whether or not this will make you look like an idiot, or whether or not there's a hand strap like a Wii remote just in case you shake a little too hard, and send your Vaio flying into the next room. Or your boyfriend's face.)
Even more curious, the accelerometer will notice if the Vaio is turned on its side, and it will turn the screen accordingly into "portrait position" so that you can read longer documents with ease, using the handy dandy mouse buttons on the bottom of the screen to help turn the pages. Voila, you have an eBook reader.
As I’ve not personally given the new P Series a try yet, I cannot vouch for how it actually feels. I cannot tell you if its so tiny you will feel like a gorilla hunched over the keyboard. I can’t tell you how exactly heavy 600g is.
But what I can tell you, is that it certainly sounds good on paper, has some very cool new features, and comes in BRIGHT ORANGE. What's not to like? (Aside from the Barbie-pink version...)
The P Series Vaio comes out in June 2010, and is available in pink, black, white, orange and green for around £799.