Sony VAIO P Review

I'd think it would do worse with something like streaming video, if anything. Vista's not going to be an issue with that at all one way or the other, and the Windows Flash client is the best.

 

I did a quick search and seems like nobody's asked about Aero yet.

The specs on Wikipedia for GMA 500 seems very good, much better than GMA 950 and that was the previous baseline to get Aero effects in Vista. I wonder how mature the Intel drivers are for the GMA 500 and whether or not Aero can be enabled, regardless of the performance hit.

 

The GMA 950 card benchmarks higher and it is still better at playing games compared to the GMA 500 although in reality both of those cards are lousy at playing games. The GMA 950 is still better in that respects though.

The GMA 950 has also got double the core speed compared to the GMA 500. The GMA 950 has a core speed of 400mhz compared to the GMA 500 which has a core speed of 200mhz.
The GMA 500 is better for video playback stuff so both of those cards have its advantages and disadvantages. I would rather go for the GMA 950 myself.
A more reliable source for graphics card info is somewhere like notebookcheck.net
Sony are also not using the GMA 500 card to its full ability.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-950.2177.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-500-GMA-500.12614.0.html

Nice review Jerry.
The battery life of this notebook is too short for my own needs. Also, i think that the 1.6 processor should be standard on the base model.

 

I have Vista installed on my Aspire One with GMA950, and it runs Aero no problem.

 

I understand that the GMA 950 is clocked higher. Here's what I gathered on the GMA 500:

• Pixel and vetex shader model 4.1
• Unified shader
• Hardware vertex shaders
• OpenGL 2.0
• DirectX 10.1
• VC-1, AVC decoding

Where as the GMA 950 is clocked higher but lacks all the modern hardware decoding support, etc.

I don't expect any gaming on the GMA 500 chip, it's still an integrated solution. But expecting Aero to run isn't too much to ask for is it? Anyone tested it with Aero at all?

Edit: I guess my question is more regarding the Intel's driver maturity. All specs on the GMA 500 shows that it's capable of Aero but is there a WDM driver set for the GMA 500 that would allow Aero to be enabled...?

 

Notebookcheck.com isn't reliable and I'm pretty sure they're not talking about the netbook chipsets when they list a 400Mhz core speed.

The GMA 950 is used in a few different chipsets that have different display core speeds and according to the Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset Family Datasheet while the 945GT Express chipset has a 400Mhz display clock the info given for the 945GSE chipset that's found in most netbooks only has a 166Mhz render clock and a 200Mhz display clock.

But then again if you've seen the news for the Pineview some sites mention that along with the integrating the GMA 950 onto the N280 Intel "has raised the core clock to 200MHz, up from 133MHz on the Atom N270 chipset."

Source


I've always chalked up the Windows Vista problem that was associated with the GMA500 to the RAM cap of 1Gb on the US15W chipset. When people started installing Windows XP on the Dell Mini 12 there was a noticeable improvement in performance.

I guess we'll know for sure though when something like the Dell Mini 10 comes out since it's harder to compare the Sony Vaio P's specs to the specs of a standard cut-and-paste N270 netbook.

 

Ok leaving to one side if whether notebookcheck are reliable or unreliable.
It seems that a lot of people are unaware about the differences in the GMA950 chip. It is good that raised that point.
Going by what you say it does appear then that the GMA500 chip is better than the graphics card that is used in a lot of netbooks.

 

How does this thing handle 720p playback? With CoreAVC, of course. Vista will probably take up a huge amount of the resources available, so maybe a user downgrade to XP might help speed it up too. But in any case, I'd like to know the out-of-the-box performance on HD video.

 

Even if the GMA500 had worse performance than the the GMA950 it would be understandable since Intel meant them for hand-held MIDs and UMPCs....which are not netbooks. Intel even sourced out the video engine to Imagination Technologies who developed the graphics engine for the iPhone.

However since the US15W does have comparable graphics performance, as well as a much lower TDP, a single chip design, and heat levels low enough to run without a fan it does end up being a better netbook platform.

And that just doesn't make it any easier to get people to stop generalizing anything with an Atom in it as being a netbook.

 

As I have said before why don't you test the video playback performance properly?, test it with 720P/1080i H264 and Mpeg2 as the GMA 500 supports hardware decoding of these codecs, if send me the laptops you will get a technical review... not an average joe one...

 

Maybe they handle Blu Ray?

 

For bluray on netbook you need graphics with vidoe decoding eg... Nvidia 9300m as on my Asus N10J or Intel Clear Video eg.. Intel x4500 Graphics and you need to overclock the Atom to 2GHZ, then you get super smooth bluray playback, works great on my Asus N10J with External Slot Load Blu Ray.

 

On the other hand if you sent the laptops to me I'll give you a cut of the eBay profits.

 

This thing does have hardware video decoding, thankfully. The GMA500 built into the SCH component is slower than the GMA945 at 3D graphics, but it can handle h.264 and WMVHD, at the very least. It's just a shame that the review didn't test it out!

 

If they offered a 1.6ghz+ model in the US id be all over it. Ive been looking into getting rid of my tablet for a netbook so I can have my 17in powerhouse main PC and this for more on the go utilities. All I would need it to do besides the obvious internet, email, and MS office is visual studio 2008 for some very light coding where I cant lug or open my 17in, RDP for work sometimes, and to play starcraft 1. Ill be keeping an eye on it this year for changes.

 

Sony has announced a novelty for it's VAIO P (and Z and TT) models.
Qualcomm’s Gobi WWAN module will be embedded, offering (HSDPA) 3G cellular connectivity, in the new VAIO P models.
A nice feature for those who like this small not-to-be named-a-netbook netbook.
Those who already have bought one, might feel seriously gutted...

 

Over on pocketables.net you'll see that someone has already hacked the Gobi module (it is locked to Verizon by default) to run on AT&T/T-Mobile.

 

It's on tnkgrl's blog.

 

First post spam? Delete 7:35 post and account ragulnaveen11... (EDIT: Ah, apparently they're quick here, by the time I posted this the spam was already gone!)

 

Use the little "red triangle" on the left side of the post to report spam.

And yes, they are.

 

So......any word on how well these things are selling?

 

its too expensive for me for small display like that...

 

Now that they've announced non-grey-market HSDPA, waiting a little bit hoping for one with this and reasonable processor speed at other than $2500+ import pricing...