VAIO UX180 from Sony: Ultimate Portable Device

People prefer buying notebooks due to their portability. There can be nothing better than having a notebook, as they fulfill all your functional needs and can also be your style statement. The new sleek Sony VAIO UX180 has been launched recently in the market. VAIO UX180 has a 4.5 inch LCD. However, it does not have any hardware buttons to manage brightness. You have to do this through an application. Its LCD panel is touch-sensitive, so it works well with stylus input. The keyboard of Sony VAIO UX180 is revealed when you slide its display up or its body down. The whole process of sliding depends on the way you look at the product. The 64 buttons, with 8.6mm pitch and 0.15mm stroke, of the keyboard does not cause much trouble to a user, who works for short periods. The UX180 also includes an analog pointing stick, which functions similar to pointing nub of notebooks, which directs the mouse according to your requirements.

Sony VAIO UX180 comes with two integrated digital cameras, one in front, and one in the back. The one in front is a .3 Megapixel sensor that is designed to be used for video in chat clients and the like. The rear camera is 1.3 Megapixel and exposed by sliding up the screen. It’s designed for taking stills or video. Sony has also included an application for handling the cameras and taking shots and videos. Sony VAIO UX180 also comes with an integrated biometric scanner. This gives you another layer of security from spywares. The fingerprint scanner can be used at both the BIOS and Windows levels. Registering your fingers is very easy. It’s also quite fast and generally recognizes your finger on the first try. VAIO UX180 consists of a mono speaker, integrated microphone and separate jacks for microphone-in and headphones. The speakers of the notebook are way below expectations of a user, still they give adequate performance.

Sony VAIO UX180 uses the Intel Processor U1400 (1.20GHz, 2MB L2 Cache). For productivity uses, the processor and the included 512 MB DDR2 RAM with 30 GB SATA hard drive is sufficient. They included disk drive shock protection, which in a nice small droppable unit like this, is much appreciated. They offer three levels of protection, the more protection, the less performance. The default is at the medium level. The notebook is triple threat wireless. They’ve got the standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but also included access to the Cingular data network.

They have included fully-functional docking stations, which can make huge difference to you as a user. Sony VAIO UX180 can be regarded as a base computer for its users. VAIO UX180 can drop into dock and acquires power, 3 USB, VGA, IEEE 1394, AV out port and Ethernet. Sony has tossed in 1 dongle, which supplements Ethernet, AV out and VGA out. These included utilities are imperative for this platform.

Notebook buyers, who are looking for something in the ultra-portable category, should give the Sony VAIO UX180 a serious consideration.

Specifications

Processor:

• Model: Intel Core Solo U1300
• Speed: 1.06 GHz
• Front Side Bus: 533 MHz
• Cache: 2 MB L2

Screen:

• Size: 4.5-inch
• Screen Type: WSVGA TFT active matrix

Graphics card:

• Type: Integrated Graphics
• Version: 3-128 MB Intel GMA 950
• Weight: 1.1 lbs

Memory:
Hard Disk

• Size: 30 GB
• Type: 4200 RPM

RAM

• Size: 512 MB
• Type: DDR2 SDRAM
  

Ports:

• USB 2.0 Port: 3
• VGA Slot: 1
• Headphone Port: 1
• Mic-in Port: 1
• RJ-45: 1
• S-video: 1
• ExpressCard/54: 1
• IEEE 1394 FireWire: 1

Networking:

• WLAN: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g
• Bluetooth: 2.0

OS (operating system): Windows Vista
Version: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Pros: Sony VAIO UX180 has an innovative and lightweight design. It has intuitive user interface and attached keyboards. It has 2 inbuilt cameras along with plenty of connections and ports. Its screen is adequate for watching videos.

Cons: Sony VAIO UX180 has a tiny and highly reflective screen. Typing for long periods on its keyboard is trouble. Battery Life is also very poor.

Price: $ 1,799