When James and I caressed the “I am not a netbook” Sony VAIO P in a video this year at CES, we walked away generally impressed. But since we only had a few minutes to finagle with the device, we obviously couldn’t determine how well it would suit mobile device users’ needs. There’s sure to be some very happy VAIO P owners, but the general consensus is that it’s too overpriced and underpowered for many. James later tried an evaluation unit, and while he enjoyed using it, he felt that it struggled with Vista.
Sony has a chance at changing that perception, and it looks like it’s taking it. Sony Insider found that a new VAIO P is running the FCC gauntlet for testing. While there’s no guarantee that a tested device will appear on retail shelves, it’s pretty likely that we will see an updated VAIO P. A product refresh that undergoes testing is a safe bet.
The question now is: What will Sony be changing? More importantly, what would it have to change for the device to interest you?
I think it’s pretty unlikely to see a major change in the form factor, and most, if not all, of the updates will be under the hood. Windows 7 support is surely going to be there. But the device really needs to gain an identity, too: Is it a “small notebook” as Sony claims or is it a netbook? At first, you’d think that doesn’t matter, but I think it does.
If Sony is positioning this as a full-featured, but small notebook, it needs to offer better performance — the $999 base model currently uses a 1.33GHz Atom CPU meant for MIDs. If instead, the VAIO P is meant to compete with netbooks and upcoming smartbooks, Sony could simply go low end on the inside — maybe even use an ARM platform — and whittle the price down to $300 or less. Sony is a premium brand, so I suspect that it’s better off going with the former router as opposed to the latter. And the bottom nameplate on the FCC image still references Microsoft Windows. Still, I like the VAIO P form factor for a cheap, smartbook. We should know more by October, which is when most of the FCC documents drop their confidentiality terms. Oh, that’s around the time when Windows 7 launches, too. I’m sure that’s not coincidental. ;)

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