Sony unveils Flash-based UMPC

What, no hard drive?

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

27th June 2006 10:57 GMT

Sony has extended its Vaio UX ultra-mobile PC line by introducing a model that drops the hard drive in favour of a Flash-based storage unit. There's a catch, of course: the machine's storage capacity is down to 16GB from the 30GB of the HDD-based original.

The Flash versions' other specifications match those of the UXs Sony launched in May this year: 512MB of 400MHz DDR SDRAM; a choice of 1.2GHz Core Solo U1400, 1.06GHz Core Solo U1300 or 1.06GHz Celeron M 423 processor; 802.11a/b/g/ Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 2.0; 4.5in, 1,204 x 600 display; and Intel 945GMS integrated chipset. Again, the UMPC is available in Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Pro versions.

sony vaio ux-50 umpc

The Flash-based UX models are slightly lighter: 492g to the HDD models' 520g. Sony preferred to highlight the new machines' faster response time: Microsoft Outlook loads in 1.5s off the Flash drive, compare to 9s from the 30GB HDD. The pricing is the same, however.

Sony's move follows Samsung's announcement in May this year that it intends to offer a version of its Q1 UMPC fitted with a 32GB Flash-based drive. ®