If we had to pick a winner from the CES gadgets we’ve seen so far, it’d be a toss-up between the Palm Pre and the Sony Vaio Pocket P netbook. The good news for Aussies is that Sony has decided to officially announce pricing and release dates for their netbook-killer… Just don’t expect it to come cheap.There will be two models available in Australia, the VGN-P13GH and the VGN-P15G. Both will be on sale from Feb 14, although you can preorder from today. The VGN-P13GH, which comes in both black and white, has a 60GB HDD, 2GB RAM, Vista Home Basic and a 1.33GHz Atom processor, will set you back $1,599. The VGN-P15G, if you can believe it, it even more expensive at $2,299. For that price you get a faster processor (1.60GHz), a 64GB SSD, Vista Home Premium and the same noise cancelling tech we saw in the Vaio TT built into the machine itself. It also comes in four colours – black, white, green and red.
Although the Pocket P looks amazing and totally pantsworthy, I can’t help but think they’re pricing themselves out of the market here. After all, no matter how good the machine looks, it is still only running an Atom processor, and they’re not meant for heavy lifting. But what do you guys think?
Dave
January 9, 2009 at 10:04 AM
$1600 compared to the MSI wind for $600 is just too much! Also, I hate those little track-stick thingos- I thought they went out of laptops 10 years ago.
Report Permalinknoisymime
January 9, 2009 at 10:09 AM
hahaha $1600+ for a netbook. That’s at least 50% more than virtually every other device out there.
The Sony looks really fantastic, but those prices have meant I’ll be getting one of the shiny HP 2140′s. Sure, they’re slightly different form factors, but really, its not worth another $600 (or more).
Report PermalinkSRG
January 9, 2009 at 10:12 AM
Apparently it’s an extra $319 to ship it here.
Honestly, I can understand an extra hundred bucks above the exchange rate, but this sort of financial rectum-pillaging is unacceptable.
Report Permalinkattila
January 9, 2009 at 10:19 AM
I think they are insane. It does look like a great machine, and there will be some willing to pay the Sony Tax, but $2300 is absolutely nuts.
I am typing this on my Asus 1000H that set me back all of $600 and is great.
Report Permalinksimon
January 9, 2009 at 10:31 AM
another overpriced sony product. they somehow remind me of telstra, great products, generally good service, heavily overpriced and over valued. pass
Report PermalinkSelfish Meme
January 9, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Yeah, give me more Ubuntu at 9″ or 10″ and an internal 3g card for $500 and I will buy one tomorrow.
Report PermalinkKevin
January 9, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Just like the Playstation 3 Aussie are being ripped off once again.
Report PermalinkSimon
January 9, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Um it’s not a netbook, could you please refrain from using that term.
=P
Report PermalinkMalcolm
January 9, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Hmmm, does this look like a modernised version of the ‘Sony PCG-C1′ to anyone else?
Report PermalinkVatoe
January 9, 2009 at 2:10 PM
How does a US price of $900 convert to $1600 aussie dollars? Sony only if..
Report PermalinkTim
January 9, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Sony could have really made a splash in this space with a reasonably priced quality machine, instead they look like complete crooks with an overpriced netbook which even my 4 year old would know is a complete ripoff in aussie $$$ … way to destroy your brand Sony
Report PermalinkMHTSOS
January 9, 2009 at 6:18 PM
The price is good actualy. The only problem is that Australia is way too far from anything for them to actualy realise that no one here is stupid enough to buy it at that price. So yeah, the price is right. Just not for anyone with half a brain.
Report Permalinkthat_one
January 10, 2009 at 9:41 AM
This is pretty damn hot – I love the rectangular form factor and the keyboard and hi-res screen. I think I might be in if this puppy can become a Hackintosh or run Ubuntu… (I can’t come at Vista)
Sure its a bit like paying some Sony Tax (which is very similar to paying some Apple Tax) but both of these companies deliver really nice industrial design and specs which you’re not going to get from the bottom of the range Netbook… as an ultraportable its still WAY cheaper than Apple’s offering (albeit we’re not talking about Core 2 Duo or NVIDIA graphics)
Report Permalinkhto
January 10, 2009 at 11:28 AM
If later someone confirmed MacOSX can be installed; I’d get one regardless in a brink. Can Atom manage MacOSX, if so, can it manage anything else on top…
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