Sony's flash memory-based UMPC comes stateside

Not exactly new, but perhaps new to you: Sony's VAIO UX ultramobile PC garnered a lot of attention last year for its cool palm-size design, but even though it contained a fully fledged Intel Core Solo CPU and ran Windows XP, it fell somewhat short as a usable mobile computer.

The latest update, which sounds very promising, is the UX Premium Micro PC. This version has a 32GB solid state hard drive, which means no moving parts, better battery life, less heat, and faster access to your data (or at least 32GB worth of your data).

Flash memory-based hard drives have increased in capacity and come down in price in the last several months, making them a more viable storage medium. The UX Premium has been available in Japan since September, but the U.S. edition is hitting stores in February for about $2,500.

[dklimke]

In Sony Store

I was playing with this at the Washinton Square Mall in Oregon yesterday and aside from a headache from squinting the device seemed pretty damn cool. The strange mouse navigation pad on the right really wasn't hard to get used to but the click button on the right was a little awkward. Seems expensive and a little bulky but a neat idea for a compact computer system.