Sony revives mini PC line for UMPC era

Sony will ship its Vaio UX UMPC on 27 May, the consumer electronics giant said today. The successor to the company's U series of handheld mini PCs will ship as the retail-oriented UX-50 and as the Sony-sold UX-90S and UX-90PS.

As expected, the UX-50 will contain a 1.06GHz ultra-low voltage Intel Core Solo U1300 processor backed by 512MB of 400MHz SDRAM and a 30GB, 4,200rpm hard disk. The unit's display is a 4.5in, 1,024 x 600 panel driven by Intel's integrated GMA950 GPU - the chipset's a 945GMS. The handheld PC runs Windows XP Home Edition. Connectivity comes courtesy of Bluetooth 2 and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi. There's an integrated webcam and a fingerprint sensor.

The UX-90S has a 20GB hard drive and a choice of Celeron M or Core Solo U1300 CPU. The UX-90PS ships with Windows XP Pro in place of the Home Edition software and ups the processor spec to a 1.2GHz Core Solo U1400. It ships with a Bluetooth headset and an English keyboard; the UX-90S has a Japanese keyboard and no headset.

None of the machines appear to provide an HDMI port, though Sony is offering a cradle accessory that incorporates a d-sub connector for an external monitor, along with 10/100Mbps Ethernet, four-pin Firewire and extra USB ports. What was labelled as an HDMI in leaked pics of the device appears to be the cradle interconnect.

The unit weighs 520g, Sony said, and measures 15 x 9.5 x 3.2-3.8cm. The UX-50's battery provides seven hours' operation, the company claimed.

The UX-50 will retail for around ¥170,000 ($1,547/£819), while the UX-90S and US-90PS will cost ¥148,000 ($1,347/£713) and ¥190,000-210,000 ($1,729-1,911/£915-1,011), respectively. ®