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What's the modern equivalent of the old P series?

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JaneWilliams20
Visitor

What's the modern equivalent of the old P series?

A few years back, I met the P-series Vaio and fell in love. It was tiny, it was light, it would fit in my handbag, and it didn't waste space on an irritating touchpad, it had a "nipple" mouse. Sadly it ran Vista, but that was cutting edge technology at the time. Alas, my bank manager objected :slight_frown:

Now I can actually afford one, I come looking, and find that all things Sony and Vaio seem to be much bigger, and have that touchpad taking up space and moving the cursor randomly around whenever my thumbs stray into a natural typing position. Is there a modern equivalent of the P? If I get an old one (Amazon will provide), is it still supported, and can I get it to run a slightly better OS?

Should it help in advising me on which P or equivalent, I want to be able to surf the web (3G and Wifi) including Google Docs, edit local documents up to about 9K words in size (Word is ideal, RTF will do), and read PDFs (other e-book formats would be a bonus). JPG editing would be nice, but on a screen that size, I'm not expecting to do anything beyond basic cropping and rotating. SD card reader would be useful for file transfer.

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Blencogo
Expert

I think it would be quite difficult to find an unused P-Series Vaio now.


If you could find one somewhere, you need to look for the version running Windows 7 - so you need to search for VPCP11S1E (available in Black, Pink, Green, White, Orange) or the more powerful VPCP11Z9E (available in Black).  These are second generation models with mouse buttons either side of the screen.  If you can get one, it will still be supported.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/10/sony-vaio-p-series-review/

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/laptops/sony-vaio-p-series-vpcp11s1ep-review-49305693/

As you say, new models are larger and with a trackpad - have a look at the 11" screened Y-Series here: -

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/vn-y-series/tab/overview

Or for something completely different, as the P-Series was when launched, have a look at the new Foldable Tablet P (named after the P-Series Vaios) which may very well fit your requirements and is cutting edge design and function and has 3G connection and a touch-screen keyboard!

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/sony-tablet-p

TabletP.jpg

Good Luck!!

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JaneWilliams20
Visitor

Thanks - unless someone comes along to contradict you, that would seem to tell me exactly what I need to know. I may go hunting an old-style P on Amazon, now I know the model name to look for, but from the look of those reviews, probably not. The little tablet, though...  mmm.. As you say, fits my requirements exactly if not better, named after my first love, suports the Android things I'm used to, and is generally going to require a lot of restraint to go and sensibly read reviews rather than just hitting the "buy it right now!!!" button. Thank you!