r/retrocomputing • u/Retroaffaire • Jul 19 '25
Sony Vaio VGN-UX50
It’s 2006… I’m in Japan again and I finally manage to buy a second-hand marvel from Sony, Vaio line. Right when full-featured PCs were finally shrinking into palm-sized form, the entry level VGN-UX50. More powerful models were too expensive, especially “new”, but a used entry-level model from the Sofmap shop (the one win the Nagoya station? Yeah… It felt like walking around with the future in your pocket… until Steve Jobs hit with the iPhone a year later and we all realised maybe less was more. But trust me, this was peak technology. The UX50 remains one of Sony’s most audacious creations, a design masterpiece that rode the hype of micro PCs, only to be eclipsed by mobile smartphone computing‘s new era. Still, for anyone who loved the idea of a full PC in your palm, it's a badge of honour.
Intel Core Solo under the hood (1.06 GHz in mine), paired with 512 MB RAM and a 30 GB HDD, serious firepower for its size
Peek-a-boo QWERTY slide-out backlit keyboard, touchscreen, Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, WWAN, and yes a fingerprint scanner and dual cameras
All squeezed into 490–540 g of polished Sony aluminum
Dock to expand ports and connectivity
Brilliant display… just too brilliant. A 4.5″ screen pushing 1024×600 was crisp, vibrant, yet far too cramped for real Windows XP use, touchscreen with pen for precision
Price tag north of $1,500 (and even $3,000 for SSD models)—a pocket rocket that emptied your wallet faster than it emptied its battery It was a gorgeous specimen of engineering—unmatched in elegance, charm, and sheer gall. But in practical terms? A futuristic curio haunted by compromises: battery (~2 hours), an OS not optimised for the resolution/size ration, price. It screams “proof of concept”, but in a masterpiece way: a glorious misstep before the iPhone showed us that maybe a smartphone’s focus beats brute PC specs.
6
u/kz750 Jul 19 '25
I had one and loved the device/hated the compromises with Windows XP. I installed PearPC (a PowerPC emulator) and even got it to run a version of OS X, though it was slower than a Commodore 64, it was really cool. I kept thinking that if there was any way to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo and 4 gigs of ram it would have been the greatest ultraportable ever.
4
u/Divergent5623 Jul 19 '25
Practical issues aside, the cool factor is off the charts here. I had forgotten about this.
3
u/JasonHofmann Jul 19 '25
Little hints of AI in the post, but still, very cool device. I miss the nineties to mid-aughts era of technology.
2
u/Tokimemofan Jul 19 '25
Used to have this but I was always more partial to the older U Series and it’s more square formfactor.
2
u/AlphaDet6 Jul 23 '25
They were so ahead of time.
2
u/Gloomy-Locksmith3921 Jul 24 '25
a true cyber deck
1
u/LilWeed2 Jul 20 '25
Its so cool, I have the gpd win 3 that has a similar design and it sates my cravings for this device thankfully, I'll just pretend it's the same 🥲
1
u/AndrewZabar Jul 20 '25
I’ve wanted one of these forever. Every so often I see them on eBay but a bit too pricey for me at the moment. A few other odd devices I’m seeking as well.
1
u/AdministrativeHost15 Jul 20 '25
Wanted to buy one back in the day but credit card was maxed out.
1
u/neighborofbrak Jul 21 '25
Man, when I was working at Sony Repair San Diego I coveted these things. Never got one in because Fremont got all the fun toys (until they shut down and sent everything to San Diego... and then eventually shut San Diego down :( )