UX230P...huh?

[orbitalcomp]

Has anyone else heard of this model? It's a VGN-230P, and it's not a typo, that is the right model number. TigerDirect has them for $999 at this link:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ku=S168-UX230P

They have a photo gallery and it shows all angles and the box, and the labels say 230P. It also has the EDGE WWAN module, so it definitely is a U.S. market device. It differs from the 280P in that it has the 1.06 Core Solo and 512 MB RAM along with only 30GB...

I Googled the model and didn't come up with anything, so I was just curious...pretty sweet price...

[enterman]

its specs make it sound like they just brought the UX50 over here, took out the CF slot, and put in the WWAN module and called it the 230P. And whats with the texas chainsaw pic on the UX? Thats rather random.

[MeanSquare]

It makes one wonder. With the lack of anything on the Sony site, I'm guessing Tiger Direct had a bunch of old UX50's and decided to repackage them and see if they'd sell.

I'd take the claim to be "Vista Premium Ready" with a UX-sized grain of salt too. A 512MB machine is Vista Basic Ready. Vista Premium would require a hefty page file in almost constant use.

[Benz145]

Sometimes stores like that customize a UX then make up their own name for it. This seems to be the most probable explanation.

[enterman]

Originally Posted by benz145

Sometimes stores like that customize a UX then make up their own name for it. This seems to be the most probable explanation.

that makes sense however if u google UX230P then alot more places come up selling it.

[MeanSquare]

Actually, it seems that all the links lead to Amazon.com and TigerDirect as the sources. Maybe Amazon gets them from TD?

[orbitalcomp]

Originally Posted by MeanSquare

Actually, it seems that all the links lead to Amazon.com and TigerDirect as the sources. Maybe Amazon gets them from TD?

Exactly - all of the links are to TigerDirect, and Amazon sells it thru Tiger as well. I was thinking that maybe Sony produced this special model for a large corporation, to be used in their business, but maybe they cancelled the order or had a bunch left over. If this were the case, though, why even give it a strange model name that is close to the actual line?

If you go to the global Sony site, there is no info found whatsoever...

I wish it was like the UX50 and had the CF slot instead of WWAN, I'd be very interested in that...

Even with the mystery, seems like a pretty good deal for someone looking to stay with Windows XP for a while...

[dougpaw57]

I got a UX230P from Tiger Direct (actually ordered it through Amazon and got $8 shipping instead of $30). For what I use it for, web surfing and e-mail, it is powerful enough. The thing I haven't figured out is that it states Windows Vista Premium Ready right on the box. I can't imagine running Vista with 512MB of RAM. Anyway, I registered it and Sony is sending me a free Windows Vista Business upgrade. I'm thinking that I'll stay with XP permanently on this unit.

[tomt]

I bought one of these too, but have a question for you -

In regards to registering the product - how did you do that? Sony online registration does not recognize the 230p, nor does the online vista upgrade site.

Did you call? Got specific links or phone numbers?

I intend on keeping XP pro on here as well (and the machine runs faster than I expected - it's eminently useable) but would love to have the option down the road to upgrade to Vista.

[tomt]

Actually, I just got off the phone with sony tech support, and they tell me it does NOT look like it's eligible for a free vista upgrade.

If you can provide any more details, I'd really appreciate it. I don't expect to change to vista on this machine, but it would be nice to have the option.

Thanks!