The VGN-P11Z, also known as PCG-1P1M, is most notably known as the Sony Vaio P Series. Advertised as “not a netbook”, even though it has all the usual inner parts of a normal netbook, the P Series were described by the manufacturer back in the day as an “ultraportable lifestyle PC”. Its main target was definitely chic ladies with small purses, but it was decently powered for small office tasks on the road.

It is powered by the silent and (back then) powerful 1.3GHz Intel Atom Processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM which is shared with the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 500, a very pretty 8" glossy display.

The storage, just as with all these small portables in the day was on a 60 GB Toshiba MK6028GAL drive (yes, the iPod Classic drives), which ran at 4200rpm, ensuring a longer operating time while on battery (16Wh, 2100mAh – that’s very small, compared to today’s standards).

On the connectivity part, this little gem comes with two USB2.0 ports, standard 3.5mm headphone jack, and SD card reader and a proprietary Memory Stick Duo/PRO Duo reader. The device also sports a Sony connectivity port which uses a Port Replicator connector, that can be used for VGA output or for 10/100Mbit LAN connection. Madlads at Sony were making dongles before they were cool. There’s also Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, which is needed, because the internal speakers (at least in the unit I have) sound like shit. No bass, and the high notes are screeching. That’s explained by the very very very small speakers it has (although it’s stereo!)

Originally, it came with Windows Vista Home Premium, but the unit I got came with a Raspberry Debian install. So I decided to leave it like this, as I have a shitload of Windows-based laptops.

Linux loads pretty fast, I can ssh into it and maybe set it up as a web server, but at the moment I’m thinking to use it for something else. I’ve tried a bit of dosbox gaming, but the emulation works like crap. So I’m going to test soon some Linux old games and see how they behave on the 1600x768 screen. Additionally, with the internal speakers being in a bad state and with the low graphics hardware, multimedia on the road is not its strong point.

Spec-wise, it’s not a revolutionary laptop, like the Nokia Booklet, but its design is incredible. It looks great in the Volcano Red colour, (even though the other colours look great), and it’s ultra portable, at just a bit over 600 grams, including battery.

I will come back with a post about the software and doing something more with this beautiful gem, as it looks too great not to be used. Check out some details lazily pulled from /proc/.

If you want to read a more in-depth review of this device, head over to Notebook Check

More info about it: Wikipedia | Gadgetmix review | Engadget | Additionally, here’s a teardown

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processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 28
model name	: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU Z520   @ 1.33GHz
stepping	: 2
microcode	: 0x217
cpu MHz		: 799.988
cache size	: 512 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 2
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 1
apicid		: 0
initial apicid	: 0
fdiv_bug	: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 10
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts cpuid aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority vpid dtherm
vmx flags	: vnmi flexpriority tsc_offset vtpr vapic
bugs		:
bogomips	: 2666.61
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

processor	: 1
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 28
model name	: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU Z520   @ 1.33GHz
stepping	: 2
microcode	: 0x217
cpu MHz		: 800.012
cache size	: 512 KB
physical id	: 0
siblings	: 2
core id		: 0
cpu cores	: 1
apicid		: 1
initial apicid	: 1
fdiv_bug	: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 10
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts cpuid aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority vpid dtherm
vmx flags	: vnmi flexpriority tsc_offset vtpr vapic
bugs		:
bogomips	: 2666.61
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

1

Linux version 5.10.0-18-686-pae (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc-10 (Debian 10.2.1-6) 10.2.1 20210110, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.35.2) #1 SMP Debian 5.10.140-1 (2022-09-02)

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