Sony Vaio UX around the world
Keeping track of all of the new micro PCs joining Sony’s UX lineup is no easy task, particularly because the company has a nasty habit of assigning different model numbers to what is essentially the same device. Depending on which country you call home, the exact numbers and letters following the standard "VGN-UX" label in other parts of the world matter very little. In fact, they may not matter at all. Maybe it is only in my quest to create a basic yet comprehensive chart of all the UXs ever made that they actually matter a whole lot.
While trying to pinpoint the release date of the UX27GN tonight, I came across VAIO Online, which is a portal to official Vaio sites/pages from around the world that helped me make the following table.
The specs will be in my chart-in-progress (UPDATE 2/21: View the completed chart here), but for now here’s a list of the models currently available worldwide (excluding the U.S., Europe, and Japan). Sony may have other headquarters, but nowhere else is listed at VAIO Online. Note: U.S. prices provided by this currency calculator.
Model Number | Market | Price (USD) |
VGN-UX17GP | Australia | $1,888 |
VGN-UX27CN | China | $2,194 |
VGN-UX27GN | Hong Kong | $1,907 |
VGN-UX17GP | India | $2,277 |
Not available | Indonesia | N/A |
VGN-UX17LP | Korea | $2,243 |
VGN-UX17GP | Malaysia | $2,173 |
VGN-UX17GP | New Zealand | $2,092 |
VGN-UX17GP | Saudi Arabia | Unknown |
VGN-UX27GN | Singapore | $2,285 |
Not available | South Africa | N/A |
VGN-UX17TP | Taiwan | $1,664 |
VGN-UX27SN | Thailand | $2,107 |
VGN-UX17GP | United Arab Emirates |
Unknown |
You can see that there are basically just two models: the UX17 (Windows XP) and the UX27 (Windows Vista). What do the last two letters mean? Sometimes they seem to indicate the country ("CN," for example, obviously means China), but for the most part they’re rather arbitrary. For example, what’s the significance of "GP" in Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE?