The products

• Picturebook PCG-1X
• VAIO digital Studio PCV-E308DS

The Bad

• Customer support the most clueless in the industry
• Lots of proprietary hardware
• No upgrade path: If you upgrade Windows, none of the apps required to run the fancy, proprietary hardware will run because they no longer recognize the PC as being a Sony machine. Further, upgrading to Linux also cuts off access to the proprietary hardware.
• Sony repair services is incompetent. The Picturebook started with two faults: random crashing and a mouse pointer that would start drifting due to a Trackpoint problem. On the first multi-week trip to the repair center, only the drifting pointer was fixed. On the second multi-week trip, the random crashes were fixed, but the TRACKPOINT WAS BROKEN AGAIN. I didn't chance a third trip.
• Did I mention the proprietary hardware and software that locks you into exactly the OS that shipped with the PC? What about security updates after Microsoft doesn't support that OS any more?

The Good

• Fancy, slick packaging, sometimes with features you can't find elsewhere.