Photoclubalpha

Going by the dimensions it looks like they saved about 6.4mm (abt. 1/4") Width, 2mm (abt. 1/16") Height and 10.6mm (abt. 3/8") Length, by using the NPFH 50 in the new cameras instead of the NPFM 500H, but much less power, only 900 mAh @ 6.8V compared to 1650 mAh @ 7.2V.
Sony did also save a little on the weight side of things, about 28g, (78g versus 50g).

Now for the best part...
Price of the NPFH 50 $149 Aud (Sony Style price)
Price of the previous NPFM 500H $129 Aud (Sony Style price)

Nice going Sony...
Greg

had the A230 and A330 in hand today and I can say there is no way the old bettery would fit in that body. the part that goes in the palm of your and that your fingers wrap around is about the sise of the battery as it is. have a Minolta 7000 here in my lap trying to see if it feels the same and I'm thinkig the 7000 is heavier and has a litle more thickness than the new cameras do. but the coating on the sony body makes it feel a little more sure in your hand, if that makes any sense. the 7000 is a slipery sort of feel even though its rubberized too and makes you feel like you have to hold it tighter.

The thing I can't get over is, 900 mAh represents a 45.5% reduction in available power storage compared to the 1650 mAh battery, I can't see that the new models have suddenly gained 45 odd percent in power efficiency/usage over the previous models, there is a good chance the new mods will actually use more power than the old ones, what with newbs looking at that new fancy help screen for extended periods, plus LV, built in auto popup flash/focus illuminator, AF and SSS, sensor-processor-memory bus...hmmm
The KM5D had the battery in the grip, but the A100 strangely left the grip presumably/mostly empty with a similar sized battery, it had the battery swapped around with the flat part of the battery parallel too the back surface of the camera but moved about 1/2" forwards to leave room for the CF memory card system, the new models have had the memory taken from the grip side of the body and relocated over to the left side, this would leave room to locate the battery much more towards the rear of the body (one would think) and still have it partially within (KM5D style) a much lower profile grip....assuming that that was the aim of the exercise, but most likely still a bit larger than the new one now with the NPFH50...but the big thing too my mind is, the new ones should still use the better battery in the name of consistancy and for the most important thing, duration, no matter if it's slightly bigger and heavier.
Greg

I am not shy to being critical of Sony, however I think the shared battery across the models was a simple but very good route to take.
It's as it Sony are desperate to put Alpha users off of buying the new models! Media and battery change..
Why didn't they just go the whole hog and put a mini mount in there

Yeah good one BF, why not go the whole hog and disenfranchise half of the Minolta legacy user base instead of only a quarter of it...there must be a reason why Sony are looking about for fringe markets too exist in...and why they want to design themselves into a bottom feeder position, for reasons known only too themselves, (I have a good idea why, it involves an extreme lack of gumption and direction/focus) amazing really considering the enormous advantages they have been bequeathed by that former camera company we all loved...errm minnoxa, minofsca, tinmolta...whatever.... who used to make cameras for photographers first and formost...because they were photographers themselves...and that my friend is the major difference, I think.
Greg

I would honestly understand things better if they were mini mount jobs, whack a few lenses out an adaptor..and there you go, consumers can play with them. And leave the SLR ones "real" cameras

I wonder how these ones will do in review..should be fun to watch.

Yeah well I reckon it wouldn't matter what mount they had really, it won't make any difference too me...I don't know why they don't just get a R1 style cam and bolt an A-mount onto it for the gadget freaks and trans-p&s-amorphics.
Then they can fix the normal camera stuff that we wanted fixed ages ago, the macro flash for instance, that they screwed up, and apparently don't even know why they did it themselves, and how long after the A100 was released without an X-sync socket did it take them to come up with some half baked solution for the studio guys? and then still release a potential bona fide studio cam (A900) much later without a proper way to meld it into the studio...duh!
Greg