We recently tested a Sony Vaio L All-in-One PC to see how it runs, how it performs and if it’s any good. To be honest, I’ve never really paid interest in the all-in-one style PCs so I didn’t really know what to expect.
Starting with the design and looks of the device, it looks great. The Vaio L has a large multi-touch screen measuring 24 inches in a full HD resolution. Below the screen is a stand that runs the full width of the device and forms part of the whole unit. On the back, a kick stand flips out that lets the Vaio L lean backwards slightly on a table. As with many other All-in-One PC’s there is just 1 cable going in to the back which provides power to the unit. This makes All-in-One PCs a lot easier to set up as well as cutting back on the clutter that regular PC’s have. Overall, it looks great sitting on a desk and when people see it, they always ask what it is and what it does.
Technical specs show that it has an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor that runs at 3GHz, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB Hard drive. The graphics card is an NVIDEA GeForce G210M.
Moving on to the controls of the Sony Vaio L, the left side of the PC houses a memory stick slot, SD card slot, Firewire, 2 USB ports (USB 2.0), and headphones, mic and line-in inputs.
On the right side of the unit a Blu-ray combo drive is to be found (tray loading… slot loading would be nicer although no biggie), along with an input selection button, menu button and volume controls.
Along the top of the unit a power and stand-by button can be found.
On the back of the Vaio L you get a HDMI input and Video inputs along with the power point connection. Also you get a regular antenna for VHF/UHF, an Ethernet port, an optical output and three more USB 2.0 ports. There’s plenty of connectivity there along with two TV tuners built in allowing you to watch and use the Sony Vaio L as a nice 24 inch full HD screen.
Accessories provided with the Sony Vaio L include a very nice and usable wireless keyboard and mouse although both are not always necessary with the on-screen touch keyboard and the ability to load up programs by tapping the screen.
On to using the device. It runs Windows 7 and makes use of the touchscreen features. I found Windows to be a little buggy to be honest with features not always working until a reboot was performed. This didn’t appear to be a fault with the Vaio L, but rather just a silly Windows issue that many people get from time to time. These “small” issues wouldn’t prevent me from buying a Vaio L as it wouldn’t be too difficult to disable a few nagging features to get rid of the problems.
The Media Gallery also seemed a little buggy with the audio playing in the background being a little choppy, however for me, I wouldn’t particularly use this service anyway and instead, use something different to view images.
The multi-touch features also seemed a little buggy with the responsiveness not always there. On a positive side, I did find the touchscreen good enough to work with when enlarging a browser window, loading up a program and doing general navigation and found it very handy if wanting to quickly load things up via screen rather than the mouse.
The review might sound a bit negative with the bugs here and there I have mentioned but for some reason I find myself actually wanting to buy one as I, and others living here actually enjoyed using it from day to day for watching movies and browsing Facebook for example. Due to the screen size being 24 inches, hence quite large, it also works well to view TV channels and with the Media Centre software built in, you can easily record, save and keep track of programs you want to watch. It does come provided with a remote control allowing you to navigate through Windows, navigate the media software and control it from the couch.
Details of the Sony Vaio L Series can be found over at Sony.
Sony has been the second leading All In One PC provider, the first is Apple of course. All their products are very functional and user friendly.
re: ” with the Media Centre software built in, you can easily record, save and keep track of programs you want to watch” I have NEVER been able to get media center to “find” the internal tuner. I plugged in a USB one and it worked fine but why I would have to plug in an external tuner on an all in one is beyond me.