A Product Review of the Sony VAIO VGC-LT25E 22" PC/TV All-In-One

Mountable all-in-one products have seen a huge boom in sales recently. They have some great benefits when it comes to space saving especially when they're integrated into home entertainment centers. You can essentially eliminate the receiver, the blu-ray player, the dvd player / burner, as well as the digital video recorder. All of this mounted right on the wall plus, don't forget that it is a wireless internet connected computer. Sony's Vaios are a great example of a quality all-in-one that typically have these capabilities. In this review I take a look at the VGC-LT25E mountable 22" LCD. Let me get started with some of the basics.

Hardware:

Display: 22" LCD

Television: Integrated NTSC and ATSC tuners

Processor: 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo T5450

Storage: 500GB hard drive

RAM: 3GB RAM (expandable up to a 4 GB maximum)

Optical Drive: CD R RW with integrated DVD R / RW and Blu-Ray

Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce Go 8400 graphics

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium

Also in the box: Wireless mouse and keyboard along with an IR remote control

Right off the bat you notice the clear crisp Sony screen which really does rival their 720p Bravias. The screen is bright with great viewing angles. The graphics card is decent; you can expect to play some moderate to graphically intensive games with no problem. I love the integrated blu-ray.

The hard drive is fairly large, though if you're recording a good deal of HD programming with vista's DVR options then it does tend to fill up quickly. The RAM is just fine, although if you do a lot of multi tasking, like image editing with multiple programs or play a lot of games where the graphics card will need to scavenge system RAM, then you may want to consider upgrading to the 4GB. Otherwise this "desktop" is prime in the area of hardware.

Connectivity:

WiFi

1 Ethernet port

1 Modem

5 2.0 USB inputs (gold standard of connections, use this to connect to your digital camera, printer, etc.)

1 FireWire input (for fast data transfer between 2 devices like another PC or digital camcorder)

Digital audio out as well as 1 standard audio out / 1 mic in

S-Video input (video input)

ExpressCard (newer laptop peripheral slot)

PCMCIA (laptop peripheral slot)

Memory Stick / SD card slot (to insert your solid state memory from your portable devices)

I like the connectivity, though it is more reminiscent of a laptop than a desktop but that is to be expected. I would like to see a few more video out options especially since it has the integrated blu-ray player. Other than that I really don't have many complaints. The price at $1900 isn't actually all that bad when you consider some of these all in ones from Sony are fetching just over 3 grand. I think in the end this well make about anyone happy, it would look great in the bedroom, a dorm room, or even a small living room. If you have the cash I wouldn't hesitate, I doubt the VGC-LT25E will see any price reductions soon.