Sony continues its office of the PC-as-home entertainment core with its ultimate Vaio L Series all-in-one. As with final year's model , this new L-Series has an attractive design, a 24-inch touch-screen display, and a horde of digital media options. Among its
Sadly, nothing of those additions elevates this network over others in its cost range. Although this $1,399 L Series is more practical than final year's $2,200 model, it's hard to suggest amid stream contest with incomparable displays and improved computing technology is to same cost or less.
Many vendors have brought all-in-one desktops to marketplace with the thought of branch them in to home entertainment hubs. Blu-ray drives, HDMI-inputs, and hard volume and manifestation composition buttons are all familiar in these kinds of PCs. Sony has all of those things on its new Vaio L-Series, along with a handful of extras enclosed to set this network apart.
Among those extras, Sony has enclosed a gesticulate approval system, together with a video estimate fragment carried over from its Bravia TV line. As sufficient as you may conclude Sony's eagerness in adding those features, nothing of them functions well enough to give this network a element value over all-in-ones from other vendors.
The Bravia fragment in the L-Series is called the X-Reality chip, and its first function is to amp up the picture high quality of overly dense or pixelated video content. In a sea of low-resolution YouTube and NetFlix videos such a fragment sounds great, but the consequent high quality speed up in Windows-based video isn't dramatically improved than what you obtain with a decent dedicated graphics card. Next to the Asus ET2700I and its GeForce GT 540M video chip, TV reviewer Ty Pendlebury and we beheld maybe more bustling colors on the Sony, but Keyboard Cat on YouTube and "Ghostbusters" on Netflix both looked the same between the two systems in conditions of pixelation and on the whole sharpness.
Because the L-Series has a dedicated HDMI input, though, the X-Reality fragment moreover comes in to fool around when you link up an outward video source. In that box the manifestation on an all-in-one functions similar to a standalone monitor, and the graphics card does not advance in to fool around with courtesy to picture quality. But on the Sony system, the X-Reality fragment does start that outmost signal, that is how Sony is anticipating its TV tech will appeal to shoppers seeking for an all-in-one for home entertainment.
With the help of David Katzmaier, other CNET TV reviewer, we set the Sony network up corresponding with the 24-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre B520 , and the 55-inch Panasonic TC-P55ST50 for reference, and compared the high quality on any with a DirectTV vigilance and a pattern vigilance generator.
We detected a couple of things about the Sony network during this testing. Colors on the shade appeared a bit more bustling than those on the Lenovo system, but next to the calibrated Panasonic TV the Sony's picture appeared unnaturally bright. The L-Series moreover employs a rsther than assertive speed up to picture sharpness. In can help make the picture be present more noteworthy in a few cases, but it can moreover increase an overly completed "green screen" affect, creation objects be present to cocktail out from the credentials in a way that appears unnatural.
We moreover saw that it confused the contouring of established color tones. This was strong on CNN where, on the L-Series, one conversing head appeared to be wearing a complicated sip of tanner. This outcome was not strong on the other screens.
The additional ill temper suggested itself on the assessment pattern screen, where you can see a gaunt white limit around any black line. We moreover saw that the L-Series was slicing off the fortitude around the corner of the screen, meaning the picture was not solution all full 1,920x1,080 pixels.
You might not design a Personal Computer to have the same video high quality as one of the most appropriate TVs on the market, but if Sony is going to erect the cost of the X-Reality fragment in to this system, as against to, say, a dedicated graphics chip, you would design the TV fragment to supply a net on the whole benefit. Based on our testing, the fragment helped the color and ill temper is a few cases, but resulted in muddled, unlawful color digest in others. Between that and the chopped down manifestation resolution, the traffic offs that advance with the X-Realty fragment aren't worth the updated cost.
Gesture manage is the other prominence underline of this system, and you're improved off deliberation that an examination than a bona fide means of determining the computer. Fraught with attraction problems and with paltry focus integration, the gesticulate controls are basically unusable.
A short educational is to gesticulate manage reveals that they are usually meant to work in usually 4 programs on the system: Internet Explorer, Windows Media Center, the Media Gallery, and PowerDVD. That's a myopically paltry preference of programs, but it roughly doesn't matter, given gestures do not seem to record at all.
I went by the tutorial, that outlines the simple palm motions, and we moreover attempted gesturing at assorted speeds, at not similar distances from the screen, and beneath not similar lighting conditions. we moreover attempted adjusting the attraction of the Webcam that acts as the gesticulate sensor. No matter that non-static we adjusted, possibly by itself or with others, the network wouldn't agree to my gestures outward of the educational software.
Sony is of course not the first businessman with a subpar gesture-based manage scheme. Perhaps there exists a few multiple of lighting, distance, and transformation speed we didn't home on that would upgrade the experience on the L-Series. Even if that is the case, at most appropriate that would make Sony's gesticulate controls too fussy for pile consumption. That would be improved than full nonfunction, but regardless, they need more work before Sony can affirm that gesticulate submit is improved than reaching is to rodent or the enclosed remote control.
The final large complaint is to Vaio L-Series comes from its core Personal Computer features. This network simply doesn't offer a robust enough setup next to competing all-in-ones in the same cost range.
Compare the Vaio with the new Asus ET2700I or the comparison Lenovo IdeaCentre B520 and you'll see that Sony is charging too sufficient for this computer's core specs. Its mobile Core i5 fragment is too slow next to the desktop Core i7s in the other two PCs, and the insufficient of a several graphics fragment hurts the Vaio's 3D gaming prospects. The embedded Intel HD Graphics 4000 fragment in the L-Series can fool around mainstream Personal Computer games pretty well , but the several chips in the Lenovo and Asus systems will be better. Sony does offer upgrade options to Core i7 and Nvidia graphics chips, but those, of course, send the cost label even higher.
You can moreover ding Sony for its 24-inch display, at least depending on how you feel about hold screens. I've listened from assorted vendors that bring hold to 27-inch all-in-one is too costly for pile marketplace PCs. That hasn't stopped Lenovo , and Acer from bring such systems to market. Some of you may pick hold in an entertainment PC. we would rsther than have a incomparable monitor, quite given that this network includes a remote control.
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