Product Reviews

Sony can safely claim to be one of the leading manufacturers when it comes to the art of the media centre PC. Its name is synonymous with style, and the sleek, neatly integrated machines that pass through Computer Buyer's labs from time to time are a testament to a company that truly believes the Windows-based home entertainment machine has a bright future.

The TP1E is one of the few Sony PCs not to come with a screen, integrated or otherwise. Instead, the idea is that you supply your own flat screen LCD or plasma display, which fits with the idea that the TP1E's home might be in the living room rather than tucked away in a study. It's also the kind of machine that might appeal if you live and work in the same room, whether it's a student bedsit or the kind of office that gets used for leisure time as well.

Type casting

There's an HDMI port on the back for high definition output, and this also supplies sound, so in theory it's possible to run the entire system with only two cables, power and HDMI - a welcome change from the usual rat's nest that develops behind most PCs and TVs, let alone the two together. There's also a wireless card installed, so you can connect to your home network without the challenge of extra cabling.

The matching keyboard, with its laptop-style integrated trackpad, is wireless too, and its design could charitably be called unique. It looks very sleek, and it's the perfect size to be popped on a lap and used from the sofa, but it's not particularly responsive to type on. In fact, it reminded us of the keyboard that came with the legendary Apple Macintosh Twentieth Anniversary Edition, which was pretty much literally ripped off a PowerBook. It's fine for getting around Windows and mild Internet browsing, but writing anything more than a few dozen words becomes a chore, and while trying to hold it on your lap it's very easy to press random keys by accident at the edges.

Turning

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back to the main system unit, the internal specifications make the TP1E a capable machine, at least by the standards of a media centre as opposed to a workhorse PC. The processor is a 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, and with 1GB of RAM the TP1E makes fairly light work of most everyday jobs. It would be fine for photo editing and even a bit of video cutting, but we wouldn't fancy trying those with the supplied keyboard and trackpad, and you'd really need a standard PC monitor rather than an LCD TV for accurate viewing in creative applications.

We had no problems running Windows Vista Home Premium's Media Center, and just about the only thing the TP1E won't be able to do is play 3D games; the Intel graphics adapter doesn't bear comparison with anything decent released in the last three years.

The case is a definite talking point, but it isn't just design for the sake of it. The circular shape will fit easily in most home entertainment racks, and hides a surprising number of ports. There's a spring-loaded sliding cover on the front; slide it open and you find a couple of handy USB ports, a mini-FireWire port and a memory card reader compatible with SD and Memory Stick cards. On the back you'll find a further two USB ports, plus the HDMI and D-Sub VGA (analogue monitor) sockets, as well as somewhere to plug in the included WiFi antenna.

Nothing to show

This is where we hit the first problem, though.The HDMI port is a great high definition inclusion, but the sad fact is that the TP1E is incapable of much else, HD-wise. Its DVD drive isn't Blu-ray, merely a standard DVD writer, and the TV tuner is standard definition. So you'll be able to watch traditional DVDs and ordinary Freeview TV, but if you plug in a sparkling new 1080p full HD telly its capabilities will be largely wasted.

The second pitfall is the TV tuner itself. Not only is it not HD, but it's a single tuner, so you can't watch one channel while recording another. Not everyone will miss this, but the fact is that it's possible to get something that will do it, for much less money, from Argos. There are now dozens of Freeview channels available, and in all likelihood there'll be times when you want to record two things at once, or watch one and record another. It's crazy that the TP1E is capable of neither.

This is a beautifully designed machine with some definite pluses, and as visions of the future go, we can't fault Sony for trying. But the TP1E is lacking a few features that would push it over the edge into real desirability.