Product Reviews

Unlike many systems, Sony's VGC-V3M feels like a cohesive unit rather than a collection of parts. This is partly down to the design, which binds the screen, PC and speakers into a single attractive body, but the feeling of unity extends to the wireless keyboard and mouse, both of which are responsive and comfortable. It even extends to its function, as it's designed to replace your PC, TV, DVD player, hi-fi and VCR in one attractive box.

The VGC-V3M is built with both desktop and notebook parts, making it smaller than a traditional desktop PC while maintaining desktop performance. Its Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz processor and 512MB of memory make for a decent core specification, although 1GB of memory would have given the system more leeway for future applications. A 128MB nVidia GeForce FX Go 5700 card handles the graphics. This was intended as

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a notebook graphics card and isn't fast enough to play the latest games at high resolution, but it can cope with casual gaming at lower resolutions. Most people will find this a happy medium between 3D power and noise - a more powerful graphics card would require louder cooling fans - as this PC is designed for a quieter environment than an office.

The analogue TV tuner is set up automatically the first time Sony's media centre software starts. With an aerial plugged in it detects all the terrestrial TV channels. A 250GB hard disk provides plenty of storage for all your recorded TV, music and photos, and you can back up your favourites to DVD using the double-layer recorder. All the media functions can be operated using the supplied remote control.

The 17" widescreen LCD's reflective coating produces bright colours, high contrast and a sharp image, making it great for watching DVD movies. Unusually the integrated stereo speakers, with a sub-woofer in the stand, are punchy and reasonably loud. If you want full surround sound, though, you'll have to buy a separate 5.1 system.

What you gain in designer looks and compact design, you lose in flexibility. Apart from a free memory slot, there's little room to upgrade the VGC-V3M. We would also have liked to see a digital TV tuner rather than an analogue one. This is a high-quality, good-looking PC, but its specification falls just short of our expectations for the price.