Sony VAIO PCV-W1

Sony has been selling its all-in-one VAIO W home PC in the US since last October, but the UK's wait is nearly over. In September, an upgraded model will go on sale over here for around £1,500.

In fact, the VAIO PCV-W1 is as much about home entertainment as it is about home computing. The system incorporates Sony's GigaPocket TV/PVR technology and features a wide-screen 17.5in. Onyx Black TFT display. The high-contrast, wide viewing angle LCD screen automatically modifies its brightness and colour temperature according to whether the system is being used as a TV, a PC or is in standby mode with a clock on-screen. The VAIO W1 has a DVD-RW drive and comes with Sony's Click-to-DVD software, so you can save TV programs on DVD at the touch of a button. SonicStage handles the audio side of things – the display has a pair of built-in stereo speakers, and S/PDIF connectors are provided for digital audio out if you want to beef up the sound. A single control application, VAIO Media, provides access to these and other programs. As well as a fold-down keyboard and a mouse, the VAIO W1 has a well-featured remote control for easy access to GigaPocket recordings. The system runs Windows XP Home. The VAIO W1 is powered by a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 processor and comes with 512MB of RAM. The hard disk is a massive 160GB unit.