saralk Posted December 9, 2004 Share Posted December 9, 2004 (edited) I needed a PC for my room that was small, compact and did what I wanted to use it for (music, video, work, occasional gaming). I decided to go for the VGC-M1. http://www.fw6.net/viao/front-open.jpg My first impressions were very good, the specs are pretty decent all things considering: P4 3.06ghz, 512MB RAM, 160gb HDD (in the form of two partitions), 15.4" XGA Widescreen TFT, TV Tuner, DVD+-RW Dual Layer, Build in speakers (2.1). The PC has a fold up keyboard that covers two-thirds of the screen, the rest becomes the display for a Hi-Fi System. On the Left side there are all the things you may need access on a daily basis: http://www.fw6.net/viao/side.jpg (TV Antenna connection, Video connections, headphones, 56k Modem, line-out, mic, 2x USB 2.0, Ethernet, PCMIA Slot, Firewire, Sony Memory Stick Slot) On the right side, is a laptop style pop-out cd drive http://www.fw6.net/viao/cd.jpg This is meant to be an all-in-one media centre PC, however, Sony chose to bundle their own Vaio software, and remote control: http://www.fw6.net/viao/remote.jpg Pressing the Vaio button launches an easy to use menu system that lets you watch Live/Recorded TV, Listen to your music, Play downloaded videos or run a slide show of your pictures. When the keyboard is folded up, you can use the remote to control the music. Pros The TFT screen is incredible, everything is so clear and sharp, colours are very vivid, the difference from my CRT to this TFT is unbelievable. Its got a very small footprint, and therefore fits nicely into my bedroom without taking up much room. The speakers are really high quality, and its the first pc with a built in subwoofer. The Remote and media software are very good, and easy to use. Good specs. Cons Its very un-upgradable The hi-fi software that comes when the keyboard is folded is a huge letdown, it really ruins an amazing pc, here are a few things that are wrong with it: It doesnt work with DRM, in fact any files I bought from iTunes, or MSN Music just crash the software when I tried to play them, its quite difficult to find the song you want, Sony focused more on asthetics than usability when designing this part of the software. Overall Design - 10/10, It looks very very nice. Features - 9/10, Loads of features here Functionality - 6/10, The whole thing is easy to use, but it was let down by the hi-fi software Overall - 8/10, A Good buy, but if they had better Hi-Fi software, would be an amazing PC. Edited December 10, 2004 by saralk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
navicaph Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 Is it detachable from that base? It just looks like notebook attached to a dock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saralk Posted December 10, 2004 Author Share Posted December 10, 2004 no its not detatchable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zigaroo Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 Resize images please. How about some screenshots of this software? Kind of hard to tell why you don't like the "Hi Fi Software" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saralk Posted December 10, 2004 Author Share Posted December 10, 2004 unfortunatly I can't take screenshots of the hi-fi software because i have to fold up the keyboard to access it, therefore making the print screen button unusable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rappy Veteran Posted December 10, 2004 Veteran Share Posted December 10, 2004 Thats a nice system :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saralk Posted December 11, 2004 Author Share Posted December 11, 2004 Ive uploaded a video of the hi-fi software, so you can all see it. Please note its quite a large file, at just under 10MB. http://www.fw6.net/hifi.avi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdflkjsdrhthfhrhr Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 There are programs that take screenshots based on a timer... analogx.com for example has one for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IK47 Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 I havent seen that pc before. is it a european model or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randy_tho Posted December 18, 2004 Share Posted December 18, 2004 Hook up a USB keyboard to take a screenshot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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