Sony VAIO VPC-L212FX/B

• Pros
  Large monitor. Nice styling. Innovative touchscreen. HDMI in and out. Analog video in. USB 3.0.
  
• Cons
  No Blu-ray. No eSATA. No TV tuner.
  
• Bottom Line
  The Sony VAIO VPC-L212FX/B continues the evolution of the Sony VAIO line of all-in-one touch-screen desktops, with a great design, good performance, and good price. But a couple of missing features hold it back.

The Sony VAIO VPC-L212FX/B ($1,199.99 list, at Best Buy) is a very attractive all-in-one desktop PC with the power to create media (photos, videos, music) as well as enjoy it. It has a couple of creature comforts, like HDMI-in and an innovative multi-touch screen, but a couple of missing features, like Blu-ray and a TV tuner, keep this desktop from industry-leading greatness.

Design and Features
The VPC-L212FX/B looks more like an HDTV than the last Sony VAIO all-in-one we looked at, the Sony VAIO VPC-J113FX/B ($899.00 list, 2.5 stars). The desktop is all monitor, with a slightly large bezel around the screen (more on that later). The chassis fits the current consumer electronics standards: glossy black plastic and glass, with silver accents on the system's "foot." The included wireless keyboard and mouse easily slip underneath the screen for storage. The back and sides of the system have embedded controls and ports, but are almost invisible unless you really look for them. This design strategy is both a help and a hindrance: they are certainly discreet, but they almost seem hidden when you're trying to find them in a darkened room.

The system's 24-inch 1080p HD (1,920 by 1,080 resolution) panel is multi-touch enabled, so you can navigate using your fingers. The surface has a little more friction than other touch devices (like the relatively slick screen on an iPad or iPhone), but it's easy to get used to. The bezel surrounding the screen is actually another touch-sensitive that tries to make the touch experience more than just "pressing on-screen buttons." Depending on what spot you press, you'll bring up functions like zoom in/out, back or forward, a hotkey for a favorite app, and even a control to turn the backlit Sony logo on or off. It's somewhat gimmicky, but I suppose you can learn the functions to make surfing the Web a better experience. At the very least, it means that you'll need to use the mouse and keyboard less. An icon on the lower right of the bezel brings up a cheat sheet diagram in case you forget which part of the screen zooms in.

Like other all-in-one PCs, there isn't any internal expansion room in the VPC-L212FX/B, though you can expand the included 4GB of memory up to 8GB. There are 3 USB 2.0 ports in the back, and a pair of USB 3.0 ports on the side. The USB 3.0 interface is "up to 10 times faster" than USB 2.0. Above the USB 3.0 ports is the media card reader, which only handles SD and Memory Stick models (and their variants). I'd like to see an eSATA port to also provide a faster connection when transferring data via external hard drives, since video collectors and creators tend to like big-screen PCs like this one. Other buttons on the right side of the desktop handle volume or selecting which of the three inputs display on the screen: The internal PC, HDMI in, or the analog (composite) video/audio in ports. HDMI in is great for people that want to hook up a cable DVR, PlayStation 3, or TiVo to the VPC-L212FX/B, and the analog ports will work with old-school VCRs and camcorders.

For such a compact desktop, there are a lot of options to view video, but there are a few omissions. The system lacks the Blu-ray player that should have been a natural choice for 23-inch 1080p HD panels, and this version of the VAIO L Touch lacks a TV tuner (other models from Sony have both options). Since we're griping, the bloatware situation at Sony has improved greatly compared with a few years ago, but there are still a couple of stumbles. The system comes with only 30 days of updates for the included Norton Internet Security trial software (I'd like to see 12-15 months included on all new PCs), and there's a copy of Evernote preloaded. Evernote is a free note-taking app, but to get the full functionality of the program you'll have to subscribe.

The software isn't all bad: There's a VAIO Media Gallery program pre-loaded that helps you view photos, videos, and music in an easy to navigate touch interface. VAIO Media Gallery also helps you create videos and slideshows you can then share with the world. PlayStation 3 owners will get a kick out of the remote play and remote keyboard functions built into the VAIO L Touch. You can share media (photos, music, videos) between other VAIO desktops and laptops, if you set up the Vaio Media sharing utility.

Performance
The VPC-L212FX/B uses one of the new Intel Core i5-2410M processors, which includes Intel's HD Graphics 3000 integrated GPU. This means that the desktop has very good multimedia processing performance with a modicum of 3D power, all in a singe-die chip. It has multimedia performance that rivals quad-core processors from AMD, even though the Core i5-2410M is technically a dual-core processo

Though the Sony VAIO VPC-L212FX/B is arguably the most attractive system among the five in terms of looks, it has a few drawbacks that keep it from achieving our highest ratings: The Sony's weaker 3D performance isn't a dealbreaker by itself, but when you add the lack of Blu-ray, eSATA, and TV tuner to the mix, you lost a few points off the top. The Asus ET2400IGTS-B008E holds on to the Editors' Choice for multimedia all in one desktops by virtue of its better performance overall, and the things that the Sony lacked.