Sony Vaio VGX-TP3E review

We've reviewed previous incarnations of Sony's stylish Vaio VGX Media Center PCs, and they have always impressed.

Its glossy black cylindrical chassis is compact, and although it's not among the least power-hungry PCs here, its power consumption of 60W active and 38W idle is far lower than that of most PCs.

This PC is designed to live in your sitting room, hooked up to your HD TV. Rather than a traditional mouse and keyboard, it comes with a Media Center remote control and a wireless keyboard that feels like the disembodied lower half of a laptop thanks to the built-in touchpad.

It has a Blu-ray drive and a dual digital TV tuner so you can watch one Freeview channel while recording another. The dedicated Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT graphics chip has 256MB of dedicated RAM. This can't handle new 3D games, but it provides the power needed for smooth HD video.

The Vaio VGX-TP3E has both wired and wireless networking adaptors, but lacks Draft-N WiFi and Gigabit Ethernet. The10/100Mbit wired port is fast enough for media streaming, and few people have Gigabit networks, but it's still a surprising omission for a new PC.

There's a generous 500GB hard disk, a memory card reader and 2GB of RAM. The RAM is the only part of the entire system that you can upgrade yourself, to a maximum of 4GB, through a cover on the base. The rest of the PC is not designed to be upgraded, and the case is almost impossible to open.

The VGX-TP3E comes with a better range of software than you get with most PCs, including Microsoft Works 8 and Photoshop Elements 6. Although it isn't particularly cheap, it can easily replace your set-top box, play DVD and Blu-ray movies and record TV programmes. However, there are better-value Blu-ray PCs around. Although it's no longer available, Medion's Akoya P6888 had a quad-core processor, a 1TB hard disk and a BD-ROM drive for just £500 including VAT. There are sure to be more deals like this soon.