Sony Vaio L21 review

The Vaio looks stylish, with metal feet and a neat bevelled edge. The house-brick-sized AC adaptor can be a pain to position. To the right of the screen you’ll find 3.5mm mic and headphone ports, a mini-Firewire port, memory card reader and a pair of USB3 ports. To the left are the Blu-Ray drive, volume controls and an input selector that lets you switch between displaying content from the PC and external sources. At the back, you’ll find the video inputs, along with an HDMI output to connect the L21 to a larger screen or projector, plus three USB ports. The PC comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse set. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about either, but we soon got used to typing fast and accurately on the keyboard’s widely spaced flat keys, while the ambidextrous mouse is comfortable to use.

In fact, we have no complaints at all about this all-in-one PC’s hardware. It looks great, sounds great, works well and has all the features we want. Unfortunately, there’s one problem: the price. At £1,200, it’s hugely expensive for what it does, even when you take into account the Blu-ray player and the ability to use it as a TV screen. It’s a lovely piece of hardware and one we’d gladly own. However, unless you’re a high-earner living in a shoebox apartment, we recommend buying a cheaper and more powerful, though probably less attractive, desktop PC.