Sony VAIO JS Series All-in-One VPCJ118FX/B

First there was the PC, which took over our desks with the box that contained the central processing unit (CPU) plus a separate monitor. An octopus of cables and cords linked the keyboard and mouse to the CPU and the monitor. One power cord juiced the CPU. Another one fed the monitor. Clever neatniks installed the CPU underneath the desk, but then it just got in the way of the vacuum cleaner. Then the giant laptop had its day in the sun as users realized that it would save desk space and reduce cord clutter. But the giant laptop as desktop computer substitute was handicapped because there was a physical limit to the size of the monitor. And users soon noticed that the ergonomics of a laptop are not as comfortable as a desktop because the relationship between the laptop keyboard and the monitor is immovable. For desktop computer users who want to save space without sacrificing screen size, all-in-one computers are the solution. 

The Sony VAIO JS Series All-in-One is the best all-in-one PC in our review and the TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award winner. It is an excellent choice for business users or home users who need a beautiful and powerful all-in-one PC loaded with useful features. It has the small desktop footprint of a laptop and the full-sized monitor and comfortable ergonomics of a traditional desktop machine.

System Features: 

The Sony VAIO JS Series All-in-One has a powerful central processing unit, an Intel core i7-620M with a clock rate of 2.66GHz. Turbo Boost technology can push the speed to 3.33GHz. The Intel core i7-620M is a dual core CPU. So what does that mean? In the beginning, CPUs had a single core. The core is the piece of the CPU that reads and executes instructions. A single-core CPU can handle one instruction at a time. The dual core CPU in the Sony VAIO JS Series All-in-One performs instructions in parallel (to the extent that software understands how to use the feature). This CPU boasts the ability to increase its speed with the Turbo Boost feature, depending on the task you throw at it. If one of the two cores is neither fully busy nor in danger of reaching the chip’s thermal-design power threshold, the power it would have used transfers to the other core to allow it to run at a faster clock rate. Of all of the all-in-one PCs in our review, the Sony VAIO JS Series All-in-One is equipped with the best CPU. It is up to most multitasking jobs, but note that if your requirements are extremely graphics intensive – digital video rendering for example – then any all-in-one PC is probably not going to be as satisfactory as a computer designed from the ground up to crunch video graphics. All-in-one computers are, after all, general purpose machines.

In order to do justice to this all-in-one PC’s processing power, it ships with 6MB of RAM (random access memory), and it can hold up to 8MB of RAM. Six megabytes is a lot of standard RAM, especially when you consider that some of the all-in-one computers in our review try to compete with just 1GB. Hard disk memory capacity is 500GB, which will take a bit of work to fill up.

The VAIO runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, an operating system that the VAIO’s system architecture supports. Inclusion of Microsoft Office Starter provides versions of Word and Excel that contain advertisements and reduced functionality. Sony’s Media Gallery is included, a collection of features and technologies that help to manage music, pictures and video. System diagnostics and maintenance software are pre-installed. A 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security Anti-Virus Software is also part of the software bundle.

On the green scale, this is one of the better all-in-one computers. Not only is it ENERGY STAR qualified and compliant with the European Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive (RoHS), it is EPEAT Silver registered. EPEAT maintains a global registry for green electronics.

Input/Output Features: 

The simplicity of the all-in-one PC design is maintained by Sony's decision to provide a wireless keyboard and mouse for a clean desktop uncluttered by cords. You can’t get something for nothing, so the inconvenience of occasionally replacing the batteries in the wireless keyboard and mouse is the price that you pay to rid yourself of cords. The display is a 21.5-inch touch screen with a full high-definition resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU with 512MB of dedicated video ram. A microphone is integrated, as well as a camera that can track faces. The built-in speakers are Intel High Definition Audio.

There are so many ways to get digital data in and out of the Sony VAIO. The optical disk drive reads and writes CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. Blu-ray Discs are exactly the same size as CDs and DVDs, but they can store information at greater densities than DVDs. That Sony chose to equip this all-in-one PC with Blu-ray capability is a testament to the fact that the Blu-ray market is here to stay. A multimedia card reader accommodates most of the many different memory card standards. There are 4 USB 2.0 ports plus an i.LINK Connection. Sony refers to the IEEE 1394 interface for transferring audio and video as i.LINK. This is the same interface that Apple Computer calls FireWire. A gigabit local area network connection is included. It is Bluetooth ready, and it supports Wi-Fi 802.11n, the latest standard.

Help & Support: 

Sony provides a one-year warranty for this all-in-one PC. Technical support is via chat, telephone or email.

Summary:

The Sony VAIO JS Series All-in-One is an all-in-one PC that is well designed and full of rich features. To its credit, Sony conforms to a variety of environmental standards that allow this all-in-one PC to have a small carbon footprint. It runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 with a fast central processing unit and oodles of random access memory. The CPU is, in fact, the best of any all-in-one PC in our review. Six megabytes of RAM is an unusually generous baseline. At 500GB, its hard drive has a large capacity in support of this machine’s excellent multimedia capabilities. The touch screen is large, with high-definition resolution, good speakers and a web cam. A wireless keyboard and mouse keeps the clutter down. The Wi-Fi client built into the system is the latest version of the wireless networking standard. The warranty lasts for one year, and you can access technical support by chat, email or telephone. If you are tempted to ditch your traditional desktop computer or you want your laptop to be just for mobile or commuter use, the Sony VAIO JS Series All-in-One is the best solution.