GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Let’s be honest: the Averatec All-In-One is a netbook with a big screen. The 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor isn’t going to give you blistering performance, but in our experience it will give you enough power to do most everyday computing tasks.

Like a netbook, the All-In-One is cheap. $550 buys you the computer, an 18.4 inch, 1680 x 945 widescreen display (with built-in webcam), a keyboard and a mouse. You’ll also find a DVD drive, built-in mic, 5 USB ports, ethernet and a 120GB hard drive.

Perhaps the neatest feature is the shiny metal swing-arm which connects the flat base with the monitor – it reminds us of the arm on the Anglepoise-like iMac G4 – which allows the screen to be lowered to desk level, or even flipped flat for easy storage, or the carrying of tea and cakes into the den.

Joanna Stern at Laptop mag has put the All-In-One through its early paces and she likes it. It’s easy to see why: The machine doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a low-end family computer, but for the price, Avaratec has squeezed in a lot of computer, and its glossy looks belie its cheap origins.

Exclusive Hands-On With Averatec 18.4-Inch All-In-One [Laptop Mag]

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This is Sony’s innovative new Vaio JS1. It’s one good looking computer, and it’s hard to know how Sony’s engineers came up with such an out-there, brand new PC design. The computer is completely housed in that thin, brushed metal (or is it silver plastic?) and glass slab, and the keyboard is a sleek and slimline model which can be easily slid out of the way. There’s even a vertical optical drive in there, although Sony has opted for the old-fashioned kind with an actual pop-out disk tray.

In fact, it seems that Sony’s innovation knows no bounds: there’s a webcam built in to the 20.1″ screen bezel. The Core 2 Duo comes with 3GB RAM, a 500GB hard drive and a couple of real extras — Super Audio CD support, and a signal processor chip to pump out Dolby 5.1 sound. Clearly Sony is hawking this as a media center PC, as there is also a Blu-ray option.

The price has not yet been announced, but it had better be less than $1200. Otherwise, you might want to buy the real iMac. That’ll run Windows just fine, and it will also run the Mac OS, which Sony’s clone can’t do. Launch date TBA.

Product page [Sony]

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