Sony Vaio Tap 20 bridges the desktop-tablet gap
Hi.
I'm Rich Brown for CNET and I'm here with the Sony Vaio Tap 20 all-in-one desktop.
So this system might be the most unique in the entire slate of Windows 8 launched PCs.
What's interesting about it is that it was a 20-inch on one that has a really modest set of components.
It actually also has a battery.
That means that you can take the system, move it around anywhere in your house and it really kind of straddles the line between desktop and tablet.
And for its core specs, it's a 20-inch display
with a 1600 by 900 resolution.
It comes with a core F5 low voltage CPU, as well as 4 gigs of RAM and 750 bit hard drive.
It has onboard Intel graphics, so it's not really much of a gaming desktop.
And it actually only has a really limited set of ports.
You get a couple of USB 3s, some audio jacks and SD card slot, as well as standard Ethernet and power.
That's about it.
Sorry Home Entertainment fans, it does not have an HDMI input which is kind of a drag.
We also found in our testing that the testing will last for about 3-1/2 hours on battery that's certainly long enough to watch most
movies.
So with those specs and for 999, this might seem like an overpriced desktop.
But the battery really gives us some unique flexibility.
You pick it up pretty easily, close up the stand and take it pretty much wherever.
You can lay down flat on a surface or you can take it and move it into, say a bedroom, a den, or somewhere sort of out the way to use it as a full screen computer for watching movies or browsing the web or whatever you wanna do.
So for movie watching, it has no optical drive so you're stuck with either an external optical if you wanna kinda clutter it up or whatever you can get from the web
or it's on your hard drive.
And as I said, with gaming, you can play newer titles with lower image quality settings but I wouldn't expect to play everything.
For general data they're computing though, you can do pretty much anything you want at the system.
As long as you're clear of hiring multimedia at it.
It also has some unique networking capabilities and it has WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC support.
So system definitely is not for everybody.
I can certainly see an argument that a laptop or a tablet can do pretty much anything this thing can for a low price and easier to move around.
Still, the fact that this brings a nice large display, and a battery powered PC,
makes it kinda compelling for a certain niche.
So, I'm Rich Brown.
This is the Sony Viao Tap 20.
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