Sony VAIO VGX-TP2G

Matthew Sparkes | Sep 26, 2008 5:23 PM
Sony | http://www.sony.com.au
RRP: $2399 (time of review)
Performance:  4
Features & Design:  4
Value for money:  3
Overall Rating: 
User Rating:  No user ratings.
Intriguing styling makes this near-silent media-centre PC stand out, but it has its foibles
Sony has released many media-centre PCs, most of which also happen to be perfectly usable desktop machines. The TP2G is different: this is practically an audiovisual component. It comes with no monitor, for instance, with Sony envisaging users connecting via the HDMI port to a flat-screen TV.

Using the HDMI port has the added benefit of combining audio and video on one cable, which keeps installation simple and cable clutter to a minimum. The keyboard and trackpad combo is wireless as well, and the inclusion of 802.11a/b/g wireless means you could get away with only power and HDMI cables.

As a media centre, the TP2G’s most likely home will be your living room, and the good news is that it’s almost silent: there’s just one fan, and it’s barely audible even in the quietest of rooms. The design’s interesting, too. It’s striking enough that you’ll want this VAIO on show and, with a diameter of 270mm, it’s small enough to live on a standard TV shelf.

The ports, both on the front and back, are cleverly hidden. A sliding, spring-loaded cover hides the two front-mounted USB ports, mini-FireWire, SD and Memory Stick slots.

A panel on the back, held on with magnets, covers another two USB ports, the network port, HDMI and D-SUB outputs, microphone and speaker sockets, an optical S/PDIF out, a socket for the wall-mountable WLAN antenna and TV-in.

The TV tuner is a DVB-T hybrid model, which is useful if you live in an area with no digital reception. However, the actual hardware is a USB AVerMedia tuner, but while the VAIO VGC-LT28G had two built in, the TP2G has just one. This is severely restricting for a modern media hub: you can only record a single channel at a time.

There are bound to be times when you want to record two channels simultaneously – and that’s assuming your TV has a digital tuner built in, otherwise you won’t even be able to watch one programme and record another.

At least the optical drive reads Blu-ray discs (though it only writes to DVDs) so you’ll be able to make the most of your HD TV. Internal storage takes the shape of a 500GB hard disk, which is just enough for a medium-sized standard-definition media collection, but when space runs out you’ll need to add external storage.

The TP2G’s small dimensions mean no space for a second internal drive bay, and replacing the existing drive is all but impossible thanks to the TP2G’s tightly integrated nature.

The keyboard and mouse combo looks good, but can be frustrating for extended use. We found key presses occasionally failed to register altogether, making long documents irritating to work on. Also, the trackpad was equally prone to occasional blips.

The TP2G offers plenty of power for encoding, courtesy of its 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM. It scored a respectable 0.94 in our application benchmarks.

The one area of entertainment where the TP2G falls down is gaming – Nvidia’s 8400M graphics adapter is underpowered for 3D gaming, so you can forget about running anything but the oldest games.

But there are plenty of good points: the design is excellent, performance is more than adequate, and the large hard disk and integrated WLAN will be big advantages for anyone with a modern media network at home. The inclusion of HDMI is another major plus point over DVI, if only because it carries an audio signal, meaning less cable clutter.

However, the lack of twin TV tuners is a major downside – especially when you can buy a twin tuner set-top box, complete with 120GB hard disk, from online retailers for $300. This highlights the Sony’s other problem: price.

Although competitive with other Windows-based media centres, it’s too expensive for a device with this many restrictions. If you’re looking for a media centre that will give a spare room a touch of class, and will actually be used as a PC, we can’t argue with the TP2G’s excellent design, but it’s too expensive to be given pride of place in the average living room.
This article appeared in the August, 2008 issue of PC Authority.