Sony's VAIO VGN-A790 - DesktopReplacement

Posted by Matthew Brodsky

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The Sony A790 is a powerful multimedia laptop with a 17 inch widescreen display. Features include a 100GB hard drive, 2 GHz Centrino processor, 1 GB of memory, and an ATI accelerator, not to mention an ATI Radeon X600 graphics card and 256 MB of dedicated video memory.

If you'reon the market for a desktop that you can fold up into a briefcaseand lug around like a notebook, well, here's your man. The SonyVAIOVGN A790 is technically a laptop, butit offers the hardware for speed, power, and chutzpah to pull offany multimedia computing maneuver. Applications open up and runat the speed of light, and can do so even when more then one ofthem is open. We're talking a MobileMark score in the range of240, including long disk writes and televisionburning.

The root ofthe Sony A790's brawn includes a 2-GHz Centrino microprocessor, 1 GB ofmemory, and an ATI accelerator, not to mention an ATI Radeon X600graphics card and 256 MB of dedicated video memory.

What are such desktop-like numbers good for in a notebook? Well,for one, you could place the VAIO A790 in its TVtuner stand, with its external speakers tagging along, and recordsome of your favorite cop dramas onto the 100 GB hard drive. TheTV tuner can download channel schedules, as well as pause andrecord live shows like TiVo can. While you're watching Starskyand Hutch grilling Huggy Bear, you won't be disappointed with the17-inch widescreen with UXGA 1,920-1,200 default resolution.

Or you could tap into the multimedia software suites forplaying, recording, and editing basically anything with words,music, and/or images in it. Sony's VAIO Zone software connects allof these apps together much like, though not as well as,Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition. Then burn up to 8 GBworth of your home DJ masterpieces onto a DVD for safe keeping with the double-layer read-write player.

Nevertheless, the first time you try to type a littleold-fashioned e-mail on the massive screen-or try to carry themonster around-you may begin to wonder the worth of such amassively equipped laptop. You may end up just leaving the beaston your desk at home for hardcore multimedia work, and carryaround a smaller laptop for everything else.

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