Sony VAIO V100G

Matt Elliott Senior Editor

Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.

Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms

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Matt Elliott

Nov. 4, 2003 10:53 p.m. PT

Sony's latest all-in-one invention, the VAIO V100G, includes PC, TV, and DVR functionality, while ditching the attached, folding keyboard found on its other all-in-one, the W510G. The wireless keyboard and mouse and the remote control give you freedom to roam, but you won't want to wander too far from the small, 15-inch screen.

Upside: The V100G delivers big features in a small footprint. Only slightly thicker than a typical flat-panel display, the system houses a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of memory, an 80GB hard drive, and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. It also includes a TV tuner and Sony's Giga Pocket DVR software, along with a slew of other multimedia apps. Wire clutter is kept to a minimum; plug in the power cord, and you're ready to roll.

Downside: The V100G's 15-inch screen is too small for watching TV in larger rooms. Without a DVD-recordable drive, you can't burn archived TV content to DVD on the system, and the system's aging SIS 651 integrated graphics will likely slow down heavy video editing.

Outlook: At $1,599, you'll pay a premium for the slick all-in-one design; more-powerful PCs can be had for the same price. But we commend Sony for packing both PC and entertainment functionality into such a small, thin design. If your quarters are cramped, you may appreciate the double-duty VAIO V100G.