Sony knows a thing or two about designing great-looking products and it has outdone itself with its latest Media Center desktop, the Vaio TP1 Living Room PC. Whereas most Media Center desktops are built to resemble traditional AV equipment, this looks more like a giant white jelly donut. Or one of those robot vacuum cleaners. But that's a good thing.
Sony says the TP1 is designed to fit into any living room, and we have to concede it has done a great job making it look stylish. The only problem we envisage is that many people may not have anywhere to put it -- or if it does find a home, it may look out of place.
The TP1 uses a mobile Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and a 300GB hard drive, but there's no Blu-ray drive -- you'll have to put up with a standard dual-layer DVD burner until Sony gets its act together (come on guys, we thought you said Blu-ray was the future). You also get HDMI connectivity and an integrated TV tuner, plus an infrared remote and RF keyboard.
The Vaio TP1 Living Room PC will go on sale in March and will cost $1,600 (about £800). Watch out for a full review before then. -RR