Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great screen, wall mountable, touch screen interface, faster processor, plenty of RAM, TV tuner card, Blu-ray player.

Thumbs Down:

Expensive than iMac 27 inch, bad sound quality.

Inside the Trunk:

24 inch LCD screen, wireless mouse and keyboard.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400S / 2.66 GHz, L2 cache, 4 MB, Chipset type Intel P43 Express, RAM 6GB (Expandable to 12 GB) 800 MHZ, DDR2 SD RAM, 1 TB SATA Hard disk drive, Blu-Ray drive, 24 inch TFT LCD Display Resolution 1920X1080, Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M – 1 GB / 3807 MB (max), HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet. 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth

Expansion Interface : 1 x Audio – Line-in – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm , 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45 , 1 x Display / video – HDMI input – 19 pin HDMI Type A , 1 x Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm , 1 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm , 1 x Audio – SPDIF output , 5 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A , 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) – 4 pin FireWire

Softwares VAIO Care, VAIO Media Plus, VAIO Movie Story, VAIO Media Gallery, Microsoft Works 9 SE, VAIO Help and Support, Norton Internet Security 2009 (30 days subscription) , Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (60 days trial)

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition.

Razzle Dazzle:

Sony Vaio L117FX is an all black system. Hard work has been put in for it to look good and it does show off. The screen is balanced by the stand in the front and back. What you get is a LCD TV like feel. Along with it are equally elegant keyboard and mouse.

Inside Dope:

Sony Vaio L117FX is made to compete with Apple iMac 27 inch (which we had reviewed earlier) but there are loads of differences between the two models.

You can mount the monitor of the Sony Vaio L117FX on the wall, the screen is touch screen interface (multi touch) so you don’t need much of keyboard and mouse to use it. We were happy with the display of the monitor it had full HD resolution of 1920X1080. Playing games on this screen is pure joy. Also you can watch HD movies on this screen, thanks to the built in Blu-ray player. This is something that this computer has an edge over Apple iMac 27 inch. Apple’s product had a huge 27 inch screen but it didn’t have a Blu-ray burner. Sony Vaio L117FX is smaller in size but the 1920X1080 resolution exploits the capabilities to HD content to the fullest. You won’t have much of space problems storing your movies on this computer due to the huge 1 terabyte hard disk on board.

There is a picture in picture feature in Sony Vaio L117FX which means you can have two screens at the same time. What this means is that you have HDMI connectivity on the computer where by you can connect an external source of video like XBOX 360 and you can watch TV and play on XBOX 360 at the same time or you can switch between the two screens seamlessly. But cannot record content from HDMI

We put the notebook to test for gaming and we weren’t quite pleased. Sony Vaio L117FX is media center PC and isn’t made for high end gaming. Games such as Sims3 and World of Warcraft worked fine. But high end, power hungry games will bring the GeForce GT 240M chip down to its heel. Don’t expect this computer to play games in all its glory with all settings to the fullest.

Sony Vaio L117FX has a built in TV tuner card so you can watch TV. TV experience was good thanks to the fast processor, good graphics card and plenty of RAM. The picture in picture feature lets you watch what you want on TV and work on the computer at the same time. You can’t record from HDMI external video source but you can record TV through TV tuner card.

The huge screen gives you great display but the speaker is disappointing on the computer. We, at test center, see good display marred by bad sound quality all the time. We are not saying that Sony Vaio L117FX sound is awful, but it could have been better.

There are host of ports on the sides of the screen as well as on the back of it, so we recommend you to use a movable arm, instead of fixed mount, if you are making it wall mountable. There is a HDMI port and three USB ports behind the screen. On the sides there are 2 USB ports and jacks for micro phone and speakers. Also there is slot for card reader. Supported card formats are Memory Stick, SD Memory Card, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro. On the other side there is “menu” button, the volume adjustment buttons and OK button.

Among the soft wares included there is Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition. You will be able to create a home network and share all your photos, music, videos etc. Windows 7 simple to use as compared to Windows Vista. There is Norton Internet Security 2009 and Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition which is available for 30 day and 60 day trial basis respectively. And Sony has bundled in soft wares like VAIO Care, VAIO Media Plus, VAIO Movie Story, VAIO Media Gallery, Microsoft Works 9 SE, VAIO Help and Support.

Nitty Gritty:

As we said earlier, Sony Vaio L117FX is put in the market as a competition to the Apple iMac 27 inch. Between the two we would prefer Sony Vaio L117FX. Blu-ray player, faster processor, wall mountable screen, touch screen interface are the reasons for our choice. But all this makes Sony Vaio L117FX more expensive than the Apple iMac 27 inch. If you can afford to spend the extra buck, get this computer.

Sum n Substance:

Thumbs Up: Impressive design, entertaining utility features, performs well in low illumination and on the whole good performer.

Thumbs Down: Photographs a mix of high, low and mediocre quality which is on the whole averagely impressive.

Inside The Trunk:
Launching Price: $329.00 – $ 349.00
Dimensions (WHD)- 3.6×2 x 0.8 inches
Weight (inclusive of battery and media) – 5.2 ounces
Megapixels- 10
Image sensor type- 1/2.4-inch Exmor
Size: R CMOS LCD size
LCD size -2.7-inch LCD
Resolution/viewfinder- 230K dots/none
Lens (zoom, aperture, focal length) – 5x, f2.4-5.9, 24-120mm (35mm equivalent)
File format (still/video)-JPEG/MPEG-4 (.MP4)
Highest resolution size (still/video)- 3,648×2,736 pixels/1,280×720 at 30fps
Image stabilization type- Optical, digital
Battery type and life – Li-ion rechargeable
Battery Life- 350 shots

The Whiz Kid Speaks: How many cameras have you come across that can shoot well in dim light even without a flash? I haven’t seen many. The Sony Cyber- shot DSC WX1 is one of those that have achieved this to an impressive degree. A novel sensor design, sophisticated lens and a speedy image processor help it do that. You get good snaps fast, but you’d better be complacent with that. Those of you expecting high quality images might be disappointed.

The technological infrastructure of the WXI is simply amazing – so much in such a small and lightweight body. The Exmor R CMOS sensor and G f2.4 wide-angle lens give it the same capabilities as the HX1. The sensor and G lens quality are the same as the dSLR and prosumer camcorder.

The controls are laid on the rear of the camera and are neatly organized. You can hold the camera with a single hand but there’s no chance for pressing buttons or dial mode changers accidentally. The power, shutter release and high speed shooting buttons on top make essential handling rather convenient while shooting. . The power and shutter release button are widely spaced so that you don’t press one accidentally while intending to operate the other. This enhances your ease of switching on the camera with your left hand. However, it makes accidental switch off an easy affair too.

Just press the menu button and you gain access to most controls. You can also see all settings by pressing this single menu key. The WX1 also has the capability to alert you when certain adjustments are not proper. For example, if you wonder why the Face Detection is not functioning, it’ll tell that it’s because Spot Metering was On. This is a very advantageous feature because even a technically non-savvy person can set problems right. Otherwise you’ll have to spend hours in detecting problems. You rarely get to see such a feature in most other cameras.

The WX1 comes with special shooting modes but the shooting features are essentially basic. You don’t have total control over shutter speed. The Movie mode on the dial with optical zoom will help you shoot 720 HD- quality videos. The Program Auto gives ISO control, focus and metering. The SCN gives you a choice for 11 scene types to choose from. Sony’s Intelligent and Easy Auto modes automatically handle most of the operations.

With the Sweeping Panorama you can shoot both flat and upright images with a single press of the shutter release button. In other cameras you’ll find that you need to take a number of shots for these two orientations. The Anti motion Blur and Handheld Twilight modes allow for  elimination of error in shooting by eliminating blurring and motion effects by combining six images. The result will be a sharper and more detailed picture than you’d have otherwise got with a single click. The images are ideal for viewing up to 8 X 10 sq. inches or lesser than that. Bigger images will come with problems in detailing.

The Intelligent Auto’s performance is pretty credible with a selection of 8 scenes, face detection and picture stability. You can set the iSCN to Auto/ Advanced. In the Advanced setting the camera will automatically shoot two instead of one picture in dim settings and select the better one. You can hence expect better quality snap amongst the two. The automatic photo shooting at 0.3 EV , 0.7 EV or 1.0 EV next to your selected exposure gives you a couple of snaps more than what you had actually shot. The camera does not come with a continuous shooting facility.

The photo quality is good till 200 ISO but at 400 ISO or more detailing suffers. You can notice this in highly detailed modes of viewing or when the image is cropped. The color for 8X10 inches and smaller images is perfect at ISO 1800, but ISO3200 images look faded. The images are sharp at the centre while they fade away towards the ends. Chromatic deviation is not observed much. On the whole the color, the white balance and exposure all seem to be good for the WX1.

Nitty Gritty: The Sony Cyber- shot DSC WX1 is essentially a point and shoot camera. I specifically like its ability to shoot good pictures without a flash even under insufficient lighting features and also its adjustment alerting property which make it one of the special cameras of its genre.

This one from Sony surely will have every music lover wagging his tongue for more. Sony has launched the dapper MDR 770LP headphones and trust me when I say this ‘its just so damn sexy’.

Its not that Sony hasn’t come up with eye catching headphones before, but this one totally leads the league. Well in the recent times most of the headphones that have been launched have the same old drab look. And that just adds to the appeal of these ones Launched by Sony. It’s got the headband kind of a style and a faux leather appearance. The earbuds can easily slide up and down for a nice secure comfortable fit. It comes with a 1.2m cord and a gold plated mini plug.

Though many people have moved on to the earbuds, for those who still love the headphone style this one is totally worth a shot. And plus priced at $65, what are you guys waiting for?? Go ahead grab it!!

Ahaa… change the way you listen to music… well like it was reported earlier this one was just another gimmick by Sony to launch a new pair of headphones. Damn, and everyone almost got into a tizzy after having having a look at the teaser site which blared the words “ change music forever”. Dampening everyones expectations of a new range of walkman, Sony has finally launched the MH907s which make use of the ears to control music.

Getting into the details of how this one works… the music player is activated when the two buds are inserted into the ears and when you take one of them out to do some other work, the music switches to the pause mode. Also when you get a call all you have to do is simple pop one in a lughole and the phone will answer the phone will hang up when u remove it.

Apparently this one works by sensing the presence of the ear. What we can conjure by this is that the sensor gets activated when it is sheathed by skin.

What is to be seen is that whether the people will really connect with this one. Because frankly having the headset connected all the time is pretty annoying and to add to it you anyways have to look at your phone to make out whose calling you.

The U.K pricing of this one hasn’t yet been made public but we hope that this one doesn’t really burn a hole in one’s pocket.

The buzz doing the rounds is that this could be the first touchscreen walkman or probably even the Android powered Rachael. But the possibility of it being the first one seems to be more likely because it says “ Change music forever “.

Sony has already branded it as the “new ground breaking technology”. Its surely got all the techies and the music lovers excited but all I could hope for is that this isn’t another launch gimmick for some other music accessory. LOL. With all the hype being created around it if this one turns to be a music accessory then it would seriously be a big blooper.

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Good sound quality, decent video and picture quality, low price.

Thumbs down: Boring design, earbuds aren’t that comfortable.

Inside the trunk:

• Product type Flash player
• PC interface(s) supported USB
• Flash memory installed 8 GB
• Weight 0.1 lbs
• Dimensions (W x D x H) 1.8 in x 0.4 in x 3.5 in

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Sony has always been known to bring out the best MP3 players at rock bottom price. With this one Sony has launched the latest 16 GB player at a price of $100 and the 80GB version is being offered at $80. It has compromised a bit on the styling and the design but it has retained the same battery life and audio quality.

A look at the player and I was like “ nothings really new or innovative in this one.. atleast as far as the looks are concerned. Below the 2 inch screen there is a five way control pad, a menu button and a back/home button. At times the up arrow key is a bit difficult to press. Its got a standard 3.5mm headphone jack below it and the volume rocker has been placed on the right spine. Also the USB port is below the player next to the headphone jack.

At 3.2 inches tall by 1.7 inches wide by 0.3 inch deep this one easily slips into the pocket and can easily be strapped to the waist band or to your armband. Along with the black version this one comes along in a blazing red option as well, wherein the top part is black and the bottom part is all red which is pretty much a killer combination.

The main menu features the icons for the functions in a grid layout. However there is no option where you can change the wallpaper or the theme of the player. The songs are divided in o categories by artists, genres, albums, track etc. on the submenu. The album art though cannot be resized to full screen can easily be magnified on the playback screen.

Coming to transferring music or getting music onto the player, this is pretty much an easy process and all you have to do is drag and drop files from your hard drive using the Sony Content Transfer App. Also this one is compatible with most of the jukeboxes like windows media player and rhapsody. However the bad news for the Mac users is that it does not support content transfer through Mac.

This one has been spattered with a variety of features and supports MP3, secure WMA, unprotected AAC, and LPCM audio. Also it supports JPEG photos and MPEG-4, WMV and H.264/AVC video. On the other side, Sony has done away with the Rhapsody DNA which has a huge fan following and also this one doesn’t support podcasts.

The sound setting is pretty much flat and can be tweaked using the presets and the 5 band custom Equalisers. The sound quality is crisp and clear and well balanced. And as usual I rarely have any complaints when it comes to the sound quality from Sony players. Again I would recommend using Headphones instead of the Earbuds which come along with it.

The videos and photos are also pretty much clear and vibrant. However there is also a slight amount of glare. Though I have always been highly impressed with the battery life offered by Sony this one is kind of disappointing with just 30 hours for audio and 40 hours for video compared to the astounding battery life that the others in the E series have to offer.

Nitty-Gritty: This one is surely the best one in the price range. So if u don’t wan to spend a bomb on  the player and all you worry is about the sound quality, then go ahead and grab this one.