A Mac Look-alike from Sony

Dell has tried it before, creating a single-piece PC, where the monitor is integrated into the CPU unit.  And this time, Sony is giving it an attempt.  This one looks serious, though.  It’s the new Vaio JS1, with a 20.1″ LCD screen priced almost the same as a 20″ iMac.

The basic hardware for the Vaio is a little heavier than a comparative-sized iMac.  On a point-by-point comparison:

• Vaio has a 500GB hard disk which is a bit more than the iMac’s 250GB or 320GB;
• iMac runs on a 2.4 or a 2.66GHz CPU with either a 1GB or 2GB RAM standard, while the Vaio has either a 2.5GHz or 3GHz CPU running on 4GB RAM;
• the iMac has either an 128MB ATI Radeon HD 2400XT or a 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro, whereas the Vaio has an on-chip Intel G45 X4500HD which shares memory with the main RAM;
• the Vaio has a SuperDrive or a Blu-Ray capable (read-only) SuperDrive;
• for video the iMac has a mini DVI-out plus adapter, and the Vaio doesn’t have any mention (though the PC should have one as it seems to be aimed to be a media center PC);
• Firewire 400 and 800 on the iMac, while the Vaio has the Firewire 400 only;
• standard built-in webcam and mic for both machines;
• optical drive tray sliding out the side for the Vaio as against a slot-loading drive for the iMac;
• SD and Memory Stick slot for the Vaio which the iMac doesn’t have.

The Vaio almost looks like it would be good for video editing.  What with the large RAM.  Photoediting and video editing softwares are the only ones which really take advantage of the large RAM.  Most every other software would not have any performance boost even if the RAM were larger than 2GB.

This is not a game computer, though the 4GB CPU RAM could more than handle the memory sharing with the Intel graphics chipset for the 2D and 3D video.

The form-factor looks great for desktop sitting pretty in the living room.  In fact, it would look better in the living room or the entertainment room rather than in the home office.  Though with the form-factor, the Vaio will have the same limitation as the iMac: upgrade options are limited, and mostly external.

Forgive the pun, but it’s still like comparing apples and oranges.  Sony is bundled with Windows, and, of course, iMac runs on OS X and can run Windows at the same time.  For the most part that’s still the breaking point with the Sony.