Digital Trends

Sony PCV-W20 April 13th, 2003 | by Logan Lindquist

Introduction

The Sony VAIO W20 computer is a unique system in the sense that it is useful in ways other desktop systems are not. It's peculiar size and design suggests that this system would be better suited to the kitchen or bedroom that in an office or work environment. Sony packs the W20 with more software and connectivity inputs than any system we have seen in this category. A cross between a laptop and a desktop computer, the PCV-W20 proves that great things do come in small packages.

Features and Design

We reviewed the W20's predecessor a couple months ago on the site and while we loved the design, the power was very lacking for what the system should be capable of doing. Sony quickly pulled the W10 off store shelves after realizing this and replaced the W10 with the PCV-W20. The difference? The PCV-W20 now has a more robust CPU; an Intel P4 1.8 GHz versus the previous Intel Celeron running at 1.6 GHz.

The PCV-W20 sports a 15.3” Widescreen WXGA (1280x768) LCD display which is integrated into the system very much the same way Apple's iMac and Gateway's Profile PC's are. The PCV-W20 also comes with 512MB of DDR memory, a 60Gb Hard drive, a DVD/CDRW combo drive, and more input ports than you can imagine, including 2 PCMCIA expansion slots along side the systems USB 2.0, Fire Wire, modem and ethernet ports. What we were disappointed to find that it did not have built in slots for SmartMedia, MultiMedia or SecureDigital memory card formats. If they had wanted to make a true appliance out of this computer they should have added these.

If you pay attention closely to the design of the PCV-W20 you will quickly notice that Sony designed this system to be used in high traffic areas such as the kitchen or even the bedroom. The LCD Display is protected by a thick acrylic shield preventing any harm to the beautiful display. The mouse also has a thick rubber strip across the front of it to prevent any marking or heavy wear and tear.

When not in use, the keyboard flips up against the display covering half of the viewable area. The other half which is visible automatically switches to a clock or radio depending on which settings you use. We found this feature to be incredibly thoughtful on Sony's behalf; giving purpose to the PCV-W20 while not in use is pure brilliance.

Setup and Use

Setting up the PCV-W20 is extremely easy. Plug in the mouse and power cable and then turn the system on. You will be prompted by Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition to enter your personal information, user names and passwords, and ISP connection information.

Sony has a plethora of in house software preloaded on the PCV-W20 which in our opinion works great in most aspects and adds to the overall feel and experience of the PCV-W20. Among the titles that you will get are; PictureGear Studio, DVgate, SonicStage, MovieShaker, Network Smart Capture and VAIO Media.

PictureGear is a comprehensive photographic sharing application and has four main aspects to it. Import Photos will let you transfer pictures from your digital camera onto the computer so that you can easily store them for future reference. The design of the program allows you to flow between its parts, but it has a launch screen that will allow you to choose what you want to do. Once the photos are on the computer you can do a number of different things with them. A slide show or a photo album are probably the two main features that people will use the most. You can export a slide show of your recent pictures that you took and then send them to your friends and family. You can also post your photo album directly from the program using Sony's ImageStation website.

SonicStage is the built in music recording, organizing and playing suite that comes with the PCV W-20. It is very similar to Windows Media Player in the way it organizes music. It does not have all the skinning capabilities, but does offer us the same limited amount of recording formats. The standard is the same format that MiniDisc is stored in; ATRAC and does Windows Media formats as well. Unless you own a MiniDisc player than you will probably end up using something different.  SonicStage looks great on the system and functions adequately; although does not have the ability to stream playlists off the internet ala Winamp or Window's Media Player.

MovieShaker is a basic video editor that allows you to build a little movie from clips that you may have on your computer. If you already have a movie you can add transitions, text and narration. It was fairly easy to use, although I did not have a video source to capture from, I was able to do what you see above in a short amount of time. It would be a great program to use to capture video into if all you are looking to do is make short movies for families and friends. It is able to stand by itself against Apple's iMovie. Don't forget that Windows Media Maker, that I have already mentioned, comes standard with XP so at least with this machine you get TWO basic video editors choose from.