The Sony Vaio L Series is a PC, complete with a good looking 15.4-inch LCD display, embellished with a stylish polycarbonate chassis and bundled with Windows Vista Home Premium edition.

Embedded within the Vaio L Series is a Sound Reality audio chip and a pair of 3W speakers to give a thrilling entertainment experience. The machine has an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz processor, a 120GB hard drive, 1GB DDR2 SDRAM and not to forget a foldable keyboard, an integrated webcam and Wi-Fi.

What it lacks

If Sony is hoping to place L Series as a lifestyle-desktop replacement, its features could have been bettered. For example, Sony has placed buttons that let you control the MP3 files or movies one would be listening to or watching but the machine needs to load Vista before one can tune in.

At Rs 89,990, it is a lifestyle product and so it would be right to expect the machine to be able to play movies or music without loading the operating system first.

Notebooks like the HP Pavilion dv1000 or even Acer and Toshiba are capable of this. What's even more irksome is the lack of a built-in TV tuner, which given the L series high-asking price, would have been preferred. Vaio L series machines run for nearly two hours on its rechargeable battery.

True, Sony Vaio's emphasis on style is great due to which the PC is not exactly a performance beast. And at the asking price, one can easily buy a better-specified and thus better-performing desktop or notebook PC (maybe an Apple iMac G5).

The iMac G5 can be combined with 512MB, 1GB or 2GB of RAM (supports up to 2.5GB RAM) and a 2.1Ghz processor topped with a 250GB hard drive that can execute wonders on a 20-inch display.

Alternative

If one is ready to compromise on looks and style, then HP Compaq dx2700 small form factor should be on the list too. Equipped with 256 MB DDR2 RAM (upgradeable up to 4 GB) and 80 GB hard drive, the HP PC is marketed as a business machine.

Why? First, the range of HP Compaq dx2700 PC series starts at Rs 34,990 (plus taxes), which is an affordable for small business owners.

Second, the networking, connectivity and software performance on dx2700 series is worth the money. Integrated Intel GMA 3000 graphics chipset means if one evaluates dx2700's video or large image files performance then it's nothing to boast about.

Instead, it would be advisable to consider a higher-end HP Compaq dx7300 that offers the option to incorporate discrete video cards for superior graphics-rendering performance.

Conclusion

At the Vaio's price, you could buy a notebook of equal or better specification but it gets full marks for that beautifully-designed body. HP's dx2700 might not parallel Vaio in looks but the machine delivers.