Economies of scaling
Far Cry 2 is a 3D-enabled game so it works well in 3D, but there’s also a 3D upscaling option for 2D video content. To be honest, this didn’t add much to my Spiderman 2 or Aliens DVDs, but then I’ve never seen really successful 3D upscaling from any other manufacturers either, so I can’t be too harsh on the L Series for that.
Touchscreen hotspot areas revealed
Click for a larger image
I was also quite impressed by the way Sony approached the touchscreen controls of the L Series. I’ve always felt that putting touchscreens on desktop PCs was a bit of a gimmick, but Sony has come up with a feature that it calls Edge Access, which does make touch control rather more practical.
In addition to making the main screen touch-sensitive, Sony has also built some additional touch controls into the glass border that runs around the edge of the screen.
A touch too much?
You can close windows by quickly tapping the top-right corner of that border, or step forward and backward through a series of web pages or photos by flicking your finger right or left along the bottom edge of the border. This makes it much easier to perform basic tasks with the touch-screen controls, although I still reckon it’d be more useful in a showroom or for business presentations than on a desk at home.
Verdict
The L Series is an extremely capable all-round multimedia PC. Its range of AV features is impressive, as is Sony’s attention to detail with features such as the touch-screen controls. It’s rather costly though, and at this price it really ought to have a more up-to-date graphics chip and hard drive in order to make the most of its quad-core processor. ®
More Desktop PC Reviews |
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 Toshiba
Qosmio DX730 |
 Lenovo
ThinkCentre Edge 91z |
 Apple
Mac Mini 2011 |
 HP
TouchSmart 610 |
 Apple
iMac 27in |
Sony Vaio L VPCL22V1E 3D PC
COMMENTS
Give me just the screen, kthx
I drool at the prospect of a 1920x1080 3D multitouch screen. However, I don't like the single GPU Intel cruft it comes with. Sell me just the 3DHD multitouch screen to connect it to my Phenom II SLI gaming rig, and I'll gladly take two or three!
Re:There was a movement in the 1900s,
Ooh, I know, was it the Suffragettes? Fauvistes? Followers of Kropotkin?
I know it can't be the Luddites because they were active in the 1800s. And it can't be the Anti-Nowhere League, because nobody followed them.
Re: Give me just the screen, kthx
Surround mult-touch :P
Spied an enemy trying to come up on you from the far right? instead of panning with the mousae, just tap the screen to center the view, then fire away :P
It's basically using an additional layer in 3D surround mode to cheat in FPSes.
Re: @ Qwarty
Thanks for your reply, Qwarty. Good point - Win8 desktop apps being able to offload toolbars to a Win8 tablet would seem a good idea - and might even give people a convincing reason to buy a Win8 tablet over a Android / Apple device. (Though an Android tablet could implement this feature without MS's blessing, if its hardware allowed it to be a USB monitor)
Seems MS got off to a false start a few years back, with those widgets that were supposed to work on a laptop's (hypothetical) small secondary display - can never remember what they were called.
Re: i love
Got short arms have ya? seriously though for the money I'd prefer an iMac, or even cheaper something like my own setup a Mac mini hooked up to a 32" LG Full HD telly. You would have enough left to buy yourself an iPad + a smartfone & enough change for a great night out & a bottle of Talisker!
