Features and Performance
Although this device is meant to serve the purpose of a desktop, to compensate for its sleek size, it uses a mobile platform i.e. the components used are the ones used in a laptop and not a desktop. An Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 processor @ 1.83 GHz and 1GB of DDR2 RAM power the VGC-LA38G. It also has an external video card in Nvidia’s Go 7400, a 120GB SATA HDD and a slot loading dual layer DVD Writer.
We generally criticize Sony for its overpriced products but we fail to observe the quality of components it uses and this is reflected in the 15.4-inch wide-screen LCD. It’s a brilliant screen with very good color reproduction. The transition in the color and the gray-scale gradients is perfect. I have once too often seen laptops (that’s where the screen comes integrated with the device) from branded computer manufacturers that give sub-standard screens, and just for the brilliant LCD display we give Sony full marks here.
Coming to performance, I am not subjecting this device to our regular dose of PCMark 2005 and 3Dmark 2006. The reason here is pretty straightforward, an enthusiast who digs for these numbers will pretty much know what to expect from a mobile platform and what he can achieve from desktop parts with the same amount of money. On the other hand, customers who are more likely to buy lifestyle products will not be interested in these numbers leave alone understand them. For them, it would be important to know whether the machine is powerful enough and in this regard the VGC-LA38G with a T5600 Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB of RAM and a Go7400 external graphics card is powerful enough. The VGC-LA38G comes with Windows latest operating system, Windows Vista and has the Premium variant.


