... in my opinion anyway. Everybody knows that PCs are and always have been ugly - mostly bulky and made out of plastic. If you’ve ever wanted a good looking computer you’ve always had to go for a Mac, but now it’s different.
A relatively young Californian company, named Vizio, which has become famous across the US, and the world, for producing very competitively priced HDTVs and its amazing 21:9 CinemaWide TV have recently released specs for a new range of laptops and all-in-one desktops. They aren’t the usual plastic crap but they’re beautiful aluminium unibodied works of art.
Within their new PC range they’re offering pre-orders on what they’re calling ‘Thin + Light’ which is their Ultrabook and MacBook Air competitor, the ‘Notebook’ which is essentially a regular laptop and MacBook Pro competitor, and finally the ‘All-in-one PC’ which as the name suggests is an all-in-one desktop and iMac competitor.
Vizio haven’t just spent the last two years designing the look but they’ve also gone all out on the guts.
The Thin + Light ultrabook is being sold with either a 14” or 15.6” display and all feature the latest Intel Core i3 – i7 processors with 4GB memory and up to 256GB storage. In terms of connectivity you’ll get Bluetooth as standard along with two USB 3.0 ports and a HDMI output. Weighing in at 3.39 lbs and 3.96 lbs they’re certainly heavier and larger than the MacBook Air but starting at less than £600 they’re much better priced.
It’s a similar story with their 15.6” notebook, featuring i3 – i7 processors, up to 1TB storage and a decent graphics card to go with the full HD display.
It’s with their all-in-one that I think they’ve really pulled out the big guns though. Offering a choice of a 24” or 27” display, all again with i3 – i7 processors. This time though even one of the most basic options has a 1TB Hard Drive as standard and it’s all compressed into the PCs tiny base. What’s more is that there are two HDMI input ports so you can hook up your Sky or Xbox (other TV providers and consoles are available). They’ve really gone all out to make this a great entertainment PC and they even throw in an external subwoofer, wireless keyboard, remote control and trackpad. The highest spec all-in-one comes in at under £900 which quite honestly is astounding.
The best thing, for me anyway, is that all of these laptops and desktops come with Microsoft Signature which basically means you don’t get any of that pre-installed crap that plagues new PCs across the world. They’ll also let you upgrade to Windows 8 (when it’s released) for £15, which is an absolute must.
So to sum up, Vizio have well and truly gone all out to produce this beautiful looking range of laptops and an all-in-one. They look amazing, they’re insides are pretty decent and the price is unbelievable.
There is however one major problem, they’re not available in the UK yet and there’s no word on when or even if they’ll be available outside of the US. This is something I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on but with the hype surrounding them I can’t see why they won’t be made available.
