Windows-based all-in-ones finally give Apple some competition

2008 will go down as the year Windows PC makers finally gave Apple and its pioneering iMac a serious challenge. Yes, every major vendor had an all-in-one PC prior to this year, but few distinguished themselves from the iMac in either price or functionality. Sony's JS190J and its sub-$1,000 starting price gave cost-conscious shoppers a serious alternative to the lower-end iMacs earlier this year. And we've just finished our reviews of all three major large-screen Windows all-in-ones, which finally have an answer for Apple's 24-inch iMac.

Sony's Vaio LV180J provides the best home entertainment all-in-one

(Credit: CNET)

We liked the 24-inch Sony LV180J best of these three systems, because Sony had a very clear vision for this model and it executed this almost perfectly. If the idea is that a 24-inch all-in-one can have a Blu-ray drive and still stay around $2,000, it makes sense to use that system as a secondary home entertainment center. Each of these all-in-ones has Blu-ray, which the iMac lacks, but Sony is the only vendor with a VESA-mount compatible bracket built into the back of its unit. Even better is the HDMI input and the single accompanying button that lets you switch between video input signals, TV-style. That feature alone makes this system uniquely capable of integrating seamlessly with your other living room hardware.

The 25.5-inch HP TouchSmart has the category's largest screen

(Credit: CNET)

If HP's 25.5-inch TouchSmart IQ816 doesn't offer quite as much practical functionality as the Sony, the touch interface is at the very least a crowd-pleaser. On a macro-level, it's also an experiment in a new usage model that promises to become more and more popular, and we're glad HP continues to support the touch desktop experiment with a major product line. The IQ816's massive 25.5-inch display doesn't hurt, of course, especially for watching movies. You'll just want more powerful audio output, as well as a faster computer for actually getting work done.

The Dell XPS One 24 is a solid jack-of-all trades PC

(Credit: CNET)

From the productivity angle, Dell's XPS One 24 makes the best impression with its quad-core chip. It's not quite as fast as it could be thanks to 32-bit Vista (dear Dell, the time for 64-bit across the board was six months ago), but no other all-in-one offers the mix of multimedia performance with this system's ability to multitask.

[cyclonus5150]

Unfortunately they all suffer the same drawback....they all run Windows. That and they all look like poo.

[rhsc]

troll

[pilaa]

So let me get this straight; These machines ("PC's") have BluRay and HDMI and that makes them better than the Apple iMac?? This is why PC people don't get what attracts people to Macs. You can add all the features you want but if you don't have the superior Operating System, built in apps, and exemplary customer service and an overall quality customer experience such as the one Apple provides then your just kidding yourself...