What, you thought desktops were immune from the tabletization sweeping over Windows 8 laptops?
Sony Vaio Tap 20
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
You could reasonably feel skeptical about the Sony Vaio Tap 20. For a 20-inch all-in-one touch-screen desktop with no optical drive and a low-voltage Core i5 chip, $999 seems like a lot to ask. But thanks to a built-in battery and a semiportable design, the Tap 20 might be the most unique Windows 8-launch PC.
The appeal of this desktop-tablet hybrid is that it addresses a problem that has nagged all-in-one makers for years. Often pitched as a kitchen PC, a secondary home entertainment center, or some kind of family organizational kiosk, the all-in-one has always fallen short of its ambition to elevate the humble desktop PC. A tablet or a laptop can do all of those things, often at a lower price, and more conveniently due to their smaller size. Those mobile devices also don't require a power cable.
By shedding the cord, at least in 3-to-4-hour doses, Sony's new PC can offer true short-range portability. It also brings with it a larger screen than you'll find on most current mobile devices. The Vaio Tap 20 won't be for everyone, but I won't be surprised if its in-home flexibility attracts an enthusiast niche.
Design
One key to straddling the line between desktop and tablet is finding the right display size. If the screen is too small, you might as well just make a laptop. Go too large and you hurt usability. The Tap 20 measures 19.75 inches wide, 12.13 inches high, and, at the thickest point of its tapered back panel, 1.5 inches deep. It weighs just under 11.25 pounds.
You can imagine the Tap 20 or a competing product perhaps weighing less, or having a thinner display, but overall Sony appears to have achieved a reasonable balance between desktop size and power and tablet convenience.
The display itself is covered in glass, but the body is all soft, rounded plastic, with grip-friendly indents along the left and right edges on the back panel. You most likely won't carry the Tap 20 around in a backpack or a briefcase, but the average adult should be able to move it from room to room or up and down stairs with little difficulty. And while 11 pounds is almost eight times the weight of an iPad, the Tap 20 isn't so heavy that it's uncomfortable to use in your lap for an extended period.
When you set the Tap 20 on your lap like a tablet, or lay it down flat on a coffee table, the touch screen becomes the most natural way to interact with it. For general navigation and inputting single commands, the touch screen feels as responsive as that of a typical smartphone. You might notice some physical drag on your finger in apps that require continuous contact, like air hockey or art programs. The drag isn't bad enough to spoil the entire experience, but it's annoying when you encounter it.
In desktop mode, with the stand fully extended from the back panel, the Vaio Tap 20 takes up about 7 inches of desktop real estate, front to back, and not counting the included wireless mouse and keyboard. The power cable plugs into a port on the right side of the system, and leads down to a laptop-size power brick. Anyone with an aversion to cables will welcome the small power brick, although you can imagine an opportunity for wireless charging if the battery-powered all-in-one idea takes off.