Sony VAIO Tap 20 review

That’s just as well, because the bundled peripherals make no concessions for touch gestures or Windows 8. The pebble-shaped mouse is too slender for our liking and is equipped with only standard buttons and a scroll wheel.

The keys on the wireless keyboard are comfortably spaced and have a satisfying depth of travel, but it seems extraordinary to include a numeric keyboard yet forego Windows 8 shortcut keys. These are clearly standard-issue peripherals that haven’t been tailored to the new OS, which is disappointing given the lengthy gestation of Windows 8.

Inside the VAIO Tap 20 lies a dual-core 1.7GHz Core i5-3317U from Intel’s mobile range, allied with 6GB of RAM. That’s enough to power the Tap 20 to an overall score of 0.63 in our Real World Benchmarks, which is almost neck-and-neck with the Toshiba LX830, but a fair distance behind the top-end Dell Inspiron One 23.

A 1TB hard disk provides ample storage. Unusually for an all-in-one you can access the hard disk bay and the system’s memory slots, although both of the latter are already filled. The battery’s replaceable, too.

Although that screen is ideal for movie viewing, and the integrated speakers deliver a bedroom-filling wallop of volume, there are huge gaps in the multimedia section of the Tap 20’s CV. There’s no optical drive whatsoever, no TV tuner and no remote control.

The £200-cheaper Toshiba LX830 ticks all of these boxes. It comes with only the standard version of Windows 8, so add another £49 to the asking price if you want to add Windows Media Center.

All of which leaves the Tap 20 marooned in no-man’s land. On the one hand it can’t be called a complete Windows 8 all-in-one, since it lacks core media-centre features and software. On the other, it’s far too cumbersome to be a tablet, and its one unique feature (the battery) is mostly unnecessary – and at £1,000 you’re paying a premium for it.

It isn’t a dreadful product by any means: the screen is excellent, it’s responsive and well-designed. Once again, though, it’s close but no cigar for a Sony Windows 8 device.