All-In-One PCs are the PC world answer to the new generation of Mac systems. Everything is thin, attractive and quiet. There’s no bulky desktop to deal with and they cost around a third of the price of a normal Mac system. However, in order to fit enough power into something so small, they don’t come close to being as powerful as either a new Mac or a standard desktop at the same price.

The VPC is around £499, and while that’s cheaper than any offerings by MSI and Sony, it’s important to remember the display is a standard model rather than a touch screen device, and the system specs aren’t terribly impressive. A 1.6 GHz processor, 1GB of Ram and 160GB hard drive put the system in a similar performance range to a standard netbook – ideal for casual usage but no good for anything heavier than Office or the net.

The design is what lets the system down though – especially as the major appeal of AIO PCs for many is that they look more stylish than their desktop counterparts. Not true of the VPC, which has a large screen area but a small screen, leading to a large expanse of black anything underneath the screen. This looks ugly and makes the system feel like they forgot to add the rest of the screen into the build. If nothing else, the design shortcuts only make it easier to see the VPC for what it really is – a netbook stuck onto a monitor.

At least the design is slim, so you can easily the wall mount the system if you wanted, but we’re not sure if this is worth making the front of the system so unattractive.

There’s a range of connections on the back of the system, 2XUSB, headphones and mic sockets. There’s also PS/2 connection for the keyboard and mouse which seems like a strange idea – why not just add more USB slots? There’s enough connectivity for the light usage the system specs will allow though, and there’s a built in webcam and microphone so it’s perfect for Skype and video calls.

The display on the VPC is actually the best thing about the system, giving clear bright colours and a 16:9 resolution, running at 1366 x 768. Of course, this is quite a high resolution for a low powered system so the main draw here will be something simple such as watching DVDs, rather than playing games or doing heavy image editing. There’s also no way to control the monitors settings such as brightness or contrast, so you have to rely on the software for that.

While the compact design of the VPC is bound to appeal to some, its competitors offer much more style and a touch screen system for not much more cash, while a netbook offers the same system spec with added portability. There’s even the new range of ultra small desktops that are in the same price range but much more powerful than the VPC, leaving the system in an awkward middle ground.

If a few more sensible design decisions had been taken and the system was fast enough to take advantage of the excellent screen, the VPC could have been a success. However, for the £499 price tag could buy you a much faster desktop system with an equally impressive screen.

Samsung are well known for making great looking machines that really take advantage of the latest technology to provide some of the best multimedia laptops around. The company very rarely misses the mark when it aims for the consumer entertainment market, so it’s not surprise that the R620 ticks almost all the right boxes to bring portable blu-ray entertainment to the masses for very impressive price.

The overall look of the system is good, with the 16” screen dwarfing smaller widescreen laptops and the typical Samsung gloss making the unit shine, providing you can keep it clear of fingerprints. Build quality is average – the screen feels looser than it should and the system a little flimsy overall, but it should be perfectly portable if secured correctly.

For around £650, you get a laptop with a Bluray drive, the system specs to back up the often intensive resources required to watch HD content and a HDMI port to allow you to throw all that power up onto a bigger screen that can do the movies justice. The 16:9, 16inch native screen on the R620 isn’t bad, but it’s not great either and everything feels just slightly more washed out than you would hope for – it’s certainly the weaker part of the equation.

Outside of watching movies, the control systems both work well, with the touchpad thankfully set up in the same aspect ratio as the screen. The trademark blue glow on Samsung laptops is once again evident around the edges of the touchpad and the top of the keyboard, but it fades automatically if left idle which is something you will quickly come to appreciate, considering how bright and distracting it can be – even if it does add a lot of the uniqueness of the laptop itself!

In terms of performance the R260 is as powerful as you would expect from a laptop that’s at home with playing Blu-ray video. A 6500 processor powers the machine alongside 3GB of memory, which despite the power lends the system a battery life of around 4 hours – more than long enough to watch a couple of movies even if it might not be able to entertain you for an entire flight.

The graphics are also standalone but the Radeon 4330 is a little bit less powerful than we would have hoped for and won’t be able to handle any modern games. It stills holds it own for video and photo editing though and it’s nice to have a standalone card of any sort in a laptop of this price. Outputting the graphics can be achieved via a HDMI or VGA port depending on the external display. Other ports include a SD reader, four USB ports and an eSATA port.

Overall the R620 offers everything you could possibly want for a multimedia system in this price range, even if its build quality could have been a little better. If you want a way to watch movies on the go and need something that will effortlessly handle your blu-ray collection, the R260 is the perfect choice.