Sony VAIO VGN-AX570G multimedia laptop

The good: Excellent display; solid productivity and multimedia performance; integrated TV tuner; built-in 0.3-megapixel camera; large drive capacity.

The bad: Tiny touch pad and mouse buttons; only three USB 2.0 ports; memory-card readers support only two formats; can't have TV tuner and DVD burner onboard simultaneously; loud fan.

The bottom line: With a superb 17-inch display and an integrated TV tuner, the Sony VAIO VGN-AX570G is among the most self-contained multimedia laptops and undercuts many of them by several hundred dollars.