Sonos Bundle BU250

The latest Sonos adds a major upgrade the CR200 touch screen remote. If that wasn't good enough and the remote is excellent it can also be controlled by any iPhone or iPod Touch running a free app that's available via the iTunes App Store. The result is a whole house music system that's easier to control than ever before. The catch? The system costs a somewhat pricey $1,000. And while that may seem like a lot, custom installed systems can cost as much as $5,000 per room and they aren't as easy to use nor do they offer the level functionality found in this system.

We were always impressed by Sonos' capability to access your home music collection and a variety of online music options, but the addition of the slick new touch screen remote and the iPhone or iPod Touch integration gives the luxury digital audio system a compelling leg up on the competition. There are three main components of the Sonos Digital Music System two ZonePlayer base stations one ZP120, one ZP90 and one CR250 Controller (the remote control).

Each one is available separately as well additional ZP120s are $500, the ZP90 is $350, and the CR250 goes for $350 so the $1,000 price tag of Sonos Bundle BU250 represents a $200 savings versus buying them a la carte. Take one look at the silver and white color scheme (and that scroll wheel on the remote), and you get the idea that Sonos wants you to think its understated sleek components would fit right into Apple's iPod line and they would. We just wish a black option was available as well especially after seeing a custom painted version.

The ZonePlayer ZP120 houses a fully fledged, 55 watt per channel, Class-D digital amplifier and weighs 5 pounds. It fills out a 3.5 inch high by 7.3 inch wide by 8.15 inch deep footprint about the size of seven DVD cases stacked on top of one another. The ZP120's die cast, matte aluminum enclosure feels far more solid and substantive than most of today's all plastic consumer electronics. It sports two pairs of high quality speaker binding posts, one set of analog stereo inputs (for attaching and playing any external device through the Sonos system), a subwoofer output, and two Ethernet ports (more on those later).

On board buttons are limited to three volume up and down and mute because the main functions are controlled remotely. With its built in amp and speaker terminals, the ZP120 needs only a pair of speakers connected to fill a room with music no other audio equipment is required. (Sonos offers the SP100 speakers, but nearly any set of unpowered speakers will suffice.) But the ZP90 ZonePlayer is intended for those rooms where there's already an audio system in place. Just about anything will do a tabletop radio, a mini system, an iPod speaker system, or a full fledged AV receiver so long as it has an auxiliary line in jack.

Because it lacks the built in amplifier, the ZonePlayer ZP90 is smaller than its big brother it measures just 2.9 by 5.4 inches square and weighs a mere 1.5 pounds. As a result, it can fit in plenty of tight spots that the larger ZonePlayer can't. The front panel offers the same sparse volume controls, but the ZP90's tiny backside is chock full of jacks in addition to analog stereo inputs and outputs, there are also two digital audio outputs (one coaxial, one optical) for single wire all digital connections. Two Ethernet jacks provide network connectivity.

Features
Sonos Digital Music System can stream a wide range of file formats from your personal music collection. With the exception of lossless WMA files, nearly all other file format standards will stream perfectly : MP3, AAC, WMA (nonloss less), Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Apple Lossless, WAV, and AIFF files are compatible, as are Audible audio books. Since DRM (digital rights management) is, thankfully, largely a thing of the past for music purchases, the wide file compatibility means that Sonos will stream downloaded tracks bought from iTunes, Amazon, Classical.com, eMusic, Napster, WalMart, Live Downloads, and Zune Marketplace.

The only caveat is for iTunes : most of the tracks purchased from the Apple site before 2009 will still be encoded with Fairplay DRM and will not be streamable by the Sonos until and unless you "upgrade" them via the iTunes Store to the DRM free iTunes Plus version (it costs 30 cents per track, or $3 per album). Perhaps more importantly, Sonos also offers a great selection of online music services from both subscription (paid) and free sources, each of which can be accessed from the Sonos Controller without the need to have the PC powered up.

The Rhapsody, Sirius, and Napster premium services each charge a monthly fee. (All of them offer a free 30 day trial through the Sonos, available at the touch of the screen no annoying sign up process or limitations.) Last.fm and Pandora are free streaming music services (with optional step up paid versions). Nearly all of the services offer access to thousands of artists, songs, and albums across a variety of genres, available on demand or via customized "stations." In addition to importing all of your iTunes playlists, Sonos also offers its own playlists. The advantage of the latter is that you can build them from the remote and (what's really cool) mix and match your own music with some of the "rentable" tracks from the likes of Rhapsody and Napster (assuming you're a subscriber).

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Vizio VF551XVT

Vizio VF551XVT's big screen LCD looks unassuming for the most part, with the standard glossy black frame surrounding the picture area. But the nondetachable speaker bar along the bottom, with its silver coloring, reflective supports, bulbous shape and see through panel exposing the wall behind the TV, assumes a bit too much, and we predict you'll either love it or hate it. We fall into the latter camp. The only external difference between Vizio VF551XVT and Vizio VF550XVT is the former's addition of an illuminated row of "tech logos" on the left hand side.

There's a menu item that promises to disable the illumination, but it didn't work on our review sample. The 55 inch Vizio VF551XVT measures 51.5 inches wide by 36 inches tall by 13.5 inches deep and weighs a svelte 90.2 pounds with stand attached. Remove the nonswiveling stand and its dimensions become 51.5 by 33.9 by 5 inches and its weight 78 pounds. We liked Vizio's large remote, with its oversize chrome colored cursor pad surrounded by well spaced, easily differentiated, yellow backlit keys.

Highlights include a section that offers direct access to different input types, "A, B, C, and D" keys for other devices, such as cable boxes, that double as picture in picture controls, and the capability to command three other devices. Many of the keys double up, but the remote handles these well we appreciate that the oft used key to control aspect ratio shares the bright red "record" key, for example.

The menu system for the XVT models squeezes onto the left side of the screen, and it's hard to mistake the bare bones graphics for a Samsung or Sony menu. We found ourselves annoyed at the fact that you can only see one parameter at a time and that too much scrolling is required to access all of the settings. On the plus side we liked the text explanations of various menu items.

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Panasonic TC-P50V10

Panasonic TC-P50V10 is one sleek plasma. Its main external differentiator is what the company calls "one sheet of glass" design, where a pane of glass extends beyond the edge of the screen and over the bezel itself, leading to a seamless look that's even more impressive in person than in pictures. (It's worth noting that only the 50 and 54 inch models feature the one sheet design; the larger members of the series have the more traditional, visually separate bezel around the screen).

Panasonic TC-P50V10 series eschews the relatively bright silver fade along the bottom of the frame seen on the company's step down TC-PG10 models, instead opting for a much subtler silver accent that arcs slightly upward in the middle. We think Panasonic TC-P50V10 looks more attractive and sophisticated than the G10, and indeed it's one of the coolest looking TV designs we've seen this year. The black frame around the screen is a bit wider than that of the G10 series, leading to Panasonic TC-P50V10's slightly larger height and width dimensions (0.2 and 0.9 inch larger, respectively, on the 50 incher, for example).

The panels' depth dimension, on the other hand, is just 3.3 inches not quite as thin as Samsung's 850 series plasmas or Panasonic's own Z1, but thinner than the 4.2 inches of the G10 models. If you're keeping track, the 50 inch Panasonic TC-P50V10 also weighs 4.4 pounds more than the 50 inch G10, which is probably due to that big pane of glass. We also appreciated that the 50 inch Panasonic TC-P50V10 model's stand includes a swivel, an extra not found on less expensive Panasonic plasmas nor on the larger members of the series.

Beyond the panels and stands, the V10 models are pretty much identical in design to the G10s. The remote differs from the one found on less expensive Panasonic plasmas, and in general we liked it. Panasonic's marketing guys got to the button designers, however, and apparently mandated that an unnecessarily prominent trio of keys Viera Link, VieraCast and VieraTools appear above the central cursor control.

Each provides direct access to functions we'll warrant most users won't access as frequently as the Menu key, and the trio relegates that button to an easily overlooked spot near the top of the clicker. We still like the feel of the keys, and appreciate the size, color and shape differentiation that helps us forget that only the huge volume and channel buttons are illuminated. The remote cannot control other devices via infrared (IR) commands, but it does allow some control of compatible HDMI devices connected to the TV via Viera Link (a.k.a. HDMI-CEC).

Panasonic tweaked its menu design for 2009. The same yellow on blue color scheme is in evidence (albeit a lighter shade of blue), and navigation is basically unchanged, but the main menu actually has a couple of icons now. Overall it's still one of the more straightforward, basic looking menus on the mainstream market, but we still wish the company would see fit to include on screen explanations of selections. A new Tools menu showcases some of the TV's functions, including THX mode, Digital Cinema Color, and VieraCast.

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HP Mini 311

HP Mini 311 is what you would call an oversized netbook. It's about the same size as the ASUS EeePC 1101HA, Acer Aspire One (A0751h), and Gateway LT3103u in that they all have 11.6 inch widescreens. At 3.3 pounds, it's the heaviest among its peers, although the differences are small. HP Mini 311 is the prettiest though, as HP's signature imprints against a white background is delightful to look at. A black version is also available, though darker colors are usually a magnet for fingerprints and smudges.

Alternatively, the Toshiba NB205 and HP Mini 5101 use textures and metals, respectively, to enhance their looks, as well as repel unsightly smudges. HP Mini 311 is a bigger netbook than the Toshiba NB205 because it houses a bigger screen. Although 11.6 inch widescreens are building momentum in the netbook space, they, along with a 1.366 by 768 resolution, are still tough finds. Most 10 inch netbooks default to a lower, 1.024 by 768 resolution. Likewise, the Asus 1101HA, Gateway LT3103u, and Acer A0751h have matching screen sizes and resolutions.

They're not even the biggest netbooks screens. Both the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 and Samsung NC20 (21GBK) use 12 inch widescreens and 1.280 by 800 resolutions. What makes HP Mini 311 special is that it runs an Nvidia chipset instead of the Intel chipset found on every other netbook on the market. It still needs a CPU, though. The 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 is a commonly used netbook processor, which means in terms of raw horsepower, the Mini 311 isn't that far ahead of other netbooks. Video encoding tests finished in 4 minutes 54 seconds, which is about as fast the Toshiba NB205 (4:45) and Lenovo S12 (4:40).

It's the fastest among its 11 inch peers, since the Asus 1101HA and Acer A0751h run on a more inferior Atom Z520 processor and the the Gateway LT3103u opts for an AMD low voltage CPU. HP Mini 311 has more oomph when it comes to graphics performance. The ION LE is basically a stripped down version of the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics chipset the same chipset found in the Apple MacBook Air (Nvidia 9400GM). The "LE" portion means that support for Direct X is downgraded from 10 to 9.

Its scores on 3DMark06, which I ran just to see what the performance would be, were in the same ball park as the MacBook Air and annihilated those of its netbook counterparts. Despite these 3D benchmark scores, the combination of the Atom processor and lack of a Direct X 10 capable graphics chipset crippled games like World in Conflict and Crysis both of these games lagged to the point where they were unplayable. Games like World of Warcraft and Mini Ninjas, which have lower graphics requirements, were lag free and absolutely playable.

The gravy was supposed to be in high definition playback. I tested several HD movie clips on HP Mini 311, as well as playing them to the Samsung LN55A950 HDTV. It handled all of my 720p and 1080i (24 fps) clips with great color accuracy, good picture detail, and they didn't suffer from any lag. When playing 1080p (24fps) movie clips in H264 and WMV formats, however, there was noticeable lag. Let's just say it wasn't a smooth experience. And even though its 6 cell, 53Wh battery is roughly the same capacity as the one found in the Toshiba NB205 and HP 5101, its score of 5 hours 29 minutes on MobileMark 2007 is about 2 to 3 hours less than that of the competition.

Still, more than 5 hours of battery life is very respectable. By netbook standards, HP Mini 311 is reasonably priced and offers features most netbooks lack. You're paying a small premium for a netbook that has an HDMI port and can drive 1080p resolutions to a bigger display. Though it didn't deliver on 1080p playback, it handled 720p and 1080i videos better than netbooks with Intel based graphics. For those who were hoping to make a gaming netbook out of this, think again. High end 3D games are still best played on full fledged laptops.

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HP Envy 13

HP Envy 13 is crafted from aluminum and magnesium bonded materials, while the MacBook Pro does it from a thick slab of aluminum. Its metals are anodized several layers deep, so the Envy 13 is not only sleek, but durable, scratch resistant, and lightweight as well. Apple and HP aren't the only ultraportable manufacturers that use metals, though. The ASUS UL30A-A1 and Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810T (6415) have also experimented with aluminum metals in their frames, though only in the top cover HP Envy 13 uses metals throughout the entire chassis, which drives up costs. The designs are limitless as well.

HP Envy 13 sports a brownish tint and can be permanently etched with lasers in different patterns just like HP's current Pavilion line designs. The luxurious theme extends to its interior. Its 13.1 inch widescreen is one of the brightest in the industry, rated at 400 Nits (cd/m2), and covered in glass, too, which gives it the same clean look as that of the MacBook Pro 13 inch. Its 1.600 by 900 resolution is the highest and most eye popping thus far on a 13 inch screen, outclassing that of the MacBook Pro 13 inch (1.280 by 800), Acer 3935 (1.280 by 800), and ASUS UL30A-A1 (1.366 by 768).

It matches the resolution of the Dell Studio 14z great for multimedia tasks, but not so much for reading text, as higher resolutions tend to make fonts look tinier on a small screen. The full size keyboard is styled in the same way as that of the MacBook Pro 13 inch tiled, with plenty of spacing between each key. The Envy 13 lacks a back-lit option, though, which is inexcusable for a luxury line. In comparison, the MacBook Pro 13 inch and Studio 14z include illuminated keyboards for dark-lit rooms. The embedded mouse buttons also take their styling cues from Apple's design, as they're disguised by one huge touchpad.

They're slightly too resistant for my tastes, but otherwise responded well to various clicking commands. The touchpad, like the one found in the MacBook Pro, supports two finger gestures, which often times got in the way of navigating. You can turn these gestures off in the system's Control Panel. In terms of features, the Envy 13 takes a minimalist approach and that isn't always a good thing. This laptop is not intended for legacy users, since it doesn't come with an internal optical drive, a VGA port, or an Ethernet jack.

I think ridding these features from the system is acceptable, plus all of them are included in this configuration as external USB attachments. Unfortunately, though, you have only two USB ports to choose from. Unlike the Studio 14z, the Envy 13 includes a media card reader, which is still a vital feature for digital camera owners. An ExpressCard slot is not available, though, which would've been handy for adding an ExpressCard docking solution or 3G wireless, since both of these aren't sold as options and there are only two USB ports available. Taking the place of VGA Out is an HDMI port, which is the video out standard most laptops are leaning toward. In contrast, the Studio 14z includes both DisplayPort and HDMI technologies. The 250GB hard drive is a 1.8 inch spindle, but spins at 5400rpm.

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