OK, so where do we start? Both of these machines are eye-catching specimens of all-in-one desktops, but which one should you acquire if it’s time to replace yours?

Appeal
Starting with sleekness, the Vaio has a plastic body which is available in several colours and appears to be vastly elegant, however the Apple’s grand aluminium body wins the battle.

Visibility
The colossal 27 inch screen on the Apple looks totally fantastic, but even though the smaller size of the Vaio’s 24″ display, it’s multi-touch functionality is especially intuitive – it’s close to call, but the iMac’s massive monitor comes out on top.

Specs
As standard the Vaio packs 500 gigabytes hard drive and 4 gigabytes of RAM to the iMac’s paltry 320GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM. Obviously these can be expanded for extra cash if you have some of it spare!

The Sony brings Bluray to the all-in-one playing field and is the first to include it, the Apple has barely dual layer DVD.

Energy
It seems that the iMac is the greenest all-in-one on the market at the minute. The Sony will cost approximately 25% extra to operate than the iMac.

And finally, speed
The most imperative feature to most is the actual operation of the computers. To assess this the Apple and Sony directly competed with some multimedia duties. Results show that multi-tasking multimedia tasks is more or less twice as speedy with the Apple than it is with the Sony!

The Verdict
The Bluray functionality on the Sony allows for magnificent HD video, but to be fair HD films are offered for download from iTunes (on both machines) so this drive should never be a massive factor in the ultimate verdict.

The multi-touch screen on the Sony is undoubtedly pleasurable and convenient at the same time, however the huge 27 inch monitor on the iMac overpowers the Vaio. Add this to the improved performance, more cost-effective operation and the gorgeous all-metal case of the Apple and you’ve got a victor.

If you’re due a new magnificent all-in-one bag the Apple!