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Firstly the dimensions, it is 40x28.5x5 and – without the power brick – weights a fairly substantial 3.7kilos. If you need something light and mobile then this is not for you. However if you need something that does almost everything and you are never far from a power point then this could well be the answer.

It has many good things to be said about it, however it’s size and weight have another thing to drag it down, terrible battery life. When I first start using a product I try not to look at specifications, statistics and above all what anyone else may have said. I unpacked this unit, fully charged the battery and settled down on the sofa with the unit and a DVD. After all a fully charged battery should be enough to watch a DVD. I noted the start time and after 36 minutes the DVD stopped playing I thought there must be a fault on the DVD but the unit then shut down. I connected the power lead and everything was okay apart from a battery icon saying 5% available and charging. I then read the specifications as to likely battery life ‘up to one hour’ so 36 minutes with constant activity is probably about right, terrible, but about right. So certainly not something for that long train journey unless you are travelling on one of the few lines that supply power plugs for mobiles. Finally for my rants the power adapter and lead weigh over a kilo.

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Now for the good points, not only does this unit come with Windows XP (Home) but also a quick start module that allows you to play DVD’s, Audio CD’s and view Photos less than 10 seconds after pushing the ‘Aspire Arcade’ button on the front of the unit. I assume this to be a Linux partition but do not know for certain and no one could confirm it. However this is not command line stuff it has a graphical interface and looks almost identical to the ‘Aspire Arcade’ package used from within Windows, the only thing the average person will notice is that you need to use the cursor keys to navigate around the available modules.

When you first switch on there is a very loud fan for about five seconds and then you never seem to hear it again, I assume it is clearing any possible debris from around the insides, if you hear any noise at all it is certainly a factor of ten less – if not more – than the initial burst. Arcade within Windows also has a CD/DVD burner feature and on the model I looked at a greyed out TV feature, I am told there is a model that has a built in TV card.

The unit itself has a host of everything and even boasts a clock on the front edge, this of course is most useful when not in Windows, beside the clock are buttons that instantly turn Wireless LAN on or off and the same for Bluetooth, no ferreting for settings hidden within Control Panel needed here.

The left side of the unit has two USB2 ports, headphone and microphone sockets, the DVD/CD writer and a five in one card adapter that includes ‘XD’. Along with the LED clock and Wireless and Bluetooth buttons the front also has five buttons to control play of DVD’s etc when in the non Windows mode as well as two speakers. The right side has PCMCIA (PC Card) slot a four pin FireWire port as well as two further USB2 ports and infra red. The rear is strangely empty with only a single PS/2 port, external monitor, 10/100 LAN and modem sockets as well as input for the power adapter. The base has a total of eight rubber feet to allow maximum air flow and dissipate the weight of the unit evenly.

Open the unit and the 37x23cm screen is available. The base depth of 26cm has 12cm clear before the near full size 107 key keyboard and then there is still a 3.5cm area behind this that has the on/off switch at the right side and four further buttons as well as the normal numlock/capslock/scrolllock lights found on a normal keyboard.

If this was my desktop replacement machine I doubt I would use the PS/2 or external monitor ports as the mouse control (trackpad) to the left of centre of the clear area in front of the keyboard is excellent as is the screen. The resolution is a somewhat unusual 1440x900 but it looks right unlike some other units I have looked at that have non standard resolutions.

I could go on and on as I have hardly touched the specifications, it has a Pentium 4 3GHz processor 512MB or RAM this I would have preferred to be 1GB as a genuine desktop replacement. The hard disc is split into two drives and this totals 80GB.

I think we need to create a new category of products as with less than an hour of battery life it’s not much use there. I suppose it’s fine and easy to move for those whose desk tends to move about. The ease of connecting to a LAN either wired or wireless is a plus. The other partition – be it Linux or even something else maybe DOS – means you do not have the annoying sixty seconds while it boots but once finished in it you have to shut down and restart. Its nice to have the same look and feel inside and outside Windows. The front controls mean that DVD’s and other things can be controlled without having to load Windows, however how useful is that when you need to shut down and start again. A nice gimmick and little more.

Full system specifications for the full Aspire range can be found on the Acer site. Expect to find this unit for around £1150. Only the slightly differently specified 1801 model is currently listed on their website but I am told the 1802 is available.

www.acer.co.uk/acereuro/page4.do?dau22.oid=5729&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&ctx1=UK&crc=3630109857