Advent AIO-156

At first glance, the AIO-156 is quite similar to its predecessor given that the technical formula is largely unchanged. The 156 is powered by a 1.6GHz single-core Atom N270 processor, supported by 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 160GB hard disk. Integrated graphics are the order of the day, and the standard operating system is XP Home.

The screen is a 15.6in touch screen display, with a native resolution of 1,366 x 768. It relies on third-party extensions to enable basic operations like scrolling, clicking and so on, and these operations are not catered to in XP Home. This offers a mixed experience, as typical desktop applications simply aren’t designed for touch control. However, the mounting of the screen does offer a problem.

The AIO-156 is a compact everyday PC. It comes with a wired full-sized keyboard and mouse, both of which are perfectly usable. It comes equipped with five USB ports, a memory card reader, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11bg wireless, and a DVD writer, and therefore is capable of performing most desktop tasks. Hence, it’s fast enough for web browsing and typical office tasks, though, processor-intensive jobs like ripping CDs to MP3 are likely to disappoint, and gaming potential is close to nil with Intel GMA950 IGP running the graphics.

Media playback isn’t a plus point, either. The screen lacks the bold contrast of earlier models, instead presenting a rather drab, subdued appearance. The AIO-156 is able to play standard-definition YouTube streams, video files and DVDs smoothly.

Overall, it’s a compact and usable Atom-based desktop, but the touch screen is ill-suited to the design. The device retails for £374.

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