Advent MT22

All-in-one PCs are great if your home is short of space. With most of the components housed in one section that also holds the main display screen, they are compact, easy to move around and have far fewer trailing wires compared with normal desktop PCs.

The MT22 is based around a 21.5in widescreen display and uses the Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. The display is a touch-sensitive model, which means most functions can be performed using your fingers instead of a keyboard and mouse (although a keyboard and mouse are still supplied).

For example, you can navigate back and forth between web pages by swiping a finger across the screen, and by using two fingers in a pinching motion you can zoom into or out of photos, and rotate them by moving one finger around another on the screen.

Advent has also included the Microsoft Touch Pack, a small collection of programs designed to show off touch-screen computers – you can download it at no cost at Microsoft's website. The Lagoon application, for example, lets you make realistic water splashes by tapping your fingers on the screen. This is fun for a short while, but not particularly productive.

Indeed, the Windows environment as a whole is designed with a keyboard and mouse in mind, and in truth there are few applications available at the moment that are enhanced by the touchscreen. Software developers are working on ways to make better use of touchscreens as they become more popular, but for now it’s a bit of a gimmick.

Since it would be impractical to rely solely on the touchscreen display, Advent supplies a mouse and keyboard, though neither is of great quality and it’s a shame it couldn’t have included wireless models – as it is, both are connected to the PC using wires. A remote control is also included that is particularly useful when watching DVDs or listening to music.

The MT22 has six USB ports (two on the left of the chassis and four at the rear), although the wired mouse and keyboard immediately take up two of these. Other ports include HDMI for connecting to a flat-panel TV or projector, eSATA (for attaching compatible external hard disks) and a memory card reader.

As long as you stick to basic tasks such as watching movies, browsing the internet and writing documents, the MT22 should meet your requirements in terms of power. However, the Pentium T4400 is not one of Intel’s fastest processors and tasks such as video editing will be quite slow.

Similarly, its Nvidia Ion graphics chipset means that although HD video plays fine, games need to have their detail and resolution settings turned down a fair bit. In short, if you want to play the latest titles you should look elsewhere.

There are no problems with storage: the 640GB hard disk is able to house a large media library, although it’s common to see larger disks on PCs nowadays. Other features include a DVD writer, a digital TV tuner and the latest 802.11n wireless.

With a large screen and compact design, the MT22 would suit those who are short on space. However, although fun at first, the touchscreen display adds little value and most users are likely to resort to using the keyboard and mouse.