Advent AIO 200 desktop computer

Apart from its colour the Advent AIO 200 – available exclusively through PC World shops and online – bears a remarkable similarity to the Apple iMac, the all-in-one computer that houses its processing unit inside the screen.

Like the iMac this too is an all-in-one computer, but unlike the iMac it can receive Freeview television broadcasts.

The computer has a good 22in screen, and it comes with a remote control, which has buttons to control the recording of television programmes as well as many of the computer's other functions.

We were impressed with the AIO 200's aesthetics. It’s black, sleek and elegant with all the ports and sockets hidden either around the back or arranged along the sides. However, we can’t give PC World's technical designers all the credit here, as if you were to change the black for silver or white you'd essentially be left with a clone of the aforementioned Apple iMac. Still, it's a good look for a computer and as Apple has proved it's one that's worked well in practice, so it's a surprise that more computer manufacturers haven't persisted with similar-looking PCs.

The screen was extremely clear and suffered from minimal reflection in bright light – unlike some screens that react quite badly to shining lights. We were able to watch DVDs easily on the fairly big screen and for working on documents or for viewing pictures it was fantastic too.

As far as its innards go, the Advent AIO 200 has an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 processor, which is the sort of thing you might expect to find in a medium to high-end home PC. It also comes with 2GB of memory, which is enough for running most programs, but when many new computers are coming with 3GB it's a shame not to see that here. It also comes with a 500GB hard disk, offering plenty of space for storing music, video, pictures and documents. It's loaded with the Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and includes Microsoft Works for basic office tasks such as word processing and working with spreadsheets.

While that's fine for many home users, we weren’t too impressed with its poor games performance, which is largely down to the Nvidia Geforce 9300M GS graphics card. That's enough to handle older games but unless you turn down the detail and quality levels you'll find that newer titles cause more of a struggle.

The built-in speakers failed to impress either, with the sound coming out either tinny and bass-less at low volumes or annoyingly bass-heavy when loud, without a middle ground.

There is a DVD writer on one side, along with headphone and microphone sockets, and only two USB ports, although it does have a memory card reader.

We expected more from the supplied keyboard, which is basic and doesn’t have any customisable keys for accessing music or documents, for instance. There is also no holster for the remote control, as can be found on some similar PCs, which increases the potential for losing the control unit. The mouse was likewise quite basic.

The Advent AIO 200 is clearly designed to be a home entertainment centre. As such it does its job in terms of offering a big screen but the other components and features need a lot more work.