Samsung U200

The Samsung U200 is an all-in-one, touchscreen desktop computer.

It has a single unit that contains both the screen and the computer's processing 'brains' and the screen can be controlled by touching it as well as using a keyboard and mouse.

A wired keyboard and mouse are supplied, and though the mouse was fine the keyboard was too shallow, making it uncomfortable for typing. Controlling the computer using the screen was simple, however - tap to move the mouse pointer, double-tap to double-click and hold a finger down to do a right-click.

It also supports multi-touch so you can use more than one finger on the screen, for instance making a pinching motion to zoom out of a map or picture.

The design of the main unit is quite deliberately old-fashioned, with the curved white shell echoing the modernism of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The computer itself is not so futuristic: it uses the current Windows 7 Home Premium operating system and has an Intel Pentium T4400 processor, with 4GB of memory. That's certainly enough for many home tasks.

The processor is not slow, but it's not designed to cope with modern games, except perhaps with reduced detail levels. It does have a Nvidia Geforce 310M graphics card with 512MB of its own memory, though that will mainly help with displaying the visual effects of Windows 7 rather than with games.

The screen is a good-looking 20in model with a glossy finish but not too reflective under lights. There are reasonable stereo speakers built into the main unit, although it's disappointing that there is no surround sound or digital sound output, which would have made watching films on the PC more entertaining. There is a webcam, and the computer can connect to both wired and wireless networks, both at the fastest speeds.

It has a 500GB hard disk, which is fair by modern desktop standards but still leaves plenty of room for programs, documents, music and video.

There is also a DVD writer mounted on one side. On the other side are USB and eSata connections for external hard disks, as well as a memory card reader and the headphone and microphone sockets, while on the back are four more USB sockets and the wired network connection.

The side port is what Samsung calls 'chargeable' which means it supplies power even when the computer is off, meaning you can charge music players and mobile phones more easily, a nice touch, though it has to be enabled using a supplied program.

It comes with Cyberlink software for playing and creating DVDs and playing with the webcam, and a Samsung 'Touch Play' program that shows off how the touch-screen works, but it's a shame it's missing the Microsoft Touch pack that includes some fun games to play on the touch-screen. It does have an on-screen keyboard, however.

In all, this is a capable computer for home use, although the touch-sensitive screen feels like it's been added as an after-thought. Still, the price isn’t high, though it’s a bit more expensive than the similar MSI AE2020. The touch technology doesn’t add much to the experience of using it but this is a good home computer regardless.