Even on a bad day, Apple's elegant industrial design makes most PCs look like something a Blue Peter presenter would cobble together out of sticky-tape and a couple of Fairy Liquid bottles.

Unfortunately, Apple's high standards have all-too-often been matched by equally high prices. However, its latest iMac range includes a new low-cost model clearly intended to reach out to a wider audience.

Priced at a very reasonable £679, the new iMac has a 17in widescreen display, Intel's powerful new Core 2 Duo processor, running at 1.83GHz, 512MB of memory and a 160GB hard disk. A 2GHz model with 1GB of memory (and other upgrades) is available for an extra £120.

There are faster models available, such as the eye-catching 24in iMac, but this 17in version should still be powerful enough to meet the needs of home users who want to experiment with multimedia work such as digital photography or video-editing.

What's more, there's no need to buy any extra software for those tasks either, as they're all handled by the iLife '06 software that's included with the iMac.

Other features include a built-in webcam and wireless networking. It's a pretty good package, although there are a few notable weaknesses.

The Intel 950 graphics card is perfectly adequate for basic computing and video work. However, it's not very good at 3D graphics, so this iMac model won't be a good choice if you're a keen games fan.

Plus, there are no internal upgrade slots to upgrade components.

The real problem, though, is the lack of a DVD writer. There's a combo drive that can burn CDs and play DVD films, but it can't be used put home movies onto a DVD. In today's computer climate, this is a real weakness, especially one that claims to provide multimedia features.

The aforementioned 2GHz iMac has a multi-format DVD-writer, but it's a fairly basic feature that you shouldn't have to pay any extra for.

Also consider
Evesham Axis A4000 AS
Overall: If the Apple operating system isn't your thing, then the Evesham Axis A4000 AS has some good features and offers great-value for money
Rating: 4
Price: £749

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