Acer Aspire A5600 U review

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Verdict:

This PC looks great and can play games, but you can get faster computers for less

Review Date: 25 Jan 2013

Price when reviewed: £1,080

Supplier: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk

Reviewed By: Katharine Byrne

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

The Acer Aspire 5600U is an elegant all-in-one PC. Its edge-to-edge glass frame extends all the way down its black, glossy bezel to form its clear base. It has a neat stand that flips out the back to support it.

Able to move up to 80 degrees behind the main unit, the stand means that you can prop up the screen to your desired angle with ease. Using a fold-out stand means that the Acer Aspire A5600 U takes up slightly more space on your desk than an all-in-one with a more traditional stand.

However, the benefit is that you can easily adjust the angle of the screen - all it takes is a gentle push and pull at the top of the screen to adjust it to your desired working angle. The stand does all the hard work for you and retracts automatically when you pull it up so you don’t have to reach round the back to make sure it doesn’t fall.

Its responsive 23in touchscreen is gorgeous to look at as well. With impressive viewing angles, the screen's clear to see from pretty much any position, bar the most extreme of angles. Our solid-colour image tests showed that they were bright, vibrant and uniform across the screen at all angles. The only real flaw we noticed was a red tinge present in the greys and whites, particularly when viewed from above.

There’s no way to alter the screen’s individual colour values due to a lack of monitor controls, although you can make some adjustments using the Nvidia Control Panel in Windows. The monitor's contrast levels were also noticeably worse when viewed from a standing position, but we only noticed this on particularly dark images.

The screen is only half the story in an all-in-one PC and, while the A5600 U’s design certainly makes it look like a high-end machines, the hardware underneath is a little underpowered compared to the competition at this price.

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