When it comes to replacing a desktop PC with a more elegant modern solution there are many approaches one can take. Some might prefer a semi-portable 15 or 16-inch laptop, others a more permanent all-in-one PC such as the Apple iMac or MSI Wind Top AE2220 Hi-Fi. One other choice is a hybrid of the two: a 17 or 18-inch laptop that’s so large as to be essentially non-portable, but can still be stowed away discreetly when the need arises or thrown in the back of a car when on the move. If the latter is your preference, the Acer Aspire Ethos 8943G might be for you.

With an 18.4-inch screen and a scale busting 4.6kg weight, the 8943G isn’t exactly a featherweight. As such, though you can at least move it around, the Acer won’t be going anywhere in a hurry. Not that there’s anything sluggish about the hardware, however. A quad-core Intel Core i7 processor is the star of the show, which starts at 1.6GHz but can be ‘turbo clocked’ to up to 2.8GHz depending on how the load is spread. Just in case this wasn’t enough this particular version has 12GB of DDR3 RAM as well.

To put that into perspective, the A-Listed Acer Aspire 8942G has the same graphics chip but managed just 20fps in that High test, and the Alienware M15x – with not one, but two high-end graphics cards inside – managed only 27fps. So the Ethos 8943G is a tremendously powerful laptop, and if you opt for a recommended mix-and-match, playing at the native 1,920 x 1,080 but with Medium settings, you’ll be gaming at a comfortable 37fps. All this power is possible due to the Acer’s huge chassis: at 440mm wide and 3.9kg, it’s a real backbreaker for those few times you’ll be lumping it from the study to the living room. But the space allows for so much to be crammed in, not least those excellent speakers above the Scrabble-tile keyboard.

With the Radeon HD 5650 enabled, the 8943G scored 41fps in our Call of Duty 4 benchmark, which means you’ll be able to play most games, although if you want to ramp up the resolution to 1,920×1,080, you’ll have to turn graphical effects such as anti-aliasing off to get playable frame rates. There’s also the promise of speeding up GPU-accelerated applications, although ATI’s Stream technology isn’t as widely supported as Nvidia’s CUDA.

The 8943G managed a score of 90 overall in our Windows benchmarks – that’s only 10 per cent less than our reference desktop PC, powered by a quad-core AMD Phenom II. Coupled with 4GB of RAM, it will handle just about any application, including photo and video editing. A 500GB hard disk should provide ample space for your files, and there are four USB ports along with FireWire and eSATA ports for faster external drives.

The E130 is a messaging phone that sports a full QWERTY keyboard and as a result looks very similar to many of BlackBerry’s handsets. Acer has tried its hand at messaging phones before with the P300 and M900, but those models were based on Microsoft’s unloved Windows Mobile operating system. This time around, it has decided to give Android a go instead, but are the results an improvement on its previous attempts?

There’s no doubting where the design inspiration for the E130 comes from. With the landscape screen at the top of the phone and QWERTY keyboard sitting beneath, the handset looks very much like a BlackBerry. The phone even uses a mini trackball similar to the one found on RIM’s older Pearl range before it switched to optical trackpads. It’s hardly surprising then that the E130 looks much more business-like than recent Acer models such as the Stream.

Slipping through menus is handled by the trackball, which recalls BlackBerrys of old. While RIM has since renounced the trackball for the optical trackpad, Acer’s choice to use this ageing tech is questionable. It’s definitely responsive, but its predilection for picking up dust and dirt means you won’t want to use it too often to flick through emails and Facebook messages. Luckily, you can use the touchscreen to fulfil those functions, too.

The touch panel is pretty responsive and handy for tapping icons, although it’s not as assured as the trackball when it comes to doing more fiddly work, such as scrolling through messages and diving deep into Android’s menu systems. The touchscreen should be regarded as a secondary input method, rather than the main means of making your way around the phone. Viewed as such, it’s a handy addition and puts the Acer beTouch E130 ahead of rivals such as the Nokia E5 and BlackBerry Curve 3G.

The Acer Aspire Timeline X series is the latest generation of thin and light notebooks from Acer designed to offer solid performance and long battery life in a surprisingly lightweight package. At first glance it’s easy to mistake the Aspire 1830T for one of the dozens of Acer netbooks that have shown up over the last few years. Looks, however, can be deceiving.

Build quality is quite good despite the diminutive size of this laptop. The combination of relatively thick matte plastics and black brushed aluminum palmrests leave the notebook feeling solid and showing almost no signs of flex. The screen stays firmly shut with a good amount of tension from the screen hinges when closed. Protection from the screen cover is only adequate; the cover flexes quite easily and distortions appeared on the display when we applied pressure to the back of the cover. Opening up the screen you can tell the hinges should hold up for a long time with strong tension that prevents the screen from flopping around once opened. The body of the notebook seems to be well designed with minimal chassis flex and no obvious creaks from the plastics.

The Core i5-430M’s 2.27GHz frequency, for instance, is far in excess of any CULV chip, and both of its cores are kitted out with Turbo Boost so a busy core can borrow a little boost of power from an idle one as required. There’s also Hyper-Threading technology, as well as a 500MHz GPU integrated on to the die itself.

These technical improvements manifested themselves in much more laptop-like benchmark scores. The TimelineX 5820T sped to an overall score of 1.54, which is only a shade slower than the ever-popular Dell Studio 1557, with its mobile Core i7-720QM processor.

Port selection on the Aspire 1830T is fairly standard for a modern netbook or 11-inch ultraportable notebook. Acer gives you three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI-out, VGA, LAN, and audio jacks. It also features a SDHC-card slot for expanding internal storage or just loading images off your camera while traveling. Since we’re starting to see USB 3.0 on more consumer notebooks and there are many USB 3.0 external hard drives on the market we really wish Acer had found a way to put at least one USB 3.0 port on this $900 notebook.

Specifications:

• Intel Core i7 680UM processor (1.46GHz, 4MB L3 cache)
• 11.6-inch 1366×768 HD display with LED backlighting
• Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• 4GB DDR3 memory
• 500GB 5400rpm HDD
• Intel HD integrated graphics
• Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n wireless
• Bluetooth 3.0 (Foxconn BCM92046)
• 6-cell Li-ion battery
• Dimensions: 11.22 (w) x 8.03 (d) x1.01-1.10 (h) inches
• Weight: 3.09 pounds

Having only just awarded the Packard Bell EasyNote Butterfly Touch our coveted Recommended Award, we’re now looking at the Acer Aspire 1825PTZ, an 11.6in convertible tablet laptop in the same mould. And when we say “in the same mould” we mean that literally – as Packard Bell (PB) is essentially an Acer subsidiary, the Butterfly Touch and 1825PTZ could have been separated at birth.

Overall the look of and feel of the Acer is good, its very compact and not too heavy, although at 1.72 kg (3.79 lbs) it does begin to feel weighty when using it one handed. The screen is bright and crisp and the 1366 x 768 resolution is perfect for the 11.6” screen size, touch input is accurate on the capacitive touch display and you rarely find yourself having to press multiple times when trying to hit on screen buttons like the classic close program. One of the major downsides to the screen is its highly reflective, probably more so than any other device I have used or owned. This is a major point, when using the screen in a well lit room like an office or for example a hospital waiting room, the viewing angle is tiny, this often means the angle you are holding it at is a strain. I’ve lived with this problem for two weeks and have learnt to deal with it but if you spend a lot of time in well lit places then you must take this into consideration, even more so if you plan to use this device in tablet mode often.

The Acer Aspire 1825′s 11.6-inch touchscreen has a sharp 1366 x 768-pixel resolution and is pleasingly bright thanks to the LED backlighting, which means working into the wee hours is easy on the eye.

A glossy Super-TFT screen has been used and the results are impressive, with colours popping from photographs. The only drawback is the increased reflectivity, which will have you squinting at the laptop’s screen when outdoors or in a brightly-lit office. The screen is attached via a single central hinge, which allows the display to be tilted all the way back to a horizontal position.

Specifications:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
• Intel Core2 Duo processor SU7300 (1.3 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
• 11.6? HD Acer LED LCD (1366×768), 2 point multi touch
• 4 GB Memory
• 320 GB HDD
• Multi-in-1 card reader
• 802.11a/b/g
• Bluetooth
• Webcam, 6-cell Li-ion battery
• Weight 1.7KG

Acer’s Ferrari 4005 WLMi laptop is the latest in a line of high-end gaming notebooks bearing the Italian motor company’s signature. You don’t have to be a Ferrari fan (I’m partial to Sato myself) to appreciate this notebook’s features though… Starting with the AMD Turion Athlon64 mobile processor purring away at 2GHz, the Ferrari 4005 WLMi represents the state of the art in notebook technology, including its own carbon fiber panel and Ferrari emblem.

This laptop walks a fine line between being a desktop replacement and a portable powerhouse. It’s not a small device at 6.3 lbs, and boasting a large 15.4″ LCD screen, but it is still vaguely portable and less demanding of battery power than it might be due to AMD’s Turion64 processor power-saving technology. The Acer Ferrari 4005 also looks great, whether you like Ferrari or not.

The Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi notebook is powered by an AMD Turion64 ML-37 processor running at 2.0GHz (with 1MB of level 2 cache memory), 1GB of DDR-333 system memory, an integrated ATI Mobility Radeon X700 video card with 128MB of dedicated video memory and a large 15.4″ LCD screen. Storage comes care of a 2.5″ 5400 RPM 100GB hard disk. Network connectivity goes in four directions, with a Gigabit Ethernet adaptor, 802.11G wireless, Bluetooth and a 56K modem all available to the user.

The Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi measures 14.29″ x 10.46″ and about 1.36″ thick. Without the battery it weighs in at 6.3lbs. Part of the top cover is made of real carbon fiber, lending the notebook a unique appearance and putting it in touch with its Ferrari heritage.