You won’t believe thisI a good laptop at an affordable price. Roger Frost is suitably impressed by the ACi Aspect In days only just past, a laptop could easily add pound;1,000 to the price of a computer. Not so with the ACi Aspect which pretty much confounds the choice between desktops and laptops. At pound;700 for as rich a specification as most would hanker for, this is a machine that teachers and students will find attractive. The memory, storage and speed as supplied are more than ample for the tasks that spill over from home to school and back again. And with a set of them, labs and classrooms can trolley their way into this century. Besides, the classroom of tomorrow was starting to look like a secretarial college anyway.
In use, the screen, keyboard and build of this are good. It’s a 12in model so the size will suit students and most adults. The sound system, mostly used for music while you work, is really exceptional. There are a couple of watts of decent sound and it’s remarkable at that.
Possibly unique to ACi is the option to screen-print the machine lid with colour graphics. Should you buy a fleet, adding the school crest makes a statement and could be a theft deterrent. That aside, the machine’s metallic, cool blue livery makes for a softer than corporate look.
ACi prides itself on its warranty procedures which include 12 months parts warranty, 12 months collect and return, lifetime technical support and lifetime labour warranty. When you come to rely on a laptop, as one might a car or central heating, a guarantee that suits one’s dependence needs looking into. Certainly every machine I have owned needed a fix at some time in its life.
The specifications and price merit checking at decision time, as ACi , like most manufacturers, imports the machine chassis and customises it to order.
You could specify extra memory or hard disc or upgrade to DVD, but frankly a television, sofa and cheap DVD player will save this unit for the job of inexpensive, convenient computing.
ACI Aspect laptop computer from Allied Computer Industries12.1inch Active colour TFT screen; smart lithium ion battery; 8Mb to 32Mb 3D SVGA video; 3D stereo sound; internal 56K fax modem and 10100 Mbps network connector; built-in floppy drive and CD-Rom upgradeable to DVD; 2.7kg; Microsoft Windows. Size 285mm x 238mm x 40mm Price: example education offer of pound;699 + VAT for Intel 850 MHz Mobile Celeron processor; 92 Mb RAM; 10Gb HDD; carry case; Lotusmartsuite software. Tel: 0208 830 1958 Fax: 0208 830 1959 www.aciplc.com
ACI ASPECT
Suitability of purpose: *****
Ease of use *****
Design *****
Features ****
Value for money *****
