Advent AIO-100

When a netbook's screen is just too darn small...

Review At first glance, you could be forgiven for mistaking the Advent AIO-100 for just a normal 18.4in monitor with what looks like a very sturdy base. However, inside that oversized foot sits a full working PC.

Advent's AIO-100: netbook internals

The AIO-100 uses components you're more likely to see living inside a netbook - so you'll find the standard 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of DDR 2 memory and a 160GB Sata hard drive.

As size and weight are secondary issues for a machine that's going to spend the bulk of its life stationary, sitting on desk, Advent has also included a DVD writer, something you'd be hard pushed to find on any of the netbook models out there.

The biggest thing that sets it apart from a netbook, however, besides the lack of battery, is the big display that sprouts from its top, fixed to an adjustable arm. There's also a keyboard and mouse thrown in, so it comes with everything you need in the box.

Running around the edges of the base, on the left-hand side you'll find the DVD writer, which is a slimline laptop model. Round the back you'll find a wired Ethernet port, power connector and three USB ports. In the far back right-hand corner, underneath a protective cover, there's a VGA connector for hooking up an additional display. Towards the front you'll find a further two USB ports, plus headphones and microphone sockets, with an SD/MMC/Memory Stick card reader sat just above.

DVD writer built-in

Along the front edge, over on the left hand side, you'll find power and hard drive LEDs, power switch, volume controls and a mute button. There's also a single button for screen brightness - each press will make it a little bit brighter until the fifth click when it will reset it to its lowest level. There's also, curiously, a button to switch off the display backlight completely. You could save some energy by turning the backlight off when you're not using the machine - it's impossible to use without it on as you can hardly seen anything - but putting it into standby is almost as quick and would save even more, surely?