Acer Aspire 1825PTZ review

The tablet PC concept never proved the runaway hit that Microsoft might have hoped for, but that hasn’t stopped plucky manufacturers trying their best to help touch-powered portables hit the big time. Acer’s latest proves a little more appealing than most, fusing the allure of an 11.6in ultraportable with a balletic touch-screen display.

After the decidedly chunky likes of the Fujitsu Lifebook T900 , it’s refreshing to find a tablet PC that attempts to major on portability. You could almost get away with describing the Aspire 1825PTZ as cute: it weighs 1.7kg and, despite that touchscreen, measures barely any thicker around the waist than the average 11.6in laptop.

It’s not just size that sets the Acer apart from the tablet PC pack, however. Where many manufacturers use resistive touchscreen technology, Acer has employed a capacitive panel. The benefits of this are, quite literally, clear to see, and where the displays on many tablet PCs are dogged with grainy, mediocre image quality, the Acer’s panel is clear and bright.

Another plus point is that the panel is multitouch capable, allowing two-fingered gestures to make the most of Windows 7’s touch-friendly interface. The combination of a 1,366 x 768 resolution and 11.6in panel makes it a little fiddly to operate at first, particularly for larger fingers, but switching Windows 7’s default text size to 125% makes a huge difference. Text, icons and menus grow to perfect finger-prodding proportions, and the wonderfully responsive touchscreen makes navigating Windows a genuinely pleasurable experience.

Twirl the screen into tablet mode and Internet Explorer 8 puts the web at your fingertips. Tap a text box and a shortcut to the onscreen keyboard instantly pops up, pinching gestures allow you to zoom in and out, and flicking a finger left or right skips back and forth through web pages.
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