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The popularity of video downloading means that media players are becoming increasingly essential, even if your PC media source is in another room. But what if the PC is small enough to tuck under your TV? Enter Acer’s super-compact Revo 100.

With full Windows 7 functions, and all the browsing and codec-downloading abilities that implies, the Revo would make a superb media player. Its AMD Athlon II Neo dual-core processor, Nvidia ION graphics and 2Gb (up to 4Gb) memory means it easily outperforms the average player.

Features include a Blu-ray drive which is 3D-ready, a USB port and multi-card reader on the front, two more USBs on the back beside the Ethernet socket, and HDMI and optical S/PDIF port connections for your TV and amp.

The really clever bit is that instead of a keyboard or mouse, you get a slide-out wireless ‘slate’ touchpad that serves both functions. Of course, you won’t be doing much touch-typing on it in keyboard mode, but it is usable for web searching.

It’s a full-spec Windows PC in the space you might expect to allow for a media player.

Acer’s Clear.fi media sharing software makes it easy to organise media, and it will automatically share content with other wireless devices.

Touchpanel solves the perennial problem associated with media PCs of bulky keyboards.

The single non-HD TV tuner is a bit old school.

You have to exit the Clear.fi system to access some services such as Twitter, iTunes, Amazon MP3, iPlayer, ITV Player, or 4oD.

It’s not cheap by the standards of comparable micro PCs, and certainly not compared to a media player.

Acer Revo 100
Price: £399 Approx

Overall: 4/5