Popping up on Play.com as a pre-order item with an estimated release date of 18th May, 2009, the Aspire Revo - from Play.com at least - will be available in four incarnations.

Sharing the base specification of Intel Atom N230 and NVIDIA 'ION' graphics (GeForce 9400M), together with a bundled keyboard and mouse, the entry-level model will ship with 1GB RAM, 8GB SSD for storage, and Linux OS. Expected to sell for £179.99 the value proposition is sharp.

Up a rung and system RAM is upgraded to 2GB, storage to a 160GB mechanical drive, along with Vista Home Premium. Pricing, too, takes a hike, coming in at £249.99. We wonder how the low-power system will cope with the clunky OS?

Spank another £50, up to £299.99, and the specification remains the same, albeit with a 3D game controller and a host of games.

Finally, lay down £329.99 and you'll receive all the goodness of the £299.99 bundle, augmented by a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Thoughts

The £179.99 box does look appealing, lining up well against the cheaper netbooks. Add in Microsoft Vista and pricing, expectedly, takes a massive percentage jump. You'll need to factor in a screen - be it TV or monitor - pushing the overall cost of purchase close to better-performing desktop models, or, indeed, laptops with the similar jiggery-pokery inside.