Web User - UK (2019-09-18)

Acer Aspire C 24Product Test

Do you agree? Let us know [email protected] 18 Sept - 1 Oct 2019 23

This affordable all-in-one

PC will solve allyour

desktop space problems,

particularly ifyou don’t

want to compromise on

screen quality.The PC’s

components are built intoa

24in screen, which is large

enoughto satisfy most

needs and provides the best

quality viewingwe’ve seen

in recent all-in-one PCs.

However, this has ledto

compromises elsewhere.

With noSSD to keep

Windowszipping along,

the C24 was sometimes

frustratingly slow,

particularly when booting

up.The integrated graphics

means it’s not much usefor

games, either, though it

handles otherWindows

taskswell.

Acer Aspire S24, £937.97

bit.ly/asps484

Medion Akoya E23401,

£699

bit.ly/medion484

USB ports aren’t the only
way the C 24 has scrimpedto
keep its price low. The
speakers areawful –
completely devoid of bass
and incapable of making
music sound like anything
other than a scratchy mess.
They’re not particularly loud,
either, althoughconsidering
their lack of fidelity, that may
be a good thing.

Screen quality and
performance
The C 24 managedto display
a satisfactory 82.4% of
colours in the SRGBcolour
standard and has a decent
contrast ratio of 1,008:1.Peak
brightness is272.2cd/m^2
(candles per square metre).
These aren’t the kinds of
figures you’d expect froma
top-class monitor but they’re
not badconsidering more
corners could ha ve been cut.
Furthermore, it’s a much
better screen thanyou get on
both the E23401 and the
more expensive S24.
With regard to
performance, the C 24’s small

compact build means itrelies

on the graphics hardware

integr ated with the processor,

so it ’s not a great option if

you’re lookingfor smooth

gaming.The best we could

get out of Dirt Showdown – a

game we regularly useto te st

PCs – was 32fps (frames per

second).To get this,we had

to lower it from the preferred

Ultra detail settingsto High,

and reduce theresolutionto

1,280 x 720 pixels.

All that said, the C24 is a

good general-usefamily PC,

acceptably priced and

perfectly adequate for

browsing and simple office

tasks. Asyou’d expect with

similar core setups, the

performance on the other

all-in-oneswas similar.

The C 24’s lone 1TB hard

drive, however, can cause

some frustrating slo wdowns.

With no SSD or solid-state

cache, Windows is entirely

reliant on creaky old

mechanicaltech, which is bad

news for booting and transfer

times. At one stage, the C 24

took more than six minutes

to perform a simplerestart.

The E23401 escaped this

problemby pairing its

mechanical hard drive with

a mas ter SSD driv e, which

gave it a significant boost

when bootingWindows and

launchingkey softwar e.

The compromisecomes with

the screen, which pales in

comparisonto the C 24.

PRODUCT INFO

AcerAspire C 24

Price: £649

Buy from Currys:

bit.ly/aspc484

SPECIFICATIONS

■Quad-core1.6GHz Intel Core

i5-8250U processor

■8GB DDR4 SDRAM memory

■2 x USB2,2 x USB 3 ports

■Intel UHD Graphics 620

■1TB hard drive

■24in1,920 x1,080 pixels display

■Windows10 Home

FOR

✓Morecompact than a desktop

✓Bigger screen than a laptop

✓Good quality screen beats rivals

AGAINST

✗Lack ofSSD makes booting

sluggish

✗Not enough USB ports

✗Integrated graphics

OUR VERDICT HHHH

MORE EXPENSIVE,

BETTERLOOKING

FASTER PC,

WORSE SCREEN

FEATURES HHHHH

PERFORMANCE HHHHH

EASE OF USE HHHHH

VALUE FOR MONEY HHHHH

It’s probably best to leavethecamera

unplugged until you need it, because four

USB ports isn’tvery many