The AE2020 from MSI is an all-in-one computer – instead of having separate
units for the screen and processing section, everything is built into one unit.
In this case it's roughly the size of a 20in screen, which is what this
computer has, but it's deeper at the back to allow for the processing unit and
the stand, as well as a transparent area around the bezel.It was easy to set up with Windows configuring itself and only the mains
power cable to plug in. MSI has supplied a so-so keyboard and a mouse, but it
would be possible to control the computer without using either, as it has a
touch-sensitive screen – dragging a finger across the screen moves the mouse
pointer, and tapping equates to a mouse-click.
Once Windows had loaded we were presented with the option to install a 60-day
trial of the Norton security software, with the stern warning that not doing so
would leave the computer 'unprotected'. That's true, but it did feel a bit like
scaremongering given that there are plenty of free
anti-virus
programs available, Windows includes its own
firewall
which offers some protection, and the Norton product will expire after 60 days
anyway unless users enter their credit card details. We were then given a menu
listing more software to install, with the instruction to tick the ones we
wanted – the boxes were already ticked, though, and we couldn't change it.
Still, the software was fairly innocuous (it included
Microsoft
Works for office tasks and the free
Adobe
Reader software for viewing
PDF
files).The touchscreen worked well, although we were glad to have the mouse for
more fiddly tasks such as when editing a photo. There's an on-screen keyboard
available, which you tap to select letters, but typing with the keyboard,
although it wasn't a particularly good model, was still more comfortable.An Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300 processor lies at the heart of the computer
– it's a relatively low-end model by today's standards but together with the
computer's
3GB
of
memory,
it's more than capable of dealing with office and internet tasks as well as
watching DVDs (there's a DVD drive on one side) and editing photos. It uses the
Nvidia
Ion graphics chipset, which means it’s perfectly happy to play
high-definition
video at even the highest resolution.More demanding tasks such as editing video or playing new games will be
tricky and aren't what this computer is designed for. The 320GB
hard
disk is more than enough for most people, however.In addition to the DVD drive there's a memory card reader, six
USB
ports, an
eSata
connection, standard and optical audio outputs and
HDMI
and
VGA
sockets for attaching screens, should the internal one not be enough. It can
also connect to wireless networks – although it's not exactly portable this may
be useful if you're placing it far away from your home's router.Touchscreen computers we’ve seen have tended to be either cheap and flimsy
or very expensive, so it’s good to see a computer such as this, priced
in-between those two ends and with the processing power to match. If you want a
decent touch-screen computer which won’t take up too much room, the Wind Top
AE2020 is a good choice.
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