Buy Now...

It is 32.5x23.5x1cm the last figure increases to close to 2cm at the back. It weights 1524grams.

The viewable screen is 31x17.5cm which gives the notional imperial diagonal screen measurement of 14inches. While Windows sets the default display at 150% I found 125% was still perfectly usable and the amount displayed on the screen was far more, especially useful when showing web pages.

The processor is an Intel i5 running at 1.6GHz. There is 8GB of RAM (7.84GB available). It comes with Windows 10 Pro a 30 day trial of Norton Security Ultra and a 12 month 25GB Dropbox account for new users.

It has a 237GB SSD drive with around 200GB free. Bootup is 12 seconds while shutdown is 6 seconds.

Going around the outside finds on the left a Kensington Lock port, Ethernet port, VGA connector, HDMI, USB3, USB ‘C’. The front is clear. The right side has power connector, two USB3, 3.5mm headphone socket, SD card socket and finally an LED.

The rear is also clear as the screen goes back to nearly flat. The top centre has a webcam with slide across shutter for privacy. It blends in very well with the matt grey surrounds and joy of joy this area does not show finger marks.

The keyboard has 88keys with the alpha and numeric keys full sized so normal typing should be possible. There is a three centimetre area between the keyboard and the screen which has one occupant the on/off button in its centre. There is a 1.5cm strip clear either side of the keyboard and the large 12.5x8.5cm trackpad is mounted 7.5cm from the left and 12.5cm from the right of the area in front of the keyboard.

The base has four 1.5cm square feet to keep the unit off the desk or whatever you rest it on. As the speakers are underneath this space allows the sound to have upward movement.

While I was quite happy typing and viewing web pages on the units screen the HDMI out means it can work with an external panel or should you still have a VGA panel around then it also works with this so those wanting 100% display do not need to have 20:20 vision.

The USB ‘C’ port can also support DisplayPort with a suitable adapter.

The USB3 ports also support the charge of external devices at 1.5 amps.

It is nice to have Ethernet as some offices will not allow Wi-Fi for security purposes. I tested both as I did the Bluetooth. While it seems optical drives are a thing of the past I did connect a USB one and watched some content. To me the size of the SSD is the only drawback and you would certainly need a USB external drive as the available 200GB would soon be swallowed.

The Acer TMX314-51-M-561-H is available from the link below for £716.92.

https://www.ballicom.co.uk/acer-nx-vjsek-003-.p1477489.html