Once upon a time, manufacturers would launch one product at a time, allowing you to soak up the details pass comment and have time for reflection. Some, however, insist on the scatter gun approach.

And Acer, having just announced a new netbook, six new laptops, two nettops, and several all-in-one PCs, including a Windows 7-equipped touchscreen model (which a spokesman said would be on the shelves on October 23) fall firmly into the latter category. First on show was the new Timeline series of laptops (pictured above), a range targeted firmly at consumers and focused on long battery life. We weren’t bowled over by the looks – all silver-grey with very little concession to style – but we did like the feel of the machines. The aluminium lid felt pleasingly cold to the touch and the low-profile keyboard with its scrabble-style keys was nice to type on.

And with prices promised to start at £549 for the 13.3in model, added to eight-hour plus claimed battery life, things look more interesting still. There are three chassis in the range: that 13.3in model (3810T/3810TG) plus 14.1in (4810T/4810TG) and 15.4in (5810T/5810G) models. All employ Intel Centrino 2 Utra Low Voltage processors, boast LED backlit screens and, interestingly, boast “multi-gesture” trackpads, which allow Mac-alike pinch-to-zoom actions. Though we didn’t like these much.

Next up were the new netbooks: a 10.1in model and a larger 11.6in model the Aspire One 751. The former looks like pretty standard netbook fare, but the latter is more interesting.

As with the Timeline series, it boasts scrabble-style low profile keys, that stretch all the way to the edge of the chassis and, from the brief encounter we had with it, was very nice to type on.

Also interesting, but not necessarily in a good way, was the fact that the 11.6in netbook runs on Intel’s 1.33GHz Z520 Atom. In our experience performance with this processor is even slower than a standard 1.6GHz N270. It’s unlikely to be any different here.

That’s before we get to the Revo – a nettop based on Nvidia’s Atom-based Ion platform. Acer was showing off Call of Duty 4 being played on one of these and it looked pretty smooth. There are those new all-in-one desktops, too, with touchscreens and Windows 7 on board. The pictures looked nice in the presentation, but alas there weren’t any to play with at the event.

What were on show, but sadly neglected in the excitement over the netbooks and Timeline laptops, were a couple of the new Aspire range of laptops, which looked very nice indeed. These are set to replace the home entertainment-focussed  Gemstone Blue. More subtly styled this time around, these laptops boast glowing keyboards, striking looks and familiar-looking crazy media controls to the right of the keyboard.

All of which we’ll be getting in for a thorough going over, of course, just as soon as we can. So be sure to check back soon for our full reviews.