Labs

If your PC doubles as your TV, and your desk is also your dining table, things can get a little cramped. The Philips HEPC 7500 could be the answer for students or anyone else living in a less than roomy apartment.

It certainly doesn't look like your run-of-the-mill PC. Inside the little box is an Intel mobile processor, the 1.6GHz T5250 Core 2 Duo, which you'd normally find in laptop rather than desktop PCs but should offer enough performance for general office work and Internet surfing. The HEPC comes with Windows Vista Home Premium, like the other systems on test, and a 160GB hard disk, so it has all the requisite features of a proper PC.

Don't expect miracles, though. When its modest processor

ADVERTISEMENT

and 1GB of RAM were exposed to the full brunt of our general (2D) benchmarks, the Philips returned lower scores than any other PC on test, and when we (perhaps rather cruelly) tried to play Call of Duty 2, the Intel GMA 945 graphics built into the motherboard refused even to entertain the idea. This is not a system for games, except maybe Windows Vista's Mahjong.

The wireless keyboard, with its built-in trackball, is intended mostly as a knee-top remote control, so an extra mouse and keyboard would be worth adding - along with a USB hub, since there are just four USB ports and no PS/2 sockets.

For every negative, however, there's a positive. The price quoted here includes an optional 20 inch 1680x1050 widescreen LG monitor, among the best and most attractive displays on test, perfect for making use of the DVD}RW drive and built-in hybrid digital TV decoder. There's also an S/PDIF digital audio output for hooking up a home cinema speaker system, and a regular remote control to make full use of Vista's Media Center capabilities.

It's unfortunate that the supplied peripherals aren't up to office work. But if you're not into games or processor-heavy tasks such as video editing, the Philips - with at least a mouse added - could well appeal to the spatially challenged.