Samsung U250 All-in-One PC review

But quality is not all the Samsung has to offer: the slightly recessed screen gives away the fact that the 1,920 x 1,080 panel supports multitouch interaction, and Samsung has thrown in its own Play Touch pack of software.

We're seeing this more and more as manufacturers do their best to give their touchscreens a real purpose, but Samsung's solution is a little sparse, to say the least. It consists of little more than a multi-desktop space on which to ping your photos, videos and files around, and a slightly less cluttered touch skin for Internet Explorer.

Neither held our interest for more than a few minutes, so you'll want to download the Microsoft Touch Pack to sustain the multitouch novelty with the beautiful Globe app. Either way, we remain sceptical over the long-term appeal of touch in desktop PCs. This may change once large screens move from optical to more responsive capacitive technology, but you'll still be left with aching arms after a few minutes of use.

The bigger disappointment here is Samsung's choice of processor. When every other new PC and laptop is coming with the latest Core i3 and i5 chips, the U250 has stuck with a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T6600. It's not a slow part – a score of 1.11 in our benchmarks is fine, and it must be pointed out that no other all-in-ones have yet moved to Core i3 either – but with those CPUs routinely scoring 1.5 and above with very little cooling required, we would have preferred a bolder move from Samsung.

You do get 4GB of DDR3 RAM, however, and there's a removable memory cover on the rear should you want to upgrade. You'll need to replace, rather than add to, the two 2GB sticks present as there are no free slots. There's a 500GB hard disk set up in two equal partitions, and Samsung's recovery manager kicks in on first boot so you can burn all the required disks and create a partition.

The Samsung U250 manages to hide its PC components more successfully than any all-in-one we've yet seen, and it does so with a sense of style only matched by far dearer Sony and HP alternatives. But our recent all-in-one Labs winner, the Acer Aspire Z5610, offers the same 23in screen size, a multitouch interface, quad-core power and a 1TB hard disk for only £740 exc VAT, which means you're paying a £100-plus premium for that gorgeous design. If looks matter most that may be a price worth paying, but it keeps the Samsung from an outright recommendation.

Author: David Bayon