Price: From £239
Rating: 0
Acer's latest gadget for the home is the Revo One which is a micro-PC, media streamer and NAS drive in one. Here's our hands-on review of the Acer Revo One RL85.
Announced at CES 2015, the Acer Revo One will be hitting shelves across the UK soon with the gadget aiming to be the hub of your home, no matter which room you decide to use it in. See also: Hannspree PC on a Stick review.
Acer Revo One hands-on review: Price and release date and competition
Although the Acer Revo One is a PC, its pint-sized form factor means that it's also taking on the media streamers which are extremely popular. Under the covers it's a very different piece of kit but it still must, to some extent, take on the Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku players and Amazon Fire TV. Read: What's the best media steamer 2015?
Compared to those gadgets, the Acer Revo One is pretty expensive. They are all under £100 and the Revo starts at £239 and the top of the range model will set you back £599. You'll see why when we come to the hardware and specifications.
It will start shipping on 6 April with retailers including PC World, Currys, Amazon, Dabs, Tesco Direct and eBuyer.
Acer Revo One hands-on review: What's it for?
Why would you want to pay so much more than those affordable gadgets? Well since the Revo One is a PC, it's not limited to certain apps. For example, Roku players don't have Amazon Prime Instant Video and the Apple TV has no native support for BBC iPlayer. Using the web browser of your choice, you can watch essentially anything via the Revo One – Blinkbox, Sky Go, Google Play, Netflix, you name it.
Since it's running the Microsoft Bing version of Windows 8 you can do all the other things you'd normally do too. You won't be able to run full blown PC games at a decent framerate but there is plenty of scope for casual gaming if you connected a wireless controller.
Acer is not touting the Revo One for a particular room in the house and quite rightly so. You can easily plug it into your TV like a regular set-top box, put it in your study as a space saving PC or use it in the bedroom or even the kitchen. It wouldn't be too hard to move it between rooms if you only move the device itself and the power lead.
The combination of size and specifications make this an extremely versatile PC – that's why Acer says it has 'all the power of a PC without the tower'.
Acer Revo One hands-on review: Control
If you are going to use it in the living room connected to a TV you'll want the remote control in order to interact. It has a touchpad to move the cursor as well as handy buttons and a Qwerty keyboard on the rear. Most retailers will be shipping the Revo One with this controller but some will supply a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
We've had a play with the remote control and it takes a little time to get used to but you do get the hang of it. For general navigation it's quick but does get pretty fiddly when you need to interact with something like the EPG on Sky Go. There's also an app called Acer Revo Suite which will give basic controls. We weren't able to test this out due to network issues but it's currently available for Android with iOS and Windows support coming later.
Acer Revo One hands-on review: Hardware and specs
Inside the small plastic housing of the Acer Revo One is an Intel Celeron processor. The entry level model will come with 2 GB of RAM and a 60 GB hard drive but that's not it. You'll be able to choose models with an Intel Core i3 or i5, up to 8 GB of RAM and up to 2 TB of storage.
There will be various SKUs available depending on what chip you want, amount of RAM and storage. Despite being so small the Revo One has the potentially to handle 6 TB since it has three bays which can take 2 TB each. It can double up as a NAS drive and also supports RAID 0- 1- and 5.
Inside is 11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and there are plenty of ports on the back including HDMI, mini DisplayPort, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and Ethernet. An SD card slot sits hidden on the top beside the notifications LEDs.
Buying Advice
The Acer Revo One is one of the most interesting PCs we've seen a while packing a decent set of hardware into a tiny space. It's so small you could use it anywhere in the house without a problem. It costs a lot more than a typical media streamer but is not held back by app support. NAS support is also a good feature on this versatile gadget. Check back soon for a full review and verdict.
