When is a laptop not a laptop? Or not a notebook? Well, according to Acer, when it's an Aspire One, which is the company's current attempt to rival the success of other mini ‘not-laptops' like Asus's Eee PCs and HP's Mini Note. If you accept the publicity blurb then this is “an all-new communication device designed to make your online activities fast, simple and utterly cool.”

Which is another way of saying it's a small, affordable, portable laptop for the social networking crowd.

Currently available in rather manly ‘sapphire blue' and ‘seashell white' (the latter would go very smartly with your iPod), we are promised future versions in golden brown and coral pink, presumably to appeal to the female market (don't flame us - we're just thinking what the marketeers are thinking). Built in a solid plastic casing, it measures just 249 x 170 x 29mm with the standard 3-cell battery attached and weighs in at a shade under 1kg. So yes, it's ideal for slipping into a backpack, handbag or briefcase.

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Once you flip the lid up, you're presented with an 8.9-inch, CrystalBrite, WSVGA, LED-backlit display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. In operation the screen is very bright and the colours sharp and vivid, yet you'll have to put up with a highly reflective black surround. In keeping with the social interactive theme, there's an Acer CrystalEye webcam embedded above the middle of the display for all your live video streaming and chats.

Happily the QWERTY keyboard is almost full size and is remarkably easy to get used to. The same can't be said for the touchpad, though, as the extremely narrow mouse buttons are positioned on either side rather than below and are fiddly to use. When you examine the sides, on the other hand, you'll find no fewer than three USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, Ethernet and, unusually, two SD card readers: one is intended to a be a standard 5-in-1 card reader (for Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, xD-Picture Card) and the other is for additional storage.

The Aspire One is powered by an Intel Atom N270 processor (1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB, 512KB L2 cache) and comes with either 512MB or 1GB DDR2 RAM installed. Two OS alternatives can also be pre-installed - Linpus Linux Lite or Windows XP Home - using a maximum 120GB, 2.5-inch, 5400rpm Hitachi Hard Drive or a NAND flash module of 8GB.

As this machine is ultimately designed for Internet usage, there's no room for any kind of optical drive. Instead you have access to the Net either via the Ethernet port or the 802.11b/g WiFi built-in as standard (strange they didn't make it the preferable 802.11b/g/n like the Eee PC 901). Acer promises WiMAX or 3G wireless technologies will be available later this year but not Bluetooth, although they do currently offer Acer Signal Up technology for (it's claimed) maximum quality and stability to the wireless signal.

It would probably be wise, though, to stock up on a second battery or even the 6-cell upgrade, as the 3-cell will barely last you two and a half hours.

Chic, compact, ultra-portable and priced well below the competition, Acer's Aspire One is a worthy opponent to its mini laptop rivals at Asus and HP. However, it's not as Net-versatile and it suffers from a short battery life.