After my old laptop suffered an injury to it's screen (cracked screen of death), I was in need of a new laptop. So, last year, just before Christmas off I went to the local Tesco Direct and picked up the Acer Aspire 5332 for just shy of £320.

I'd been shopping around for a new laptop for some time and wanted to get the best deal for my money and feel that I got that with this laptop.

It's best features were definitely that it booted (started) up quick, had wonderful screen contrast and comes with it's own "Acer Arcade Deluxe" program which is a neat little bit of programming that allows you to view photos, movies, play your music all in one - definitely better than it's counterpart Windows Media Player. The keyboard has taken a bashing for nearly a year now and none of the lettering has worn down - in fact it looks like it did when I bought it new...albeit with crumbs down by the space bar - whoops! And as my old screen broke so easily I was scared (read: mega paranoid) this would happen again. Not so! When someone manhandled the screen it didn't crack under pressure so I feel very confident that this is a hard wearing little machine!

However, there is always a but. The touch pad is on the temperamental side and will stop working for months on end to suddenly spring into life one day for a few weeks, only to stop working again. On further inspection of this problem (Google and computer geek forums) it does appear to be an Acer Aspire 5332 problem. It's not a big deal as I just plug in a mouse and if you're not too keen on touch pads then it shouldn't be a worry. The battery life is also a little on the short side and doesn't go as long as some of it's competitors laptops, but for durability, ease of use and reliability I'd always pick an Acer.