Thinner than the average Stephen King novel at just 29mm, this has to be the slimmest HTPC we've ever tested, not to mention the slickest.
Just because the Acer Revo 100 is tiny doesn't mean it's underpowered, with an Athlon II Neo K325 processor, 2GB of DDR3 memory and NVIDIA's ION GPU. This provides more than enough oomph to decode 3D Blu-rays, which are supported via the optional Blu-ray optical drive. It's not quite game-worthy, but Windows 7 response was fluid and smooth - surprising given the 1.3GHz frequency of the CPU.
HDMI and optical out allow easy insertion into your home theatre, while built-in Wi-Fi makes for even easier inclusion into your home network. Depending on the range between your router and Revo, you may prefer to go with the Gigabit Ethernet.
We're not sure who actually uses them (as most people prefer to dump images off the camera and onto the PC), but there's also a memory card reader on the front if you feel the inclination.
While the Windows 7 Media Center interface is beautiful for media playback, Acer has included its own media software which handles audio, images and movies. Surprisingly, it's rather good. It's designed to work perfectly with the ace hidden under the Revo 100's chassis - one of the sexiest wireless keyboard/touchpads ever created.
Measuring 155 x 115 x 7mm, it tucks away into the case for charging when not in use. Pop it out and it's a giant multi-gesture touch pad. Tap a button at the top and a full QWERTY touchboard glows to life. It's an absolute delight to use, allowing you to untap the potential of your HTPC from the comfort of the couch.
There's one problem though, and it's a biggie - it doesn't do Bitstream out for DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD audio. If you're spending this kind of money, you've probably got an expensive sound system that would make use of this.
The Acer Revo 100 is rather expensive, but it's obvious that a lot of R&D dollars were pumped into this impressive machine. If only it had Bitstream audio out, the Revo 100 would indeed be the perfect HTPC.
Available from Acer, retailing for $999.APC rating: 8/10 (Highly Recommended)