Acer Revo One RL85 review

The Revo One is one of the least traditional-looking PCs we’ve seen in a long time, but Acer’s thinking that it would make a great living room PC goes some way to explaining its unconventional design.

The cuboid design and pleasantly rounded corners don’t demand your attention, making the Revo One the kind of object you wouldn’t mind leaving on display in your AV cabinet, but it’s small enough to hide out of the way if you prefer. It looks equally attractive in either glossy white or black colours, and Acer has kept branding to a minimum. The white activity LEDs on the top aren’t too distracting either.

The fact that Acer has managed to make room for three storage disks in a system as small as the Revo One is an impressive feat. It has the potential to hold up to 6TB of storage across three 2.5in disks, making it an excellent choice as a media server or Windows-powered NAS. Our review unit came with a single 2TB drive, but the Revo One is available in a multitude of specifications including an SSD boot drive.

Installing extra disks is incredibly easy as well, with a button on the back of the case releasing the outer enclosure. Two flanking hard disk trays then simply lift up and out for adding or removing storage. Accessing the main system disk isn’t as straightforward, requiring a screwdriver and a reasonable amount of disassembly, but doing so will let you access the single memory slot.

PERFORMANCE

Just like the wide range of storage options, there are plenty of choices when it comes to the Revo One’s processor. The less expensive models use a dual-core, 1.4GHz Intel Celeron 2957U and start at around £239, but there are also faster Core-i3 versions. Our review model was equipped with the dual-core, 1.7GHz Core i3-4005U with 4GB of RAM.

In our demanding application benchmarks, which use 4K resolution video, it managed to score 18 overall. The overall score was brought down by a poor multitasking performance, a consequence of the dual-core processor and limited memory. The Revo One won’t break any records, and clearly isn’t designed for strenuous multitasking, but this result is more than sufficient for a PC that will most likely be used as a media centre. That being said, Windows boot speeds left a lot to be desired, taking upwards of a minute to reach the desktop. An SSD would make a big difference, but it would mean sacrificing storage capacity.

Intel’s processors are more than capable of transcoding Full HD video, but unsurprisingly the Revo One isn’t cut out for serious gaming. The integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 could only achieve a jerky 17.8fps in Dirt Showdown at 1,920×720 resolution, with 4x anti-aliasing and High graphics. If you temper your expectations, however, more casual games like Minecraft are perfectly playable; here the average frame rate was a smooth 54fps.

FEATURES & CONNECTIVITY

Despite its compact size, the Revo One doesn’t sacrifice a wide range of ports and connectors. There are two USB and two USB3 ports on the back, along with HDMI and mini DisplayPort video outputs, a single 3.5mm audio jack and Gigabit Ethernet. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are built in as standard, but you’re limited to 802.11n wireless speeds. You also get a useful SD card reader on the top of the unit.

Our review model came bundled with a conventional wireless mouse and keyboard, in colours to match the white unit. Both are very compact, but while the mouse was comfortable to use, the keyboard had some of the spongiest keys we’ve used. It’s not something we would want to type long documents on.

Certain configurations use a combined keyboard and touchpad remote control, which we also tested. The keys were very small, which again meant it’s really only going to be useful for the occasional text entry, but the touchpad was comfortable and the multimedia shortcut keys are perfect if you plan on using the One as an entertainment centre.

We think the free Acer Revo app for iOS and Android is the best option for controlling the Revo One from your sofa. It has an onscreen touchpad for controlling the mouse and lets you use your tablet or smartphone’s keyboard for text entry, which is much quicker.

CONCLUSION

While other compact Mini PCs and home theatre machines tend to sacrifice storage capacity for smaller dimensions, the Acer Revo One doesn’t force you to choose one of the other. Performance is respectable and the unorthodox design is attractive as well as clever, giving it the edge over our previous favourite compact system, Scan’s 3XS NUC N16. If you’re looking for a compact and attractive PC that will fit comfortably with your living room décor, the Acer Revo One RL85 is one of the best-looking systems we’ve tested. Buy Now from Amazon