It’s hardly an ugly machine although, when compared to the stylish HP, it hardly stands out: black, glossy plastic is the order of the day, with only a border of chrome-effect material to lend some welcome pizzazz. The lid has a textured feel with raised horizontal lines running parallel to each other. The selection of ports and sockets scattered around the machine is similarly basic, with two USB 2 sockets on the right-hand side, an SD/MMC/MS card reader on the front and a single USB 2 port, VGA and HDMI outputs, a Gigabit Ethernet input and two audio jacks on the left-hand edge