Acer has recently released a new recession friendly SKU of its Extensa 5235 15-incher, and at just €299, it's as cheap as a netbook. Obviously you can't expect much from such a cheap piece of kit, but it still beats any netbook hands down.

The Extensa 5235-571G16N is powered by a Celeron M 575 at 2.0GHz, and it packs 1GB of memory, 160GB of storage, Intel's GMA X4500HD and a DVD+/-RW DL drive. You also get three USBs, 802.11bgn wireless, a card reader and a 6-cell battery.

However, one thing that truly makes it stand out from other cheap fifteens is its screen, a 15.6-inch LED backlit unit with a resolution of 1366x768, and it's matte, too. This is quite a bit better than what you'd expect from a poverty spec'd machine at this price.

It weighs 2.5kg and comes with a 12-month warranty. Of course, it ships with Linux.

This SKU has just recently popped up in our price search engine here.