Audio playback quality is above average, though you won't get high volume for music playback. My chief complaint is that reverb seemed excessive. You'll want to use the minimalist Dolby control panel to switch modes from music to movies when you pop in a Blu-ray disc. Movie audio quality was exceptionally good for a laptop, with clear voice imaging and a soundstage that seemed wider than the display without sounding smeared.

Video quality is top-notch, as long as you sit in the sweet spot. But viewing the screen from even a little distance off-axis yields noticeable shifts in video contrast and color. Upscaled, standard-definition content looked clean, without much noise or excessive edge enhancement, but it did appear a bit soft. High-definition content was impressive, however.

Performance is another weakness. The Ethos ships with 8GB of DDR3-1333 memory and a quad-core, Intel Core i7 2630QM CPU. However, the laptop's WorldBench 6 score of 127 was a little below average for a desktop replacement. The Acer system comes with an Nvidia GT 555M GPU that offers better gaming performance than the integrated Intel HD Graphics do, but it's hardly a gaming powerhouse. You'll want to dial down graphics detail and possibly the resolution before playing current-generation of DirectX 10 and 11 game titles.

The GT 555M takes advantage of Nvidia's technology to switch automatically from the discrete GPU (when needed for high performance graphics) to the Intel integrated GPU for normal desktop use and video playback. This arrangement can substantially improve battery life, though the Ethos will likely spend most of its time plugged into wall power.

The Ethos comes with plenty of ports built in, including five USB ports (three USB 2.0, one USB 2.0/eSATA combo, and one USB 3.0 port). HDMI and VGA video output connectors are located on the right side, as are three audio jacks and a four-pin Firewire connector.