After something of a hiatus from the New Zealand market, NEC has partnered with Renaissance Brands to get its personal computers back onto shop floors. Top brass back in Japan have decided it's time for NEC to make a big global push and leading the way is the company's Powermate hybrid PC, which is currently the top selling desktop in Japan.

An all-in-one design (like the iMac) with all the computer gubbins housed behind the 17-inch widescreen display, the Powermate is designed to be space saving and semi-portable with a flip-out stand, a carry handle, and a battery that allows it to be used without mains power for up to half an hour. The keyboard and mouse use wireless RF so you can operate the PC from a distance of up to 10 metres.

The screen has a resolution of 1440 x 900 pixels and uses dual lamps for stunning brightness. An outboard USB analogue and digital TV tuner is also provided.

Hot air is dissipated out the top of the machine for more efficient cooling.

Around the case you'll find a slot-loading DVD drive and a 13-in-1 card reader, and the Powermate will even charge USB devices when it's turned off.

Driving things along is an AMD Turion 64 X2 (1.6GHZ) processor with 2GB of RAM (expandable to 4GB) and a 200GB hard drive. An ATI Radeon X1200 card handles graphics.

Wi-fi 802.11b/g is provided along with Gigabit Ethernet, four USB ports and a Firewire port. Weight is 4kg.

The Powermate and other NEC desktops and laptops are available from Noel Leeming, JB Hi-Fi and Warehouse Stationery.