This is an impressive looking piece of equipment, one of the largest keyboards I've seen.

The keys themselves have top quality switches with flat-topped square plastic pads. At the moment, the legends are stick-on labels with larger than usual writing, very bright and easy to read, but the company tell me they are considering having them specially printed on the plastic.

A keypad is included on the right of the main board and a single entry full stop key has been added to it making numerical data entry easier. The main keys have a full-sized space bar, double-sized ENTER key, yellow caps shift and two extra of these keys, and extra cursor keys in bright green pairs at each side of the bottom of the keyboard. These keys have a very positive feel but tended to catch if not pressed centrally.

A hole in the top right of the case allows the power pack to be held inside the case and making for a much neater, more compact unit. The front of the case is angled and this makes it comfortable to use as it is just right for resting your wrists on when typing.

To install your Spectrum, you remove the top of its case, place it in position in the new case, screw down the two halves of the case together. An Interface 1 can also be included in the case.

When tightening one of the retaining clips, a small chip of fibreglass broke off and the screw would not grip and so the Spectrum base was left to wallow around inside the case.

Mancomp told me that it had found favour among teachers and so I tested it in a school where the pupils were very computer-orientated and used to handling this kind of equipment.

Perhaps I had a faulty keyboard and maybe it was coincidence but on Tuesday it was installed, Thursday the keys started falling off and on Friday the Spectrum died. End of test, end of Spectrum, end of review.