This chunky all-in-one PC offers great potential for entertainment and office productivity. Although the HP TouchSmart’s 23in screen is no larger than that of the competition, its chassis is much thicker, at 103mm. A black soundbar below the screen only adds to its bulk.
Input is via the touchscreen or a wireless keyboard and mouse; you also get a handy remote control. We like the way you can tilt the display by 45 degrees. This reduces the arm fatigue that often results from prolonged use of a touchscreen.
With its size also comes a sturdy build, and the HP feels relatively robust in use. It’ll make an ideal family PC if you have young kids crashing around the house, while teenagers will appreciate HP’s proprietary Beats Audio-branded speakers. These deliver crisp highs and mids, and excellent bass for their size. A slot-loading Blu-ray drive completes the HP’s home-entertainment credentials.
The TouchSmart Pro combines a first-generation Intel Core i5-650 processor running at 3.2GHz with 6GB of DDR3 memory and a 1.5TB hard drive. This meaty specification resulted in a 122-point tally in our WorldBench 6 speed test. It’s a good score but significantly lower than the Apple iMac’s 139, which uses a second-generation i5 chip.
HP’s bundled software is very good, and includes programs that make great use of the PC’s touch input when working with photos.
The TouchSmart’s AMD Radeon HD 5570 graphics card isn’t particularly powerful. It has 1GB of video memory, and performs acceptably at lower resolutions and in older games – we recorded 72fps in the five-year-old Fear at ‘Maximum’ detail. Stalker: Call of Pripyat proved more of a challenge for the HP; we saw 36 and 22fps at its ‘Medium’ and ‘Ultra’ settings respectively.
The HP includes two USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports, plus two HDMI connections and a multiformat card reader.
Comments
Sarah said: Hi I just wondered how effective these all-in-one touch screen PCs are if you want to get started in digital drawing and animation They certainly look better than non LCD based Wacom tablets Do you have any suggestions for me pls