It’s holiday season and you must be confused between so many alternatives to choose as a gift for your family. HP and Microsoft have made it easy for you with their new All-In-One HP TouchSmart 520. With its HD capabilities and unique Interface, its must have PC for your family. Sitting lazily on a couch and enjoying movies, music and video chats on 23-inch display of TouchSmart 520 is heavenly experience for all members in family. However, as nothing is perfect, HP TouchSmart 520 has some cons. Read more below to find out if this PC can be your best holiday gift.
Technical Specifications of HP TouchSmart 520
- Processor: Intel Core i3-2310 processor
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
- Display: Full HD 23 inch display (1920 x 1080) (All-IN-One)
- RAM: 4 GB
- Storage: 1 TB HDD
- Graphics: Intel UMA Graphics
- Dimension: 580 x 457 x 217 mm
- Weight: 25.7 pounds
Review of HP TouchSmart 520
All-in-one’s are popular as living room gadgets for their lesser size consumption. However, TouchSmart 520 is an exception to it, with its 580 mm width. There is an option of hanging it on a wall, but the weight could be a deterrent. A ‘black and thick plastic bezel around the screen, that is rested on a silver-colored stand’ - is how one can describe HP TouchSmart 520. There is nothing much about the design to talk about, as HP has kept it quite simple.
Ports including USB 3.0 port reside on either sides of monitor. The back houses different inputs and holes for fan that are covered in black plastic. Screen orientation can be adjusted by pushing or pulling it back and forth.
The Touchscreen Interface is what separates TouchSmart 520 from other AIOs in market. However, touchscreen is not that responsive to play with. It works fine when you are moving something from a folder to desktops or while creating drawings in Microsoft Paint, but when precision and accuracy are needed, the screen offers a disappointing experience. Using on-screen touch keyboard is also irksome. The touchscreen even catches fingerprints so its advisable to keep it away from kids with hands full of chocolate.
To overcome this touch difficulty, HP has offered a software named Magic Canvas. This software is whole desktop in itself where you can drag and drop photos, videos or even create notes. Large icons are provided for the tasks to be performed and thus using Magic Canvas is that much more fun. The Display offers a mind-blasting resolution of 1920 x 1080 and thus watching HD content stored in the massive hard drive of HP TouchSmart is awesome experience.
The Colors of the display are not too vivid but it doesn’t interfere with excitement of movies. It also has a Blu-Ray DVD burner if you want to make a collection of Blu-Ray movies.
HP TouchSmart 520 is accompanied with Wireless Keyboard and Mouse for moments when touchscreen does not suit you. The keyboard is slim and easy to work on. Flat keys allow fast typing without any mistakes. However, the accompanying mouse is shinier than it should be, making it look cheap and unprofessional. You can check out one of Microsoft’s ergonomically designed Mouse to replace the one offered with TouchSmart.
The Beats Audio support with TouchSmart is set to thrill your audio senses with its excellent performance. It enhances movie watching experience adding more fun and thrill.
Though the hardware configuration of TouchSmart is not out-of-the-box, it is capable for running usual applications and provide excellent web experience. Multi-tasking support of processor is quite good and the AIO doesn’t slow down at any instant. Instead of external graphic support, TouchSmart uses in-built graphics that are not much suited for playing graphic-eating and 3D games.
Price of HP TouchSmart 520
HP TouchSmart is available at the cost of $749. You can buy it from Microsoft or HP or any third-party online retailer. With its configuration and features, its not an high-end machine but a perfect fit to efficiently use that empty space on your table in living room.
