HP announces new all-in-ones--with and without touch
HP's upcoming tablet is getting all the press, but the world's largest computer company still sells a few desktops too. Today it announced several models including a new all-in-one and updates to its existing TouchSmart all-in-one PCs.
The HP All-in-One 200t is a compact all-in-one based on a 21.5-inch (1920x1080) display. It starts at $700 with a 2.6GHz Pentium E5300 dual-core processor, 2GB of memory, Intel integrated graphics and a 500GB hard drive. That makes it $500 cheaper than Apple's 21.5-inch iMac, though the iMac has a faster Core 2 Duo, twice the memory and Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics. Both CNET and PCMag have posted reviews of the All-in-One 200t-5020.
HP's existing TouchSmart 600 23-inch all-in-one now offer Core i3 and Core i5 processors, as well as HP's upgraded "Beats Audio" and updated TouchSmart software. The AMD-based TouchSmart 300, with a 20-inch display, gets the updated software only. Despite a lot of posts that state otherwise, the TouchSmart 300 is not available (at least not now) with Intel Core i3 or Core i5 processors.
I've previously tried out the TouchSmart 300, and while no one this side of Apple has figured out how to do touch input really well, I think HP has done a better job than most. This updated version has some new touch applications including Corel PaintIt! and Roxio's CinemaNow movie rental service. Though the early impressions of the HP Slate have been mixed--largely because it is going head-to-head with Apple's iPad--the company's experience building touch-enabled consumer apps should give it a leg up on other companies planning Windows-based tablets.
The TouchSmart 300z starts at $800 with a 2.7GHz AMD Athlon II 235e dual-core processor, 2GB of memory, ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics and a 320GB hard drive. The TouchSmart 600t is $1,100 with a 2.13GHz Core i3-330M dual-core, 4GB of memory, Intel HD integrated graphics and a 500GB hard drive. All of these all-in-ones are available now.
In addition to these, HP announced a new compact business desktop, the HP Compaq 6005 Pro Ultra Slim, which is based on the AMD Vision Pro platform with ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics. It starts at around $600 and will be available beginning April 26.