“It’s the base model of this all-in-one that appears out of the night sky to save our luxury 520 from itself.”
Avg
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Robust build quality
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Excellent 1080p display
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Excellent sound quality
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Well designed touch software
Against
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Checked expensive
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Poor performance of discrete graphics
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No HDMI output
All-in-ones are often frowned upon by geeks, but they are a segment of traditional desktop PCs that are gaining attention as old-fashioned towers fade from the limelight.
The reasons for this are not difficult to understand. All-in-one computers are far more attractive and easier to manage. Most of them ask you to do nothing more than turn on the power and leave. You can connect to peripherals and the Internet via Wi-Fi. Desktops can do the same, of course – but features like Wi-Fi cards are often an optional extra with sometimes spotty reception.
Touch screens are another defining feature of many products in this segment. It’s certainly a defining feature of the TouchSmart 520 – so much so that it’s part of the brand. HP was one of the first to introduce luxury, thin all-in-ones with touchscreens, and the company hasn’t let up on the gas pedal.
We reviewed the HP TouchSmart 610 late last year and generally liked it, but found it expensive enough to be impractical for some buyers. The HP TouchSmart 520 seems intended to create a package that’s a bit more palatable without sacrificing premium features or performance.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The cheapest version, called the 520z, is powered by an AMD Fusion processor and starts at $799. Our review unit is the most expensive Intel-powered version, starting at $899.99 with a Core i3 processor and integrated graphics. We got a few upgrades including a Core i7-2600S processor, 8GB of RAM and Radeon HD6450 graphics, not to mention a 2TB hard drive and a Blu-ray/DVD combo optical drive.
With all these features, the TouchSmart 520 costs $1,540. It happens to be in the same area as the TouchSmart 610 and 620, which could complicate things.
Thick plastic
The TouchSmart 520 costs less than the 610 and 620, but it looks a little more expensive thanks to the base, which is made of heavy plastic and metal, and coated in silver-grey. You won’t find a “magic hinge” here, meaning you can’t slide the entire screen forward for easy touch use – but you can still tilt it forward and back slightly. The available 30 degree range of motion will be acceptable for many users.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Matte plastic surrounds the screen and the back of the computer. That’s a good choice. The plastic doesn’t feel cheap and fingerprints are easily prevented. Our only aesthetic gripe is the strip of silver plastic that borders the entire screen, including the top. There’s nothing wrong with the quality of the material, but the way it’s used suggests that the trim should be metallic. Using plastic feels wrong, as if you discovered that the wood floors in the home were actually painted with vinyl.
HDMI output is still missing
The connectivity options are significant. On the left side of the computer, you’ll find two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, and individual headphone and microphone jacks. At the back there are five additional USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet and several audio ports including a subwoofer output. On the right side you will find the HDMI input. Our model also had a cable socket for input to the computer’s TV tuner.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The only major omission is the HDMI output. We get it — this is primarily intended as a computer that you’ll be connecting sources to, not one that will be used as a source. But people don’t always use the products as the engineers intended, and the lack of HDMI disables many possibilities. For example, you will never be able to use this computer with an external display.
Feel free to tap
Touch this PC’s screen and you’ll find an experience that’s identical to that of other TouchSmart PCs. You can quickly access icons and menu items with a quick tap of your finger, and while drop-down menus and other minor interface elements can be a pain to navigate, the overall experience is as good as you’ll find on a Windows 7 PC.
With that said, you will really use the touch function less than you expect. It’s just not convenient to wave your hands around the screen when you can use a keyboard and mouse instead. Fortunately, the peripherals included in the TouchSmart 520 are more than sufficient. We leaned back and browsed the web thanks to the light, wireless keyboard and wireless mouse. The key feel is poor and the mouse only has two buttons, but no one buys this laptop for serious productivity.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Our review unit comes with a remote control. It’s designed to work with Windows Media Center and, like a touchscreen, works as well as Windows will allow. The remote control lights up only when used in conjunction with a DVD/Blu-ray or TV tuner. In these situations, it stops being a nice addition and starts to feel like a necessity.
Optimized for movies
All TouchSmart 520 models come with a 23-inch display that offers full 1080p resolution. It’s covered in a glossy finish that only reinforces the already obvious focus of the computer on media content rather than productivity. Trying to type for more than a few minutes at a time can be difficult due to glare. We also noticed that fine text looks a bit blurry.
Watching a movie in high definition quickly clears up any concerns about brightness. Even 720p content stretched across the screen looks fantastic — true 1080p content is extremely sharp. Like the TouchSmart 610, this computer is built to double as a TV. Black levels are deep, contrast is high, and colors “pop” in a way that is only possible thanks to a high-quality glossy panel.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The Beats Audio brand audio system is also ready to use as a TV replacement. As usual, the lack of a proper stereo scene robs your experience of depth, but everything else is impressive. The maximum volume is more than enough to fill a bedroom or office, and there is enough bass to confirm the low tones of music, although it is still far from real sound.
Basic software
One of the strengths that has helped HP stand out from other touchscreen MFPs is the special touch-centric software designed for the TouchSmart line. We saw the last incarnation of this in the 610 and loved it. This computer comes with a new version and it’s even better.
The main advantage is the integration into the Windows desktop environment. Previously, HP’s touch interface took over the entire screen. It was like having two separate desktops on the same computer. With this redesign, HP is now turning your desktop into a more touch-friendly version. All your desktop icons turn into big, fat buttons, but the Windows taskbar remains accessible. Post-it notes and touch-friendly apps that were previously part of the package are also available.
With this interface, HP manages to overcome most of the traditional shortcomings of Windows multi-touch support, but it is still not perfect. There is lag, especially when scrolling.
Otherwise, the supplied software is silly and often self-serving. One pre-installed shortcut directs users to HP games, while the other directs you to the webOS page. It’s a scatterbrained approach that shows someone at HP still doesn’t understand that the product consumers are paying for is not an advertising platform.
Laptop performance
Our review unit arrived with the fastest processor available on this computer, the Core i7-2600S. You might think the “S” stands for “sport” or “special” or some other performance-enhancing term, but it actually stands for efficiency. This component has a maximum consumption of 65 watts, which is much lower than the 95 watts of the normal Core i7-2600.
To cut through the mumbo-jumbo, this means the processor is built for use in smaller, thinner systems without the cooling needed to handle a full Core i7. In exchange, it is slower.
This is reflected in the base clock speed, which is only 2.8 GHz compared to the 3.4 GHz of the standard Core i7-2600. We noticed this shortcoming immediately in SiSoft Sandra’s Procssor Arithmetic benchmark, where the TouchSmart 520 achieved a combined score of 83.53 GOPS. That’s well below the 123.58 GOPS score managed by the Maingear Vybe, and only slightly faster than what you’d get from a quad-core laptop processor like the Core i7-2630QM.
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7-Zip returned a score of 16,670, which is once again far below a normal desktop system and only slightly faster than a modern quad-core Intel laptop processor.
More general testing with PCMark 7 yielded a score of 2539. That’s still below what you’d get from a high-end tower desktop, and only slightly better than a fast laptop with a mechanical hard drive.
Using 3DMark 06 to test the graphics resulted in a score of 4,087. That’s about on par with what Intel Integrated normally provides. At least the Radeon supports DirectX 11, which means we were able to run 3DMark 11. It returned a score of 553. These tests show that the TouchSmart 520 can only handle new 3D games at low detail settings.
Of course, buyers should keep in mind that you won’t generally find better performance than any other all-in-one. Sony’s L series, for example, doesn’t even bother with desktop parts and instead jumps straight to the same Intel processors found in modern laptops.
Conclusion
It is not unusual for manufacturers to send us a high-end model representing their product. Unfortunately, by doing so, they sometimes price themselves out of the competition. That’s what happened here.
As configured, the HP TouchSmart 520 is hard to justify. If you’re going to spend $1,500 on an all-in-one, you might want to go with the TouchSmart 610 or 620. Besides, spending that much to upgrade an all-in-one doesn’t make sense. If gaming or processor performance is a priority, you should buy a high-end computer.
It’s the base model of this all-in-one that appears out of the night sky to save our luxury 520 from itself. Currently, Amazon is trading that $788 version. Yes, it has a Pentium processor, 4GB of RAM and integrated graphics, but who cares? It’s perfectly suited for the kind of use this type of product receives – and you still get the same software, the same fantastic display and the same build quality.
High:
- Robust build quality
- Excellent 1080p display
- Excellent sound quality
- Well designed touch software
Lowest values:
- Checked expensive
- Poor performance of discrete graphics
- No HDMI output
Editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn