HP TouchSmart 610 touchscreen all-in-one PC

Quite literally, laid back

Tue 12 Jul 2011 // 12:00 UTC

Rat trap

The only drawback is the fiddly action of pushing the display down. I would have loved the movement to be smooth and sexy, but it was more like grope and hump. Surely this will get easier with practice but I found myself standing up every time I wanted to angle the display, possibly to get better leverage, which in the Dabbs household is usually a good sign that I will eventually break it.

Change the angle of the webcam with this wheel. You’ll need this if you keep changing the angle of the display

On a more positive note, the Beats audio (the bass-thumping technology from Dr Dre) works well, and the TouchSmart 610 sounds good through standard headphones and external speakers too. Even the built-in speakers are impressively beefy.

On a final word of warning, the TouchSmart is supplied with one of the biggest ‘dead rat’ transformer blocks I have seen on an external power supply in recent years, and the cable leading from the block to the computer is a little bit too short for my liking. Unless you place the computer right at the back of your desk, you may have to choose between having the huge power block also sitting on your desk or have it hanging underneath, not quite resting on the floor.

The display doesn’t just lean back, it virtually prostrates itself

Verdict

By all rights, I ought to be singing my adoration of this updated HP TouchSmart. It is clearly an improvement on the original 600, with its extreme display angle adjustment, and good audio quality. The touchscreen is exceptional too. However, this time round, my enthusiasm is tempered by the benchmark results, which strike me as worryingly average for a £1200 computer, no matter how smart it is. ®