HP All-in-One 200-5020 review: HP All-in-One 200-5020

HP's Pavilion All-in-One 200-5020 hits the shelves at a time when most of HP's primary competition is still working through legacy inventory. That makes this $779 PC seem relatively impressive at a slow time in the PC market. We expect Intel's new Core i3 and Core i5 CPUs will make their way to the affordable all-in-one market later this year, at which point a Pentium Dual Core-based all-in-one like this one could seem out of date. For those of you disinclined to wait, you will find HP's new all-in-one fast and relatively capable, although you might wish for a few more connectivity options.

7.3

HP All-in-One 200-5020

The Good

One of the fastest sub-$1,000 all-in-ones we've tested; 1080p display and video playback capability to match.

The Bad

Unimaginative connectivity options.

The Bottom Line

HP's new Pavilion All-in-One 200-5020 might not be the most innovative PC around, but it has the performance and features where it counts. Unless you demand a touch screen, or you have some other niche demand, this PC will satisfy all of your light-duty home entertainment and productivity needs.

We last checked in with HP's non-touch-based all-in-ones in January with the $599 Pavilion All-in-One MS225. You wouldn't be far off in describing the Pavilion All-in-One 200-5020 as the step-up model. Although the 21.5-inch screen in the new system is not touch-sensitive like HP's TouchSmart line, it boasts resolutions up to 1,920x1,080 pixels, which means it can support full 1080p video resolution. Throw in the 802.11n wireless connection, the DVD burner, and reasonably capable speakers, and without too much trouble you can imagine the Pavilion All-in-One 200-5020 as a standalone digital entertainment kiosk in a dorm room, a kitchen, a den, or some other smallish space.

Comparing the Pavilion All-In-One 200-5020 with other all-in-ones is a little tricky given that we've seen few others in its price range lately. Lenovo's IdeaCentre A600 from May 2009 could work, but given its age, we thought the Acer Aspire Z5610 from December 2009 would be a better choice.

The Acer system has a larger screen and a better graphics chip than the HP, but the HP makes up for it somewhat with a larger hard drive and a faster CPU. The faster CPU has a noticeable performance impact, as you can see from our charts, but given the Acer's larger screen, we'll call this features match-up a wash. The HP offers a fair deal given its specs.

Cinebench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering Multiple CPUs

Rendering Single CPU

HP Pavilion All-in-One 200-5020

6,101 

3,203 

Acer Aspire Z5610

5,446 

2,976 

Gateway One ZX4800-02

4,525 

2,397 

Lenovo IdeaCentre A600

3,571 

1,967 

HP Pavilion All-in-One MS225

3,504 

1,810 

HP scores a more decisive win with this system's performance. In short, the Pavilion All-In-One 200-5020 is one of the fastest sub-$1,000 all-in-ones we've tested. That doesn't mean we'd recommend this PC for serious multimedia editing tasks. Its lack of a dedicated GPU combined with its relatively outdated CPU would lose out to almost any $500 midtower desktop. Choosing from among all-in-ones, you might hesitate because you can get a larger screen for a little more money, but you shouldn't worry about this HP's capability to handle day-to-day productivity.

We were also happy with this PC's capability to play video from around the Web. We tried content from Hulu, Netflix, YouTube (at both standard and high-definition), as well as QuickTime HD trailers from Apple's Web site, which tend to be the most challenging. We noticed perhaps a bit of slowdown with the QuickTime files, but not to an intolerable degree, especially for shorter videos. Overall, we expect all but the most demanding videophiles will be happy with the Pavilion's video capabilities.

If we have any major criticisms of the Pavilion All-In-One 200-5020 it's that its connectivity options are relatively limited. For audio, you get headphone and microphone jacks on the left edge, and a single line-out jack on the back, all of which are analog connections. There are no separate video inputs or outputs, so forget about connecting a game console or cable box via HDMI. You also get only five USB 2.0 ports for external devices; FireWire and eSATA are both absent. A media card reader, an Ethernet jack, a Webcam, and dedicated brightness control buttons make up the rest of the external features. We'll grant that most people will be satisfied with what they find here, but a little more imagination from HP wouldn't hurt, either.

Juice box
HP Pavilion All-in-One 200-5020
Off (watts)	0.7
Sleep (watts)	1.38
Idle (watts)	47.54
Load (watts)	82.97
Raw (annual kWh)	186.07554
EnergyStar compliant	Yes
Annual operating cost (@$0.1135/kWh)	$21.12

A minor downside to the Pavilion's fast performance is its power consumption. At roughly $21.12 in power costs-per-year, it shouldn't impact your finances too badly, and it's not that far out-of-whack compared with the Acer all-in-one, but there's no escaping the fact that the HP demands the most power of any recent sub-$1,000 all-in-one. Perhaps to make up for the slight uptick in power draw, HP informs us that this system has a new mercury-free display, and a few of the components have been purged of harmful BFR (brominated flame-retardant) and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) chemicals.

HP's service and support matches that of the industry-standard one-year warranty coverage/24-7 toll-free phone service. HP's Web site also has a bunch of useful features, from FAQs, driver and manual downloads, as well as support chat. The system itself also comes with a few diagnostic tools, although you'll have to sort them out from the trial offers and crapware icons.

Find out more about how we test desktop systems.

System configurations:
Acer Aspire Z5610
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300; 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570; 320GB 5,400rpm Seagate hard drive

Gateway ZX4800-02
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.1GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 32MB (shread) Intel GMA 450M integrated graphics chip; 750GB 5,400rpm Seagate hard drive

HP Pavilion All-in-One 200-5020
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.7GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400; 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 64MB (shared) Intel GMA X4500 integrated graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm Seagate hard drive

HP Pavilion All-in-One MS225
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 1.6GHz AMD Athlon II X2 250; 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 256MB (shread) AMD Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics chip; 320GB 7,200 rpm Seagate hard drive

Lenovo IdeaCentre A600
32-bit Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 2.0Ghz Intel Dual Core T4200; 3GB 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 32MB (shared) Intel GMA 45 integrated graphics chip; 500GB 7,200rpm Western Digital hard drive