Why You Can Trust CNET HP TouchSmart IQ528a review: HP TouchSmart IQ528a
HP's TouchSmart series still works well as an all-in-one solution, but seems to be on auto-pilot at the moment due to a lack of innovation. Here's hoping Windows 7 gives it the injection it needs.
Design and features
HP's TouchSmart IQ528a is for all intents and purposes an internal refresh of the last one — and as such falls prey to the same issues. It's still great as an all-purpose, all-in-one PC, but is frustrating in that the touch interface isn't exploited as well as it could be.
HP TouchSmart IQ528a
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The unit itself is attractively designed in piano black with silver trimmings while a speaker bar lines the bottom. The power button, volume controls, FireWire port and DVD+-RW can be found on the right, while two USB ports, a headphone jack and a microphone jack can be found on the left. Peel off a cover on the left rear, and three extra USB ports are exposed as well as gigabit Ethernet, SPDIF, 3.5mm audio in and out jacks, S-Video in, an aerial jack and an IR out jack that lets you use the excellent bundled Windows Media Center remote. Though, it's not needed so long as you have line of sight to your PC; in our tests the remote performed extremely well even up to 10 metres away. Nonetheless, should you want to extend your coverage, the option is there.
The only input on the rear is for the power brick (which is huge), and above this the panel itself is propped up by a silver stand. As a result, the 22-inch, 1680x1050 screen, with its centrally located webcam dominates, and gives a feeling that this is more a media unit than a PC.
The wireless keyboard is still good, but as a wireless unit, it's frustrating that the keyboard itself doesn't show if it's connected (other than by just typing). This drags out trouble-shooting tasks, making it difficult to determine if you're having a battery or a connection issue. On the flip side, HP's tray software helpfully tells you how much charge is left in the included wireless keyboard and mouse — unfortunately, it does this even when they're disconnected. The mouse is simple but pleasant to use; this is important, as despite HP's touch focus, you'll be using it a lot to do your day-to-day Windows tasks.
The speakers are still excellent for their size, providing satisfying bass while not obliterating the top end. It's not going to replace your entertainment unit, but would certainly make an excellent second TV if needed, as it contains a digital TV tuner. Sadly this is only a single tuner, so you cannot record a program while watching another.
While most of the hardware has remained the same, gone is the white light under the screen, which handily lit your keyboard; considering that the TouchSmart may be used as a media-focused PC in the dark, this is a sad loss.
HP's TouchSmart software remains the same, and is consequently really starting to show its age with the token multitouch support and laggy interface. It's still fun to use, but we're starting to get the feeling HP is simply waiting for Windows 7 to fill in the touch gaps for them, because far too much still relies on switching back into Vista as a host OS. HP's TouchSmart calibration tool is also hidden away in the control panel and not installed in the Start menu, which some people may find hard to discover. It allows you to calibrate the screen, and turn off the beep noises it makes when a finger makes contact.
Vista Home Premium 64-bit is still the OS of choice, which allows the TouchSmart IQ528a to properly use its installed 4GB RAM. This is complemented with an Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 at 2.2GHz, 500GB hard drive and a GeForce 9300M GS, making it capable of mild gaming tasks, but potentially best kept to day-to-day office tasks or media purposes.
Performance
The TouchSmart worked well by and large, with the only point of contention being the general responsiveness and laggy TouchSmart interface itself. In a post-iPhone wor1d, it's all sadly beginning to look a little old hat. Firing up 3DMark06 scored the IQ528a 1990, indicating that while it could run older games, it's better left for AV entertainment and office productivity. PCMark05 sadly refused to run on the 64-bit operating system.
HP's TouchSmart series still works well as an all-in-one solution, but seems to be on auto-pilot at the moment due to a lack of innovation. Here's hoping Windows 7 gives it the injection it needs.