HP TouchSmart 300-1125 All-in-One PC (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I just purchased this computer from Amazon and received it quickly. The computer itself is surprisingly solid (and heavy), but also very slim and visually appealing. It's a very sleek looking computer. Think of it looking like a black Mac computer. The speakers are on the front of the computer and there's a webcam at the top. Now, about the touch screen: It's amazing! Although I've used touchscreens with XP before, it never seemed to be very smooth. Windows 7 is the first operating system use a native touch screen feature and it works very well. You can navigate around the screen like an ipad. So for those of you accustomed to zooming in and out, scrolling and clicking, this works very much like those. This feature is particularly nice when looking at pictures of reading news articles online. It's neat to scroll through pictures with your fingers and you can rotate the pictures too. Your computer instantly becomes a good ereader. I have a tendency to stand at my computer (so I am not sitting all day) and this computer works well to accommodate that too.
There's very little to set up for the first time and it's VERY easy. There are no cables! The only cable is for the ac and if you're like me, a wired ethernet connection (but this computer does have wireless b/g/n.
It's nice that HP includes the sleek, black, wireless mouse/keyboard to use. When you want to use them for the first time, just pull out the battery paper and press connect. Mine connected instantly. The keyboard keys are about as soft as a laptop's.
Microsoft (and computer companies) have tried desperately for years to make a computer seem like an entertainment device for use in the living room or kitchen, which is a contrast to the dull office and business-like settings that many computers are used for. For the first time, I feel like this computer actually would be complementary to the living room or kitchen and it would perform well there too. This has a built in tuner (though I haven't tried it yet) and HP advertises it as being friendly for reading recipes (there are even recipe apps). I never liked Vista much and Seven is very easy to navigate. I have not transferred files from my XP computer yet, so I'll report back when that it is accomplished.
I played sample video on the computer and a dvd and both look smooth and flawless. I tried to bog down the computer with running many things at once and it continued to work fine.
It is an energy star certified computer and after being on for a few hours already, the computer has almost no heat coming from the screen.
The only thing (so far) that I would like HP to have included would have been the wall mount. You can buy it separately on Amazon Wall Mount Adapter for Ts Vesa. Although it's on my desk, for standing up so much, I am thinking that it might be better if it were mounted on the wall a few inches higher than it is. My main critique so far is that HP should have made the whole screen height adjustable. It's not. It just sits at the same height. This should be a consideration for you if you buy a touchscreen, because as nice as it is, the touch screen will not be used if you sit far from the computer or it's at a strange height. Even though it's nice that the computer doesn't come loaded with lots of junk software that will expire in a month or so, I wish it had come with a trial of Microsoft Office or something. Until I install Office, I can't even open up a Word document in my email. The other option for buying Office is using Open Office [openoffice dot org], which is like Microsoft Office, but free (and it's legal too). It comes loaded with 30 [CORRECTION 60 ]days of Norton antivirus.
UPDATE: 8/23/10
I have been using this more and the more I use it, the more I like it. You have to practice a little bit with the touch feature to get accurate, but there is a way to change the setting, so you can make it "looser" and you don't have to be extremely precise in order to click on boxes, buttons, tabs, etc.
Windows Media Center: This integrates nicely with this computer (I hesitate to say machine since it's so elegant). A remote control is included and it works very nicely. It looks like a regular tv remote, but you can easily go through all your music, albums, etc, using it.
The only other downside I can see so far with this all in one (and others too) is that it's a little harder to upgrade it and/or repair it. However, this machine has 4gb of ram and it can be upgraded to 8gb. But except for that, you really can't upgrade it. I don't need a BluRay player, but it would have been nice for the drive to be one, so I'm prepared for the future. But I'm sure a year from now external bluray players will be relatively inexpensive. Since it's an HD screen, it does look very clear.
I also would like it to have an hdmi connection. It does include a tv tuner though.
UPDATE: 8/26/10
My worst nightmare for this computer has come true. Its speakers stopped working today! After speaking with HP (who had good/helpful tech support), it was determined that there is a hardware issue with my computer and...mine needs to be returned. Obviously, if speakers were not built into the monitor, it would be easy to replace the speakers, but not in this case. It's also true, that this is a very minor issue (in comparison to it have a serious problem); it's important enough though that for a computer that is less than a month old it should not be having. With the issue only being speakers, my belief in HP has not been shattered (yet), since this is my first HP computer (previous ones Dell/Toshiba). I mentioned earlier in the review that it's convenient for space to have an all in one, but if even ONE problem happens (bad speakers for example), then the whole computer needs to be fixed/taken in to be fixed. The more modular parts are then it's easier to fix. For example, it's convenient on a netbook if you have an external dvd drive and the drive breaks because you can just replace the drive and not the whole computer.
With that said, I am sad that this needs to be returned and I am thinking that I will probably give it another go and try the same computer again. I will need to contemplate it further, since these kinds of events can happen at random and I may have just been the person to have it.
With this current problem, I dropped my rating from five to four stars.
UPDATE: 8/29/10
I am happy to say that just as I was on the verge of returning this computer to Amazon, the speakers are now working again! I don't know what happened. I spoke to HP for some time the other day and they took over my computer remotely and it didn't work then either. They checked to be sure it wasn't muted and that the drivers and everything were updated. I have no idea. So I'm happy it's working again. It's unfortunate it is working after I deleted everything on it! Here's the easy way though to transfer everything from your XP computer to windows 7: just buy an external hard drive (I loved my seagate) and save everything on it. Plug it your windows 7 computer and install the backup software from the hard drive. Then just go into your hard drive and literally copy everything in it (just highlight My Documents and all the music/pics in it). When Windows 7 is transferring it to your new computer it will ask if you want the pictures to be put into Documents (which is the new name for My Documents) and Pictures (which is now separate from My Pictures which were part of My Documents before). Within twenty minutes, my whole 100 gb hard drive was transferred (might have been less time than that).
UPDATE: 9/23/10
The computer weighs around 22-25 pounds, so it's not a lightweight little thing. There are two usb ports on the right side and a memory card reader on the left. The card reader works great for quickly uploading pics. The screen is solid and some kind of plastic. So it's not soft like an lcd screen, but it's not glass either. The computer comes with a remote (which looks like a tv remote) and it's surprisingly nice to use. When using Windows media player, you can scroll through all of your albums, artists, etc., using the remote. The remote does not appear to work much for anything else (except Media Player). However, you can use it to adjust volume, which is handy if you're across the room or you use your computer as your main music player. You don't need another additional one from another company and install it since it's nice it's included here. One REALLY nice feature I like when using my computer though is to turn off the screen with the remote. Whenever you want to put the computer to sleep, just press power on the remote and the screen goes off instantly. When you move the mouse, the screen will come back on instantly too.
I have learned that there are certain things which are really nice for touching the screen with and other times it's less necessary. For example, when typing a document it's not practical to keep your hands on the keyboard and then lift them up to go to file, print, etc. However, touching the screen is very nice for visual activities, such as scrolling through your pictures, or looking for a file. It's also nice to use the the electronic keyboard that comes up on the screen (it sits on the side of the screen unobtrusively) and if you need to enter some numbers (say credit card numbers) it's easy to hold your card up to the screen and just type on the keyboard on the screen. There's no looking up and down at the keyboard for numbers or anything. I find it's easier to do this than just memorizing the physical keyboard's numbers (as I previously used). The touch screen feature is very accurate and you can adjust the sensitivity.
If you are considering the value of the touch screen feature, I recommend that you go to a store and see if you might like it or not.
I will update this review as I use this more.

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From the elegant design to the advanced features to the incredibly powerful suite of built-for-touch applications, the HP TouchSmart 300-1125 All-in-One Personal Computer redefines what touch can do for you - and what you can do with a touch. Use your fingers to immerse yourself into your work and play. With natural, intuitive movements everything you can do will be faster, easier, and way more fun.

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