HP Touchsmart 520-1130ea review

The TouchSmart has a 1TB hard disk, which means you won’t have to rely on external storage, but it’s always nice to have the option. Although it lacks eSATA support, the system is fairly well equipped with four USB ports and two USB3 ports. There’s also a memory card reader that can handle SHXC, xD and Memory Stick formats.

It’s good to see easy-to-reach USB3 ports on the side of this all-in-one.

The Beats Audio-branded integrated speakers provide more volume and more resonant bass than you’ll hear from many rival all-in-one PCs, but the treble is rather tinny and underpowered. There’s no scope to connect a 5.1 set unless you attach an external sound card, but it has 3.5mm microphone and headphone ports, as well as specialised connectors for combined Beats microphone headphone connectors and compatible standalone subwoofers.

The ambidextrous mouse fitted our hand particularly well, even though it doesn’t have much obvious ergonomic engineering, and the keyboard is pretty decent too. The PC’s chassis is well built and can be tilted back and forth to accommodate a wide range of angles, but it doesn’t swivel.

Probably our least favourite element of the system is HP’s touchscreen software, which provides an alternative interface with scrolling screens and widget bars. This isn’t particularly useful, and we were also irritated to find that the scrolling virtual desktops sometimes left our windows inaccessible when we returned to a standard Windows desktop view. You can use the TouchSmart Magic suite to access movies and media, but it’ll be more of a redundant gadget than a killer feature for most users.

Ultimately, this isn’t an amazing PC. It isn’t particularly powerful and it isn’t particularly cheap, but nevertheless, this is a well-made and attractive family PC.