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Video Feature: Hands-On with the HP TouchSmart IQ500 PC

Author	Andy Vandervell
Published	13th Jun 2008

Video Feature: Hands-On with the HP TouchSmart IQ500 PC

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‘Digital Home' and ‘Connected Living' are sound bites that are bandied about with relative abandon these days, normally accompanied by their spiritual cousins ‘leverage' and ‘synergy'. Their meaning is easily lost through the cacophony of marketing that surrounds them, but all it's really about is IT companies like HP breaking out of its traditional constraints and becoming the centre of technology in the home.

HP's showcase ‘Connecting Your World' event this week had exactly this as its theme and the star of the show was undoubtedly its latest TouchSmart PC. We looked at its previous effort, the IQ770, in May last year and though it impressed, it was clear HP still had some work to do in order to convince people that a touch sensitive PC was what they wanted/needed in their kitchens and living rooms. Is the new version, the IQ500, the answer?

In terms of design it's a definitive step in the right direction. Though the IQ770 was impressive in many respects, it was still a fairly bulky machine. This new version addresses this problem, housing the main components within the screen itself, rather than the base, and creating a far slimmer, more attractive and living room friendly machine in the process. In essence it has embraced the approach of the Apple iMacs and other all-in-one PCs and it's much the better for it.

Indeed, HP has long been a strong design company and the IQ500, or TouchSmart 2 if you like, looks the business. Standing on two clear plastic legs with a larger tilting stand at the back it has an enviable simplicity that should lend itself to any environment. A nice slim glossy black bezel and near button-less front fascia only accentuate this point, while the 22in diagonal size is just about right, proving neither too large or small.

Hidden around the edges and the back is a wealth of connectivity, too. On the left edge are a couple of easily accessible USB ports, along with headphone and microphone jacks. These are joined by a button that (de)activates the ambient light that emanates from below the screen to light up the keyboard. It's a nice touch, though a backlit keyboard would have been even better.

Not that there's anything wrong with the provided keyboard. It's slim, nicely arranged and from my brief time with it felt good to type on. Naturally it is wireless, too, as is the mouse, while a remote control will be included as well for long distance operation.

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Ian said on 27th June 2008

I have a home constructed touchscreen installed in my kitcchen. I thought hard about HP's first generation product last year but the design was a bit ugly to be fair. This sec... more

Webo said on 21st November 2008

This product could have been so great. instead it have a GIGANTIC error.

It's a completly reverse from HP. They launch the Smartmedia server EX475 for home users and that is a absolutely perfect product (when you upgrade memory and cpu) and the reason is that we should not worry about our files as they are protected and also the computers are protected. But the other reason for getting the Mediasmart WHS is to have alla the files in one place and not scattred all over on diffrent computers. That is such a good idea. one place for all and all can access and use the pictures, music, movies and so on. And i Vista you can change the path for pictures, music, movies and so on an point them to the shared folders on the Mediasmart server. Works great.

This is where HP has turned around. The Touchsmart program is only designed to use local files. You can't access files from other computers not Touchsmart program. You can access the files from Windows. So if you point your folder to a WHS then you can't access them from within Touchsmart.

There is a work around. You can install iTunes and use the iTune libary instead of the Touchsmart libary.

I have talked to the US support (chat) and they just say "we do no say that it work with media that is on other places than the Touchsmart pc. We have also not stated that in our commercials for Touchsmart PC's"

We as users have no idea that they go the oppersit way that their other produstc and ideas and also the normal standard that alla other are working from, that media should be shared and access from all products for media files.

It would be the same as Ferrari make a new model and call it F1 and everything is like all the others. Just one problem, when you start driving it's just able to drive in max 30 mph even if the speedometer say alot more.

What a huge blunder they have done. I just hope that we all help spreading this information so the buyers know what they buy and that the diffrent HP offices communicate so we don't ever see a problem like this again. they surely have to fix the problem fast if they want people to buy this product.

This product could have been so great. instead it have a GIGANTIC error.

It's a completly reverse from HP. They launch the Smartmedia server EX475 for home user... more

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