HP Touchsmart IQ522UK

HP’s Touchsmart IQ series is a collection of all-in-one PCs with touch-sensitive screens.

The IQ522UK that we’re looking at here is the entry-level system, although calling something with a £1,000 price tag 'entry level' is stretching things.

That said, this computer will however certainly impress the neighbours, although if you really want to impress people the IQ522’s bigger brother the IQ820 has a stunning 26in screen.

At the heart of the IQ522 is an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 dual-core processor which is backed by 4GB of memory. Both of these give performance good enough for all the everyday PC chores such as email and web browsing without any problems and for more intensive tasks such as photo and video editing. It’s not much of a gaming computer, however.

It is loaded with the Windows Vista Home Premium operating system, and it’s a 64-bit version that can make full use of all 4GB of memory. Some older programs and hardware won’t work with the 64-bit operating system, so if you have older products you’ll want to use with the new computer, check with their manufacturers first.

Although the specifications of the IQ522UK are about par for a computer at this price, the undoubted star of the show is the screen. The 22in widescreen display has a resolution of 1,680x1,050 pixels and is bright and crystal-clear.

The Touchsmart technology used by the screen is one of the better ways to enable touch-usage, and we found the IQ522UK easy to use after just a few minutes of figuring it out. Tapping an icon on the screen immediately opens it, and if you leave a finger on the screen for a few seconds a circle appears indicating that the right-mouse-button options are available. This is a great idea as there’s no need to second guess whether the screen has recognised the finger-press. Just as good was the on-screen keyboard which was very responsive and tucked away neatly at the side of the screen when not in use.

For storage there is a fast 320GB hard disk, a bit small by modern standards, as well as a DVD burner and memory card reader. It works with wired and wireless networks and Bluetooth, and there’s a Freeview TV tuner, which works well with the built-in Windows Media Center software, allowing you to record and time-shift shows.

With its top-notch screen and good processing power, this is a great entertainment PC, and while the price may seem a little high, it looks great and delivers value.