A 23-inch wide screen, 16:9 aspect ratio and wall mountable. If you think we are talking about a TV, we are not, and frankly it’s something you might end up liking better!
 A refreshing deviation from HP’s usual line, the HP TouchSmart 600 is the more endowed sibling of the TouchSmart 300 and what the world now calls an ‘all-in-one’ PC.

First Impressions

Sleek and seamless, the HP TouchSmart is going the minimalist, uncluttered way (like Apple) with this desktop. The new HP ‘TouchSmart 600 1060IN’ is teamed with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Plug in the power cord - the only cord that comes with the set - and you are good to go.
 There’s very little in the build that’ll give away the fact that it’s a PC. But then you hit the discreet Power button at the top of the right hand side panel, and Windows 7 pops up. Behind the Power button on the right is the slot load DVD writer. Two at the side and three in the rear make a total of 5 USB ports, giving you ample choices to be connected.
 Apart from the headphone and mic slots, the TS600 1060IN also comes with an Ethernet port, an audio line out, video in, an IR slot for TV set top box connection and a Kensington lock slot. It also comes with a Windows Media Center-compatible multimedia remote.
 The desktop we received for review powered on quite fast, although we must mention that it did not come with too many apps; only those that were pre-installed and that includes Windows Works.

Touch and feel

We are quite used to touchscreens in mobile phones by now, but are yet to get used to the idea of having one on a desktop. So, you first try to use the mouse and the keyboard and sometime later you realise that it’s a touchscreen and you have all the liberty to play around with it.
 The screen is glossy and, at first, you gingerly touch the screen lest it gets scratched or damaged. But this screen is scratch-resistant so you can lay your fears to rest.
 However, the screen was not as responsive as we expected it to be. It requires a firm poke while trying to touch-control smaller areas such as the close or minimise buttons when a window is open.
 We tried to maximise and minimise a few windows, but after a few vigorous pokes, we resorted to the good ol’ mouse. The touch response became worse if there were too many applications, especially multimedia ones, open.
 This small niggle apart, the touch screen is a joy to work with when you are dealing with multi-media.
 You can flip through photos with quick swipes and zoom, or rotate photos in the Canvas application, which is included as part of the HP TouchSmart software, since the screen supports multi-touch. The TouchSmart software is customised for touch and you can keep fiddling with it without getting bored.

A peek inside

The HP TouchSmart 1060 has a Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz T6600 processor with an 800 MHz front side bus speed and a NVIDIA GeForce G200 Chipset. This is a top-end configuration, but on occasion the 1060 was disappointingly sluggish.
 We had to wait, sometimes for more than ten seconds for simple applications to respond. Sometimes it took so long that we wondered whether the application had crashed.
 The 1080p (1920×1080) HD screen boasts of HP BrightView technology, and lives up to the expectations. We tried playing a DVD and the screen came alive with brilliant colours and superior brightness. There was the occasional stutter when several applications were running in the background. We found that the picture was slightly grainy when viewed up close, like is the case when we work with a computer, but the grains were not apparent when viewed from a distance, as is the case when one is watching TV.
 The speakers are located and run on the underside, across the full length of the screen. For a computer, the sound reproduction from the speakers was fantastic. We did not feel the need for external speakers at all, even when we played a music DVD. The 600 1060IN comes with Windows 7 pre-installed which integrates beautifully with the TouchSmart technology. The PC also has a card reader slot that can read Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro cards apart from SD and SD high capacity cards. We couldn’t test the TV functionality or the IR set top box port and hence cannot comment on their performance.
 The cable-free set-up is something we loved. The keyboard is well-laid out and has dedicated sound, mute and volume control buttons. You can just shut out the sound with a tap if you are surprised by a sudden high-decibel noise in the movie you are watching. No more desperate fumbling around to find the default Windows audio icon.
 The ‘all-in-one’ PC detected the wireless mouse and keyboard almost instantly. This was a pleasant experience as in some other wireless compatible computers and laptops, we had to wait for at least ten boring seconds for the ‘pairing’.

Conclusion

The HP TS600 1060IN’s suggested retail price is Rs 89,990. The three main features of this PC are the touch screen, convergence as an entertainment device and its space-efficiency.
 We feel that the touch response still needs some improvement and the computer is occasionally sluggish despite the high-end specs. What makes the PC come alive is the touch interface while using multimedia. The sound is also a big plus.

Ratings

Aesthetics & design: 5/5
UI : 4/5
Features: 4/5
Value for money: 3.5/5

Specifications:

Microprocessor: Intel Core2 Duo Mobile Processor T6600 with EM64T (2.2 GHz)

Memory: 4GB PC3-8500 DDR3-1066 (8533 MB/sec)

                   2DDR3 SODIMM slots (occupied)

Hard Drive: 640GB Serial ATA II

                        300MB/sec @ 7200 RPM

Touch screen display: Touch enabled 23-inch Widescreen LCD Panel

                                           1080P Full HD Screen (1920×1080)

                                           Response time: 5 ms

Video Graphics - PCI Express: NVIDIA GeForce GT230M

                                                         1GB dedicated graphics memory

                                                         2815MB TAG memory as allocated by Windows 7

                                                         High Definition Video Playback

External ports:

Side access ports: 2 USB 2.0 ports, Headphone out, Line in

Rear access ports: 3 USB 2.0 ports, Audio Line-out, S/PDIF out, One RJ-45 S-Video in, IR out (IR Blaster for Set-top box), Kensington Lock Slot