Others’ envy, owner’s pride

It’s just five days before Christmas and my gift-giving ideas just took a heavy twist — both literally and figuratively. But seriously, this product we’re featuring 
today… I would recommend as a splash-out Yuletide present.

Hewlett-Packard just turned up the heat in the all-in-one PC game, with its HP Envy 23 TouchSmart AiO, a monster of a machine that makes my laptop look like a prehistoric caveman’s tool. Though there’s nothing fancy in its aesthetics, the simple and cool finish is what got our attention.

As we mentioned earlier, the Envy 23 is a heavyweight, packing top-of-the-line specs— plus it weighs around a really generous 11kg. I had my fill transporting it around, HP.

Anyway, the Envy 23 has been optimised for and runs on Windows 8, so you can have fun touching, swiping, pinching on its 23” full-HD LED display.

Funny thing is that when doing that Windows-8-staple-swiping-from-the-edges thing, it 
was a bit inconsistent at times; sometimes a gentle touch would do, other times you need to stick your finger harder.

I found no issues with its performance, given its 2.90GHz 3^rd-generation Intel Core i5 CPU, 6GB of RAM — expandable up to a whopping 16GB —and 1TB of HD storage running the show. The Envy 23’s frame has been slapped with a generous amount of connectivity options, including seven USB ports — three of which are the high-speed 3.0 variety — and a 6-in-1 memory card reader, among others.

Its graphics are great, thanks to a 1GB DDR3 dedicated memory, and up to 3816MB allocated by Windows 8. Let’s also not forget Dr Dre, since it also has Beats Audio to funk up the music.

A little problem here though is the keyboard and mouse that come with the Envy 23. Sure, they’re wireless, but the way these two uber-important accessories were designed doesn’t fit the Envy 23’s stylish look. But don’t worry, they still work as they’re supposed to.

A little design makeover would help, though. By the way, if you want this baby hanging around your house, there’s an optional wall-mount accessory — albeit sold separately.

AND SO…

It’s a beast, and the HP Envy 23 TouchSmart AiO may well serve as a benchmark of sorts for a new wave of AiOs. You will, though, have to be ready to shell out a bit more compared to other AiOs in the market, but given its specs in performance, you may not think twice for too long about it.

In any case, here’s a piece of advice: just make sure you deci-de on where to place it so you won’t have to strain your arms moving it around.