HP Touchsmart

Why would I talk about HP Touchsmart, a PC?

Coz I tried it out in Fortress and… on first sight it does look cool from afar. But as you get closer, then you see the actually not so small base and then you find it not as cool as you think.

How about the interface? Well, the interface is actually like coverflow on Macs (and ipod touch, and iphone). You swipe to find what you want on the menu – a menu that includes icons of the most frequently used/popular applications ONLY. If you wanna find stuffs that are not there in the “coverflow" menu, you still need to press the classic “Start", only this time it’s on top left corner – just where the Apple icon is on a Mac. Once you press “Start", then it’s just a PC.

How about the touch screen? After all, the touch screen is what makes it different from the rest of the many computers. Well, of course you can touch and make it work. You can swipe the menu – as mentioned above. You can play games like the classic minesweeper with your fingers pressing on the screen… and now you get a problem. The screen is not multi-touch. How to flag a mine? I couldn’t figure out and so I blew up myself several times. 

Viewing pictures/photos is just like on the iphone/ipod touch except it’s a much bigger screen… but here comes a problem too! I didn’t expect this would be a problem but it really IS a problem. The problem is the screen is too big and it is standing. So, imagine yourself sitting on a comfortable armchair. Now, you wanna view some photos on this Touchsmart. It’s a 22-inch screen so you can’t sit too close. So, you’re sitting at at least an arm away from the screen and now, you needa swipe it to get to the next screen. You raise your arm and swipe on the screen with your finger. Next photo is up – Nice! But then, you have over a hundred photos in the album. That means, you have to lift up your arm and swipe a hundred times. Or, you may stand right next to the screen as if you’re using the screen to do a presentation or something. 

Or, imagine you’re playing solitaire. You needa move a card to this stack or that. Or you wanna move the whole stack somewhere else. How many moves are needed in a Solitaire game before you win/lose? I don’t know. I only know that way before the game is over – only a few moves – I could feel my arm muscles had worked out a bit. 

Well, it’s good for someone who’s trying to get rid of “bye-bye flesh" (fat on upper arm). 

And the price is HKD12998 (with TV tuner). 

If it’s like the extremely expensive Windows Surface, then the touch screen thing may work. But with it on a stand-up monitor? Well, you get a value-added function: a new work-out apparatus at home.