HP TouchSmart 610 Quad: Premium Performance at a Premium Price

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Beautiful HD display atop a singular slippery stand
Category-leading public presentation

Cons

Disappointing want of second-gen Intel CPU
Pricey

Our Verdict

Outstanding general performance and an superior touchscreen help the TouchSmart 610 Quad stick ou from the wholly-in-unity crowd.

HP TouchSmart 610 Quad all-in-one desktop PC

HP has a proven cut through record book of producing strong all-in-one PCs, and the TouchSmart 610 Quad is no exception. But with a starting price of $1599, you'll pay dearly for the favor of owning one. Our reappraisal unit ($1849 as of Apr 27, 2020) included an Intel Core i7-870 quad-core processor running at 2.93GHz, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 1TB of hard-drive space, and an ATI Radeon HD 5570 nontextual matter card. For such a premium price, we would have best-loved that HP include the latest Sandy Bridge processor, but it's still an impressive arsenal for a 23-inch all-in-1 background–and after a thorough review, we have the carrying out scores to prove it.

We ran the TouchSmart 610 Quad finished a metal glove of performance tests in the PCWorld Labs, and the results show that this PC has hardware beefy enough to handle light office work, streaming media, and heavy-tariff gambling with aplomb. The 610 Quad earned a score of 135 in our WorldBench 6 benchmark suite, trumping its predecessor (the TouchSmart 600 Quad, with a paltry account of 104) as well as the round top performer in the family (the Gateway ZX6951-53, with a mark of 121), making it one of the fastest all-in-uncomparable PCs we've tested thusly far.

Those numbers mean that it's possible to turn contemporary games on the TouchSmart 610 Quad at bankable systema skeletale rates. Our review automobile maintained 47 frames per secondment patc continual Unreal Tournament 3 at 1680-by-1050-pixel solution on the highest graphical settings. In Unimproved 2 its functioning was less impressive, as it managed only 22 fps at the highest graphical settings and the same resolution. That's the best gaming performance of any all-in-one PC we've tested, however; and although just about games don't recreate well with the touchscreen controls (R.U.S.E. being a notable exception), the TouchSmart 610 Quadriceps can easy accommodate accessories such as a wireless mouse and keyboard thanks to the superfluity of USB ports nestled about the cause.

Though the case itself is unremarkable, the TouchSmart 610 Quadruplet boasts a slim design and a small footprint, so it's easy to install in home and small-office environments. The hefty black plastic trapping sports a pair of USB ports sunken into the left edge, besides atomic number 3 headphone and audio-out jacks, a six-in-combined card reader, and book controls (including a handy mute button). Along the right side you'll find a pair of HDMI inputs and a slot-loading Videodisk drive, which you can upgrade to a Blu-ray ride. Everything other–two more USB ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a TV tuner, and the power jack–is concealed beneath the sliding rear panel. The front offers nothing save an adjustable-tilt Webcam, a mike, and few choice pieces of branding.

The innovational pivot stand deserves exceptional mention: The screen slides forward and down to oblige comfortable use of the touch screen for prolonged swiping sessions. Slide the screen the whole way down, and the TouchSmart 610 Quad comes to relief atop the dishonourable at roughly a 30 degree angle, nearly parallel to the desk (check out our TV review to figure it in activity). Beryllium aware that adjusting the unit up and down takes some recitation–sliding the CRT screen requires a significant amount of force. After only a legal brief look at the device, I mistook that resistance for hardscrabble design and inferior construction, merely it's actually intended as a safety device feature; HP designed a copyrighted braking organization for the 610 Quad that employs spring-loaded brake pads staggered unevenly along the TouchSmart's spine to sustain the persuasive 23-inch expose safely in position equally you typecast and swipe away at the screen out.

Speaking of swiping, we've been systematically impressed with HP's TouchSmart motion-control software program; gobs of touch screen devices pass over the PCWorld Labs, and TouchSmart 4.0 is the best touch user interface we've seen. Though the TouchSmart 610 Quad comes with Windows 7 preinstalled–you terminate use your fingers atomic number 3 you would a time-honored mouse to navigate the Windows interface–it's practically easier to launch the TouchSmart software and pasture through and through movies, music, and games with the flick of a finger. Flipping from app to app is quick and lenient, though multitouch gestures aren't easy to pull off and moments of frustration still crop up when the software stutters or fails to register a mastery.

The TouchSmart 610 Quadriceps really shines equally a home media center. The 1920-by-1080-picture element LED screen boasts an impressively wide viewing angle that ensures images remain buttony and bicolour even when viewed from as furthermost as 60 degrees nonconcentric, and moving movies look terrific happening the 1080p expose. They sound pretty great, too, thanks fully speaker bar that HP built into the butt of the display, though the addition of Beats-branded audio-amplification software amounts to little to a higher degree some extra bass voice when you need it. You posterior enable this neat feature by tapping the Beats button, which is conveniently located succeeding to the volume controls on the otherwise unremarkable HP wireless keyboard that comes bundled with the 610 Quad; an equally serviceable wireless opthalmic mouse comes in the package Eastern Samoa well.

The HP TouchSmart 610 Quadrangle faithfully upholds its predecessors' legacy of oblation bounty features at a premium price, and it's a serious contender for the top spot happening our Top Big-Screen All-in-One PCs chart. We're still mystified by the lack of a Sandy Bridge CPU, and playing higher-end PC games remains a dicey proposition. Nevertheless, if you're looking a media-centric whol-in-one that does everything and fits anywhere, the TouchSmart 610 Quad is a solid choice.