HP Touchsmart Review

As some of my faithful readers already know, my one love, aside from of course my dear hubby and the hoard of dogs and our cat lol, is electronics! No matter how small or big the electronics are, I absolutely love them, and have to try them out ;)

A few months ago, Billy got me my most loved new toy lol. The HP Touchsmart PC IQ 504!
Wow, what a wonderful invention! I've always loved playing Mahjong on those little touchscreens that you find in some places, so of course that was one of the very first things I tried on the Touchsmart. Luckily it's one of the many games that comes pre-installed on it!
Here are the well not so formal specs of my HP Touchsmart:

The next-generation touch-enabled PC combines a 22" hi-def widescreen display with a powerful, energy-efficient Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 processor in a single, integrated design. Includes HP Touchsmart software, wireless keyboard & mouse, 4096MB Memory, 320GB Hard Drive, HP ambient light feature, slot-loading SuperMulti DVD Burner, 802.11 b/g/n WLAN & Integrated Bluetooth, Integrated Webcam & Mic, Media card reader, Premium stereo speakers, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OS

One of the first things I also noticed, which somehow completely had bypassed me, and I never did see in any of the reviews lol is the ambient light feature. This I absolutely love, sitting in the living room with Billy, whom loves to keep the room completely in the dark, save the Tv, this is an absolute must! And so much better than a desk lamp. On the left side of my screen there's a button that you push, and as soon as you do, there's a light under the screen that turns on, and if you have your keyboard right there, it completely illuminates it! It has three settings, dim, medium and bright. Once you have something like that, you will never want to give it up again lol.
Another feature that i truly love, is that you can connect the touchsmart to the internet wireless like you would do a laptop. This of course, comes in really handy, if your modem or router is on the opposite side of the room, which is the case here ;)
The programs that come pre-installed on the Touchsmart, like the Touchsmart home, are an absolute must! Of course it has a great media center, and you're able to use a remote with it, if it came with yours, or if you choose to buy one.
Another great feature which I use quite often is that you can link the HP Touchsmart, with your XBox 360! This enables you to watch pictures, videos, listen to music and so much more, on your TV. BTW, you can also get a connection cable that connects your PC straight to your TV, something you should definitely give a try, especially if you have a flat screen hdtv.

All in all, the only cons, that I have come across over these few months, with this particular model of the Touchsmart has been, for one the fact that it runs Windows Vista (I am dying for Windows 7 to come out, and the features that it will seriously embellish on this particular PC. And the only other con I could find would be that at times the touchscreen is a bit sensitive. This isn't really a bad thing most of the times, as it truly makes for a great response time, but, should you get a fly or anything like that on your screen while you have it turned on, it can become quite irritating lol. There's nothing like shooing a fly off your screen, while it steadily opens program after program, deletes a couple of things and such lol.
Truly though, if you're looking into buying a new PC, definitely give the HP Touchsmart series a try. At this point if you were to buy one, at the very least they now offer free upgrades to Windows 7 once it comes on the market!
I'm sure I haven't "touched" on all the great features this computer has, so if you have any questions about it, feel free to comment and ask me!
You can buy your own, right here: