Product Listing

HP TouchSmart IQ770 PC

By Vincent Chang - 17 Mar 2007

Touch, Feel and Go!

Touch, Feel and Go!

Obviously, the initial instinct for us, and probably any user confronting the HP TouchSmart PC for the first time, is to reach out with our fingers and touch. The glossy 19-inch wide screen display was quickly dotted with our fingerprints, though it certainly held up much more admirably than we expected. HP has said that they have tested the screen with a variety of icky stuff, from oil to peanut butter, and it has fared rather well. Given that one of HP's ideal locations for this PC is in the kitchen, it's probably no surprise that such tests have been done. Based on our experience, you'll end up having to clean the touchscreen (of fingerprints at least) regularly, unless you don't mind the smudges.

In case you are wondering, the familiar keyboard and mouse combination is still present for when the novelty of touching wears off. And we warn you first, using the touchscreen can be quite a workout.

Located conveniently at the side of the display are the volume controls and mute. You can also change the channels if you're in the Live TV module of Windows Media Center.

Unlike resistive touchscreen technology commonly found in tablet PCs and other touch based electronic devices like the Nintendo DS, HP has gone for optical based technology that relies on thin strips of sensors lining the inner border of the wide screen display. This implies that physical contact between the finger/stylus and the touchscreen is not actually required. Simply putting your fingers close to the surface such that the sensors could pick up their presence is sufficient to trigger the desired response. Of course, hovering over the touchscreen is much more tiring than just touching the screen, so we doubt anyone will be using it in this fashion.

No worries if your fingers seem too pudgy or oily for the display, a stylus is included, hidden at the top corner of the screen. In fact you can use practically any pointed object (that won't scratch the screen) for this purpose.

Since our fingers or even the included stylus are generally thicker and pudgier than a mouse cursor, some modifications were needed to enable the touchscreen interface to work. HP has included a touch optimization program that will increase the size of the icons and menus, optimizing them for touch. Not everything translates well though, and some of the icons we noticed got rather ugly and pixelated when enlarged.

HP's Touch optimization utility changes the font sizes for applications and the desktop to suit the touchscreen interface.

An example of the larger font size in Windows Photo Gallery.

Even the icons in the Taskbar has been enlarged, though the result may not always look pretty. The icon for Windows Messenger looks rather blurry because of this. Do note that this image shows the exact size of the icons, we have not resized this screen capture at all.

It can also get rather tiring using the touchscreen. While the concept of touch interfaces may look intuitive and cool, doing work with such an interface is a different story. It could be our lack of exercise, but we found our arms aching just from using the touchscreen for a short while. In a way, the touchscreen interface parallels the Wiimote controller introduced by Nintendo for its popular new console, the Nintendo Wii. Both are fresh interfaces that can be very intuitive with almost no learning curve. However, the jury is still out on whether these new interfaces can be anything more than a gimmick. In our case, we soon got back to using the keyboard and mouse for its precision and speed, especially for dreary tasks like managing our folders and files. For one, the 'right-click' equivalent for the touch interface is to hold the finger there until the menu appears and that takes longer than simply using the mouse. We have to admit, playing games like Chess Titans and Solitaire using our fingers was a guilty pleasure and it was also easier navigating simple applications like multimedia controls by touch just like a remote. While there are probably other aspects of the interface that we haven't explored thoroughly, one cannot yet fully eschew the traditional keyboard and mouse input, especially for a home PC.

A slot-load SuperMulti DVD writer (with LightScribe) from Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corp keeps the 'clutter' to a minimum. The keyboard also slots nicely into a 'docking' area below.

An integrated 8-in-1 card reader is sufficient for all but the most obscure flash memory formats and it is perfectly positioned at the front of the PC.

Some of the I/O ports found at the front panel include standards like FireWire and USB 2.0. All are clearly labeled.

The integrated TV tuner is an important feature for this versatile PC and the coaxial connector for the TV input is found along the side. The local version is PAL but depending on your region, it could be NTSC or even an ATSC high definition TV tuner.

This being HP, one would expect printers to play its part. For the TouchSmart, the space at the back has been utilized for a printer dock. Compact HP photo printers like the HP Photosmart A616 (sold separately) fits snugly into the intended printer station. There are even depressions on the surface that match the feet of the printer exactly. A special cable that marries the power and USB cables together is used to connect the printer to the TouchSmart PC, so that the printer is drawing power via the PC and ensuring that you won't find a nest of cables at the back. Also, the Pocket Media Drive bay can be seen at the side, where one can slot in a 80, 160 or even 300GB portable HP Pocket Media Drive to expand hard drive capacity or just to transfer files.

Included with the TouchSmart IQ770 are the wireless peripherals, from the keyboard and mouse to the remote control customized for Windows Media Center. The keyboard also had useful special keys like Power and volume controls but we didn't like the fact that it was so flat. There were no stands at the bottom to elevate it to a more comfortable typing position and some of the keys were too close to each other. The mouse however shows some thought, with HP preferring laser based technology instead of optical because some likely mousing surfaces (like a glass or metal kitchen top) may not be suitable for optical mice.

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