Editors' note (October 3, 2011): You may find this system available for less than on our reviewed price, depending on HP rebate offers. You may also find a fixed-configuration TouchSmart 520 1070 with the same specifications for $1,399. While better than the $1,549 price we configured, that's still too close to HP's similar TouchSmart 600 series, as well as faster all-in-ones from competing vendors.
HP's TouchSmart 520xt is designed to offer a more affordable alternative to its higher-end TouchSmart 610, but thinly sliced differentiations between models prevent this system from having a real identity of its own. The fact that HP sent us a fully loaded TouchSmart 520xt with a $1,549 price tag doesn't help. On its own, this is a respectable all-in-one with the unique draw of HP's robust TouchSmart software suite. In the larger picture, we can't recommend the TouchSmart 520xt over HP's already successful TouchSmart 610 series.
The most significant difference between the two TouchSmarts might be in their design. Where the TouchSmart 610 debuted a display with a wide tilt range, the TouchSmart 520 is a more traditional all-in-one, albeit a new design for HP. You can tilt the display back and forth with relative ease, although it doesn't have the same range of motion as the 610. The 520 also has a tray mounted underneath the display upon which you can rest the wireless mouse and keyboard. The tray helps you keep the work area organized; it's useful enough, but it's not what we'd call a product-defining feature.
With the announcement of the TouchSmart 520, HP also introduced its TouchSmart Software Suite 5.0, the latest version of what has been the best touch software environment among Windows 7 all-in-ones. As before, you can use the TouchSmart Software as almost a second operating system on top of Windows. New to version 5.0 is the ability to use the TouchSmart suite at the same time as the standard Windows desktop, making the touch software and its accompanying applications essentially a desktop background. In addition to the TouchSmart 520, this update is available to all of HP's new TouchSmarts, as well as the older 610 series.
HP told us that it merged the mouse and touch-driven environments in response to customer requests. We don't have any complaints about the hybrid interface, but it does feel as if the TouchSmart suite is not as responsive as we've seen from HP before. The touch environment is roughly three or four screen widths, which means you have a nice, wide touch surface on which to pin shortcuts or leave notes. Unfortunately, we were met with noticeable input lag when we tried scrolling back and forth across the width of the touch workspace.
Lag aside, HP's TouchSmart software is still the most comprehensive touch-based desktop software available. Along with the usual assortment of touch-specific media apps, games, and other familiar touch apps, you'll find HP's excellent Recipe Box that scrapes recipes from the Web and stores them in a touch-friendly format, as well as a Roxio-drive movie download store. You won't find as many media applications as HP has included in the past, though, as Hulu and Netflix apps seem to have gone missing.
| HP TouchSmart 520 | HP TouchSmart 610q 1065qd | Lenovo IdeaCentre B520 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $1,549 | $1,789 | $1,299 |
| Display size/resolution | 23-inch, 1,920x1,080 | 23-inch, 1,920x1,080 | 23-inch, 1,920x1,080 |
| CPU | 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 2600s | 2.93GHz Intel Core i7 870 | 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 2600 |
| Memory | 8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM | 8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM | 8GB 1,333MHZ DDR3 SDRAM |
| Graphics | 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6450A graphics card | 2GB AMD Radeon HD 5570 graphics card | 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 555M graphics card |
| Hard drives | 2TB, 5,400 rpm | 1TB, 7,200 rpm | 2TB, 7,200rpm |
| Optical drive | Blu-ray RW burner | Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive | Blu-ray/DVD burner combo drive |
| Networking | Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless | Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless | Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n wireless |
| Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) | Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) | Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) |
Our comparison between the TouchSmart 520 and 610 above is based on the 610's review from April. Since then, HP has updated the 610's CPU offerings to Intel's second-generation Core-series, and with the same Core i7 2600 chip in the TouchSmart 520, the price for a TouchSmart 610 with the same surrounding specs as the model we reviewed above comes out to a far more approachable $1,399. Match the TouchSmart 610's specs to those of our 520 review unit, and the higher-end model comes out to $1,489, or $60 less than the supposedly more affordable TouchSmart 520xt.
Based on that price comparison, HP has done a poor job of differentiating between these variants according to their supposed price bands. HP also has trouble accounting for the sheer value we found in the Lenovo IdeaCentre B520.
Lenovo's gaming-oriented all-in-one uses a desktop Core i7 2600, rather than the laptop version in the TouchSmart 520. It also includes a faster Nvidia graphics card, as well as Nvidia's 3D Vision glasses. Arguably, HP's touch software makes the TouchSmart 520 better suited as a family entertainment kiosk, but the Lenovo's raw performance for-the-dollar gives the TouchSmart 520 a glaring value problem. We like HP's touch software well enough, but it's not worth a $250 premium, nor does it make up for the HP's slower performance.
